Our boy is 14, Early Onset Scz with academic delays. He is home schooled right now, since his last suicide attempt while in public school. He has been heavily medicated and has been sleeping for almost a year and a half through all the med adjustments. We finally found the “right meds”, at least for now…and he “woke up”. Literally…wants to participate again (to a degree). He has started writing short stories…thinking that perhaps he could be a “writer”.
The point…he is interested in something and I don’t want to discourage him at this particular time with the realities of his future. (How do I even know? I can’t predict where he’ll be…)
My request is this…HE has asked if there is someone would read his work, and give some feedback? It’s an interesting request, as he refuses to interact with anyone online…and is specifically asking for “my friends who understand medication and scz”.
Is anyone willing to read his short stories and provide a one or two line feedback?
He has a few short notes that a few ladies sent posted on his wall. These notes mean the world to him…when, for so long, nothing really seemed to motivate him.
(He is academically delayed, so please don’t expect high quality writings. About 5th grade level.)
I read it and commented. He’s done a really nice job! I used to run a teen writing group at my library branch and the kids that showed up were really into it (of course my own kids had almost nothing to do with the library once they hit the teen years) and were very supportive of each other. That website he’s using looks like a great way for people to access his writings. Good for him!
Thank you everyone for your wonderful replies and feedback!
Husband found the support heartwarming, and actually led to deeper conversations about the reality of parenting with this condition…and for the first time husband realized he is NOT the only parent “out there”. (A huge THANK YOU for that!!!)
We shared them with our boy…who sat very quietly while reading the responses, and then broke down crying.
We held him for a long time…he just wept…mumbling how he “didn’t try as hard as he should have”…he needs to do more…he can do more…Once he settled (we did not expect anything like this reaction…this is a new one for us) he got himself back together, and began organizing his world.
We had a quiet weekend, he played video games, relaxed…and began formulating “Chapter 4”.
He worked on his illustrations as well…
I’m more than a little overwhelmed…the feedback was more than I ever could have anticipated. Thank you so much…you have helped keep the fragile little spark that was finally lit from going out.
THANK YOU!!
From Aramis: “I can do illustrations too I think. I drew this one for you and your friends to say thank you for reading and listening. I am working on Chapter 4 and needed some help. I now know where to go with the story. Thank you for taking the time, especially when you have your own worries.”
To me…privately: “Mom, they really liked it! They really did!”
To scz.com privately: it was my birthday weekend…I can’t thank you enough.
Oh no…he wept with sadness at first? Then he went on with doubting and “shoulding” on himself.
Oh how we all do that!!! We can be our OWN worst critic. I was looking for an image/quote I downloaded a few years ago and couldn’t find the one I had…I remembered it quite well as it really hit me like a brick. I found this as a similar one…although it may have been the original and my find was the reprint. Who knows?
“If you talked to your friends the way you talk to your body, you’d have no friends left at all.”
Marcia Hutchinson
Maybe that quote would be a good print for your son to have Squid.
I am SO pleased that he pulled through it and with a determined mindset…took up his pencil and moved forward!
Isaac Asimov was the same way. He always had several books he was writing at one time, because he’d lose interest in one story, and move on to another. I read your son’s story. It’s actually quite captivating. I love the way he ends chapter 3. Makes me want to find out what happens next. That’s one of the secrets of good writing: always leave them wanting more.
King’s book “On Writing” is the best book on the subject I’ve read since “The Elements of Style”.I wonder how your son is doing now with his writing?
It is so wonderful when they get excited about something- anything! My son is hospitalized long term in a forensic unit and has long dreamed of becoming a massage therapist- not likely to happen in the real world but he wants to read and learn. So- I send him books on massage and similar subjects and he is happy. And who knows?
This sounds so much like my daughter… she writes fantasy stories about a mythical land in the sky called Histeeria with dragons and the inhabitants are all some type of monster… and she illustrated them too.
She is in her fourth book with this theme…
