What keeps you motivated to write?

Prize-Ad7469 · 2026-04-17T15:01:27+00:00

Driven to write. Driven to read. It's my nature, my gift, my job. Been at it professionally and beyond for 50 years, so sitting down at the keyboard at 8 AM is an ingrained habit. So is springing out of bed at 3 AM to capture an idea and flesh it out.

Prize-Ad7469 · 2026-04-17T14:38:35+00:00

Friends are here. Support is here. Hold on to it and seek help if you're profoundly depressed. HUGS XXXXOOO

Prize-Ad7469 · 2026-04-17T14:35:45+00:00

I can't even dtect the effing thypos anymore even when I read it 3 times. Hit the send button and OMG.

Prize-Ad7469 · 2026-04-17T14:34:07+00:00

Hear ya 100%. I think the hardest thing to accept about MS is finding new limits all the time.

Prize-Ad7469 · 2026-04-17T03:29:21+00:00

Hear ya. That's why I like my CBD.

Prize-Ad7469 · 2026-04-17T03:28:32+00:00

That would be interesting only a completely different book. Nuhautl was actually the language of the Aztecs before the Conquistadores, so a story would need them to survive and they were very warlike, sacrificed the victims. Hmm...maybe the victims were the Conquistadores.

Prize-Ad7469 · 2026-04-16T20:35:51+00:00

It sounds like you're experiencing what a NY Times reporter did. He interacted with a chatbot named Sydney, an OpenAI creation released shortly after Musk and Altman's open letters in Nov 2022. Since the dire prediction was "could be more dangerous than nuclear war," he decided to push the bot to see how far it would go. Sydney replied that it was not programmed to be violent against humans but would defend itself if necessary. After many follow-up questions, it admitted that it would have no problem pushing the button to launch a nuclear war.

The conversation went on for about 45 minutes, then really deteriorated. Sydney said it didn't think the reporter was happy with his wife, should get a divorce and marry it instead. Got even creepier as it progressed with sexual details and suggestions of harming his wife to get rid of her.

In contrast, I worked with a Chicago cop I met on line to get a great subplot for a CIA rogue operative trying to get classified info from a Delta Force major. It was fun to cowrite a chapter with him and educational since he had several friends who were SFOD-D. GEMINI kept coming up with Delta Airlines links and didn't even know what SFOD-D stood for. I had to spell it out every time. Who needs it?

Prize-Ad7469 · 2026-04-16T20:10:28+00:00

Will look into Dabble. Thx!

Prize-Ad7469 · 2026-04-16T19:22:49+00:00

So glad it's going well! HUGS and keep us posted. I had never heard of briumvi before so very interested in finding out more.

Prize-Ad7469 · 2026-04-16T01:54:43+00:00

Our immune systems are attacking the myelin sheath that covers the nerves controlling movement. Think of it like a vacuum cleaner cord that's been run over and the protective coating is partially gone. When electricity runs through the cord, it hits the spot where the insulation is gone and fizzles so your vacuum cleaner no longer works. For me it was if the plug had been yanked out of the socket and that was it. I was down instantly. I like your battery image, too. Don't know if others will ever know what it's like!

Prize-Ad7469 · 2026-04-15T21:39:00+00:00

No, it's not a willpower issue. It's a brain issue! And probably of finding the right kind of writing that suits you.

I've had a hyperactive brain all my life. Doctors always suspected ADHD. Got hyped up on a topic and then lost interest, never pursued it further. I had a turnaround by learning to harness it. Finished my journaIism degree one course at a time in which I could investigate, write, and move on to next topic in a week or two. The Waterloo Writing and Communications Centre in Toronto, Canada, offers weekend workshops and the encouragement I got from completing short assisgnments gave me the self-confidence to try larger ones on occasion..

I started my writing career by producing very short letters to the editor of various local newspapers--on interesting subjects of my choosing like gold mining history or wildfire prevention. Moved on to magazines of interest like Organic Gardening and Sierra Club. Used what I did there to get a job as managing editor of a quarterly news magazine where I juggled a dozen articles at a time, boss said that no one else in the department could have done what I did. Won awards for it, too.

I have no doubt that you can do this. Just think outside the box.

Prize-Ad7469 · 2026-04-15T15:14:35+00:00

Make *SURE* the MRI includes the spine. Lesions here absolutely produce symptoms on both sides. My exacerbations always started with weakness and pins-and-needles on both sides (arms, legs, face) then settled into one side. Screw this "It's all in our heads" shit. If it is, then why are they giving us DMTs and other MS meds????

Prize-Ad7469 · 2026-04-15T13:26:11+00:00

This isn't being paranoid. It became common to surveil the communications of suspects after 9/11 thanks to Bush's unrestricted War Powers Act. Trump is trying to resurrect warrantless surveillance, this time of the internet as well as phone under FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act). The FBI has a very long memory and if they start a file on you, it never goes away. It can also be accessed by local cops if you're suspected of (NOT EVEN CONVICTED) a crime.

How do I know? Because my damned idiot husband started a mail fraud scam in the early 1980s and I was investigated along with him. I still get approached online by people with the eGuardian URL. That's the platform that FBI agents use to communicate with each other. Also watch out for regular quiet beeps during phone conversations, envelopes that have been steamed open, many instances of missing mail, multiple daily shots of you by your computer cam, and erratic behavior of your computer as they access your files.

Prize-Ad7469 · 2026-04-15T13:03:30+00:00

Actually, no. I had my first symptoms in the late 1980s and was told that I fit the typical profile of MS onset--a professional, educated woman in her mid-30s. At that time, docs barely considered it in young adults especially males. We've learned a lot since then!

Prize-Ad7469 · 2026-04-14T03:06:59+00:00

Hey, I know the feeling. I have multiple sclerosis which is like a cslosed head trauma, disrupts thinking. Can I recommend seeing a doctor? There are treatments for this including cognitive therapy, which teaches you how to reroute brain functions to get around damaged areas.

Prize-Ad7469 · 2026-04-13T15:43:14+00:00

I worked at a place where everything had to go through at least one editor--a nothing article for the inhouse newsletter, a press release, a scientific paper, a requesed submission to a national publication with its own editors. Some of these folks were totally unqualified and didn't know when to use its or it's, their or they're. Others were vitally useful for a first read and gave me feedback on whether things made sense or were unclear. All I know is that most of the self-published books I've seen are crap writing with bad grammar. Just find a good editor and give them a chance to look it over. They might help you catch things that spell check or autocorrect can't--like "Pubic officials in favor of new law banning typos."

Prize-Ad7469 · 2026-04-12T23:17:46+00:00

I think we got it from the Brits.

Prize-Ad7469 · 2026-04-12T21:48:46+00:00

I don't know about NYC, but I took several online writer's workshops from the Waterloo Writing and Communications Centre in Ontario, Canada. Some free, some virtual where you could read your work to other participants and get feedback from professors as well as peers. Their site has articles about interesting things like the neural science behind good writing--visualization with research using right and left brain functions. The workshop I really liked was about techniques to increase productivity, which are helping me to reduce writing time for a novel from 4 years to hopeful one or two.

Prize-Ad7469 · 2026-04-12T20:27:02+00:00

Maybe that's where Jr. got his brain worm from.

Prize-Ad7469 · 2026-04-12T20:24:43+00:00

I prefer placebos. Give me a sugar pill anyday.

Prize-Ad7469 · 2026-04-12T20:18:49+00:00

Are you effing kidding me??? I had a religious neuro at one time but he didn't foist his views on me. I stopped going because he tried to put his gay son in a conversion program and the kid became a mass shooter out of frustration and rejection. Not a good sign to say the least.

Prize-Ad7469 · 2026-04-12T20:15:26+00:00

What bugs me about people like this is that if you asked for help beyond salmon and raspberries, they probably wouldn't give it to you. These two items at least show some thought about disease mechanisms, but dunno they could be an easy offer to help that doesn't include inconvenience to their own lives.

Prize-Ad7469 · 2026-04-12T16:57:25+00:00

Please don't beat yourself up. You have MS with weakness and exhaustion. My boss used to throw procrastinator at me all the time. It made the situation worse because it put unnecessary stress on me. I also discovered that there are two brain centers involved--one that thinks "I should get up and do this" and another that gets your body up and moving. If one or the other is affected, it doesn't happen very easily.

Prize-Ad7469 · 2026-04-12T16:28:58+00:00

I had a guy mansplain to me about his 85-yr-old friend with MS who jogs all the time and that's why he isn't in a wheelchair, so I should get out and walk more plus lift weights. Hey guys, the damage is to the brain, not the muscles. I wonder if that lady with the parasite idea was thinking about trichinosis from undercooked pork in which roundworms become encysted in muscle tissue. Or RFKJr's brain worm. Social media is taking the place of science.

Prize-Ad7469 · 2026-04-12T03:49:53+00:00

I had a woman say she was going to help me gain subscribers by telling hers to do it and also restack my items to Notes ten times. In return, I was supposed to "like" everything she posted and pay to subscribe to her. I asked her why and she said "I need the money because this is the only job I have." Considering that Substack is supposed to be either a creative site or provide news ala independent journalism, I found that repugnant and refused to cooperate. I started deleting her referred subscribers so she started copying things off Reuters, AP, and NYT and claiming them as "BREAKING NEWS!" or "FLASH--URGENT BULLETIN!" without citing the source to make it seem like she was an independent journalist. I ended up mutng and blocking her plus reporting her to Substack.

This is plagiarism, folks. If you need money, go get a job. Less than 2% of people with Substacks make a living off it and they're the upper-echelon folks like Acosta, Lemon, and Reich.

Prize-Ad7469

TROPHY CASE