Hoping the pandemic comes to a halt and racism ends.... i haven't posted in a long time, but I'm not doing well this week.

After years of struggling with any writing that isn't poetry, I'm finally workshopping in a character development class. The teacher is a published author of two novels, and it's been very frightening to zoom with someone I admire. I had to get drunk on the night of my story workshop just to be able to do it. I'm really struggling with the viewpoint that only minimalistic prose is valid, but the author at least agrees with me about the dubious talents of Dan Brown. I do need to work on my dialogue and dig deeper, and I'm grateful for the help and feedback. I didn't like one of my classmates calling my language "florid and disdainful" but it also means that I successfully described  my mad scientist character in all his insane glory.... I'm still struggling with nightmares and insomnia and take a nighttime concoction of substances, namely one dose of Zzquil and Excedrin PM with a handful of melatonin gummies every night. Add to that Klonopin on really bad nights. I reduced my PMs from four a night to just two, but can't seem to cut down any further...