Introduction and needing advice

jamie65672

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Hello everyone. My name is Jamie and I’m 34 years old. I currently work at an assisted living facility as a kitchen aide. I have many college credits in English, but no degree. I’m happily married for six years.

I want to write a book telling my story. I have bipolar 1 disorder, and when I have episodes, they’re bad enough to warrant hospitalization. I have severe manic episodes. However I take medication and I seek therapy, and I chart my moods. My episodes are rare as it is, and with my current treatment, my doctor thinks the likihood of me having another severe mood swing is small.

Anyway, I want to write about those experiences. I want to write about my delusions, psychotic behavior, the mood elevations, but I also want to write about what I do or have done to treat it. I want to write about the reactions people in my life took to my episodes, good and bad. I want to educate and I want to inspire.

My doctor told me, for as severe as my episodes get, I still get out there and work and live a normal life. He said in his 20 years of practice, people with my diagnosis and my like experiences shrink back from having a normal life, and make excuses why they shouldn’t have to work, why they don’t have good relationships, etc.

I joined a writing forum cause I’m really at a loss as to how I should put this in writing. Should it be a novel, with characters and a story based on my experiences? Should it be an educational autobiography where I tell my story one chapter, then educate on the illness in the next? I really think I have way more material to write on for it to be a memoir. But I’m not really wanting to do an autobiography where I talk broadly about every major event in my life starting with birth, though in my case my birth and adoption played a large role in who I became. I haven’t read many autobiographies or memoirs, so I’m at a loss for how to put it together, how to start.

I have been going through my old journals, taking notes on key events and ideas, and I have put together a loose timeline of my life, highlighting key experiences. Just not sure where to go from here.
Thank you for your time.
 

CameronJohnston

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Welcome to AW!

This is a tricky one as largely it all depends on what you are wanting. Do you want to write an autobiography or do you want to write a fictionalised novel based on your life, where the characters go through some of the same issues? You could educate and inspire in both ways.
You also need to consider if you want to self-publish or try to get it picked up by a publisher and onto book shelves. If it's self-publish you really free to do whatever you fancy. If it's the later then you may want to research what direction would be more commercial - I can't really comment on the marketability of autobiographies/memoirs vs fictional novels unfortunately, though I would *suspect* that as an 'own voices' author who is writing about what you know you would have more of a chance at getting a novel picked up and published.

I don't really read autobiographies or memoirs so my suggestion would be to start writing the beginning of a novel with a charcter based on your experiences and see if you can come up with a satisfying storyline, and also a good ending for it - just to see if that's what you want to write, or if you really do want to go the autobiographical route. I suspect writing a chapter or two would let you know which way you might prefer.
 
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regdog

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:welcome:




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