What is the date you began writing this piece of fiction and the date when you completely finished the piece of fiction? Well, I wrote this in the 80s, but I really didn’t get back to it for about 40 years. It was originally a short story, titled the “Quiet Room.” It was published in a couple of small lit magazines. People always told me that the short story should be adapted into a play. So one day, a couple of years ago—I asked playwright Lawrence Kessenich if it had possibilities. And he agreed to come on board with me. We called the play “The Patient.” It was set at a psychiatric outside of Boston. It involved a conflict with a patient and a mental health worker.
Click on below link to visit Lawrence Kessenich’s Website.
https://www.lawrence-writer.com/
Where did you do most of your writing for this fiction work? And please describe in detail. And can you please include a photo? I write in many places: at work, at home, in libraries, cafes and even in bathrooms.
What were your writing habits while writing this work- did you drink something as you wrote, listen to music, write in pen and paper, directly on laptop; specific time of day? No booze when I write, but coffee is a must, because I am a creature of the early morning hours. I find my most creative time from 3AM to 6AM. I like complete silence—or the white noise of a bustling cafe. I have had many cafes in my life—where I have done my writing. That changed after Covid, unfortunately.
Please include just one excerpt and include page numbers as reference. This one excerpt can be as short or as long as you prefer.
It’s been a decade of long nights for me. A long string of darkness. Then my eyes squinting in the early morning sunlight. I fight the commuters all the way home on the bus and the train. But their day is just starting; mine is over. I go home every day and fall asleep to the din of talk radio. Disembodied voices intertwining with my sleep. The night shift has always been my soft cushion against the frenzy of the world.
But this night was different. I find my eyes swelling with tears. There’s a pit in my stomach as empty as my life.
What was it, five years ago? There was a girl. She used to say I was special. I loved her. But she made demands on me. I walked our apartment like a caged animal. There wasn’t any defining incident in our break up. Just a slow fadeout, and then a note: You’re a special person, but it’s over. Don’t call. I never saw her again. I even looked for her for a while. Not anymore. Ancient history ( page 23 to 24)
Why is this excerpt so emotional for you as a writer to write? And can you describe your own emotional experience of writing this specific excerpt? The conceit of the play was about a mental health worker, who was stuck watching a patient in a quiet room– a room designed for observation. The patient was in four point restraints, but during the course of a night shift ( 11PM to 7AM), the patient gets the psychological upper hand. The mental health worker has worked this isolating shift for years and realizes because of the patient’s constant probing—the emptiness of his own life. The reason this is emotional to me is because I worked that shift at the psychiatric facility McLean Hospital (outside of Boston) for a year or two—and my life consisted of making sure I got a good sleep. I was isolated and in some way as needy as my patient charges. There can be a thin line between the staff and the patient charges. We are all connected and sometimes that connection is lost by labels society imposes on us.
Anything you would like to add? The Patient had a staged reading at the Playwright’s Platform Boston, MA. The book can be purchased for 10 dollars from the Ibbetson Street Press 25 School St. Somerville, MA 02143 check or money order.
Boston Area Small Press and Poetry Scene http://dougholder.blogspot.com
Ibbetson Street Press http://www.ibbetsonpress.com
Poet to Poet/Writer to Writer http://www.poettopoetwritertowriter.blogspot.com
Doug Holder CV http://www.dougholderresume.blogspot.com
Doug Holder’s Columns in The Somerville Times
https://www.thesomervilletimes.com/?s=%22Doug+Holder%22&x=0&y=0
Doug Holder’s collection at the Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/@dougholder
Most of the INSIDE THE EMOTION OF FICTION links can be found at the very end of the below feature:http://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2021/03/stephenson-holts-arranged-marriage-is.html