| Anxiety and such. |
[09 Apr 2008|06:52pm] |
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mood |
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 thoughtful |
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I've been keeping this journal for over five years now. It started out as my Therapy Journal and kind of evolved from there. For a long while, it was my writing journal, but I've been posting most of my writing stuff elsewhere. Sometimes keeping things separate is helpful. Sometimes it's confusing. Like, where should I post this? Where does this entry belong? If I want to read it later, where will I want to look for it?
I'm researching anxiety, phobias, and Post-traumatic Stress disorder for a new manuscript I'd like to start working on soon. (This is the same one I mentioned several weeks ago which is a connected novel from the point of view of Rosetta who was an important character in my last one.) I did a bit of research on this in early-2007 because, I had to diagnose her and figure out how to write her. I got enough information back then to write her dialogue and the way Seth saw her. But now that I'm planning to actually be in her head, I need to know more.
I think most of her recovery will have taken place off-screen since I am envisioning an eight-month gap between the end of TFM and the start of this new one. I'll still need to know what that recovery looked like since it will likely be referenced regularly in the narrative, and will have a pretty big impact on whatever it is that is going to happen in this story. Luckily, my own diagnosis started out as PSTD, so I can apply a lot of my therapy stuff to her. I'm even imagining that she'll have her own Jake complete with crazy-uncomfortable conversations and non-stop crying in sessions. Good times.
Anyway, my point in writing about this is that I bought a book about anxiety that touches on all the things I need to know about Rosetta's issues. I'm only on page 60 so far, but already I'm learning some good ideas that I can use in the story. I'm almost wishing there was a way that she had a simple phobia OR Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder because that would surely simplify things. Of course, then her backstory wouldn't be quite what I've already written unless I was going to ret-con it. Which I am not going to do, of course.
I'm also recognizing some of these anxiety issues in myself. It was getting pretty bad back in November and December, but has tapered off. Finishing the manuscript in February helped a lot with that. But I still have anxiety over certain little things regularly. Maybe this research will help me get it figured out. Killing two birds with one stone. Score!
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