How many people would read a memoir of raising a difficult child?

TerryJ2

Well-Known Member
I just finished reading The Best Kind of Different, and what I looked for was similarities and how the issues were handled. I was cheering when Shonda admitted to spanking and yelling. "She's normal!" I thought. :) I know exactly how she felt (as do we all) when people stared at her and her son in public when he was raging. But I don't have the reputation to uphold. ;)
I have to say, she's a bit too sunshiny for me ... but maybe she has to put that spin on it, the "almost" happily ever after attitude because of who they are. Maybe it was just her writing style that was sunshiny, come to think of it, because both she and her son ended up on medications. ;)
Anyway, I would read it, Steely. It will not be like your book but it will give you an idea of what they went through and how one person had arranged the chapters and events. It was very easy to read, fwiw. It flowed easily.
 
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Steely

Active Member
Thanks to all for your honesty and feedback. It is really helpful.

Flutter you absolutely did not offend me:) I was totally just kidding about not giving you a copy of the book. LOL

I know humor is imperative, and that is the one area I lack in. Not that I don't like to laugh, just I am not the one at a party making all the jokes. But I do have sarcasm, so I will play that up a little.

As for putting happy stuff into it? That is the hard part. I have been married twice. Two weddings and courtships were happy - until we were married. Moving to AZ was awesome, until I got fired - and the list goes on and on. You know what I mean? So what is hard is to write the happy stuff in the moment, knowing in my head already the outcome. It is really hard to write "I was so in love with H, he was all I could think of, he was so amazing" because really all I can think about is what a %SS he turned out to be,

Thanks Hazoi for the tips on networking - I will work on that. I really had no idea ebooks were that popular. I am still evidently operating in the stone age.
 
H

HaoZi

Guest
Still learning my way around the whole ebook thing myself, but I'm glad it's there.
As to no humor, I have to say that
Two weddings and courtships were happy - until we were married.
presented in just the way you did it made me smile with recognition.

Light moments don't have to be humor - they can be a beautiful moment shared or private. The things Tesla does, the quirks of your son that made you laugh (then or in retrospect) or wonder what future grandchildren might be like, a sunset that made you feel at one with the world, even if only for a little while.
 

InsaneCdn

Well-Known Member
The people who will read this book will fall into two camps...

1) People who like reading anything human-interest... and
2) people "out there" somewhere who haven't found "us" yet, or who aren't the type to go looking for support on the 'net.

Who knows. It might even become required reading for some highschool students some day!
 

Wiped Out

Well-Known Member
Staff member
I would definitely read it! In fact, I've thought about writing one someday but waiting til difficult child is older.
 

Malika

Well-Known Member
The kind of angle I'd personally like in reading such a book would be the celebration of difference, the idea being put across that in a world that values conformity and convention, those who are different from the norm are signposts to a deeper kind of relationship with life that is ultimately far more whole and satisfying. That's the theory, anyway :)
 

TerryJ2

Well-Known Member
"I was so in love with H, he was all I could think of, he was so amazing. His eyes, the way he looked at me as though I were the only person in the room ... every time the phone rang, my heart raced, hoping he was on the other end of the line."

See how easy?
Type the **** at the end of the sentence, cut and paste it, and save it for the "holy **** he's a easy child of sh*t" chapter. :) That's what computer folders are for. :)
 
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