Contemporaneous: Chapters’ 4 & 5
4. This is too much too soon. It’s terrible structure. If I was editing this, I’d say there’s too much negative focus on Lana, and not enough of whatever the relationship was before. There’s no balance. It needs balance to introduce the characters and my world, although there’s no real plot – there is, sorta, in my head, although I don’t know how well it’ll be realised until my death, but more of that later, too. The morning’s a simple routine: some stretches trying to get flexibility back into my neck and back, play my shots in Words with Friends (a Scrabble knockoff) as I brush my teeth, shower, and…
The Other Me
‘The Long Hard Fall’ iv. As my relationship with Allie deteriorated, the shadows of depression cast over the fringes of my mind. I took epic walks, and lamented my life, that I was nobody, nothing, that I wasn’t like ‘normal people’ (to whom Allie always compared me), who had jobs and security and all that, and questioned whether I ever could be. I got a referral to a work-placement agency that specialised in dealing with people with mental problems, and was assigned a case worker, Martina, who’d previously worked extensively in counselling. After several appointments, Martina said she felt I was ‘a little bit bipolar’. It wouldn’t have surprised me…