stress and writing correlations

I have been extremely stressed out the last week or so.  Four essays due this week, three of which needed to be at least four pages.  The need to be writing, and only having a vague idea of what I should be writing about made for a difficult time.  I'm still not home free, but I was able to get an extension on the two more difficult ones, and the others are done.  This semester is chock full of reading and writing classes, and it is a bit of a struggle for me (a chronic procrastinator) to get myself scheduled to get all the readings done and all the writings done on time and with the amount of thought that I prefer to put into them.

Now, you would think that the thought of writing more would send me running, but over the last few days I have had an idea percolating in my mind for a piece of fiction, length as of yet undetermined.  I would prefer it to be novel length, or maybe novella, but I guess I wouldn't say no to a short story, though a lot of the development I have in mind wouldn't fit into that length.  And letting this idea sit in the back of my head gathering strands of character and plot from bits of conversation and music (a lot from music, this time) has actually been relaxing for me.  I haven't been doing anything on purpose, as it is still at a stage where it can't be forced, not just yet.  So, I will sit and listen to Florence + the Machine for a while and let her lyrics catch on the bare grasping branches of the story and write notes down on scratch paper that I can shove into my notebook for later compilation.

For your viewing and listening pleasure, I give you the seed of this story (though you probably wouldn't recognize it even if I told you what it was), "Bedroom Hymns" by Florence + the Machine: