HELP! I'm having trouble compartmentalizing.

[Mme. Defarge]

Ever since 7th grade I have fantasized about being a mystery writer. Then, when I retired a few years ago, I starting working on a mystery series set in the 2010’s. I have since completed five drafts of a first manuscript, the first draft of a second manuscript and have started outlining the plot for a third novel in the series. While I have identified a possible agent I haven’t yet been able to work up the nerve to submit anything.

After the catastrophe of November 2016, however, I have struggled to get my bearings on what kind of world I’m living in as well as manage my anxiety and have a sense of future. Besides, it feels like such a frivolous thing to be doing with my time given the monstrous threats we are facing as a world on so many fronts.

That said, I am so deeply grateful to all of the wonderful writers who have given me so much pleasure, comfort and solace during this out of kilter era, and it would give me the deepest feeling of satisfaction to be able to give the same to others.

On the plus side, my third story deals with mental health issues as well as political and social divisions in the workplace that may, or may not, lead to murder and mayhem. The setup will be especially challenging for my protagonist, a management consultant who struggles with a serious mood disorder and is growing ever more cynical about her chosen profession.

Anyway, that’s my story if only I could stick to it. I know, I know, it’s all about “butt-in-chair”, but am open to advice. Even a good scolding. 🙄

[Shermann]

1. Go ahead and get it out there

I may need a few more avenues of escapism if the Dems lose this year...

[RobertDevereaux]

2. As a published novelist and a progressive, I completely understand.

Here's what Kathe Koja, an amazing writer of fiction, posted on FB just today:

How can we read books, write books, make art, make cakes, take walks, take a friend out for drinks, etc., when the country is literally collapsing and the world is on fire? We can do it WHILE WE FIGHT BACK.
Neither is optional.
Pleasure and joy will sustain us.
Have more fun and fight better!

[Mme. Defarge]

3. Merci, mon brave!

How kind of you to share this. Now, onward! And, butt in chair.

[Zoonart]

4. Something that has worked for me.

I make a sort of "Mix Tape" of music that I associate with my characters. I imagine what kind of music each of my characters would listen too and then I pull it together into a mix that I listen to when I am preparing to write or just when I am winding down at the end of the day. So in a way I allow the characters to "talk" to one another in my mind via music. It really works to get me in the space.

This might sound a little kooky.... but I take hot baths and listen to my "Mix tapes". The hot. bath gets the blood flowing to my brain and I swear I can write for hours afterwards. Sometimes I take a recording device into the bath with me so that if I achieve stream of consciousness I don't feel like I will slip and break my neck getting to my device to write. LOL

Just works for me.

[Mme. Defarge]

6. Oh my word!

You can’t imagine how perfect your advice is for me, as well as the protagonist I have created. If you are willing to indulge me, here are a couple of excerpts from Unreasonable Suspicion.

Once they were both inside, Brenda closed her office door and pressed her back against it, as if to create a barricade. Despite her waif-like appearance, the magnetic field of anger emanating from her would have been enough to bar anyone from barging in. After a long exhale, she said, “He did that to deliberately challenge my authority. To humiliate me…”
“You did zat to deliberately defy me, Renata. Now play it correctly.” ​Renata shuddered ever so slightly and the fingertips of her left hand tingled at the recollection of her mother’s words, and the dissonant strains of a late Beethoven string quartet.

.....

At last it was time to practice the fourth step of spiritual health - letting go of the results. Reportedly, according to Native American wisdom it followed (1) showing up, (2) doing your best, and (3) telling the truth. For Renata that played out in early 21st Century European-American tradition as having a glass of wine, or, the occasional cocktail if circumstances warranted something a little stronger. Um, like this evening maybe? She turned on her sound system, and while her Manhattan “cooked” in the freezer for the required 30 minutes, she went upstairs to shed her management guru getup and relax in a warm tub scented with White Moss bath gel and wonder if Dr. Stern, Asher, might possibly have marital problems.
It was a little before seven when Renata padded back down the steep wooden stairs swaddled in a white terry cloth robe and puffy animal print slippers that were a birthday present from her dad’s longtime girlfriend, Nutmeg. From her sofa she could see the Fremont Bridge looking like a colossal diamond necklace spanning the Willamette River – an impression further enhanced by a few sips of good bourbon mixed with sweet vermouth and bitters. Her short term goal was to make the allotted single serving of hard liquor last until Kenny Burrell finished fingering Blues in the Night.

[Zoonart]

7. How cool is that?

This sounds terrific. Your character already lives for me. Keep up and don't give in to the various outside noise that drags on all of us.

It has been said that "Hope is not a plan." it is, however, what keeps us planning.

[Mme. Defarge]

9. Thanks, new writer friend!

Ugh! After rereading, as always, too many damned commas. 🙀

[Zoonart]

10. Haha...

At lease they're not ellipses or the dread semicolon.

[Mme. Defarge]

11. I have resolved to go on a comma cleanse

every January.

[Amaryllis]

12. Not too many commas. You used them in all the right places. THis coming from a writing

teacher who taught comma rules...your other option is to write a lot more simple sentences. NOt a good option, IMHO.

[Mme. Defarge]

13. Dayum! Good to know.

(Now, about your hourly rate ...)

[Farmer-Rick]

14. Wow, already you have me hooked.

The world will be a better place to have your story and your perspective out in the world. To you it feels like an indulgence, but to the rest of us it is a new perspective.

Keep up the good work. And if you feel shy about sending out your writing, what helped me was getting a few good people to read it and give me feedback. Once they told me it wasn't all in my head and it did have merit, I felt I could let the rest of the world see it.

[Bayard]

5. I need fiction more than ever now

Give me escapism, and keep on keeping on.

[B Stieg]

8. We all write what we know!

Represent!