Inspired by comments.

[laurenthemself]

I was reading the comments on this entry about communication within systems, and I had a thought... just a vague one at this stage, but hey, I'll settle for vague, since I rarely have very solid thoughts.

I was thinking, because of the way multiplicity tends to be presented in the media (as a Bad Thing), and how integration is seen as the only way to 'cure' this 'disorder', and also that it's 'always' caused by abuse, what if people here wrote their own stories? I know some people wouldn't be able to manage a whole novel, but even short stories would be good, and maybe (it's a very long shot, I know) we could try and get our work published.

Even if you think this idea's crap, would you ever try writing the story of yourselves?

Comments

[enigma-system.livejournal.com]

I would. I'm a writer. In fact, I'm writing a book right now.

Our Own Story.

[truevessel.livejournal.com]

Since joining this community, we took out our own
journal and have begun writing our story.
Just getting started.
Our Nan is a therapist as well as multiple.
She doesn't believe that being multiple is a bad thing, nor that
integration is a cure, or that we need a cure.

I notice there is a lot written here about abuse not being the only cause.
We agree, however, our story is one of lifelong abuse, including
sexual, emotional, physical, mental and ritual abuse.
We don't claim that this made us multiple,
nor that abuse is required to cause anyone else's
multiplicity.
W do, however, after eighteen years of good therapy, know that our
multiplicity enables us to survive. m at icn

[echoesnspectres.livejournal.com]

And would it ever be possible to compile a book with real stories, I mean like the autistic women who made Women From Another Planet? (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1410734315/), without someone's running the risk of being tracked down? Any multiple or multiple-friendly publishers available who could protect people's anonymity?

[ksol1460.livejournal.com]

What you would have to do is have an editor, that is everybody send their stories in to one person and then that one person puts it together and makes the book and presents it to a publisher and good luck finding a publisher who would be willing to publish a book on multiplicity now days with all the stuff going on. Did you know that many libraries have pulled their books on multiplicity like even Sybil off their shelves, I think they're concerned about lawsuits if one of those people read it and decided they were multiple, then decided differently later.

So it might have to be privately published or a very small press.

[sethrenn.livejournal.com]

In 1994 or so, I think, there was a book published called MPD from the Inside Out, which was basically an anthology of short writing by therapy patients. The obvious problem was that it focused on the 'disorder' part, on things like trauma, PTSD and integration, with no mention of healthy multiples, or of the regular day-to-day reality of living as a functional multiple. The assumption seemed to be that after one had dealt with trauma issues, integration would naturally proceed from there. There wasn't much about the positive aspects of being plural, either-- mostly just horror stories.

A couple of years ago, we and a few other systems were throwing around ideas for a healthy-multiple version of that book, with contributions from systems who had originated in various ways but were now living functionally and happily as groups. It never got past the brainstorming phase, really. But you can get just about anything published if you have the capital for it-- the problem is getting publicity for it once it's in print.

[terp-lj.livejournal.com]

i've fairly recently started writing my own story. It's mostly about *me*, not about *us*, though; of course, because we share a body, there's necessarily some overlap, but it's somewhat personal for me. If the others want to contribute commentary, i'm open to it - and Phipt has even taken the liberty of inserting an entire paragraph into my manuscript, which i've allowed to stand, as it illustrates a point that i was trying to make very well.

At some point, we may eventually collaborate on writing 'our' story together, but that would have to be a joint decision by everyone involved. i've gotten myself into enough trouble in the past by speaking for 'us' when others did not agree with what i was saying, so i've since started consciously trying to avoid that. Also, i've found it somewhat therapeutic to express myself as an individual, after so many years of denying my own identity, trying to just be part of a whole group without really defining who *i* am.

[gryphons.livejournal.com]

We've thought about this several times.. including fictionalizing it a bit.. but we can never figure out which viewpoint or where to start.. cause each of those decisions carry with it a great deal of influence on how the story goes and how much need explaining.

we'd like to do the book idea.. just our two pence

[sharpsight.livejournal.com]

One could try to write as many stories as there are people to write them, the order either unimportant, or based on seniority/age (in either direction). Hmm.

A beginning... the earliest point, maybe, that one mentally viewed oneself and realised that one was different from others within the same brain.

[newmoon17.livejournal.com]

I plan to write a few fiction pieces starring healthy multiples -

And I am working on a comic that will relate to multiplicity (It is actually three separate girls who end up sharing the same body)

Have two pages done, unfortunately it takes a few days for each page because of the way I draw and time constraints. But, once I get about fifteen pictures I plan to launch it.



The three once they share a body, in their different personality looks. Rather old picture of them, made after I decided to switch the plot from just one girl to communication in multiplicity. It will be a sort of modern day sci-fi/fantasy.

[changelyng14.livejournal.com]

oooo, tell me how to post an image!
do you have to be a paid member?

[luwana.livejournal.com]

I'd write ours, but if I wrote it *from the beginning*, nobody would believe it. Because I think it starts well before this lifetime.

We'll see.

[shandra.livejournal.com]

This is a really personal reaction which I'm just sharing.

I'm very pro-anyone, multiple or not, writing or drawing or expressing in any way, so I think any project like that is a great idea on its own merits overall. Whether it's commercially viable is something else entirely.

For us as writers, it's not where we are right now in our fiction - we are finishing a novel with a multiplish central character (she's not selves-aware; one other person in her system does have a voice in the book) but we've handled it without ever introducing the concept 'out loud.'

I'm quite keen to see if I can get it published on its own merits and not in a - to be really harsh with my language for *my* book, not yours - a mental-health ghettoized book. There's some danger in that, for a writer - how people get pigeonholed as "a lesbian writer" and not "a writer who's lesbian."

After I win some prizes then I will write my truly grand multiple novel. *g*

I tend to think any fictional works by multiples will be informed by multiplicity anyway. My bias is that it's way better that they are good works than good explanations/insights into living multiple. Certainly they can be *both*. But maybe not by us, right now.

I'm not sure we would publish our own life story, at least not yet. One massive huge thing is it's not that interesting.

I think the only thing we get *directly* from being multiple is an increased tolerance for differences among us. But that hasn't, so far, led to much enlightenment about how to stop ethnic cleansing and bring about world peace, or even how to be a nicer person all the time... sigh. If it did then I'd write my life story! Or if I do something else worth writing about.

The other thing is it wouldn't be "my" life story, it would have to look like something along the lines of Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible or Franzen's The Corrections. (Both are IMHO excellent examples of multiple narrators.) But again, we'd need a good story to tell.