Psychologists says that fear is a survival response. 

Some people, like roller-coaster fans and horror movie buffs, thrive on it. Other people, like me, avoid it. I don’t watch horror films. I don’t even like to hear the sound effects, the eerie sounding music, the footsteps coming down the hall, the scream of an about to die character. Nope.

No matter how you feel about it, we’ve all experienced fear as some point in our lives. 

Fear is experienced in the mind, but it triggers a strong physical reaction in the body. Your blood pressure rises and heart rate increases. You start breathing faster. Even your blood flow changes—blood flows away from your heart and into your limbs, making it easier for you to start throwing punches or run for your life. Your body is preparing to fight, flight or freeze. Some of us fawn, immediately shifting our behavior to try to please, appear, and pacify the threat, in an effort to keep ourselves safe from further harm.

Fear makes it’s difficult to make good decisions or think clearly. That’s why you scream and throw your hands up when approached by an actor in a demon mask in a haunted house.

Fear is an essential ingredient in the human condition, and in many stories and poems, but how do we write fear in ways that allow readers to feel and experience the fear with us? 

In this class, we’ll be covering: 
~ How can we use setting to show fear? 
~ How can we show what fear does to our bodies? 
– How can we show what fear feels like, inside? How it affects how we see the world? 
~ How can we describe fear, this abstract emotion, in ways that makes our readers pulses quicken with ours?

When: May 25th, 7-9pm EST
Where: via Zoom
How much: $30 suggested donation ($40 for access to the private recording of the class)

For registration/inquiries: writingourlivesworkshop@gmail.com