Thursday, January 26, 2017

Can't Believe It's Been a Year Since...

It was a year ago this month that I began the following: the new job and my idea to write my memoir of depression and going on Prozac.  Almost seems hard to believe it's been that long. Time sure does fly. 

On February 1 of last year, I began a creative writing class, which unfortunately fizzled out this year because of a lack of participation as last year came to an end. I'm still working, though. And last November, the mentor who taught the cooking and art classes left, so other mentors and clients have been filling in. I've led the cooking class three times so far, and and looking for recipes to try for this coming month. I'm also trying to get an idea for art class. Namely,  I'm trying to get some ideas for assemblage art. Most of the clients aren't aware of this, so I'm trying to get as much information as possible to see who is interested. I've also expressed the idea of doing dioramas. Either idea would involve found objects. Had anyone ever done either such art projects? If you have, how did it go?

It's also been more than a year since I read Prozac Nation and was inspired to write my own story. For a while I was discouraged, however, as I felt my story was too similar, but people I know convinced me everyone has a different story to tell, even on the same topic. It was in February last year that I began making notes for my memoir, and am still going. I only have 28K-something words as of now, does that seem to short?  I'm not sure how much longer I can make it or when I should even begin to let a publisher see it. I'm not too sure about taking the self-publishing route. It doesn't seem likely that I will.


Prozac Nation



I've been itching to re-read Prozac Nation, so I ordered a used copy from Amazon. I don't often re-read books, though as child I did read some books more than once.  Some of my challenges for this year include categories such as "book you've read before," and a "favorite from your childhood," so that will require some re-reading.   I've also been wanting to read more by Elizabeth Wurtzel,  so I bought a used copy of this book of hers.  It was her second book to be published.  

My illness recovery process has kept me from writing as much I'd been wanting to, but I'm gradually getting back into the mode.

And almost a year ago, the psychiatrist I'd been seeing since 2015 said he was leaving the county behavioral health department as he was only there temporarily. But he returned in June last year and has been communicating through telepsychiatry since last October.

Let's see what this year brings to the process of writing.

3 comments:

Sandra Cox said...

How long is Prozac Nation? That might give you an idea of word count.
Kudos on all your various interests, Jamie. Sounds like your creativity juices are flowing.
Hugs

Stephanie Faris said...

I'm not sure about memoir length--seems it could vary? It's been a while since I've written grown-up books, but I think they're generally at least 50,000 words, and that's on the short side.

Sandra Cox said...

Hope you're having a great weekend, Jamie.