Gill, Maggie CarolineGetting Up the Nerve is a story quartet that explores the notion of storytelling itself, as well as obsession and the anxiety of choice. As characters navigate adolescence and young adulthood, they struggle with innumerable life decisions and begin to question their very understanding of their own narratives. A teenager holds her breath in the swimming pool of the hotel where her sister is getting married. A woman goes on a series of increasingly absurd and uncomfortable dates before experiencing real heartbreak. A writer debates whether to leave her boyfriend, at the same time confronting feelings for an old fling. And a recent college graduate finds renewed purpose in movies and her relationship with a terminally ill memoirist. Through a variety of forms, including vignettes and a questionnaire, the collection interrogates how the stories we tell ourselves come into being.enThesisCreative writing