Tag: TALES FROM THE COUCH

WHY WRITE FICTION? by Art Smukler, MD, author & psychiatrist

by artsmuklermd, posted in Writing

Worldwide there are millions of authors.

Writers who sit in front of their computers and make up stories are a special breed. They devote countless hours searching their souls to find just the right way to portray their imaginary characters, to make them come alive on the page and make their make-believe-lives something that readers will want to devour.

It can’t be just the money. The percentage of Grishams, Cobens, Patchetts etc. are so rare that it’s like a girl who writes songs and aspires to become Taylor Swift. It can obviously happen, it happened to her, but the chances of it happening are minuscule. If you become a rock star or a famous author you can make a fortune, but everyone else is doomed to getting their pittance from Amazon or Barnes & Noble. And obviously, 99% of writers support themselves with a real job, with savings, or with family money.

Is it simply a silly hope that you’ll be the one who breaks through and garners all the money and acclaim? No. Writers aren’t stupid. They’re smart enough to create an imaginary world and they’re smart enough to know that the chances of them making enough money to live off their books is like winning the lottery.

So why? With everything stacked against success, why do very bright people keep persevering?

Lester, one of the detectives on THE WIRE, the TV series that ended 15 years ago, said it so well, when describing why detectives battle the odds to catch and then convict the crooks, ‘It’s the journey, not the destination.’

And for me that’s the answer for writers too. Authors love the journey. They complain, describe the misery and loneliness of writing, how frustrating it is, but in the end they keep doing it. In spite of all the obstacles, the creative process is engaging, exciting, and meaningful. Even if no one else agrees, the author like the determined detective, will not be derailed. The process is too important. Agents and publishers have their opinions and we have ours. And if every so often you lose your impetus just give it a little time. You’ll bounce back.

If we can’t write, we suffer.

Don’t suffer!

Get back to your characters, your plot, and your fantasies.

You never know who your story will touch.

Check out PATIENT X, a mystery. If you think you have a problem as a writer, you’ve got to meet Jake Bennett.

Thanks for reading. If you’re not a subscriber to Tales From Smukler’s Couch, just click away and you can become one.

Art

#authors, #writers, #psychiatrist, #mystery, #suspense, #romance, #JohnGrisham, #HarlanCoben, #AnnPatchett, #TaylorSwift, #amateursleuth

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DAM IT! by ART SMUKLER, MD, AUTHOR AND PSYCHIATRIST

by artsmuklermd, posted in Writing

I just read in the LA TIMES that the first of four dams on the West’s Klamath River was destroyed. By the end of 2024 all four will be gone from the California-Oregon border and the massive runs of salmon and steelhead along 400 miles of waterway will be restored. In fact, more than 1600 American dams have been removed since 1912, from California to Connecticut.

So what? you might be thinking. Why is a retired shrink writing about dams? Well, I was lying on the couch in my living room, obviously not the psychiatric one in my former office, when I got really angry. Damn it! How many mistakes have our elected officials made that created chaos and misery?

In LA in the forties and fifties and sixties, it was cheaper to use buses than the existing trolley cars. It would have cost tons of money to upgrade the old rail system. The politicians didn’t have the foresight to predict that an investment in what we already had would be wise. Now we’re playing catch-up with all the other major cities in the world and spending many billions to build a subway and extend a light-rail system.

How about The Community Mental Health debacle? In the sixties, the pitch was that we’d save billions by closing state hospitals, and the mentally ill wouldn’t have to live in the disgusting state hospitals that looked and felt like prisons. I was a great advocate of the new system. In fact, when I started my psychiatric practice near Philly, I worked in a mental health center. It was wonderful. We did home visits and saw the same people who had been locked up in Byberry State Hospital and Philadelphia General Hospital in a homey, pleasant atmosphere. Then the politicians decided to use the mental health money for dozens of other things. Mental health centers closed and the mentally ill became street people, living in tents, urinating and defecating where they lived, and attacking people when voices told them to defend themselves. Predictable? Of course.

Think of the myriad of other mistakes our country made: the Viet Nam War, invading Iraq after 911, being addicted to fossil fuel, allowing everyone to own and carry firearms, the red scare in the sixties and on and on.

Don’t dam it, until someone with perspective examines it. We all need to look beneath the obvious and not blindly follow our leaders.

Thanks for reading. Don’t forget to check out my new books, PATIENT X and LITTLE ITALY. Best Wishes, Art

#authorandpsychiatrist #Damit #PATIENTX #LITTLE ITALY #CommunityMental Health