Is writing fiction the tad crazy?
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- Wanton_Wordsmith
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Is writing fiction the tad crazy?
I have a life, a job, a social network, but I don't talk to them about writing. This forum is my only outlet for talking about fiction. What do you writers think? Is inventing fictional characters and plotting their lives a form of....something?
I dunno. Any comments are welcome. Thanks!
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I'd say that it's not something I worry about, the concern you mentioned. My characters (and the never-neverland where they reside) are real to me, but not in a way that blurs the lines of reality. What I do, though, is primarily write about happy people who have happy lives. It's a kind of utopia for me, so if it were to enter into my created reality, it would be pleasant.
I'd say to write to the extent that you can, but monitor it. I suppose that schizophrenia strikes everyone differently. You should definitely PM me if you ever want to discuss it privately.
- moderntimes
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First is the legitimate question of genuine mental illness or disability. This is a very serious issue and one that is not best dealt with here. An actual diagnosed mental problem needs to be addressed via proper channels, medical and therapeutic with health care professionals.
Second, for a humorous view of being a "crazy" writer, sure! All writers are a bit off-base. Who would spend hours laboring over a few sentences and whether to insert a chapter break or paragraph here or not. ha ha
But we writers get the last laugh, when we sell our stories or novels or articles and they're published!
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Likewise, I too see healthcare professionals, but I have to say that they do not solve every issue for me. They can't explain a lot of my symptoms or issues or side-effects. Some of the burden of that falls onto me.
Of course, I cannot offer medical advice, nor can any of us I'd imagine; but I'd like to think that we should feel free to try to fill the gap for each other. I mean, he and I have the exact same illness. What are the odds of that?
Also, <bleep> the stigma! I'm sick of worrying that if I put it out there, people are going to judge me. People! Schizophrenia happens.
- moderntimes
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My meaning was to not imply any harshness but to set out a gentle boundary for this thread, because we don't want anyone to neglect burgeoning problems in lieu of chatting on the writer's forum. We don't want to detract the vital aspects of proper medical attention to a genuine problem.
By the way, I've known several schizophrenics and others with various mental difficulties, and I myself have gone thru stages of monopolar affective disorder in earlier years. So I know full well the circumstances and have no prejudice toward anyone about such things.
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But after that point, the doctors can only do so much.
I must've been in a bad mood earlier, but I don't think it was directed at you. Oops.
Monopolar affective disorder? Is that a fancy euphemism for depression? Do ya got one up your sleeve for schizophrenia??
- moderntimes
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Maybe all emotional and mental disorders should be arbitrarily labeled with a number. Like "I've got fourteen." and "I've been taking meds for ninety-two."? Best that can be done is to redefine schizophrenia as "disassociate syndrome" but that sounds awful, too.
No bad mood and no problem, my friend.
And yeah, depression. Which is also misunderstood. Problem there is that the common and very everyday "feeling depressed" today because I dented my car is intermixed with genuine clinical depression. Which is totally different. Clinical depression comes on without any external cause at times, or sometimes yes, crunching your car can bring it on, too. But the feeling is also totally different from "being depressed" in the common sense of the word. Of course you know this.
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You're right--depression is multi-layered. One might become depressed due to a fender bender (who wouldn't?) and then it sticks around like a funk, and then you're completely under it. Or it could attack seemindly at random, or it could be seasonal (although probably not in July!). Yeah, I get ya. Thanks for posting! We need more awareness, 'cause you're right--people think "psycho." And that's so outdated, because many of us take our meds religiously and try as hard as we can. And the whole "violence" thing is completely, shamelessly perpetuated by the media. Could a schizophrenic be violent? Sure, but so could anyone, unfortunately.
I'm excited about your books!
- Wanton_Wordsmith
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Actually, I guess that having a private fantasy world through writing, and not sharing it with a writer's group or people online would be crazy. And you two are sharing what you wrote, so you two are better off than me. Thanks for sharing!
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- moderntimes
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By the way, we all insert a part of ourselves in our writing, so that's perfectly normal. And don't be afraid to share your writing, either. We HAVE to share our writing or try to get it published, otherwise we'd never be able to improve our skills. Keep plugging away, okay?
- Wanton_Wordsmith
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- moderntimes
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What must be done, I think, is to approach a certain part of writing just like you approach any task that requires grunt work, like mopping the kitchen floor. It's got to be done and we writers have to simply knuckle down.
For example, all this peaceful Sunday evening I've been re-editing one of my novels so that the typography was compliant with my publisher's stylesheet. Not a pleasant job but no shoemaker elves volunteered for the job. Going laboriously through 75000 words and fixing punctuation is easier with Word search and replace, but you still have to ensure that each change is correct. So it took me about 4 hours of steady non-creative, non-fun, and non-clever work. But I "mopped the damn floor" and now I can email the book to the publisher.
Although I WILL take just one more look thru the text tomorrow morning when I'm fresh.
All I can recommend is to fix yourself into harness and get plugging away, a little at time, and persevere. There's no secret solution -- you just have to get it done.
Incidentally, you might check out my new thread in the Writer's section "To do list" and see the jobs that I've got to do for effecting the submission of my 3 novels to the publisher. No fun, I can guarantee. But hey, make yourself a "to do" list and chew away at it, bit by bit.
Eventually you'll get into the habit and it will then seem a much easier enterprise.
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