Immortal Wars: The Summoning Part 17 #fiction #throwback

Posted on May 7, 2020 by Charles Yallowitz

(Previously on Immortal Wars.)

(I’m actually wondering if you can still see my tense jumping problem I had when I first wrote this story.)

Disclaimer: Immortal Wars was the book I came up with and wrote in high school.  I hadn’t even hit college by the time I wrote the first two books.  That means I hadn’t developed my style yet, wasn’t good at self-editing, and the story was fairly basic. So, you’ve been warned that this is the ultimate author throwback segment for my blog and will show my author origins.  FYI-  I put the first book (The Summoning) through a Print-on-Demand publisher and the second one (Light, Blood, & Tears) never saw the light of day.  Enjoy!

As far as Fate could tell, he had slept for about eight hours.  Since he was living on a base found in the center of the sun, it always appeared to be daytime in his room.  He had never bothered to figure out how to turn the light off or darken the windows.  Currently, Fate’s vivid dreams were filled with images of what the evil immortals could possibly look like.  His weird visions ranged from a group of normal human beings to several slobbering monsters.  He had finally made a decision to confront Solix and find out exactly what they were being trained to go up against.

“SEAS?  Are you there?” asks the young immortal.

“Of course I am here, Fate.  Where else would I possibly be?” answers the computer from the room’s monitor.

“Fate?  Oh yeah.  I keep forgetting about that lame codename you and Solix stuck me with.  Do you know where the other guardians are right now?”

“Yes, sir.  My internal sensors have been programmed to constantly keep track of the inhabitants of the sun base.  Why do you ask?”

“I have to talk to them.  Can you tell me where they are?  And you can call me Fate instead of sir.  It isn’t like I’m more important than everyone else.”

“Certainly, Fate,” says SEAS as a very intricate schematic of the sun base appears on the computer screen.  Four mild yellow dots, which represent Fate and his three friends, appear on the schematic.  Two of the dots are in the big game room and the other one is in the bedroom across the hall from Fate.

“Hydrana is still sleeping in her room.  As you can see, Infinity and Miracle are currently in the game room.  That is the place you and your friends have been training in for the past two days.”

“I know that.  Why isn’t Solix on the sensor chart?”

“He has ordered me not to tell any of you where he is this morning.  He has important and private business to take care of.  I am sorry.”

“He does the same thing every morning.  Just forget I even asked where he was.  I’ll find him soon enough.  But thanks for telling me where the others are.  Uh, can you light the way to the game room, so I don’t get lost again?” asks Fate.  He has already changed into his guardian uniform, minus the headband, and is standing by the open doorway.

“Understood.  I will light the way for you like you have asked, sir.  I mean Fate,” says SEAS as Fate leaves his room.

Soon after Fate steps into the corridor, a red, arrow-shaped light points to the west of the sun base.  Slowly, the Mars guardian walks down the extremely bright hallway.

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7 Tips to Making Book Titles that Might Possibly Work

Posted on May 6, 2020 by Charles Yallowitz

I’m going to get into my own book title adventure on Friday, but I’m sure most authors can relate.  You come up with a title at the start, change it halfway through, and then cycle through more until you land on the final choice.  It’s rare for the first title to stay until the end if we have one at the start in the first place.  Regardless of how it happens, we usually go through a lot of trouble to come up with the perfect title.  It needs to be catchy and connected to the story.  If it’s part of a series then you need a series title and the volume ones may have a common theme.  So many choices and decisions that you need to factor in before you get your cover art much less publish.  So, what are some ways that we can make things easier?

  1. Do not think that your first choice has to be the final one.  You came up with it during the planning stages, but the story may have changed enough that the title no longer fits as well as you’d like.  Sure, the basics are there, but you know there’s something better out there.  If you really have trouble saying good-bye, write the rejected title on a piece of paper, set it on fire, and flush it down the toilet.  Then explain the concept of a Viking funeral to the plumber.
  2. You might get frustrated that your title has ‘of the’, ‘and’, or other common phrases within it.  Try not to make this a sticking point because you could end up tossing out a really eye-catching title on a technicality.  Language has tons of common phrases and they exist for a reason.  That reasons is because we all use it and the words involved are some of the most basic, repeated ones ever.
  3. Never change your title once the cover art is completed unless you’re also the artist.  If you’re not then you better think carefully before taking what’s a point of no return for this piece.
  4. If you’re coming up with a series title then you need to have it focus on the overall story and not what happens only in the first book.  This is something that will be on the cover of every volume, so it needs to go the distance.  It doesn’t have to be specific or make immediate sense.  There has to be a connection though, which can be nicknames, the name of the heroes’ group, the event that’s occurring, or whatever comes to mind when you think of the full scope.
  5. Humor in a title is great, but only if the story has some comedic aspects.  People will expect laughs if the title makes them giggle, so be careful here.  Serious dramas tend to have serious titles for a reason.  All that being said, you can still use puns and play on words, which aren’t always funny.  With the correct crafting, these can become downright chilling.
  6. Don’t make a title that is so long that it could run from your wrist to your shoulder in Point 12 Times New Roman font as a tattoo.  You don’t want to make this a marathon of words because you’ll wear out the potential read before they can make a purchase.  If you do this then at least provide some oxygen or water for when they finish.
  7. Be careful testing out your titles with an audience.  Some people will say it’s great because they don’t want to upset you.  Others will say it’s terrible because they have a different view of your story.  This is difficult tactic to depend on solely because of lack of information.  The people you’re asking don’t know the overall story in the amount of detail that you have in your head.  They might not see what you’re seeing, so their title suggestions won’t encompass the whole idea.
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How to Publish with KDP: Part Eight

Posted on May 6, 2020 by Charles Yallowitz

Harmony Kent's avatarStory Empire

Image courtesy of bigstock.com

Hello SErs. Harmony here.  As promised, here is  part eight in the post series dedicated to taking a step-by-step look at how to get your finished manuscript from your computer and on sale on Amazon in both ebook and paperback.

If you’d like to take a look back at the previous posts in this series, please click on the links below:

Outline: https://wp.me/p7OGru-29c

Part 1 (Software for Writing) : https://wp.me/p7OGru-29t

Part 2 (General Formatting Necessities) : https://wp.me/p7OGru-29J

Part 3 (Ebook Conversion) : https://wp.me/p7OGru-2ah

Part 4 (Paperback Formatting) : https://wp.me/p7OGru-2eS

Part 5 (Image Software for Making Book Covers) : https://wp.me/p7OGru-2gi

Part 6 A (Using Amazon’s Cover Creator Tool for eBook) : https://wp.me/p7OGru-2gQ

Part 6 B (Making your own ebook cover to upload to Amazon) : https://wp.me/p7OGru-2hQ

Part 7 A (Using Amazon’s Cover Creator Tool for Paperback) : https://wp.me/p7OGru-2jY

Part 7 B (Making your own PDF book cover…

View original post 542 more words

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Teaser Tuesday: The Rage of Stephen Kernaghan #fantasy #adventure

Posted on May 5, 2020 by Charles Yallowitz
Cover Art by Jason Pedersen

Cover Art by Jason Pedersen

Taking a full chunk of The Mercenary Prince‘s prologue here.  Gives a hint of what will come and hopefully it gets people curious about the book.  Really isn’t much else to do to set this up.  Except that it involves Stephen Kernaghan who is still the most evil character that I’ve ever made.  Feels like I always have to give a disclaimer that he’s a special kind of gross and horrible when compared to my other villains.

Continue reading →

Posted in Legends of Windemere, The Mercenary Prince | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

The Pain of Titling

Posted on May 4, 2020 by Charles Yallowitz

The characters have been crafted
Plots have been planned
Beginning birthed
And ending etched in your mind
Twists are tempered
Turns are touched upon
Blurbs are blurted out
Every piece plucked from the ether
Save for one
That will make the package whole
*
Nothing works
Everything is lame
The one born yesterday
Has been tossed by morning’s light
Tears are being shed
With every attempt a failure
That plunges your soul
Further into darkness
Why is it so hard
To make a proper title?

Posted in Poems | Tagged , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Grabbing from the Notebooks: Phi Beta . . . Files?

Posted on May 3, 2020 by Charles Yallowitz

The Idea Pile

Figure I can use Sundays to present future ideas that I haven’t fully fleshed out.  Helps to write stuff out, especially those that I carried from other worlds to Windemere.  This one is like that, which you can tell from the name.  It’s tough to use Greek letters in a non-Earth setting.  This becomes a bigger sticking point if they don’t show up at any other times.  I should probably explain the origin.

Back in college, some friends of mine wanted to do the frat stuff, but didn’t want to go through the mess of pledging.  So, they created their own and called it Phi Beta.  My roommate and I got brought in later that day then the rest of our crew were drawn into the fun.  We came up with ideas and hung out, but that’s really it.  The names and ideas all were ‘Phi Beta’ then a word with a ‘B’ or ‘Ph/F’ name.  For example, Phi Beta Blade was my name and the one in charge was Phi Beta Bruiser.  Obviously, these names aren’t going to be in the story, but the ‘adventures’ we had were the basis for it.  Since one of our favorite movies was ‘Animal House’, I decided to have our group by the misfit squad in a military academy.  It was a book for each year of college, one for spring break, and one for a big summer break, which puts us at g.

Here is where things start to get tricky.  We didn’t have many girls in the group and those who were didn’t play a big role in our antics.  It was definitely a guy thing, so the main characters are all female.  I’ve made incarnations where a female character is added, but it throws off a few things.  There are plenty of female supporting cast members and villains though.  Again, working off real world things does put some limitations on it.  Not to mention the four main characters are heavily flawed.  You have the pompous jackass, the naive one that goes a little out of control, the malicious trickster, and the apathetic yet loyal one.  They aren’t starting out as noble or decent, which is why they’re seen as the misfits.  I plan on having them mature and evolve as they move through the military academy years, but I still have a lot of trouble adding a woman into this thing given its origins.  So, that’s going to be a problem in this day and age.

Now, the general story is where another issue comes up.  Originally, this was in a futuristic world where Earth sends military envoys to other planets for exploration and trade.  Phi Beta is still the misfit group who are all determined to graduate.  They all have their own reasons too.  Connect to the previous flaws:

  • Pompous jackass wants to be a soldier and has wanted to be one since childhood.
  • Naive one comes from a rich family of psychics and wants to be something more.
  • Malicious trickster is really on the run because he’s an escaped experiment.
  • Apathetic one grew up in a gang and is determined to stay out of that life.

They’re also at a disadvantage since squads are supposed to be groups of 6.  Pointman, Psionic, Exo-pilot, Medic, Jack-of-All-Trades, and Shadow are the groupings if I remember correctly.  Nobody wants to join them because of their reputation, so the jackass and naive one take on two roles each.  You also have mechanics, suppliers, snipers, and other specialists that aren’t part of the squad curriculum.  This is where many of the female characters will show up, but none of them are going to want to be official members of Phi Beta.  Why would anybody want to since they’re being set up for failure?

They will stumble and crash into victory at most points with the adventures growing in seriousness.  First year was going to be very close to real college antics that ends with a final test that they have to pass to stay in school and get an official house.  Second year is when they get an advisor and have to do teamwork tests while someone is legitimately trying to kill them, which included a virtual reality fantasy game adventure. Third book was an extra credit session where personal problems cause 3 of the 4 to leave school while the 4th has to pretend that they are still around until they return.  Year three is them winning a chance to test a new spacefighter, which goes wrong and they are split into pairs that have to reunite on a planet with warring nations.  Summer break is a series of various adventures that all connect to a villain from that virtual fantasy game who escaped to possess a real person. Final year is the senior war games and Phi Beta realizing that they might be going in different directions after graduation.  Conspiracy to get rid of them is in there too since everyone who hates them unites to make sure they don’t graduate or even survive.

That’s all I have right now without digging up my notes.  They’re scattered and none of them touch on the newest problem.  How does being in Windemere change this?  Exo-suit no longer works, so I might have to change that to something else or simply get rid of it entirely.  This means on the team leader is doing double-duty, which makes sense given his goal.  Although, I do remember changing it to something called a Steel, which I think involved the character being able to sprout an armor suit from their body using a special artifact.  I wouldn’t be able to do all of the second year story or the summer break one since it was going to be them going from sci-fi to fantasy for comedy.  So, I need a third year story for them, which doesn’t involve another competition.  They won’t be going to planets, so I need to figure out a purpose for these guys.  I was thinking of making this a mercenary training facility since I don’t do anything to cover that aspect of Windemere.  The jackass could end up dreaming of being the new Mercenary King.  So, this is a lot of stuff that I have to consider.  Another option is having the final year be after things go wrong on the third year adventure and Phi Beta getting a chance to return for one more adventure.

Geez.  Here I thought simply calling it ‘The Phi Beta Files’ was a problem.  Maybe ‘The Phi Beta Four’?  The Phi Beta Brigade?  That last one could actually be their official name.  Ugh, this is tough.

(Add-On: After talking to one of the friends who was there, I might just have the 4 main ones and the others will be supporting characters.  Perhaps the academy has it that you need to create a small force with 6 officers and a bunch of specialists.  This opens up to more characters, but that could make it an insanely big cast.  Unless I only use the specialists when they’re needed.)

Posted in Character & Book Themes, Character Origins | Tagged , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Goal Post: I’m Just Going to Remove Anything Before ‘Day’ on the Calendar

Posted on May 2, 2020 by Charles Yallowitz

I’m going to start with heavy event number one.  I can’t talk about details because that would be crossing a line.  All I will say is that I got to experience my first Zoom funeral this week.  Found it awkward and uncomfortable only because you can only see what the camera is aimed at.  Glad to be involved to get some closure, but there’s a lingering ache that I don’t get to say an official goodbye.  Yup . . . That’s all I can say on it, so let’s move on.

Heavy event number two is that it was announced yesterday that New York schools are closed for the rest of the school year.  Only the buildings, so remote learning will continue as it has been.  Of course, I’m sure some parents will take this as a reason to simply stop either due to a misunderstanding or not wanting to bother.  Can’t say I blame anyone for going that route because it’s tiring.  I’m acting as a parent and TA, so I’m seeing both arenas.  It’s a strain on the body, mind, and soul because it comes off only as work to get through.  There’s something lacking that you get from being in a physical school, but there’s nothing that can be done.  The alternative is to open schools up and run the risk of people getting sick.  I’d hate to go in and bring this virus back to my parents or my son to get hit by it.  His asthma makes him a high risk and he’s always had a lot of trouble with upper respiratory infections.  So, it’s the right call, but a tough one to swallow.

The writing life has been interesting.  Got another act outlined for Sin’s adventures that I’m still calling The Ether Thief.  I kept forgetting to make more chapter titles for Do I Need to Use a Dragon? (Tips to Writing Fantasy).  So, I needed something for Sunday that was writing related.  I might be delving more into the pile of notebooks for ideas that I haven’t touched in a while to make posts.  I’ll be hashing things out as I write and probably continue doing it after I schedule.  For example, tomorrow will be about a series influenced by my freshman year of college.  It’s not as clear cut as that and it has some challenges that may have been worked out after I made the post.  We’ll see what happens because this is a tricky one.  I can’t divert too far from the events I’m using, so it’s more restrictive than my other ones.  You’ll see when we get to it and I hope people keep an open mind and remember that this works off some real events.

In regards to novel writing, War of Nytefall: Savagery is moving along. Reached chapter 9 of 18 and should be getting into chapter 10 by the end of the weekend.  Barring any unseen events, I’m aiming to finish this by the end of May or early June.  Then, I’ll edit War of Nytefall: Ravenous and not sure what to do after that.  The summer is chaotic right now.  I could use it to do the next War of Nytefall volume and save Do I Need to Use a Dragon? (Tips to Writing Fantasy) for when I hit grad school.  It will be hard to juggling writing, working, parenting, and school, so I need to decide on what I can do during that time.

Going back a few steps, this week was a little tougher than usual.  The first thing I mentioned was a factor, but I think my son and I hit a few moments of burnout.  So, both of us had trouble getting motivated and would shut down a little earlier in the day than normal.  I’m going to try to change things up a bit if I can.  He has a fun PE assignment and the weather is supposed to be in our favor.  Could really use some outdoor time, which I haven’t had much of these days.  If I’m not working or parenting then the weather is too gross to go out.  Too much rain and too chilly, so I’m looking forward to warmer temps as long as they’re not sweltering.  Just never happy here.

What else is going on?  Television and puzzles.  Probably be a few weeks before I finish the last of the DC Superhero Thomas Kinkade puzzles.  I’ll post the collection once it’s complete and I hope more come out.  Television hasn’t been watched as much as before since the nights were busy.  I started and finished a BBC comedy called ‘Black Books’ that I’ve seen clips of.  Good to get some funnies and I noticed that Hulu also has ‘Black Adder’, which is another BBC comedy with Rowan Atkinson.  I’m going to step away from that genre for a bit to watch another anime and then go back.  This time it’s ‘Kaze no Stigma’, which I only saw one episode of.  Not bad with good world and character building right off the bat.  Doesn’t seem to be a high fan service one too, which is a relief.  Definitely was getting tired of stumbling onto those.

Goals of the week?

  1. Schoolwork including a PE obstacle course building.
  2. Classes and meetings.
  3. Fun with the munchkin
  4. Try to finish outline for The Ether Thief: Song of the Conqueror 
  5. Work more on Phi Beta stuff
  6. Chapter titles for Do I Need to Use a Dragon? (Tips to Writing Fantasy)
  7. Write more of War of Nytefall: Savagery
  8. Puzzles and TV
Posted in Goal Posts | Tagged , , , , , | 14 Comments

Questions 3: Stressing About Stress

Posted on May 1, 2020 by Charles Yallowitz

Yahoo Image Search

Let’s finish up our week about stress by opening the floor to everyone.  I’m sure we all have an opinion, strategy, or thoughts on the topic.  Some people shrug it off while others let it get to them.  So, I’m going to remind everyone that we’re all different.  What works for you won’t always work for other people and you might get some push back too.  Stress and mental health in general is a touchy subject.  So, here we go:

  1. How do you deal with stress?
  2. What is the biggest source of stress for you?  (General categories like money, family, future, etc. instead of specifics.  You’d be surprised how many people will be in the same boat.)
  3. Do you think there is a positive side to stress?
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Immortal Wars: The Summoning Part 16 #fiction #throwback

Posted on April 30, 2020 by Charles Yallowitz

(Previously on Immortal Wars.)

(Geez, I have the pacing of a drunk cheetah on a haywire treadmill.)

Disclaimer: Immortal Wars was the book I came up with and wrote in high school.  I hadn’t even hit college by the time I wrote the first two books.  That means I hadn’t developed my style yet, wasn’t good at self-editing, and the story was fairly basic. So, you’ve been warned that this is the ultimate author throwback segment for my blog and will show my author origins.  FYI-  I put the first book (The Summoning) through a Print-on-Demand publisher and the second one (Light, Blood, & Tears) never saw the light of day.  Enjoy!

On one of the lower levels of the warship, Kilanus enters her bedroom, which is decorated with pictures that are obviously for children.  She looks around the room in complete disgust as she picks up her death scythe that was carelessly lying on the bed.  With the magical weapon in her hand, Kilanus starts destroying the pictures of playful kittens and other cute animals.

“I can’t believe I actually lived in this room.  It’s so nice and disgusting.  Makes we wanna puke,” thinks Kilanus as she walks over to a small terminal.

“Computer online.  Hope my new voice pattern is in the system.  Change the walls and ceiling from pink to either blue or silver and get me some pictures that don’t have cute and adorable things in them.  A couple of gory posters would be real nice.  And a couple with some nudity in it.”

The door to her room suddenly swishes open and Kilanus turns around to face a very bloodthirsty Psylon.  The redheaded lunatic has her morning star in hand and her eyes look for anything to either kill or destroy.  The dim light shines off a tiny bit of drool that hangs off of the psycho’s mouth.

“What the hell do you want?”

“I heard some loud noises and I thought that I could finally get to kill someone.  It’s been a few years since I’ve had a good fight that ended in a good kill,” answers Psylon with a slightly confused look on her face.

“Get your freaking ears cleaned, firefly.  I was simply remodeling my personal space and needed to use some . . . destructive methods.  This room was way too bright and immature for me.”

“Are you feeling all right, Kilanus?  You seem to be much older and a lot more impulsive.  Sort of like your mother.  Only you haven’t jumped anybody’s bones yet, so it isn’t exactly like her.”

“Don’t start with me, Psylon.  I feel great.  Mindtrigger and Adriana just finished putting my brain back together.  So now I can act like my real self.  Do you have any problems with that, dragon breath?”

“Not at all.  Are you ready for a little battle workout?  It might actually be a good fight instead of me knocking you around for an hour. You’re no longer a little wuss hiding under your mother’s protection.”

“Of course I’m ready.  But you’re in for the biggest beating of your life.”

“Don’t make me laugh.  You haven’t been able to defeat me yet, runt.  And I seriously doubt that new attitude is going to help you today.”

The two immortals walk off toward the battle arena that is on the top floor of the warship.  This battle arena looks exactly like the one the guardians have, except this one doesn’t have that many lights.  Kilanus and Psylon silently walk into the room and turn to face each other.

“Let’s see what you got, squirt,” growls Psylon as she charges at her younger opponent.

“Okay.  Just remember that you asked for it,” responds Kilanus with an evil smile.  She vaults over Psylon’s clumsy attack before giving the redhead a sharp kick to the back of the head.  Psylon stumbles forward and whirls around to block another attack, but the girl is nowhere to be seen.  Only the long, blue cape is seen on the ground along with Kilanus’ chainmail armor.

“Where the hell did you go?  You’re just going to drop your gear and run away in your underwear?  Get your frozen ass back here and fight like an immortal!” yells Psylon.  From out of the dark shadows, Kilanus smashes her fist into Psylon’s angry face.  Not letting Psylon recover, Kilanus viciously knees her opponent in the stomach with crippling force.  The older immortal falls to her knees gasping for air.

“Nice . . . shot.  You . . . collapsed a . . . lung,” mutters Psylon once she catches her breath.

“I don’t believe this.  The great secret gladiator of Sparta, Psylon, is giving up already?  I didn’t even work up a good, healthy sweat.  This is just so pathetic.  I doubt I even burnt off any calories either,” says Kilanus, who is leaning against the wall on the other side of the room.  A slight shiver goes through her body, since under the cape and warm armor she was only wearing a tight, silver T-shirt and a thong.

“I’ll gladly burn those off for you!” screams Psylon in primal rage.  From her outstretched hands an enormous blast of fire erupts toward Kilanus.  The fireball’s target leaps out of the way and the fire leaves a smoking burn mark on the wall.  Psylon yells again and incinerates the pile of clothes that Kilanus makes a cautious attempt to retrieve them.

“You can walk back to your room in that outfit.  Call it a lesson in humility.  But here’s an important tip, little girl.  Never let your guard down during a battle.  Especially when you’re fighting someone like me!” exclaims Psylon as she gets off of her knees and leaves Kilanus shivering in the arena.

“That psychotic witch.  I can’t believe she tried to kill me with her powers.  What’s worse is that I’m freezing my ass off.  Stupid of me to take the bulky armor off for easier movement.  Keeping it on would have made it more of a challenge,” thinks Kilanus as she gets up from the place she was kneeling.  She tries to ignore the cold air in the arena and slowly walks toward her room.  As she walks down the warm corridor, her mind is suddenly bombarded with distorted images of people she has never met or seen before.  These images cause feelings of pain and hatred to surge through her brain.  As soon as her head clears, Kilanus can’t remember exactly what had just happened or what these mysterious images meant.  And she is not so sure she wants to find out.

Posted in Immortal Wars | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

7 Ways to NOT Make a Stressed Person More Stressed Out

Posted on April 29, 2020 by Charles Yallowitz

Here’s the thing.  People who are stressed out already know it.  They may even have an idea on how to relax, but something is blocking them.  Many know at least some of the sources of their stress.  With all of that, there’s really no reason for me to do a list where I tell people how to eliminate stress.  Works differently for each person.  Instead, I’m going to give some ideas to those who are around a stressed person and may to either help or at least not make things worse.  Yes, your hearts are in the right place, but that doesn’t mean much to a person who is about to explode like a Psyduck with a migraine . . . Look it up.

  1. Just look at the picture.  Seriously, you aren’t going to get very far by telling somebody to relax.  They won’t suddenly snap out of it and immediately rid themselves of the stress.  It’s more likely that this will upset them more because it will come off as patronizing.
  2. Learn to read body language in order to gauge stress levels and if things are getting worse as you interact.  Tension rising in the muscles, high rate of averting one’s eyes, inching away, twitches, and changes in voice tone are some examples.  If it is getting worse then you’re probably making things worse.  Oh, you’re texting and it’s impossible to tell?  Yes and no.  If the person takes long breaks between answers or only gives noncommittal, one word answers then communication is breaking down.
  3. Many times, you don’t have to say anything.  Much like with anxiety and depression, you can help out a lot by sitting there and listening.  Do not respond unless asked for something.  Interrupt only for clarification and then let them proceed.  Show that you are interested in hearing them speak about what has them upset.  The release may be enough to push the rising stress back.
  4. If you know the person is stressed because of a situation or certain people then don’t force them to face it.  Do the opposite in some cases.  Invite them out for time away from what is plaguing them.  Catch a movie or get some ice cream or anything that is relaxing.  Talk about anything they want.  If they don’t want to go then accept that and don’t make them feel guilty.
  5. Some people have various hobbies that they use to unwind and these are very important for those who get stressed easily.  Show interest in this, but do not push too hard and ruin what is a good thing to them.  Trying to involve yourself or others in the same activity or giving suggestions on how else they can do it can infect their relaxation zone/object.  For example, I use jigsaw puzzles to relax.  A person who will remain nameless has kept trying to get someone else involved in my hobby to create a bonding experience.  This upsets me and makes it feel like my ‘happy place’ is being stolen or turned into a chore.  Another issue is when someone sees the puzzle I’m working on and decides to help.  Again, there’s a sense of violation.  (This could also be caused by anxiety.)
  6. If someone in your life decides to take a mental health day from work, DO NOT tell them why it’s a bad idea.  They are already aware that it removes a potential sick day that they may need for a physical illness.  By pointing out the risk, you’ve actually made them waste a day that was intended to be one of recovery.  Also, don’t see it as a chance to hang out and get things done.  They took the day off for themselves and not to be given chores or for your entertainment.
  7. Do NOT take offense if a stressed person tells you to go away or leave them alone.  Even if it’s blunt and rude, you have to understand that they are under pressure and are reaching the edge of a mental cliff.  You may have pushed them too far by accident and that’s why they’re lashing out.  It could be that they were at this point before you arrived and you were simply unlucky.  Just wish them a good day and, if you want, let them know that you’re around if they’re up to talking later.  They might not take you up on that offer and you shouldn’t push, but it could help for them to know.
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