Archetype Writing Blog

Today we're joined by fellow author and psychologist Christine Fonseca, who's talking to us about giftedness, the writing life, and book promotion. Read on to learn about why you (and your children) may be intense, and how to deal with that perfectionism!

To celebrate the release of her first book, Emotional Intensity in Gifted Students: Helping Kids Cope With Explosive Feelings, we're giving a copy away! I'm going to throw the names of everyone who comments on this post into a hat (seriously...I have lots of hats...love hats) and draw a winner.  So...to enter, leave a comment below!  I'll post the winner here on Wednesday  Friday (deadline extended)!


1. How did you decide to write Emotional Intensity in Gifted Students: Helping Kids Cope With Explosive Feelings?

After working with families of gifted students through the school district, I became increasingly aware of how society perceives the emotional aspects of giftedness as opposed to the cognitive attributes. Most people love the way a gifted child can solve problems with intensity, but do not understand that same intensity when it comes through via their emotions. As a result, too many kids grow to believe their emotions make them less – make them crazy.

Something needed to be done to help kids, parents and educators understand the emotional aspects of giftedness. Thus the idea for this book was born.

2. How do you define giftedness?

Great question. As you may know, there is no standard agreed upon definition of giftedness. That being said, I like this one the best (From the National Association for Gifted Children, NAGC):

“A gifted person is someone who shows, or has the potential for showing, an exceptional level of performance in one or more areas of expression.”

To expand that a bit, I would also say that a gifted individual demonstrates a specific set of attributes within their cognitive and emotional domains consistent amongst the gifted. This includes a high level of intensity in all aspects of their lives – cognitively and emotionally.

3. Why can gifted people be so intense?

I find the intensity to be a nature part of giftedness, related to how gifted kids interact with the world. Unfortunately, while being cognitively intense is generally a great thing at any age, being emotionally intense can be problematic – especially if you have not yet developed the emotional tools necessary to work with the intensity.

I remember working with a group of 3rd and 4th grade gifted students recently. I asked them to tell me the top things they worry about. Instead of the typical answers you may expect to hear from 8 and 9 year olds (my grades, my parents, my dog dying – that sort of thing), these children confessed their fears about the wars our country is involved in, the natural disasters that had been occurring, global warming and whether or not the country was headed for problems economically.

A gifted child truly approaches life looking through a very different lens – one that is much more global and intense.

4. Perfectionism is a problem for so many writers, and also for many gifted students. Do you have any tips to help people deal with their perfectionism?

I think the first thing to do is set realistic goals. If you, as a writer, tend to average 500 words during your writing sessions, don’t set a goal for 1K.

Next, it’s important to focus on the process – the journey – not just the outcome. If I had been outcome oriented when I queried that first novel, I would have quit three years ago. But I didn’t, because I focused on what I was learning, not on the fact that I hadn’t yet achieved my goals.

Check your perspective. Too often we have a faulty perspective of our world. When we get one rejection, we say “EVERYONE hates this book, again.” Not true. A better statement would be “This isn’t the right story for this agent.” Same event, two distinct ways of looking at it.

Bottom line, perfectionism is not completely bad – it is a driving force that enables us to continual grow and develop. But, taken to an extreme, it will paralyze us. It’s important to utilize some of the above strategies to prevent perfectionism from keeping you from achieving your goals.

6. What have you learned along this journey toward publication, both about yourself and about being a writer?

Needless to say, my journey towards publication did not really start with that first novel. Or the second. It started with my nonfiction.

Through this journey, I have experienced amazing highs – finding an agent, selling my first…and second…books, holding my galleys in my hand, holding the book in my hands. I have also experienced extreme lows – having to shelve a novel…and another, rewriting a story from a blank page, endless rejections, endless confidence issues, jealousy.

All of it has been part of my journey, teaching me what persistence really means, patience, tolerance, and an acceptance that this is NOT a journey I could have done alone. These are things many gifted individuals never get a chance to learn. Perhaps that is why so many gifted peeps are drawn to the creative arts – for a chance to not only express themselves, but to find a true challenge.

7. In addition to EMOTIONAL INTENSITY IN GIFTED STUDENTS, you have another book coming out this spring: 101 SUCCESS SECRETS FOR GIFTED KIDS: THE ULTIMATE HANDBOOK. Where do you find your ideas?

Giftedness is a significant underserved population when it comes to advice books. My ideas come from endless conversations with gifted adults and children – listening to their concerns, answering their questions, offering help when I can.

Fiction is a different story. These ideas come from people-watching. Yes, that’s right – I LOVE to spy on people, listen to the things they talk about, how they interact with each other. All of my stories usually start there – whether I am writing a contemporary “issue” piece, or exploring some dark gothic fantasy.

8. How do you find the time for your writing?

Like every other writer balancing multiple careers, I scrap time whenever and wherever I can. I am a pretty driven and disciplined person when it comes to work (unlike my approach to exercise), so finding time usually isn’t a problem. My issue, is remembering to stay balanced – take some down time in between projects, take time to flake out, that sort of thing.

9. Is there anything else you’d like readers to know about your book/s?

I just want to take a moment and thank everyone for the wonderful support I’ve had for EMOTIONAL INTENSITY IN GIFTED STUDENTS. The stories of hope and the ah-ha moments parents have emailed me about make every moment of this entire process worth it.

Thanks for having me Carolyn. I can’t wait to celebrate YOUR book release soon.  (Isn't she awesome? -Carolyn)

Want more info on Christine and her books?  You can read the first chapter of Emotional Intensity here. You can also visit her website or blog, or find her on Facebook or Twitter. The book is now available, and you can order it here, or get the e-reader version here.

This round of the blog chain, Kate chose the topic.

This time...I'd like to focus on the flip side of the writing coin - reading. Specifically, what books have influenced you? This can be books that influenced you as a writer, or simply books that touched you as a human being. If you want to talk about one book, a top three, ten, or even twenty go right ahead.

Now, you all are fortunate that I only have a set amount of time to finish this post, otherwise we'd all be in trouble, because I love books!

I'm going to focus first on my favorite books for writers, because I think that's what will most interest the reader. Then I'll talk a bit about some favorite psychology books.

First come the books that help keep me going when things look bleak. You've heard me rave about these books before: The Forest for the Trees: An Editor's Advice to Writers by Betsey Lerner, The Courage to Write: How Writers Transcend Fear by Ralph Keyes, and The Writer's Book of Hope: Getting from Frustration to Publication, also by Ralph Keyes. These books emphasize attitude and persistence to reach success, two things you can control. I've blogged about confidence and determination in the past, and these three books were key in helping me form the beliefs I shared with you. I believe every writer should not just read them but keep them handy for the days the doubt, frustration, and rejection is getting to you.

Then there are the books that taught me to edit. I've told you before that I do some pretty serious editing on both my own work and others, and I like to think I'm pretty good at it. (Others seem to agree, so either I really am or those monthly bribery checks are working! *wink*) In any case, here are two books that really helped me: Make Your Words Work: Proven Techniques for Effective Writing-For Fiction and Nonfiction by Gary Provost and Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, Second Edition: How to Edit Yourself Into Print by Renni Browne.

When it comes to ideas, I find The Writer's Partner: 1001 Breakthrough Ideas to Stimulate Your Imagination by Martin Roth particularly useful (I probably pull this book off my shelf more than any other).

On the nonfiction side, I could never have written an effective proposal to sell my book without the following resources. I like to work from examples, so I found Write the Perfect Book Proposal: 10 That Sold and Why by Jeff Herman and Deborah Levine Herman invaluable. I also used How to Write a Book Proposal by Michael Larsen and Nonfiction Book Proposals Anybody can Write by Elizabeth Lyon.

While I was writing my book proposal, I had to include a Marketing and Promotion section, and for that I needed some ideas. I relied heavily on Guerrilla Marketing for Writers : 100 Weapons to Help You Sell Your Work by Jay Conrad Levinson, Rick Frishman, and Michael Larsen. I honestly can't believe the book has gone out of print -- it's so valuable! I also recently read and liked Plug Your Book! Online Book Marketing for Authors by Steve Weber. It's got a strong Amazon bias (ie it talks a lot about marketing on Amazon), but it's definitely worth a read.

On to psychology. What psychologist could live without her Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders DSM-IV-TR Fourth Edition (Text Revision)? (If you want a sneak peek at how we diagnose but you don't want to spend $75, browse through Behavenet Capsules.) To get a sense of how clinicians conduct interviews and establish rapport, try The Clinical Interview Using DSM-IV-TR, Vol. 1: Fundamentals. I also have a fantastic book I think writers who are writing about therapy and therapists would enjoy called Clinician's Thesaurus, 6th Edition: The Guide to Conducting Interviews and Writing Psychological Reports. It's a big fat cheat sheet on lingo, how evaluations are written, what kinds of things clinicians look for during an interview, and questions to ask if you suspect (or see) certain disorders.

Finally, my favorite book on the psychology of writing is Alice Flaherty's The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer's Block, and the Creative Brain. The other book that might interest you on the topic is Kay Redfield Jamison's Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament.

What are your favorite books, writing, psychology, or otherwise? Post in the comments below!

And don't forget to check out Michelle's answer before me and Sandra's after me.

This time I was responsible for choosing the blog chain topic. Kate (who comes before me in the chain) just did a great wrap up of our last chain , on confidence. Michelle  (who comes after me in the chain) will be the next to tackle the questions I've chosen:

Angst (n.) (ängkst)
Everyone talks about angst-ridden creative people, so I looked up the definition of the word “angst” to get myself going. (I normally hate when people include definitions — hello, I can use a dictionary — but I’m making an exception so you and I both know what the heck we mean when we say “angst.”) The word is German and refers to an “A feeling of anxiety or apprehension often accompanied by depression .” Fanfic writers use the word to help categorize some forms of fanfic: “Putting the characters and by extension the readers through deep emotional and possibly physical pain .”

Mental Illness
Some people take the angst idea a step farther. They believe that writers need to be at least a little touched by madness. Interestingly, there is a strong positive correlation between bipolar disorder (aka manic depression) and creativity . According to Frederick Goodwin and Kay Redfield Jamison, both giants in the study of bipolar disorder:

It is counterintuitive that such a destructive illness could be associated with imagination or great works of art. Yet the perceived association is a persistent cultural belief and one that is backed by data from many studies… The argument is not that manic-depressive illness and its related temperaments are essential to creative work; clearly they are not. Nor do we argue that most people who have bipolar or recurrent depressive illness are creative; they are not. The argument is, rather, that a disproportionate number of eminent writers and artists have suffered from bipolar spectrum disorders and that, under some circumstances, creativity can be facilitated by such disorders.

From Michelangelo and Jackson Pollock to Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Percy Bysshe Shelley, from Kurt Cobain and Billy Corgan to Ernest Hemingway and Stephen King, depression or bipolar illness is disproportionately common in creative geniuses.

Is Angst Necessary?
Now, if bipolar disorder and depression are common in creative geniuses, and angst is a description of how people with those disorders often feel, does that mean angst is necessary to the creative process?

Well…let’s see what the others in the blog chain think.

Looking at the psychological research…no. Interestingly, people who are creative have more in common with people who are bipolar than they do with “normal” people, but the commonalities lie not necessarily in mood disturbances, but rather in idiosyncratic thinking patterns, in enthusiasm and passion for their art, in how easily they can produce new and strange ideas. In many cases, people who are bipolar and creative are better able to express themselves creatively when they are being appropriately treated for their disorders.

Part of what makes being creative with a mental illness so difficult is the behaviors that result. Alcoholism is found in over 50% of the people with bipolar disorder. Drug abuse is also extremely high. Periods of despair can be so intense that the individual can hardly get out of bed, let alone create something. And of course the rate of suicide and suicide attempts is much higher than in creative people who aren’t also struggling with a mental illness.

The way I think of it is like this — there is an overlap between “creative” genes and “bipolar/depressive” genes. And while some people, like Kurt Cobain, feel much more creative when they’re in the manic phase of bipolar disorder, they may also be less coherent (“Smells Like Teen Spirit” lyrics, anyone?), and they also have to deal with the crash of depression (Cobain committed suicide). Research also suggests that over time depressive/bipolar illnesses gnaw away at creativity. In a study done with children , “we found a negative correlation of illness duration with…creativity ; the longer the children were sick, the less creative they were.” So overall, the illness becomes a hindrance to creativity, rather than a help.

Angst vs. Soul
An ex of mine was an amazing artist, technically. He could reproduce anything he saw, often without ever lifting the pencil. I’ve never seen someone who could draw like he could without ever needing to erase. He didn’t need to work the image over and over from rough to smooth — he just produced an immaculate image the first time.

He spoke at one point to some galleries about displaying his work, but he was turned down. One director was kind enough to give him some feedback. She told him something was “missing” from his work.

He thought it was angst. But it wasn’t. (He got to share mine, and it didn’t affect his art at all. I checked.) What he was missing was soul.

So I don’t think it’s angst that we all need to produce good stuff. It’s soul.

My Angst
So that brings us to me. Do I need angst to produce good work? I honestly don’t know, because precocious creative works started around the same time my angst found me. So I’m really curious about what the others in the blog chain are going to say.

I do have an emotional state that I think I write in better than any other (besides flow, of course). I call it “melancholy.” It’s a calm, quiet state that for some reason makes it easier to sink into a creative state. But maybe the reason that’s helpful is that I enjoy writing fiction with “angst” in it.

I have met people who become extremely distraught about putting their characters through a tale of angst. Some cry, some sink into a depression, some feel guilty. I’m not sure why they write it if they feel that way. (The only time I sink into a depression as a result of writing is when I finish a novel — I always worry I won’t be able to write another one!) For me, writing angst is like an outlet for my own. If I’ve got it, why not plumb it for material?

Recently, I started reading Dennis Palumbo's Writing from the Inside Out: Transforming Your Psychological Blocks to Release the Writer Within. The back of the book says Palumbo is a licensed psychotherapist, but I sure wouldn't want him as my therapist.