Word count 988

Draft V1

Writing time: 5 hours.

Noticing I am really starting to second guess myself a lot at the moment, which is slowing things right down and is risking wearing out my delete key.

On the plus side, I was introduced to the writing of David Sedaris, after someone who had read Irrelevant Experience said the bit in the Santa’s Grotto reminded them of something he wrote (The Santaland Diaries). I was initially scared that it was accidentally plagiaristic (I had taken that incident as a mix between something that happened in a Viz story and something that had happened to an RA I used to work with), but to my relief it was quite different, but found myself reading his essays compulsively as they were amazingly written. I would highly recommend them to anyone.

So much so I have done that incredibly annoying thing where I am now inadvertently adopting his kind of style and language if I am not too careful. This is extremely unhelpful as a) it’s not my voice, b) I am not going to be doing it as well as him, and c) it really doesn’t suit the tone of what I am writing that well. That said I am really enjoying reading them, and I think there is something universal there to reflect on about being a young person in often difficult or ludicrous situations and somehow having to get through it in one piece. It’s also a style that would lend itself very well to the world of what happens in mental health clinical work, and it would be cool if someone would take that approach, (although that person is not going to be me as I have enough on my plate with this stuff).