The story has to end

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My writing process is a little weird. I get into these moods of depression, anxiety, and a craving for soft pretzels that will never be appeased, and the only way out is to write. Allison's Pledge was the first time I shared my frantic writing with anyone, then came Woodcrest which was a failure because honestly, I was just trying to ride the wake of Allison's Pledge. Guess the popularity was kind of a rush but in the end, most people didn't like it. So here we are in another depressive funk, a binge drinking episode, and The Interview at the center of it. When I write like this, the story consumes my entire being, and when I sit down to write, I end up actually BEING in the story rather than just writing it. As I write, I see the story unfolding through the eyes of the character, and I pretty much put my life on hold until it's finished. I've written the Interview on my home computer, my laptop, my phone, on the computer at work, I've pretty much been obsessed with it as I wander around in my alcohol fueled rage. Historically when I get into these moods, the story has to end for me to climb back out and resume normal life, and thank fuck we're getting close to the end. I just want to say thanks to everyone who stuck with me, except for you. You know who you are. You 're all amazing and smell like my favorite brand of pickle.

Comments

I've never been compared to a pickle before...

I can't say I'm offended, but I am very confused...
I've been enjoying the story, as it twists and turns along, and I'm looking forward to reading the conclusion.
Thank you, your muse, and your efforts!

Steve

Depression

Daphne Xu's picture

... and Anxiety: At least, you have a way out of them, a constructive way. In my experience, action sometimes relieves anxiety and depression temporarily.

However, "alcohol fueled rage"? Please, alcohol is a depressant. As MacDuff's porter tells him in Macbeth, "it provokes the desire, but it takes
away the performance". Can you find some way to avoid the alcohol?

As an interesting aside, the opening lines showed that Shakespeare was more interested in meter than grammatical (and logical) correctness: "When shall we three meet again, in thunder, lightning, or in rain?" (I'm not so sure about rhyme, four and a quarter centuries ago.)

-- Daphne Xu

BEING in the story

Patricia Marie Allen's picture

You wrote, "I end up actually BEING in the story rather than just writing it. As I write, I see the story unfolding through the eyes of the character". Not so unusual. In the vast majority of my work, I do just that. I feel the emotions, respond to the secondary characters and in short, become the person narrating the story. If I don't, it becomes about as interesting as lecture on dental hygiene.

The only caveat is that the story line is directed from the beginning toward the intended end. Notice that I say the intended end. I always have at least have an end scenario in mind when I start a story, but sometimes (the best of my work) the story takes on a life of its own and goes where it wants to and I'm just along for the ride. My only function then becomes to keep the grammar straight and determine where the paragraph breaks should come.

Hugs
Patricia

Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt