use oxymorons bc i'm selfish 🙏🏼

Hey, hi, hello!

If you haven't read this week's Email Paradise (EP), you miiiiight be a lil out of the loop (go read it!!!!) but this is the bonus edition where I share the psych behind the creative writing prompt shared on Tues.

Reminder of this week's prompt in case you haven't done it yet:

(it's all about writing oxymorons!)

Set a timer for 15 mins (to remove the part of your brain that's gonna try to be 'perfect'!) and write down 10-15 adjectives on the left side of your paper in a column.

If you wanna go faster, you can use this to generate adjectives sans AI.

Now come up with its antonym(s) and place those next to it. Try not to take more than 5 mins on this part of it!

Because the next step is to see how many of these oxymorons you can use in a short story! Keep in mind - the story doesn't even need to make logical sense.

Bounce around, play around, and see what comes up!

Remember: the goal isn't to be the BEST; it's to be CREATIVE, however that looks for you!

And now for the Psych Behind It 👇🏼

Contradiction gives your brain a problem to solve. is cognitively activating in a specific way. When two opposing concepts are forced into contact, it activates your brain in a different way. Your brain WANTS to find the context where both words can be true simultaneously.

It's low-level cognitive tension that makes oxymorons feel alive on the page, and it's what keeps a reader's attention locked in. Basically, you're building tiny cognitive snags into your writing on purpose.
Generating the pairs and then writing from them separates ideation from execution. (Which is often where most people get stuck). These are two different brain modes working at once. Divergent thinking (generating options without judgment) and convergent thinking (selecting and applying).

Doing them in sequence, with the timer enforcing it, means neither one cannibalizes the other. Most people collapse them together, which is why they get stuck.
Absurdist constraints produce more original output than open prompts. When the story doesn't have to make sense, the brain stops filtering for plausibility and starts filtering for resonance instead. For feeeeeelings. Not just logic (which is, again, a sticking point). The most powerful copy is one that uses emotion, resonates, and makes someone pause or FEEL something. Ya know?

That's it for this week! It's not as in-depth as the other weeks, but I prooooomise, the impact can be profound!

Plus, selfishly, I want to see more surprising word choice (ugh, fine, oxymorons) in the emails & content I read so pleaaaaassseee, send me anything you create that uses them so I can obsess over it!!

Catch ya on the next wave,

This email was written with my own brain. No GenAI was used to brainstorm, write, or edit this.
If you enjoyed it, please let me know!! This is a labor of love for me & it truly means the world when you reply.

600 1st Ave, Ste 330 PMB 92768, Seattle, WA 98104-2246

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use oxymorons bc i'm selfish 🙏🏼

but don't be creepy about it 😳

metacognition and desensitization 🧠

the white knight in shining armor 🗡️