The Journal, Saturday, 9/26: No topic, sort of

I slept in this morning until almost 3. Sure felt good. (grin)

Then I got up.

Not a great day around the Stanbrough camp. I won’t bore you with the annoying, frustrating, aggravating details. Just not a good day.

I almost made the topic of this post “writing for therapy,” but that would’ve been a hoax. Or politically correct. I get confused.

I do know nowadays when you tell an outright, bold-face lie it’s most often referred to as either a “hoax” or “politically correct.” Well, unless you happen to be a politician. Then it’s called a “strategy shift.”

Anyway, I couldn’t title it “writing for therapy” because I don’t personally believe in writing as a useful tool for therapy. Not real writing. And not real therapy.

Yeah, I can see writing an ex-hubby or ex-wife’s name on a weird little straw doll and then setting fire to it before hurling it over a thousand foot cliff. I mean, I don’t really think it would have the effect you’re hoping for in the real world, but it couldn’t hurt, right?

But that isn’t writing. That’s verbal vindictiveness. It’s murder without a possibility of a conviction. ‘Cause you just murdered the straw doll, see, and not the real person. Well, you know, IF you can call a nasty ex-husband or ex-wife a “real person.” Up to you, I guess.

(For the official record, I did NOT hear from my ex today. I mean my ex had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with what I viewed as a generally crappy day. So there’s one bright side.)

Okay, but back to writing for therapy. Then there’s that whole weird thing where you’re advised to write a note or a letter to the victim of your passion. Only then, instead of mailing it, you flush it down the toilet. Or burn it. Or stomp on it and then flush it or burn it.

Okay, seriously, that’s just silly. If I’m gonna go to all that effort, I’m gonna mail it. See what I mean?

Besides, if I did that and then tried to flush it, guess whose toilet would get plugged up? And you know who AIN’T gonna stop by to help me clean up the mess? The ex-whatever.

But seriously, if you decide to try that one, write an actual letter on actual paper. This doesn’t work in any way, shape or form with emails. Plus it could get expensive.

But maybe there is one way for a writer to write for therapy.

Say you sneak away from your life for awhile. Say you put your fingers on your keyboard. Say you begin moving your fingers so that all of a sudden you’re out of your crappy day. You’re running and laughing and screaming and yelling and otherwise generally havin’ a freakin’ ball with your characters.

Now THAT’S writing for therapy. But that isn’t really writing, is it? Nope. It’s playing with your friends.

And playing with your friends is ALWAYS good therapy.

Today’s Writing
As opposed to pretty much everything else, the writing went well. Two good sessions before about 7:30 a.m. I wrote the rest considerably later. I’ll take it.

Fiction Words: 3149

Writing of “The Coming of Simon Stark” (SF novel)
Day 1…… 3800 words. Total words to date….. 3800 words
Day 2…… 1516 words. Total words to date….. 5316 words
Day 3…… 2942 words. Total words to date….. 8258 words
Day 4…… 4261 words. Total words to date….. 12519 words
Day 5…… 3039 words. Total words to date….. 15558 words
Day 6…… 2600 words. Total words to date….. 18158 words
Day 7…… 4634 words. Total words to date….. 22792 words
Day 8…… 3149 words. Total words to date….. 25941 words

Total fiction words for the month………… 54580
Total fiction words for the year…………… 519621