Tag: science

Kathy fish, Writing Prompts & Craft Articles

Bonus Unexpected Sabbatical: March 21

Kathy Fish

Okay, here’s one for the Saturday crowd. I posted this in last year’s Fast Flash Reunion Extravaganza: One thing that is fun to do is to weave facts from other disciplines into your flash fiction (science, art, history, welding, spelunking). I’ve seen this in the marvelous work of Ingrid Jendrzejewski and Tania Hershman to name just a couple.

A human brain cell has the ability to hold 5 times more information than the Encyclopedia.

One of my favorite short stories that does this is “Body Language” by Diane Schoemperlen. I’ve been unable to find it online, but it’s in her collection by the same name and in BASS 1998. It weaves facts about the human body around a story of a couple’s troubled marriage and it’s stunning. (also includes Grey’s Anatomy type illustrations).

It does interesting things to weave a factual voice into an otherwise emotional story for counterbalance. Your facts may serve as metaphors. Or you may use a “borrowed form” from another discipline to tell your story.

Anyway! Your prompt is to do just this in the space of a flash length piece. Consider using the segmented or mosaic form for this. I’ve lifted some science facts below from the internet (so reword them a bit if you use them), but you can also find your own, from science or anything else. Consider including completely made up facts, too!

Fun Facts:

Bats always turn left when leaving a cave. 

The heart of a shrimp is located in its head.

It is possible to hypnotize a frog by placing it on its back and gently stroking its stomach.

The Gulf of California is a spreading zone – many millions of years from now, it will be an ocean.

People who wade into the Dead Sea automatically float. Dissolved salts make the water so dense, humans are less dense in contrast and so float.

A human brain can generate electricity and energy when we are awake and therefore can light up a bulb. It operates on the same amount of power of 10 watt light bulb.

A pregnant woman dreams most about three things, frogs, worms and potted plants. Other than this, due to hormones, women also dream about water or even have sexual and violent dreams.

The brain is capable of surviving for 5 to 6 minutes only if it doesn’t get oxygen after which it dies.

The average heart is the size of a fist in an adult.

Christmas day is the most common day of the year for heart attacks to happen.

Nancy Stohlman, Uncategorized

Why You Need a Writers Retreat: The Dopamine of Anticipation

Nancy Stohlman

Recently I was gifted the use of an empty condo in the Colorado mountains for the weekend, a glorious three days with just myself and my writing. I’d been looking forward to my own mini writers retreat for weeks!

I bet everyone here can relate: Having a retreat or vacation (of any length!) to look forward to gives you an instant dopamine hit–the body knows something is coming and it’s already happy, already excited.

Ah dopamine. It’s that chemical that makes us feel good. It’s released when we fall in love, ride a roller coaster, win a prize for that story we wrote, and it’s also the culprit in all sorts of addictions, from chocolate to sex to the constant “ping” of our text messages. When dopamine is released we get the message that “this feels good” and we keep coming back for more.

But here’s something interesting: Researchers have found that it’s the anticipation of pleasure, rather than the pleasure itself, that gets those feel-good chemicals in our brains going. Meaning we are already feeling good BEFORE we even get the reward.

According to a 2010 study published in the journal Applied Research in Quality of Life, vacationers already “started experiencing a significant boost in happiness during the planning stages of the trip because they were looking forward to the good times ahead.”

Which means looking forward to pleasurable things is as good for your overall happiness and well-being as the actual experience of them. You are already getting that “hit” of pleasure every time you think about the exciting thing that’s coming.

Stanford biologist and neurologist Robert Sapolsky says from his studies with monkeys that “dopamine is not about pleasure, it’s about the anticipation of pleasure. It’s about the pursuit of happiness rather than the happiness itself.”

Want to geek out on the science a bit? Check out the 5-min clip fromRobert Sapolsky’s lecture on the Science of Pleasure below:

So what’s the takeaway here? The bottom line is that the anticipation of an upcoming vacation or artistic retreat is already releasing sweet, sweet dopamine into your system. Every time we think about it, talk about it, every time we look at pictures, every time we do research and tell others about it.

So…are you excited yet?
~Nancy

P.S. Join us on an upcoming retreat!

Nancy Stohlman, Uncategorized

Review of Debut Chapbook “Glimmerglass Girl” by Holly Lyn Walrath

Nancy Stohlman

 

Holly.jpg

 

A graduate of the University of Denver’s Creative Writing program, Holly Lyn Walrath is returning to Colorado this August to join Kathy and I for our Rendezvous in the Rockies Retreat. And the retreat will serendipitously coincide with the release of her debut chapbook of illustrated poems, Glimmerglass Girl, from Finishing Line Press.

Bold yet delicate, sharp, intricate, and woven with fragile strength, there are many things to like in Glimmerglass Girl. The first a reader might notice is the interplay of words and images, something many writers attempt but not always with such success. Glimmerglass Girl uses classic and vintage fairy tale images to give the book an aura of innocence and nostalgia; I’m reminded of my early copies of Alice in Wonderland or my treasured illustrated Grimm’s Fairytales.

But this is not a children’s book, and the reader quickly understands that innocence and nostalgia is working to contrast darker, more serious subjects. Placed against this whimsical background we get a modern treatise on womanhood and femininity, the fragile image of woman distorted behind the glass. This idea of reflections–the ways that women are both seen and unseen by ourselves and others–is demonstrated skillfully in one of the opening poems:

Self Portrait through an iPhone

At first glance is surprise—is this what I look like to him—eyes down-shot—drifting left to right—the act of self-interrogation— and yet what redeems me to you—female recompenses mean nothing—the twinge of hair burned red by the sun—the lips on which fine lines of aging make deeper, harder—the smoothness of cheeks still pink with sylphen shock—in the background hangs a version of you—a younger interpretation—so little changes since the act of self-love—blackening her eyes—bruising her lips like throwing an apple at a wall—these things seem natural—but I still don’t recognize you like I should—I still don’t know how to love you like myself

Says Walrath about Glimmerglass Girl, “I wanted to shine light on the darker parts of my own personal history as a woman, while acknowledging that society expects us to be as delicate as a butterfly….Butterflies are actually incredibly strong creatures in the natural world. I think women are the capable of great acts of strength so I wanted to highlight that irony.”

And she does. This dichotomy of delicate and strong, girl and woman, power and power distorted comes through beautifully in this debut chapbook of illustrated poems.

Pre-order from Finishing Line Press now.

Read an interview between Kathy Fish and Holly Lyn Walrath here.

holly 2