I’m a BIG fan of colors and I LOVE it when subtle shades and tones work together to create PERFECTION.

Aren’t these GORgeous?!?!?!

Awesome!

Regardless, I often find myself avoiding the entire process.

Why?

I have stage fright. Performance anxiety.

I psych myself out.

When I picture a manuscript, I see a intricately woven tapestry built over weeks and months of looming (uh, is that a word?) and weaving threads.

Sure, there are mistakes, knots, wonky stitches, but how can you cut out a section of a tapestry without redoing the whole thing? How can you tear apart something you so lovingly created?

Well, in reality, a manuscript isn’t a tapestry at all. It’s a word document. Words can be changed. Scenes can be deleted–without upsetting the flow of the rest of the piece!

But it’s still a lot of work.

I have some thoughts on how to make things easier. (Yes, I’ve tried these and it works!)

How to get to gettin’ when revising:

• Schedule time to revise. (Saying “I’ll do this tomorrow or later” isn’t good enough. Just like starting a diet tomorrow, tomorrow never comes because a specific moment is never really determined. I mean, really, you can put off tomorrow for years. Right?)
• Make your environment comfy. (Who wants to sit in an austere, cold, drafty, dark, boring place? Get your sweater, cosy socks, water bottle, coffee mug, favorite snack, and cushiest pillow.)
• Get rid of distractions. (Turn off the TV. Lock the kids out. Turn off Facebook, Twitter, email, G+, YouTube, NPR, etc. I know it’s hard, but we survived without them before, right? So we can do it again.)
• Open. The. Document. (Just because you’ve turned the computer on doesn’t mean you’ve got your manuscript open.)
• Turn on the tunes. (I know several writers who develop soundtracks for each manuscript. I don’t, but I DO love to listen to music while I work.)
• Be in the moment. (Don’t look at the entire document. Look at the first sentence. Then the second. Then the third. And so on.)
• Copy and paste. (Hit a really tough spot? Copy the section into another document and have at it. If you don’t like it, don’t bother switching it out. But I BET you’ll make it better.)
• When revising QUALITY is better than QUANTITY. (Rough drafts are for quantity. Revising is where you make every word count. It’s a laborious process, but take your time anyway. The slower you go, the more you’ll catch.)
• Exercise Patience. (If you need a break or need to redo a section you’ve already revised, don’t beat yourself up. Listen to your instincts.)

What helps you revise?

Be sure to check out Deb’s response to the Sisterhood of the Traveling Blog topic of expectations!

Please note, this post is solely for the purposes of writing, and is NOT intended for medical advice or treatment.

So what is PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder)?

It is classified as an anxiety disorder. Technically, the person must have a constellation of symptoms for at least 30 days to qualify for the diagnosis. Some people recover, some go on to have a chronic course, lasting months to years. Symptoms can recur several years later as well, with a period of remission between.

An event must be perceived as life threatening or potentially life threatening to qualify as traumatic. Immediately, that lends a LOT of subjectivity. What’s life threatening to me may be different for  you. That being said, I’m sure we can all pretty much agree on the biggies–combat, rape, assault, natural disasters, terrorism, abuse (sexual, neglect, physical, emotional, verbal, whether as an adult or child).

The traumatic event can either be one “biggie,” or it can be the accumulation of “smaller” events over a prolonged period of time (such as child abuse or domestic violence).

Classic symptoms include:

Hypervigilence: The person doesn’t trust others. They may feel uncomfortable in exposed places (malls, crowded places, being around strangers). They will frequently make sure their back is to a wall (so it’s not exposed). They’ll keep an eye on the exits and make sure they can get to one fast if needed. They’ll also show a “startle” response, where they jump at a loud, sudden sound. Some people jump when the phone rings, for example.

Avoidance: This is pretty much self explanatory. The person will avoid triggers and things associated with the trauma. This can include movies, locations, people, even certain subjects of discussion for fear it will lead to symptoms. This, by the way, makes PTSD difficult to treat in some instances, because the very thing bringing a person to treatment, is the thing they want to avoid discussing.

What’s important to know is the brain remembers details about a traumatic event that the sufferer may not consciously recall. Furthermore, an otherwise innocuous stimuli may be paired with the event and become “dangerous.” If, for example, a person’s attacker wore a blue jacket, then the person may experience an anxiety response when confronted with a blue article of clothing. The jacket itself is benign, but the brain “remembers” it as a threat via association.

Another example would be a soldier in Iraq who has returned home and every time he goes under an overpass, he searches for IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) tucked under the framework.

Which leads me to my next point. For a soldier in Iraq, being hypervigilent is conducive to survival. It makes her good at her job. BUT, when she returned to civilian life, her sensitive attunement to stimuli in the environment does not return to baseline. That is NOT conducive to living in a non-war zone.

That’s what PTSD is. A state of “hyper arousal” that is above baseline. It’s like drinking 16 cups of coffee and maintaining that level of tension and awareness ALL THE TIME.

Finally, I’d like to discuss another cardinal symptom of PTSD.

Flashbacks and nightmares: If someone is presented with a “trigger” (like a blue jacket), they may experience a flashback. Flashbacks can be mild (where the person is able to recognize it as a flashback and they can control it) or they can be severe, where the person actually feels like they’re reliving the event in real time.

Final tidbit: The person who suffers from PTSD is at higher risk of misusing drugs and overusing alcohol. Substance abuse and dependence as a co-morbid diagnosis is therefore common and an important aspect to address.

**************

As always, if you have any mental health questions for your writing, don’t hesitate to ask! Be sure to check out Lydia’s blog for Medical Monday and Sarah Fine’s The Strangest Situation!

What would you do with Jedi powers if you had ‘em?

This week, I want to address HOW to actually revise. I mean, strategies and theories are great, but when you sit down to DO something, how does it get done?

Well, thankfully, there’s no one way, which is why I want y’all to share your strategy in the comments. The more ideas we discuss, the more help people get, right?

Lemme share my technique…which can vary depending on my mood, LOL!

Sometimes, I revise using my computer. I open the document, enlarge the screen so I can see the words without squinting (I’m nearsighted, what can I say?), and read each scene paying attention to flow and plot advancement. (I change typos during this stage too, because, darn it, they’re there no matter how many times I read the damn manuscript!) Like I said last week, if a scene doesn’t advance the plot, I delete it.

I try to read as quickly as I can…not like speed reading, but more like reading in a condensed amount of time so I don’t lose the story thread and confuse details. (Time between readings makes my memory fuzzy, you know?)

Sometimes, I’ll use my iPad. It changes the “look” of the document, making it look more like a book. Somehow, it makes the words, sentences, and paragraphs seem new. I can often pick out redundancies, echoes, wonky dialogue, etc. easier that way.

Sometimes (after I’ve already revised a couple of times) I print out the document. I may still encounter lots of cutting at this stage (by then I have lots of beta feedback, several weeks or even months have passed, and I have a whole new perspective on the project), and it’s quite fun to slash a line through an entire page. I also mark up the hell out of each page, crossing out crappy bits and rewriting better bits in the margins. Then I transcribe the changes on the computer and re-read it one to two more times, tweaking as I go.

After revising the printed manuscript, I can end up with something like this:

(Note: This is not my actual revision…aftermath. But it can sure feel like it!)

How about you? What does your revising strategy entail?

Check out Sarah’s response to her question about writing expectations for the Sisterhood of the Traveling Blog chain!

What mental health treatments were there in the 19th century?

Great question! I had to pull out the history books for this one. (Which I happen to enjoy, BTW.)

The history of mental health treatment is not a pretty one. Prior to the mid 1800′s, people with mental illness were either imprisoned (in horrible conditions, you know, like being chained naked to a wall in a dungeon) or kept isolated in the family home…or barn. The idea was to keep them away from Society as a whole because they could be harmful to Society.

From the middle ages on, those with mental illness were also kept in institutions known as Asylums. Conditions were…deplorable at best.

A mental asylum as depicted by Francisco Goya

The first Insane Asylum in the US was in Virginia. Called the Eastern State Hospital, it opened in 1773.  At the time, it was believed no cure for mental illness existed, and so no one was discharged from the institutions, but more and more people were admitted. The end result was overcrowding.

The patients were subjected to the same routine, day in and day out…not too bad, except when treatments such as blood letting, purging, cold water baths, the Tranquilizer Chair, restraints, etc, were used. (Remember, these treatments were considered humane at the time. Oy.)

Bloodletting, Tranquilizer Chair, Restraint

In the early 1800′s, French psychiatrist Phillippe Pinel developed the “Moral Movement” for the treatment of the mentally ill. Moral treatment purported that mental illness was the result of psychosocial stressors such as abuse and trauma, not necessarily from demon possession or some other fantastical reason. As a result, mentally ill individuals were seen as needing protection from Society rather than the other way around.

Phillippe Pinel

Benjamin Rush (the American “father” of psychiatry) and Dorothea Dix (an “advocate” of the mentally ill) made a ton of headway in the treatment of individuals with mental illness by trying to identify what caused it.

Benjamin Rush and Dorothea Dix

In 1841, a new facility called The Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane (later named the Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital) was opened. This facility actually had occupational therapy suites, libraries, and swimming pools that allowed patients to engage in recreational activities and educational endeavors. (Nice, right?)

Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane

By the end of the 1800′s, Emil Kraepelin (a German scientist) really defined the idea that mental illness is a biologic and genetic illness. He coined the terms “manic depression” (now called major depression and bipolar disorder) and “dementia praecox” (later called Schizophrenia by Eugene Bleuler). By this time, society began softening toward those with mental illness and a movement toward more humane treatment started. Key word: STARTED.

Kraepelin

It wasn’t until the mid-1900′s that psychotropic medications were developed (Thorazine being the first…well, except for Lithium, which was popular in tonics starting in the late 1800′s) and more laws supporting the rights of those with mentally ill were passed. Deinstitutionalization (discharging patients to the community with outpatient care) followed and now we have today’s system of inpatient, outpatient, support services, etc…which is another post entirely.

Remember, these posts are for writing purposes only and are NOT to be construed as medical advice or treatment.

Check out Lydia’s Medical Monday and Sarah’s The Strangest Situation.

But what makes Friday the 13th so bad?

In numerology, 12 is considered a complete number (12 months, 12 hours on the clock, 12 tribes of Israel, 12 Gods on Mount Olympus), while 13 is considered unlucky because it ruins the completeness of 12. Based on the Last Supper, some believe having 13 people at dinner is unlucky and will result in the death of one of the diners.

But what about Friday? Don’t we always say TGIF?

Well, some believe Jesus was crucified on a Friday. It was also popular belief to avoid starting projects or journeys on a Friday (thanks to The Canterbury Tales).

Other countries may not agree about the Friday thing, though. In Spanish-speaking countries and Greece, Tuesday the 13th is the culprit. Mars tends to rule Tuesday, Constantinople to the Ottomans fell on a Tuesday, and in Greek, the word for Tuesday is “Third Day,” and don’t we know, bad things come in threes.

What’s the big deal?

Well, Friday the 13th costs a lot of money!

Seriously.

People are so afraid of the day, that they call in to work, take the day off, and just avoid all activity whatsoever.

Go figure.

(Thanks to Wikipedia for all the fun facts!)

Is it safe to come out now?

Your first draft no doubt contains many writing strengths. It also has a lot of rough edges. Don’t despair! Be proud of what you’ve accomplished!

And get ready to rip and tear.

Be brave with the delete key, keeping these tips in mind.

Layers to consider:

The first pass through your rough draft should focus solely on what to keep and what to chuck. So, you’ve got a cute scene where your main character has a cutsy moment with her cat. If that’s the only scene with the cat, bye bye kitty. Your main character takes a shower, basking in lavender soap. FAB. But if she’s not joined by the hottie who she’s jonesing for or she’s not washing blood out of her hair to get rid of evidence connecting her to a crime, then you don’t need it.

Basically, EVERY SCENE NEEDS TO ADVANCE THE PLOT. If it doesn’t, chuck it! (I promise, it’ll be okay.)

Once you’ve determined what can stay and you’ve deleted the rest, then you can focus on the following layers:

• Characterization–Have you described your characters so people can picture them? Have you made them interesting and quirky? Are they a cliche? (I hope not!)
• Consume Milk Chocolate
• Character Arcs–How does your main characters viewpoint or perspective change as the story progresses?
• Consume chocolate mousse
• Description–Can the reader envision your setting or how your characters look? Make sure this is balanced! Too much of description can bog the pace…too little can leave the reader confused.
• Consume chocolate cake
• Emotion/Conflict–SHOW, don’t TELL! We want to feel what the characters are feeling, not be told, right? And if you want to keep a reader hooked, make sure the characters are at odds somehow.
• Consume Death by Chocolate ice cream
• Dialogue–Tighten, tighten, tighten! We don’t need the “Hi, how are ya?’s” cluttering up a page. Get to the point and be succinct.
• Consume hot cocoa–whit or milk chocolate!
• Action Scenes–Use strong words/verbs and make it clear.
• Consume a dark chocolate truffle…or ten.
• Tension–You need this on EVERY page!!!! (If there’s no tension, it may be a clue to nix something, right?)
• Consume chocolate covered caramels until your fillings fall out.
• Plots and sub-plots–This is something that outliners tackle ahead of time, but could still need a lot of revising depending on how the characters dictate their own story. The plot is the skeleton of your story, but it doesn’t have to be boring. Use sub-plots (maybe with secondary characters) to keep the interest alive.
• Consume a mocha frappuccino.
• Grammar and sentence structure–This is KEY of course. Vary your sentence length. Use the grammar to perfect your voice. Use as few words as possible. If you’ve got a lot of verbiage, you could be slowing down your pace!
• Consume your body weight in M&M’s!

You don’t have to follow these layers in order, but I would recommend saving the grammar and sentence structure until later because why spend time perfecting a sentence if it’s gonna end up getting nixed because you don’t need that scene?

Lydia answers Sarah’s sisterhood question about expectations today. Check it out!

Here are the basics:

Drugs (legal and illegal) and even some herbal supplements when taken in excess can cause psychosis. Common offenders include alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, heroin, amphetamines (meth), and hallucinogens such as LSD and PCP. Prescribed medications such as prednisone, isoretinoin, scopolamine, L-dopa (used for Parkinson Disease), and anti-epileptics can also cause psychosis.

Substance-Induced Psychosis is something we see frequently in the inpatient psych unit and psychiatric ER (crisis unit). Obtaining a thorough history (from the patient and collateral sources) as well as getting a urine drug screen can identify which substances the person ingested. Some aren’t so easy to detect however.

New to the scene are synthetic marijuana (K2) and “spice” or “incense” (with mephedrone as the active ingredient). The psychosis caused by these substances tends to be more…intense. People can become severely psychotic, with paranoia, hallucintations, disorganized and fragmented thoughts, confusion, disorientation, and a tendency toward violence. Their symptoms are also less likely to respond to medications such as anti-psychotics. They end up spending a long time on the unit and don’t necessarily recover completely.

So what’s the best treatment for someone suffering from substance-induced psychosis?

• Keep them safe (usually in the ER or on the psych unit)
• Try to reduce stimuli as much as possible (dark, quiet rooms)
• Provide structure (the same routine every day helps orient them)
• Give anti-psychotic medication such as Haldol, Risperdal, Zyprexa, etc.
• Use adjunctive medications to help with anxiety and withdrawal symptoms, if present; Clonidine, Motrin, Immodium, Benadryl, Ativan, etc.

Like Mr. Mackey from South Park says:

Drugs are bad, M’kay?

Just don’t do it!

DO check out Lydia’s Medical Monday post and Sarah’s The Strangest Situation!

Remember these posts are for writing purposes only and are NOT to be construed as medical advice of treatment.

Aren’t y’all exCITed! I know I am!

To kick things off on a humorous note, consider this video, keeping revising in mind.

You can see how setting (playing cops and robbers in the park VS playing cops and robbers in a bank), plot points, character interactions (kissing a loved one VS kissing a stranger)–whatever you choose–can make a big difference!

Erm, grammar can also make a difference.

Ex. Throwing a penny into a fountain to make a wish VS Throwing your cousin Penny into a fountain to make a wish.

Of course, the same words can also have different meanings.

Ex. Playing ball with your grandfather VS playing ball WITH your grandfather (as the ball).

Happy writing!