The Antidote to Fear Is Us
March 2025: Revision Reflections
In her excellent craft book on writing, Story Genius, Lisa Cron turns to brain science to illuminate the power that storytelling has to shape our world:
“Functional MRI studies reveal that when we’re [experiencing] a story, our brain activity isn’t that of an observer, but of a participant… Stories instill meaning directly into our belief system the same way experience does—not by telling us what is right, but by allowing us to feel it ourselves… The take away is: We don’t turn to story to escape reality. We turn to story to navigate reality.”
This quote hits particularly hard right now when you stop to think about the kinds of vile and sinister stories that millions of Americans have chosen to believe in order to navigate our shared reality. Tall tales of victimhood and grievance told by the most powerful people on the planet. Lies of scarcity and want spread by the wealthy to instill fear and resentment about the poor and displaced. Monstrous distortions meant to demonize the most vulnerable among us as dangerous predators. We are awash in such mendacity, drowning under a firehose of disinformation and trumped-up nonsense that—to our horror—a large, credulous, and spiteful segment of the general public seems only too thirsty to swallow.
We are living in an age of bad faith storytelling run amok.
I was recently reminded of Lisa Cron’s insightful words by Nora Shalaway Carpenter, who quotes them directly in her essay entitled “An Antidote to Fear,” which appears in Spinning Toward the Sun: Essays on Writing, Resilience and the Creative Life, the fantastic new collection curated by Nora.
First, a few words about Spinning Toward the Sun… You should absolutely grab yourself a copy. This is a small miracle of a book, starting with its remarkable origin story: As a resident of Asheville, North Carolina, Nora and her family survived Hurricane Helene last year, witnessing firsthand the devastation the storm wrought across the region. As Nora explains in her Introduction to the book, in the aftermath of this disaster, she wanted desperately to do something to help her community recover. But what to do? While casting about for ideas, Nora says she was finally inspired—surprisingly enough, by an essay of mine that appeared in this very newsletter last October—to bring together more than 30 writers from across the country to pen motivational essays on the craft of writing, all in the service of Hurricane Helene relief. And with the help of the good folks at Burlwood Books, she did just that—in only five months time, no less. Talk about miracles.
But perhaps the most miraculous part of this whole achievement is that fully 100% of the profits from Spinning Toward the Sun go directly to two worthy charities involved in the relief effort: Beloved Asheville and World Central Kitchen. None of the contributors accepted payment for their work, and Burlwood Books isn’t making one thin dime off this collection. With essays from an amazing array of nationally-celebrated authors and western North Carolina creatives—including New York Times-bestsellers and National Book Award, Newbery, and Coretta Scott King Award winners—Spinning Toward the Sun is an invaluable resource for any writer, whether just starting out or well along the path. (There are even a couple of contributions from your R(ev)ise and Shine! crew.) Packed with the wisdom of decades of collective experience, this incredible book offers powerful insights on how to persevere on the creative journey in dark times like these.
And persevere we must. Just think about all that’s happened in the same five-month period it took Nora to bring Spinning Toward the Sun to press. Not even in our most feverish nightmares could we have imagined how fast and how far our country would fall in such a short span of time. It’s difficult to comprehend. The radical pace of destruction is both sickening and disorienting. Every fresh headline and news alert is another slap in the face. It feels as if 250 years of American democracy is unraveling so furiously nothing can stop it. Not our glacial courts nor our spineless Congress, not the feckless Democrats, and certainly not the craven and traitorous GOP.
But if not them, then who? Where will we find a bulwark strong enough to stand between us and this rising fascist tide of illiberalism, lawlessness, anti-intellectualism, indecency, cruelty, spite, amorality, and greed?
Well friends, we are that bulwark.
“We cannot isolate, as fear would have us do. Few minds are changed by yelling and fact throwing. Minds are changed by hearts. And hearts are changed by community. And community is established by sharing stories.”
-Nora Shalaway Carpenter
I’m hardly the first to suggest this. On some level we all understand deep down in our marrow that no one is going to save us but ourselves. And yet, it’s so easy to lose sight of this fact, to feel helpless and paralyzed under the torrent of lies as they continue to flood the zone, threatening to swamp us and everything we believe in. What can we do to stem the tide? Where do we make our stand? How can we hold onto hope when we’re flailing just to keep our heads above water? It’s enough to make us founder, to numb us with despair as we succumb to fear and grief, and slip uselessly into silence—which, of course, is the whole point.
But that’s not going to happen. We won’t allow it to happen.
Already, we see signs that the shock and awe is wearing off. Ordinary, decent Americans everywhere are taking action: calling their representatives, organizing, standing up to lead, and making their voices heard. In our own kid lit community, we see writers coming together to fight book bans and redoubling efforts to promote diversity and inclusion. Some have gone so far as to build brand new social media platforms, beyond the reach of our untrustworthy tech overlords, where children’s writers can celebrate truth, community, and our shared core value of human equality in peace.
As individual writers, we each have a unique and powerful role to play in the battle for decency and light. Who better than us to speak truth to power; to fight censorship and stand up for the freedom to read; to counter all the lies and bad faith storytelling with our own stories of the hopeful, more equitable world we so desperately need to build? That’s what makes a book like Spinning Toward the Sun doubly necessary right now. Not only does it do the good work of providing financial support to those in need, it stands as an emblem of our enduring strength as a community of storytellers striving to shape our shared reality for the better. As Nora puts it so eloquently in her essay: “We cannot isolate, as fear would have us do. Few minds are changed by yelling and fact throwing. Minds are changed by hearts. And hearts are changed by community. And community is established by sharing stories.”
We at R(ev)ise and Shine! have ourselves grappled with what to do and how to move forward in these difficult times. If truth be told, we debated long and hard over whether we should cancel our upcoming residency this fall. We asked ourselves: Who wants to attend a writing retreat when our leaders are tearing our country apart? How can we invest so much time and energy in something that, on the surface at least, seems so trivial and meaningless in the grand scheme of this historic crisis?
But eventually we realized that creating space for community is one of the most valuable and meaningful things we can all do at a time like this. Nora is right: Hearts are changed by community, and community is formed when we share our stories with each other. That’s the essence of what we do as writers. We share stories. That is our greatest gift and our most formidable weapon against the darkness. As a community of storytellers, we must rise against the flood of lies. We must offer truth as an antidote to the fear poisoning America—and we must do so while remaining unafraid ourselves. We must not give into cynicism and despair. We must not obey in advance, nor remain silent. Instead, we must stand tall and defiant, shouting loud enough to make our stories heard… Together.
Because we simply have no other choice.
In community,
Rob
Announcements:
R(ev)ise and Shine! Residency 2025
Following on our hugely successful inaugural residency at the Highlights Foundation in 2024, we are delighted to offer a bigger, longer, more exciting and enriching experience for 2025!
The residency is scheduled for five days and four nights, October 15-19th, in Vermont's beautiful Green Mountains during peak foliage season at Potash Hill.
The cost of this residency is $1995.
This price includes: Private dorm room (with shared, dorm-style bathroom), delicious meals prepared by the Brattleboro Food Co-op, mentor feedback on 20 pages of your manuscript, and a full schedule of programming.
To Register:
Register now through May 1, 2025 (or until full) with a $500 non-refundable deposit on our Eventbrite page.
Balance of tuition due by July 1, 2025.
The number of participants for this retreat is limited to 20, providing a low attendee-mentor ratio.
Consider adding an additional day of retreat time to your stay for only $150 all-inclusive!
We are also once again offering a $500 scholarship to a Black or Indigenous writer.
Our website offers loads more details, including a full FAQ and additional information about Potash Hill. We’ll also be posting updates as they become available.
Keep your eyes peeled for an extra newsletter update at the beginning of April about our special guest editor and agent!
Have questions? Let us know in the comments or drop us a line.
Ready to register? Click the image below:
Scene Studies with Erin Entrada Kelly
In this two-day intensive, students will analyze scenes from a wide range of novels to discuss character, pacing, dialogue, subtext, and other elements of craft. Students will learn the characteristics of effective scenes and revision strategies to apply what they learn. Open to writers of all levels and genres.
When: Saturday, March 22 & Sunday, March 23, 2025 from 1:00 to 4:00 pm ET both days
Where: Online
Cost: $195*
*For those who can’t attend live, a recording of each session will be made available for 30 days after the event for all ticket holders.
Click the image below to find out more and sign up:
Erin Entrada Kelly is a two-time Newbery Medalist, National Book Award Finalist, and New York Times-bestselling author whose work has been translated into more than a dozen languages. She is on faculty with the Hamline MFAC program and has taught workshops with the Highlights Foundation, Gotham Writers Workshop, the Writers Barn, and elsewhere. Find out more at: www.erinentradakelly.com
Tarot for Writers: Character Magic with S Maxfield
Are you struggling with a clear arc for your main character? Have you written a side character that feels too one-dimensional? Are you looking for more depth and texture for a character you know well? All of these writerly challenges and more can be transformed through Tarot! In this 90-minute Zoomie, Tarot reader and writer S Maxfield will introduce the Tarot as a tool for unlocking our intuitive senses, leading to freer creativity and a fresh approach when feeling stuck. Participants are encouraged to join the session with a particular character in mind, as we will use some of them as samples for the workshop. You will leave this workshop with a “spread” (format for placing the cards), insight on using the Tarot for writing, and recommendations for free tools to learn more. Let’s make some magic!
When: Wednesday, April 16, 2025 from 7:00 to 8:30 pm ET
Where: Online
Cost: $30*
*For those who can’t attend live, a recording of each session will be made available for 30 days after the event for all ticket holders.
Click the image below to find out more and sign up:
S Maxfield is a genderqueer, bi+, and disabled writer, with roots in dance and theater. S/he is on the faculty of Chris Tebbetts’s Theater Camp for Writers and has a short story featured in the anthology WE MOSTLY COME OUT AT NIGHT (Running Press 2024). Maxfield’s flash fiction has been published by Black Fox Literary Magazine, Open OK State, Voyage YA/Uncharted, and WinC Magazine, and their debut comics collection ASSORTED SWEETS sold out at the legendary NYC comic shop Forbidden Planet, after successfully funding through Kickstarter. S grew up in a log cabin, but has spent the past two decades in NYC (Lenapehoking), where s/he currently reads Tarot—and far too many books for the tiny apartment they share with an equally bibliophilic family. Find out more about S here!
In Conversation: AN UGLY WORLD FOR BEAUTIFUL BOYS w/ Jennifer Richard Jacobson & Rob Costello
Join Jennifer Richard Jacobson and Rob Costello as they discuss Rob's debut novel, AN UGLY WORLD FOR BEAUTIFUL BOYS. Bring your own questions and join us for a fun & lively conversation!
“An astonishing novel of discovery, heartache, and redemption. Costello writes unapologetically about surviving in a broken world against all odds. Truly unforgettable.”
-Erin Entrada Kelly, two-time Newbery Medalist and National Book Award Finalist
“Rob Costello has crafted an exquisitely haunting, gorgeously-written portrait of survival and resilience with An Ugly World for Beautiful Boys. This story is necessary, especially for anyone who has ever felt alone or misunderstood. All too real, it is at once painful and gritty, yet brimming with hope and the profound power of love and understanding. Toby’s story will stay with you long after you’ve turned the last page.”
- Amber Smith, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Way I Used to Be and The Way I Am Now
"Gritty, lyrical, and refreshingly honest, Costello's debut novel pulses with realness, as raw and resilient as its oh-so-human protagonist. A triumph.”
-Nora Shalaway Carpenter, award-winning author of Fault Lines and The Edge of Anything
Click here to pre-order your copy here!
When: Wednesday, April 30, 2025 from 7:00 to 8:00 pm ET
Where: Online
Cost: FREE
Click the image below to sign up to attend:
