Inspiration In Times of Stress

[LittlePenBigHea]

I'm going through kind of a tough time at the moment. I've got some health problems I'm dealing with, my Gran is pretty ill and having to stay with my parents and because my mother is a fruit loop, I'm being called on numerous times in the week to help out. I don't mind helping but I'm doing two university courses at the same time and I'm struggling to cope with the heavy workload on top of everything else.

My question is this: with everything going on I'm just getting no creative inspiration beyond occasional mediocre lines of poetry. I want (ideally) to write prose fiction and one of my courses demands a 2,000-word short story on 19th April but I just can't think of anything!! My mind is ghost-town, tumbleweed and everything (see?! So blank that even that came out as a cliche!). What can I do??

[Gaines]

Holy shit man that almost killed my buzz. I said almost. Take your best memory, something from your past and write it as it was. Who knows you might even find it somewhat cathartic considering the stress and all. Can't hurt.

[Prodigalson]

Hell, take any memory. Don't worry about being eloquent or witty or poignant, just write down one word after another that says how it was. Don't worry about how it sounds -- you can work on that later.

When you've got everything down, set it aside for awhile: couple of hours, a day or two, hell, a month -- whatever it takes. Pick it back up and try to read it.

God damn, that's bad. It'll be so bad, as a matter of fact, that you'll be able to think of two or three better ways to say it, just while giving it the first read-through. Don't be a fuck-up -- write them down.

Edit, rinse, repeat, until you're satisfied (or until the paper is due).

[LittlePenBigHea]

Hahaha!

Thank you. I did almost exactly that (I just wrote the first thing that came into my head and went from there, rather than using a memory) and yepp, it's complete and utter crap! However, I'll keep pushing forward with it and who knows where it might lead?

[JP_Inkswell]

I've been there. Hell I'm still there. ( My wife came down with cancer last spring. ) In the adult board you will find a story called Seed Money. About half of it was written on the backs of pilfered medical forms while sitting in hospital waiting rooms. It didn't find much of an audience. It's pretty much pure cane, or juice, but it had been many months since I had written anything so I was happy to write whatever would flow. Sometimes you've got to tap a deep vein.

[Prodigalson]

I don't know how your wife's doing, but I know it takes strength to deal with it. I know advice is cheap and what works for one may not work for another, but, in my experience, the two most important things for a cancer patient are to de-stress (which you can help with by making sure she has no worries, and not letting her see you worry), and believing that you will beat it. The human mind is a powerful thing. I believe a large part of the reason I beat cancer was because I never, for an instant, believed it was going to beat me.

I wish you both well.

[daes13]

The fact that you called your mom a "Fruit Loop" kind of makes me think you don't need any inspiration for a story. Sounds like you have enough real world events to make a nice story.