All's Fair in Pursuit of a Strong Narrative

[mallorys_camera]

• Water's finally on at the New Paltz Community Garden. Just in the nick of time, too, since temps are soaring: The thermometer is supposed to hit 95° on Tuesday. Shortly, I must toddle forth to crack the logistics of the hose since one figures there will be great demand for water later this afternoon when the temperatures rise & the gardeners gather.

• Fitbit sez I am sleeping "poorly"—meaning long intervals of light sleep and comparatively few intervals of REM or deep sleep. I blame the warm weather. And (of course) aging.

• Finished Flavia's forensic reconstruction of the Last Weekend She Spent With Neal, and must now proceed to the Day After Neal-Palooza. Meaningful interactions with the Sister Wives!

• In Real Life Sister Wife news, real-life Mimi was supposed to be out of Brian's old house on May 1. Real-life Flavia let Mimi stay in the house for 10 months for free! But when Flavia arrived at the house yesterday (driving all the way from the Jersey Shore), Mimi was still there, frantically loading stuff into a U-Haul, which means real-life Flavia can't do any of the things she specifically drove up to do and essentially made the 420-mile round trip for nothing.

Real-life Mimi feels entitled to infinite slack because she has bipolar disorder.

Rather than take prescribed psychiatric medications, Real-Life Mimi has elected to treat her disorder by smoking massive quantities of dope, and from where I'm sitting, it ain't working. Mimi is functional. But barely.

If I were a nicer person, I wouldn't be so judgmental, I suppose.

But I'm not a nicer person.

One of the issues that comes up with writing about people you kinda/sorta know is that your narrative always clashes with their narrative to a greater or lesser degree. Feelings get hurt.

I'd been toying with the idea of making a Mimi suicide attempt one of the sub-motifs in Part 2, but balking because if the novel actually gets finished & published, a fictional Mimi suicide attempt might really devastate real-life Mimi.

Now, I'm thinking, The hell with that. All's fair in pursuit of a strong narrative.

Comments

[fuzzilla]

**Real-life Mimi feels entitled to infinite slack because she has bipolar disorder.**

So, I don't know Real-life Mimi, but that sure describes someone I DO know. Expects infinite sympathy and patience from me but has none FOR me.

There is a difference between complaining and processing emotions. One is, "Let me tell you about this ASSHOLE and the WORST DAY EVER..." One is, "huh, why DO I always get so mad at that guy? Maybe he reminds me of my brother. What's a better coping strategy I could use so I don't get so pulled into arguments and exhausting myself?"

Sure, everyone complains sometimes. But some people do NO self-reflection, ever, like they're not humanly capable of it. They never even try to learn and do better, they'll just drag everyone down and throw everyone under the bus.

[mallorys_camera]

Well, I won't pretend I don't know who you're talking about. 😀

Does that person have an official bipolar diagnosis as well?

[asakiyume]

Probably real-life Mimi will never read it. She doesn't sound like she's a big reader. I mean, if the universe told her, "Read this novel; it's about YOUUUUUUU" she might, but otherwise? Probably not.

Plus it's hard to tell how people will react. She might love that you saw how vulnerable she is!

[mallorys_camera]

Oh, I'm gonna write it the way I think it needs to be written. And you're right, it's unlikely she'll run across it.