Mental Health Intermission

Don’t worry, I’m no more fucked up in the head than I was last week, last month, or last year. 

Since January 2nd, I have published 124 chapters in 131 days. That run has ended. There is nothing in my Wattpad queue. I’m taking an intermission. (Naked man playing an organ) When I get back to publishing later this month, my schedule will not be one chapter per day.  

One-hundred and eight of those 124 chapters are punk writing. The Literotica version was 96 chapters from All The Young Punks through The Venice Scene. The 2025 rewrite added 12 chapters. 

In my Venice blog post, I mentioned the next book is a 50/50 mix of brand new writing and rewriting of the 37 chapter Literotica version. As I write, that ratio is leaning more towards new writing. The next installment in Joe’s life will be easily exceed 50 chapters when complete. 

I’ve reached the point where using the word rewrite is inaccurate. Going forward, what you’ll read (if you choose) is the result of a tear down and reconstruction, throwing away old scenes and entire chapters. There are new characters, new events, and new chapters.

I say the next book, because I don't believe I will call it City of Angels, as I’ve been saying for some time. My reworking of this story changed my mind.

Joe’s erratic mental state is an underlying theme from book one, chapter one. The first scene is Joe, age 17, in therapy with Dr. Nichols. The first thing we learn about Joe is his trauma and rebellion. Sometimes his anxiety and insecurity, and occasional depression, are at the forefront of his story. His life is a mental health rollercoaster.

The Venice Scene is where I leaned into Joe’s anxiety. It binds him up. His over-thinking and angst are roadblocks on his road to happiness, and Joe is a reckless driver. Despite all that, he gets shit done. Joe cares deeply about people. His empathy guides him but also inflicts wounds on his psyche.

I wrote Punks for Literotica back in 2021. It was the very first series posted to Lit. This mental health angle didn’t exist as it does today. The Dr. Nichols character was not yet created. I did not lean so hard into Joe’s mental state in my early punk writing. That came in later rewrites. Adding Joe’s internal struggles to the reconstruction of the next book changed everything as his dark side surfaces.

--- MISTAKES WERE MADE ---

As I read and scrutinized my chapters from the 2021 Lit version of Punks, I identified mistakes I made in the telling of the cheating years. For one thing, chapter after chapter focused on the extra-marital affair and struggles Joe and Tina endure. I felt the reader might need a break from the five-year on again, off again bi-coastal drama.

The new writing adds new characters and storylines, but what's most important is my extending the roles of players from The Venice Scene into the next book. Some of these characters had minor roles. Not any more. The upcoming chapters are very much a continuation of Joe's story in his Venice community. That was not the case in the previous version.

Another detail factored into my evolving punk writing plan.

One of my primary goals is to rehabilitate Tina’s image, but not entirely. I had mentioned in an author’s note, or maybe in this blog, that I had done my main female character a disservice by starting my Literotica version of punks at the point where she cheats on her husband.

By starting my story in the middle, with Tina committing her sins without the full context of her and Joe’s past, I turned some readers against her. Evidence of this was all over the Lit comments until I blocked anonymous comments. Some readers loathed Tina from the start. That was an unforced error on my part. I’m working to remedy this. 

Making readers want Joe to win Tina back is a challenge. One problem is, Joe has so many options. There are women all around him all the time. I have created many romantic partners for Joe. Some exist in only a chapter or two, like Sofie and Anna. They exit the stage as suddenly as they appeared. 

The reader only sees the new romance, the sweetness, and intimacy. The reader does not see any flaws in that romantic partner. They’re not in the story long enough to expose their foibles. These women appear as lovely saints in Joe’s life. I have had requests for those characters to come back. That’s how I got the idea for my upcoming reunion chapters.

Tina gets all her dirty laundry exposed. Her issues are front and center and her behavior, good and bad, has a direct impact on Joe. That is a more comprehensive and realistic view of a character. My new writing takes that a step further. I am writing scenes from Tina’s perspective, including her mental health struggles she hides behind her professional armor.

With my male lead and female leads being deeply flawed with internal struggles, that is a central theme. I titled one chapter Adventures In Anxiety and thought, maybe that should be the book title.