Mental Health Month

It is already the first day of May, and the start of Mental Health Month.

I have been aware of Mental Health Month since I began services. Our center will be having booths this month at the town's annual Farmers Market (it starts tomorrow and runs through September). 

I now want to find some books to read for this month on the topic. I may just re-read Prozac Nation, or dive into Darkness Visible, William Styron's mental-illness memoir.  Strangely, only one of my reading challenges with monthly themes has mental illness as the theme for May. This one chose Mental Illness as the theme for August. But I think it's good to be aware all year long, especially when you are going through mental issues yourself. I've been brave enough to write about it in a book.  I was angry when the Mental Illness reading challenge I had been participating in for the last two or three years was deleted. Perhaps I can start a new one for 2019. Something to think about.

Also, many people I have encountered still aren't aware of Dysthymia, or Persistent  Depressive Disorder.  It seems I have not yet encountered others with this same diagnosis. Bipolar Disorder and  Schizophrenia seem to be more common among the others I have met at the mental health center I attend at work at. Before I learned my diagnosis, I was suspicious, from what I'd known about Bipolar Disorder, that I might have that one, or possibly its milder variant known as Cyclothymia, another condition no one I have encountered seems to have. 

Here are some facts about Dysthymia (from epainassist.com):

• Dysthymic Disorder is a medical condition affecting the mood of a person where the person may be normal one day and may feel extremely low in mood the next.
• It is a form of mild depression which stays for a prolonged period of time.
• The symptoms of Dysthymic Disorder are less severe than the symptoms of a major Depressive Disorder.
• Dysthymic Disorder usually begins in the teenage years and can last for a prolonged period of time going on for at times even decades.
• Dysthymic Disorder is more seen in women than in men
• Dysthymic Disorder was also in the past known by the name of depressive neurosis, neurotic depression, and depressive personality disorder.

I can honestly say I have felt more than one of those things. One thing I said at the beginning of my memoir was:

It took me a long time to realize that I was depressed--not just “down in the dumps on any given day,” but in need of an antidepressant. ...

Definitely a prolonged period of time for me.

I'm glad to have the support of the mental health center and to be one to help end the stigma toward mental  health issues.

Fight For Your Right to Write

From Writerslife.org:

Let’s face it. Sometimes writing is a struggle. Sometimes it feels like the whole world is against you, that it is full of people putting you down, of people telling you that you are not good enough.

Writing is a highly competitive world full of uncertainty, rejection and evidence that it’s practically impossible to get noticed or to make your stamp, even in a modest way. Writing is hard; it takes a lot of effort, it takes study and practice. It’s an emotional struggle, it’s tiring, frustrating and can be an utterly thankless task.

Yet we still do it.

Sometimes you’ve got to fight for your right to write because the writing journey is littered with obstacles that you have to overcome.

Let’s look at some of the most common battles you might find yourself up against when you write.

Yourself

Writers can often be the very most significant obstacle to their own success. Self-doubt can infiltrate every part of the writing process, causing all sorts of mayhem. From writer's block, procrastination and self-sabotage to writers envy and becoming such a perfectionist that you are unable to let your manuscript go; it can be a constant battle against your own inner demons to keep writing and get your work to the point where you can share it with the world.

Your Critics

Every writer that has been brave enough to put themselves out there will have faced their share of criticism. Whether that comes in the form of a rejection letter or email, a bad review or simply someone saying something less than positive or encouraging before you’ve got your manuscript finished, your critics can be tough to overcome.

The Writing World

The way the writing world is set up isn’t exactly friendly to the very people it’s supposed to be for. The competition makes it virtually impossible to land a traditional publishing deal or to get your work noticed if you choose to self-publish. There are so many stories out there it’s hard to be original, and no longer is it just about being a talented writer, you have to be a savvy marketer and competent social media manipulator too.

Getting over the numerous obstacles that litter a writers path to success can be tricky, and that's why many would-be writers just find it too difficult to continue. If you do manage to keep writing, to keep going into battle in spite of everything you should be proud of yourself. So why not celebrate your bravery? All writers should rejoice in the fact that they are following their dreams, that they are fighting for their right to be heard, to have their say, and to get your stories out there in the world.

As I have said in previous posts this month, it's trying to end the WIP that has been a challenge as well as trying to title the story. I now think I might  wait till I finish to come up with the title, though I have been writing down some possible title ideas, all of which have to do with teeth. Some of them contain the phrase "Metal Mouth," and other contain the word "teeth."

Looking at what I have written thus far, I see some subplots I have not resolved, but now I know those can be left open-ended. Though I get some feelings those I let read my WIP will ask "What happened to..." One girl wanted to know what happens to the neighbor's great-niece who is a nemesis of the protagonist. I won't tell everything right now, but the great-niece goes to another school. 

Another thing I was told by the girls who read my WIP was to try to put some positive spins on some of what has already been written. One suggestion I won't say here, because it will possibly spoil the end of the book 😉, but I think I will try to take it. 

I have done more work on the book since letting the others see what I had done when I let them read it, and will let them read the rest when I feel I'm done.

Still Uncertain How to End My Book...

..and if I want to use some of the ideas I have for a sequel book. Again, it's thinking too far ahead, but I like the idea of not having to cram so much into one book. And I think I will try to do avoid doing just that.  But I still need to know where to end the one in progress. And that is as hard as finding a title.

I just let some of the other clients at work read what I had written so far and received some good feedback. One said there was a good balance of negative and positive, and another suggested putting some positive spins on some of the story elements. They seemed to understand the YA genre better than my mom's friend seems to have done 😀 Or is it Middle grade? I'm still confused on that classification. The protagonist is currently 12 and some of the ideas I have is to have him face becoming a teenager. This could easily be another book, since right now the focus is on him adjusting to wearing braces. Subplots in the WIP include taunting by the mean girls at school and a school play, namely Romeo and Juliet.  This is where I'm trying to put the focus on the current work. It seems that the idea of another book would be a way not to cram a lot into one book. 

And then there's still the title needed for the WIP. ...

Words for Wednesday

Here are the words and a photo for this week, at Elephant's Child's blog.

This week's prompts are:

1. thin
2. frightened
3. scratch
4. wealthy
5. flowery
6. sulky 

And/or 

1. stove
2. unwieldy
3. fearless
4. zoo
5. price
6. inquisitive

Looking out the rather thin window from the lake house, the lonely wealthy man saw the fog over the water. It made him scratch his head, figuratively, while inquisitively glancing at the fog. He did feel fearless enough, however, to want to go out to the water, despite the fog. 

While continuing to look outside, he heard a crash in the kitchen near the stove. Frightened, he looked behind him to see the thin flowery vase had fallen into the space between the stove and the refrigerator. He was devastated. He'd gotten the vase at such a high price at a zoo gift shop. He tried to move the unwieldy refrigerator but was unable to do so. He tried not to get sulky about it, though. It was a price he had to pay. 

He then looked out the window again, then sat down. 

Still Trying to Find a Title

Two things I'm still trying to do with my diary novel, come up with a conclusion, for now (and possibly begin another book on the same character, with another focus--more on the another time), and most trying of all, finding title for the book-in-progress! 

I'm now thinking that using the phrase "Life Behind Bars" or "Behind Bars" or any other variation thereof might just be too misleading, making some people think it's about prison. Though some have said that the "Behind Bars" idea sounds all right, I'm not too sure about using it now." Teeth Behind Bars" or something containing that phrase might be a little less deceiving, so there is a possible title naming idea. 

In this post, I said how "Smile" was suggested a possible title, and how I quickly that a graphic novel with that title that is on the subject of getting braces already exists. Even though the title isn't copyrighted and could very well be used again, I felt it would be too confusing to have two books with the same title on the same idea and set n the same era, though it could be done. I just want to find something different, something that reflects the protagonist's anxiety over having to get braces and his subsequent adjustment to his newly acquired orthodontia. Someone on a Facebook group I post to said she would call such a novel "Brace Yourself," but that seems too over-used and too obvious a title for such a story. One of the protagonist's fears is being called cruel nicknames such as "Metal Mouth," which I have also been trying use to formulate a title. I looked up the phrase "metal mouth" on Goodreads and could only find one book with that phrase in the title.  The search without quote marks yielded only four results, only two of which contained both the words in the title. It is now surprising that such a phrase has not been used  much in book titles. 

Here is another title I found:

The title kind of makes it sound like it's one of those diary-style novels, exactly what I am writing. But here is the book's description (from Goodreads): 

These days, more and more children are going through that rite of passage known as getting braces.  Now they can chronicle the experience in this very hip, very cool, and very original journal.  Created by bestselling author Dan Price, this beautifully designed guide is entirely hand-lettered and drawn, and captures every moment, from the first appointment to that blessed day when the orthodontist says “All done!” and finally removes the braces.  It has space for before and after photographs, room to track orthodontist visits, “Fun Facts” pages, suggested “Books to Read,” the dreaded “Forbidden Foods” list, and fun illustrations on “Troubleshooting” common problems with your braces.  This is an all-around great gift!

Still trying to find a title.
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How Do You Capture the 1980s in Writing?

Since I am writing something set in the 1980s, the decade I grew up in, I was glad to have found this post. 

From the post (click above to read more, including interviews with each of the authors):

Alexander Chee: Edinburgh tracks a boy’s long journey forward from a youthful trauma in the ’80s.


Caleb Crain: Though Necessary Errors is set in Prague in the years 1990–91, it has 1989’s Velvet Revolution in the rearview mirror. 

Eleanor Henderson: Ten Thousand Saints follows an adopted druggie teen who discovers the straight-edge punk scene of Manhattan’s Lower East Side in the late 1980s after a personal tragedy.


Grady Hendrix: The lurid thriller My Best Friend’s Exorcism uses the moral panic over “Satanic” metal bands in the ’80s as the framing of its demonic tale.


Michael Kun and Susan Mullen: Their highly anticipated We Are Still Tornadoes, set in the summer of 1982 and told in a series of letters, tackles the relationship of Cath and Scott, who grew up neighbors and find themselves adrift after graduating from high school.


All of these sound good. I now want to read some of them. It's so easy to get tempted by books just by reading about them on blogs. One of these books is told in letter, the format known as the epistolary novel, which was what I was looking for to begin with. I was never a fan of most heavy metal music, but such music is definitive of the '80s.  As is the punk scene  mentioned in the plot of another of the books in the post.

Earlier this week, I mentioned two references I'd made in my book-in-progress that some people may not remember, but that they fit well into the plot. The plot is about getting braces, the before and after, something I cannot seem to recall ever being told in a story. This was one of the reasons I choose this plot line. It was something that carried a stigma back in the 80s and in the decades before. It was not unusual for kids to get teased for their orthodontia, one of the things that Martin, the protagonist of my book, is fearing as he nears getting braces. It was also something I had been wanting for years to write about in a book, so one set in the 1980s  seemed appropriate (The graphic novel Smile is the only book I can recall that told a similar tale). And I wanted to try the epistolary format, namely in the form of a diary. I have seen characters with braces in books, but in most such books, it was just a detail, not a major part of the plot. I do think this is one way to recapture the decade in a novel. 

Another reason I choose to write about the 1980s was to hope to get readers to see what life was like before cell phones and the Internet. Does anyone remember using The Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature to look for newspaper and magazine articles on different topics for research papers? This was something I used in my story. (It also came up in my memoir). This maybe a better-known reference from that decade. I had also been toying with the idea of writing a YA/MG novel, and was finding it hard to formulate fiction around the current technology. And I read a lot of historical fiction, and this is the perfect decade for me to write about.


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Making References in Stories That Some People May Not Know

Those of you who have written stories, when you make references to other works, such as TV shows, books, movies, songs, etc., have you ever referenced anything that may seem obscure to some people? Or have you encountered such a reference that you needed to look up? It has occurred to me that did just this in my book I am currently working on. In fact, two obscure references in one chapter.

First, this one:

Earlier this year as I was looking through the TV Guide, I noticed a listing for a show on some cable station about dentistry. One night it said that Kim Fields, the black girl from The Facts of Life,  would be talking about braces on that night’s episode. She has been wearing them for some time now.  In real life, not just on the show. Again, I hate that show because that one girl is named Blair, so I don’t know if I would have watched this dentistry program if we had cable.  If I could go on TV like that, I’d say how much I hate having braces. 

I do not for sure know what cable channel or program it was, but I do recall seeing such a listing in TV Guide one summer night night back in the 1980s, the setting of my novel. Though I did not have cable at that time either, I do think it may have been the Cable Health Network, an early cable channel that was the precursor to the long-running cable channel Lifetime, and a program called  Dentistry Today. Both of these I do recall seeing listed in TV Guide back in the day.  If any of you had cable then, does any of this ring a bell to you? 

I found this image of a
billboard advertising the Cable Health Network.

Even if this might not be a well-known reference, the recollection of  the listing I had seen in the TV Guide just fit quite well into the story.

Then this reference:

Today I was looking through the books on my shelf in my bedroom coming across one I got from one of those book-order forms we would get at school each month.  One was called Banana Twist. I’m not sure why I ordered that one. I never looked at it much until today. As I flipped through the book, I saw that the boy in this book has braces. Well , that’s good, thought. I should love this story. 

This appears to be a hard-cover edition, but
I had the paperback edition with this
cover design.

Again, I'm not sure how many people will remember this book, but I know I did have it and did get it from those monthly book order forms we always got in grade school (I'm sure many of you remember those things). I also recalled how the main character's neighbor noted that the main character had braces. I tried searching for a reference to this line in the book but was unable to find any. But I know I saw this, and again, this recollection went well with the plot of my protagonist's anxiety over having to get braces and his subsequent adjustments to wearing them. 

On a side note, I appear to have invoked the TV Trope "Your Television Hates You," with these two references, but with a book instead of TV in one case, and seeing a listing for a TV program rather than the program itself.