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Painting, woodworking, writing: Whatever you turn to creatively, it could equal or exceed work in terms of maintaining mental health, new research shows.
"Crafting and other artistic activities showed a meaningful effect in predicting people's sense that their life is worthwhile," said study lead author Dr. Helen Keyes , of Anglia Ruskin University in Britain. Advertisement
"Indeed, the impact of crafting was bigger than the impact of being in employment," she added. "Not only does crafting give us a sense of achievement, it is also a meaningful route to self-expression. This is not always the case with employment."
Folks were asked about their level of participation in cultural, digital and sporting activities.
People were also queried about their levels of loneliness and "sensations of happiness, anxiety and life satisfaction, and to give their impression of whether life is worthwhile," according to a journal news release.
More than a third (37.4%) of respondents said they'd been involved in some kind of arts or crafts activity over the past month. Advertisement
People who engaged in a creative pursuit scored higher in terms of happiness, life satisfaction and the sense that life is worthwhile, compared to folks who weren't involved in arts or crafts, the researchers found.
"The well-being effects were present even after we accounted for things like employment status and level of deprivation," Keyes said in a journal news release. "It seems that crafting can contribute positively to your well-being above and beyond these other aspects of your life."
Perhaps because many arts and crafts are done while alone, engagement didn't seem to affect people's levels of loneliness.
The study was only designed to show associations, so it could not prove cause and effect.
In her own life, Keyes said she's an avid devotee of DIY projects such as painting and decorating.
"There is certainly something immensely satisfying about seeing the results of your work appear before your eyes," she said. "It feels great to focus on one task and engage your mind creatively."
Policymakers might want to take guidance from the new findings, Keyes said.
"Governments and national health services might consider funding and promoting crafting, or even socially prescribing these activities for at-risk populations, as part of a promotion and prevention approach to well-being and mental health," she said. Advertisement
More information
Find out more about the benefits of being creative at the American Psychiatric Association .
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"I feel more clarity and understanding of what matters to me and what I want to put out into the world … I feel creative. I feel so in love," Hough tells PEOPLE
Julianne Hough has a story, and she’s ready to share it.
In 2020, while going through what she calls a “huge transformational period,” Hough asked herself, “How can I create something that I can pour my experiences into without giving all of my details away, but that we'll all be able to relate to?”
The result — after four years of introspection and writing — is Everything We Never Knew , a novel rooted in the 36-year-old’s life experiences. “What I found, it’s so overused and cliché but it really was an awakening,” Hough tells PEOPLE about writing the book, which comes out on Aug. 13, with author Ellen Goodlett. She adds, “I was starting to feel things and see things and have these really heightened awarenesses and senses activated in a way that I was like, ‘Whoa, this feels like magic and nobody's going to understand this because this is wild’.”
Sourcebooks
The Dancing With the Stars host channeled this “magic” into the story of a woman named Lexi who realizes that she can feel other people’s emotions and see into their personal memories. But that ability comes at a cost: she must also confront her past, which she has tried hard to suppress.
“I realized I can use the universal themes that everybody experiences: loss, grief, abandonment, betrayal, violation, all these things that we experience as the human collective,” Hough says. “I've been very, very intentional the last four years of just being as authentic and real as I can and not worrying about the narrative from the outside in, but from the inside out.”
Connecting with the character she was writing meant gaining a better understanding of herself, something Hough admits was not easy to do.
“It just opened this new curiosity up for me, and it started unraveling all the systems of protection that I had put into place for myself to keep me totally fine,” the Safe Haven actress says. “It was not the most easy journey to go through, but it was the one that allowed for all parts of me to exist, come out and then really, truly have a clean slate of who I am and what my intention is in this next phase of life.”
Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty
As Hough did the work of recognizing “patterns and behaviors that were hiding her from her best, highest self," she had to dig deeper than she originally expected.
“I thought all of my trauma really was from 10 years old to 15, but I've realized, ‘Oh my gosh, I had so much before that’,” Hough recalls. “Our parents do the best job that they know how to do in the moment, so it's not about blaming or shunning or shaming. It's about acknowledging, confronting and then recognizing that we can take ourselves and heal generational wounds.”
Hough says her life now feels like it is in full blossom. “I really feel like a harvest, like an absolute abundance of planting seeds for many years, unraveling things that weren't working before,” she says. “I feel more clarity and understanding of what matters to me and what I want to put out into the world … I feel creative. I feel so in love.”
While the Footloose actress says she is not in love with anyone or anything specifically, she tells PEOPLE she is ready to open her heart again after separating from ex-husband Brooks Laich in 2020 and divorcing in 2022 .
“I needed time for myself. I needed to sit in the uncomfortable stillness of, ‘I feel so alone right now’,” Hough says. “I will say in the last year and a half, my heart has been able to start opening ... I have so much love to give. I cannot wait to pour it out.”
As she looks ahead to her book release, Hough is excited for people to connect with the story. “My experiences from this book, Lexi's experiences in this book, I don't think that they are unique to individuals,” she says. “I think that everybody has the ability to tap into these spiritual senses, and it's all about timing. It's about openness, curiosity and willingness to surrender to what's possible.”
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
As for the next chapter in her life story, Hough is taking her own advice and welcoming whatever comes next. “I want to just be in a place that feels really easy, calm and vibrant, and allow things to come in that are supposed to be for me,” she says. “The fear of change has turned into the joy of transformation.”
Everything We Never Knew is out Aug. 13 from Sourcebooks Landmark and is available for preorder now, wherever books are sold.
Discussions about the writing craft.
The title isn’t supposed to make sense at first but it’s called “A Book of Meaningless Conversation” and it follows several mostly sardonic and over the top short stories.
Each one covers a new character as they attempt to do some sort of crime, the first one being a gas station robbery where they bother the cops several times before actually robbing the place in order to ensure they don’t come back, and several other stories where characters do unconventional methods of committing different crimes.
They seem totally unrelated, but by the final chapter I reveal that they’re all part of a team that’s going to rob a high end establishment for the finale, only for it to fail miserably as the reality of their antics sets in.
Best way I can sum it up is if you took the self narration aspect of fight club and combined it with a goofy heist flick. How interesting does it sound?
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For the second year in a row, UGA doctoral student Abhijit Sarmah is among 12 finalists for the 2024 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowships . The five Fellowship recipients, who were announced today , will each receive $27,000 and an invitation to publish in Poetry magazine . All 12 finalists will receive a stipend to attend a professional development opportunity of their choice.
The Poetry Foundation awards five Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowships annually. Among the largest awards offered to young poets in the US, the prize is intended to support exceptional US poets between 21 and 31 years of age. The fellowships were established in 1989 by the Indianapolis philanthropist Ruth Lilly and expanded in 2013 with a gift from the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Memorial Fund.
“Being named a finalist for the prestigious Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship is really an honor. I am deeply grateful to Professor LeAnne Howe, Professor Barbara McCaskill, Professor Andrew Zawacki and Professor Aruni Kashyap for their support and guidance throughout the application process for this fellowship and beyond. Their faith in my work inspires me to keep achieving bigger milestones. Also heartfelt thanks to the wonderful folks at Willson Center— especially Professor Nicholas Allen, Winnie Smith and Dave Marr— who provide opportunities to interact with prominent poets like A.E. Stallings and Stephen Sexton. Those interactions have taught me a lot, including how to navigate the literary world and edit my own work.” -Abhijit Sarmah
A UGA Arts Lab Graduate Fellow and Ruth Pack Scholar, Sarmah is working on a hybrid memoir and a poetry collection, tentatively titled Potential Insurgent . Apart from his scholarly and creative work, he volunteers for various events and organizations at UGA, and was a selection committee member for Backlight Student Film Festival, a planning committee member for the International Street Festival and social chair for the English Graduate Organisation. He was awarded a 2024 Michael G. Moran Graduate Student Award by the Department of English at UGA. Currently, he is serving as the guest editor of poetry for The Headlight Review (Kennesaw State University).
"I have worked with Abhijit Sarmah for two years at the University of Georgia. A son of Assam, India, Sarmah's poetry is a kaleidoscope of emotions and images provoked by the Indian army’s indiscriminate violence in Assam. Sarmah writes from the experiences of a young man whose friends must flee to survive, violence against his loved ones at the hands of Indian soldiers and numerous events that made many around him take arms against their own country. Yet, Abhijit's poetry is not just an exploration of Indian army's cruelty against the Assamese, it's also a vehicle for memories of a brother's laughter, his sister's experiments in cooking, adventures with boyhood friends, and the community of townspeople he grew up with. His work blisters the heart." -LeAnne Howe Eidson Distinguished Professor of American Literature & Director of the Institute of Native American Studies
“This honor speaks to the strength of Abhijit’s work. We are very proud to have him as a student in our PhD program!” -Magdalena Zurawski Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing & Director of Creative Writing
Abhijit Sarmah is a poet and researcher specializing in Indigenous literatures. He holds a Master of Philosophy (MPhil.) degree from Dibrugarh University, India and is currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Georgia in Athens GA, USA. He is also a UGA Arts Lab Graduate Fellow (2022-25) and has received such honors as the Ruth Pack Scholarship from the Institute of Native American Studies and Michael G. Moran Graduate Student Award from the Department of English at UGA. His work has been published in a range of print and online journals, including Poetry , The Margins , Lunch Ticket , Glassworks Magazine , Porter House Review , and The Lincoln Review . Sarmah was a finalist for the prestigious Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowships for two consecutive years (2023 and 2024) and has received nominations for the Best of the Net and The Pushcart Prize.
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It's about the characters, the tension, and the stakes involved. Here are 40 detailed ways to craft an unforgettable heist scene, each accompanied by examples to illustrate the concept. 1. Establish the Stakes. High stakes are the heart of a heist scene. Make it clear what your characters stand to gain or lose.
How to Write a Heist Movie (or TV series): The ULTIMATE 10 Steps. A band of misfits. A slick elite group. "Getting away clean". Whatever the stakes. A heist movie can provide writers with an instant shortcut to tension, drama and great action scenes. It's a staple of the thriller genre. The heist movie has been there since the dawn of ...
The Mastermind. The heart of any heist novel is its central character. Whether it is charm and charisma (think Danny Ocean in Ocean's Eleven) or a motivation that justifies the daring caper, the mastermind (not always the protagonist, as in Hustlers) drives the emotional core of the story with the plan and vision to make things happen.. Character backstory is key.
May 4 , 2021. This entry is part 1 of 2 in the series Heist. Unbeknownst to them, a silent alarm has already been triggered by a quick thinking teller, there's an off duty police officer in the queue waiting for a chance to reach for his ankle holster, and the safe is empty. There's a reason why heist films exploded onto the scene during ...
The Courier reaches the bank doors. Safety. He opens the door and steps in. As soon as the courier steps in, however, Doug and his crew assault him and the main bank robbery begins. Be sure to play with tension, suspense, and surprise in your heist screenplay. The audience will get a kick of being surprised and will be wired for the whole ...
6. The Serial Killer's Diary: An investigative journalist receives a journal detailing a serial killer's crimes. As the police officer gets closer to solving the case, he becomes the next target. 7. The Elderly Woman's Wisdom: A wise elderly woman solves crime in her small community.
Swinson has curated the combined advice from 200+ interviews for his debut non-fiction book 'Ink by the Barrel' which provides advice for those seeking a career as a prolific writer. This entry is part 2 of 2 in the series HeistHeistScene Stealers: Writing The Perfect Heist (Part 1)Scene Stealers: Writ.
I started watching heist films with the lights on, stopwatch and notebook in hand writing down everything that happened. I'd been studying editor Shawn Coyne's concept of 'The Story Grid' - a methodology he devised to answer specifically what makes stories 'work'.. All good stories, Shawn teaches us, have general similarities in the form of plot points that meet our primal ...
Scene Stealers: Writing The Perfect Heist (Part 1) CREATIVE SCREENWRITING. June 28, 2021. Share: This entry is part 1 of 2 in the series Heist: Unbeknownst to them, a silent alarm has already been triggered by a quick thinking teller, there's an off duty police officer in the queue waiting for a chance to reach for his ankle holster, and the ...
Basing your book on real world concepts and equipment will make the plot more believable. Some suspension of disbelief is fine, but you should have a bedrock of facts. Aim to make your heist implausible, not impossible. Come back next Wednesday when I'll throw open the vault again and take out a new box: The Stakes!
3. Portability, the kryptonite of many a good heist: Always consider the size of the loot. Bulky items need larger teams, more complicated transportation, and create specific types of story problems. Transporting a Ming vase or an old painting is not easy. You can't just throw it into a box filled with foam peanuts.
Phase 1: The Goal. Every great heist film has a physical goal. And that goal is created by a desire. Desire. The Protagonist wants or needs something. And that desire fuels the whole story. For the story — and heist — to be compelling, the goal has to be as difficult as possible to achieve. And with every great heist film, there's a team.
Idea 1. Write a pair of linked scenes. The first one covers the planning of a crime or heist (e.g. a robbery), and the second shows the actual event.No doubt things won't go entirely to plan ...
So here are 7 tips for creating a likeable gang of thieves. The Italian Job. 1. Load up on leadership skills: The heist team is a basic pyramid structure. Someone needs to be at the top keeping everyone else in line. For me the path to creating a cheer-worthy heist crew started with a capable leader. I recommend packing this main character with ...
Here are 100 crime fiction writing prompts: A detective wakes up with amnesia and has to solve their own case to figure out who they are. A hacker accidentally stumbles upon plans for an assassination plot and has to go on the run. After a family member is murdered, a grief-stricken protagonist becomes obsessed with solving the crime themselves.
The Maiden Heist -Comedy heist -very trope-ish Now You See Me -Probably the most recent big-budget heist movie. The Thomas Crown Affair -One of my favs because of the thief's motivation. A Fish Called Wanda -One of the best comedies of all time is also kind of a heist movie.
Need a little help with heist writing. So I recently had an idea of working with some low level superpowers in different ways to pull of a heist. The idea isn't very well formed at this point but I know that heist stories have a very specific formula and expectations (similar to murder mysteries). Given that, I wanted to check in with the ...
beini00. •. if you're willing to do some homework and enjoy reading, id check out the six of crows duology for some fun heist inspo. Additionally, some advice that leigh bardugo, the author, gave when asked how she was able to write intelligent characters is to write "backwards".
Every writer needs a little inspiration once in a while. For today's prompt, write about someone who is chronically late finally showing up on time. In this interview, bestselling author Lauren Layne discusses the necessary false starts in the writing process of her new novel, Miranda in Retrograde. Author Adam Rosenbaum shares his top five ...
The Heist Genre is one of my favorite genres and this should be a fun one to break down.So, what are some common cliche scenes that seem to work their way into every Heist? One Last Job - This seems to be the mandate of the main character that is looking to get out of the business, but for whatever reason, he is pulled back in to do one last job for the Big Score that will finally set him up ...
Creative Writing Forums - Writing Help, Writing Workshops, & Writing Community. Home Forums > The Writing Process > Research > Tags: heist; ideas; need ideas; ... Yay - but have him steal servers full of them so its an actual heist not a hack big soft moose, Dec 13, 2017 #17. Iain Aschendale likes this. MilatheRose New Member. Joined:
Creative Writing Forums - Writing Help, Writing Workshops, & Writing Community. Home Forums > The Writing Process > Genre ... deadrats Contributor Contributor. Joined: Jul 7, 2016 Messages: 6,122 Likes Received: 7,497. Short Story Can you pull off a heist? Discussion in 'Genre Discussions' started by deadrats, Nov 16, 2020. I love a good bank ...
The W's MFA in Creative Writing expects around 28 students for the fall semester, as it kicks off its 10 th year. The program is a hybrid between online and in-person classes. Much of the course load is achieved through synchronous online classes during the regular semester. There are also four shorter residency classes held on location, such ...
Painting, woodworking, writing: Whatever you turn to creatively, it could equal or exceed work in terms of maintaining mental health, new research shows. "Crafting and other artistic activities ...
The result — after four years of introspection and writing — is Everything We Never Knew, a novel rooted in the 36-year-old's life experiences."What I found, it's so overused and cliché ...
The more creative and absurd the heist plans, the more interesting it is. Though, it seems like that final heist needs more tie in with the initial heists than just sharing the same characters, as in, in the shorter stories they're actually robbing stuff that's relevant to the final heist or using similar schemes, etc.
Artwork by local Veterans will be on display to the public at the Margaret Cochran Corbin VA Medical Center in Manhattan on Friday, September 20th from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Art from over twenty categories, including painting, creative writing, dance, drama, and music, will be exhibited.
For the second year in a row, UGA doctoral student Abhijit Sarmah is among 12 finalists for the 2024 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowships.The five Fellowship recipients, who were announced today, will each receive $27,000 and an invitation to publish in Poetry magazine.All 12 finalists will receive a stipend to attend a professional development opportunity of their choice.