Anxiety is that queasy
feeling you get right before the full horror of your plight becomes realized.
It is the sensation of trying to save a drowning man while he struggles,
pulling you down with him. But how do we show anxiety as anxiety and not
as panic or fear? How do we individualize it? That's what these exercises
will hopefully help you do.
1. Write a one page scene
entirely in interior monologue in which the narrator is anxious about getting
some news, such as test results from a doctor, a job offer, a home pregnancy
test, etc.
2. Without using dialogue,
write a one or two page scene in which a character is in danger. Use description
and action to evoke the danger and the character's anxiety about it.
3. Choose a seemingly
minor reason to produce anxiety, such as an invitiation to a party, running
out of hot water, a rain day, anything at all. Write a one page scene in
which a character obsesses on that concern. Be sure the character's anxiety
level rises as the scene progresses.
4. Going off no. 3, write a one to two page scene in which the seemingly minor anxiety-producer ties in with an aspect of the character's past, adding character depth.
5. Think about something that ~doesn't~ make you in the least bit anxious. Once you have it clearly in your mind, try and feel anxiety about it. Study it carefully. What could make you anxious? Maybe you're looking at your pencil. The teeth marks...could they be from a rat? Find any little detail that could evoke even the tiniest bit of anxiety. Write about it.