When long-term therapy is limited by the insurance powers that be, try writing a novel instead?
–For the record, I have found writing to be a balm, in fact, but in combination with other tools, particularly journalling of various kinds…
And here is how that went, in 2012: My novel, originally titled Angels: Friends or Foes? became Creator: FoF? and ended up, after six revisions, as just a novella, with a new name (likely a result of the nearly two year time span between November 2012 and finally ‘finishing’ this novella.
How (NOT) to Write a Practice Novella: “Creator, Foe”
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And here is a novella version (of my 2012 novel), about 35k words, of Book1, with the sex, poetry and more torn out.
ShiraDestinie, 26.9.12014 H.E.
The last version of the novella, actually at 60k words: CFoF CFoFNovella toPost
–
So, it turns out that editing a pants novel from 50k to 80k then to 75k words each draft is not the best way for me to write a book. More on my continuing striving with writing next time, friends:
Yassas, γεια σας! Salût ! Nos vemos! Görüşürüz! ! שָׁלוֹם
Action Items in support of literacy and hope that you can take right now:
1.) Share your writing process with us in the comments, here, please.
Dear Readers, any additional ideas toward learning, especially multiple #LanguageLearning as part of on-going education and empathy-building, to #EndPoverty, #EndHomelessness, #EndMoneyBail & achieve freedom for All HumanKind?
Support our key #PublicDomainInfrastructure & #StopSmoking for CCOVID-19:
1. #PublicLibraries,
2. #ProBono legal aid and Education,
3. #UniversalHealthCare, and
4. good #publictransport
Read, Write

NaNoWriMo 2020 CE
November, 2020 CE = 12020 HE
(The previous lesson plan since this post, and the most recent lesson plan…)
Good morning! I think that inasmuch as each work of fiction is unique, the method of creating it is unique as well. Just like finding their own voice, writers find their own method of drafting, re-writing, editing, etc.
Off to work – have a wonderful day!
Air hugs,
D
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Boker Tov, Dolly!
Good point, though I’d like to spend far less time figuring out the tools for my creative activity so that I can just create!
Hope you had a good day at work and at rest!
Safe Air Hugs to you and yours!
Shira
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Boker tov, dear Shira!
I totally agree with you; all those tools are simply personal creative approaches. You do what feels good to you!
Stephen King was once conducting a writing seminar attended by literally hundreds of prospective writers. He started by saying, “You think you are writers? Then what are you dong here? Go home, sit down and write!”
I think it’s the best advice ever given to writers, because, as the great violin teacher Stolyarsky (who hardly spoke any language but Yiddish, yet produced such virtuosos as David Oystrach) said, “Talent is like money; either you have it, or if you don’t, it’s too bad.” It does sound funnier in Yiddish.
Much love,
D
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Boker Ohr, Dear D!
I’ve read about that -I thought it was Earnest Hemmingway, so thank you for correcting me! 🙂
Much love to you too, D!
S.
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Hemingway is the author of another famous line: “I just start writing whatever comes into my head, and when I finish, I go back to beginning and cut the crap.”
I wish more writers had courage to go back and do that!
Have a wonderful day,
D
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Ah, ok! I just remember his remark about the weather! 🙂
I’d have thought that all writers must edit, re-write, cut, and write again in order to get published?
Have a good evening, (?)
Shira
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I don’t know what all writers do to get published, but my start was as a reporter, rather than a fiction writer, and reporters work on deadline. I never had time for re-writes, and to edit on an old-fashioned Russian mechanical typewriter (the click-clack type) was practically impossible. I also had no time for so-called writer blocks, if I wanted to keep assignments coming. So I developed writing discipline pretty early, and it stayed with me. But again, I have not written fiction other than a few short stories that circulated underground because they were thinly disguised political satire. Poetry too, of course, but that’s a different story.
Enjoy your evening, dear Shira.
Air hugs,
D
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Oh, wow! I read about the underground writings, and people copying out entired books by hand!
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Yes, it was called “samiszdat” (published on your own), as opposed to “tamizdat” (published abroad and smuggled into the country). Every typewriter was registered, so copying by hand was safer.
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Wow, even manual typewriters?!
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Electric ones didn’t exist yet.
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Oh!
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Neither did VCRs, darling, and we never heard of either of them. I am an old lady, dear Shira.
Air hugs,
D
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Thank you for sharing the wisdom that you have accumulated, dear Dolly!
Many Safe Air Hugs!
Shira
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Oh come on, coming from a backwards country oppressed by a draconian regime is no wisdom!
Much love,
D
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Yet you survived, escaped, and have both knowledge to share with us, from those experiences, and also the lessons learned from those experiences: together with your love, that makes wisdom!
Much love to you as well,
S.
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I guess I have to abide by Miss Manners dictum to accept compliments graciously.
Have a lovely day, darling!
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🙂 Have a lovely evening?
More Hugs!! 🙂
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Still afternoon, and working…
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Writing is my salvation. I don’t journal. I work things out with poetry or though long emails to friends.
I think however you arrived at your finished novella was the right way for you.
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Thank you, JeanMarie: I also write poetry, but I do not generally like to share most of my poems. I wish I could say that I had friends with whom I could share my thoughts in long emails, but my friends seem not to understand my thinking, or at least not to share my ways of thinking, so I find myself in need of others means of salvation.
I don’t think I finished the novella so much as abandoned it, since I realized that it was not going to arrive at any of my goals. But the writing of it was a useful point of departure for learning.
And thank you, again, for being interested enough to read, comment, and to share your own processes. It makes me consider whether I should give any of my old friends another try via email.
Very warmest regards,
Shira
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That is some impressive therapy!
If writing poetry or blogging (I tried writing fiction, but I’m bad at it and find it exhausting), I write under the assumption that it will be read by other people and I don’t write with the intention of it being therapeutic. But sometimes, I re-read the draft and realize it was therapy writing all along, just with added imagery or humor to be (hopefully) entertaining to someone else who is not me.
Sometimes, I realize it was therapy midway through the draft. Then I have to go back and give everybody fake names.
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You made me laugh with that last comment! Always use fake names! 😁
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Yup, and change the gender/profession/features! But I’ve only had to do that once.
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Ah! I never use real names, and in fact the people generally take the shape of monsters or some other type of character, rather than the ‘real’ person, so that is not a problem with me, but my problem is that I almost always find too much darkness creeping into even a story I intend to be light.
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