The last session
October 7th, 2007
by Eleonora
My Psychiatrist is awfully determined to get the Article and myself on the right track. So, She decided to intensify the sessions.
For two days, we were locked in the office, going up and down the text, switching the paragraphs, going back to the early stages of its development, working on the ID, Ego and Super ego.
“Eleonora, we need more colour!” – said my Psychiatrist.
My Ego was hurt to hear that I had been looking at things in black and white all the time. My Id was screaming that I should leave all that and go to sleep, while Super ego was urging that we should all calm down and be rational.
As the introduction was looking for its identity, the background paragraph was suffering from “saturation with information”, the body of the article was troubled with schizophrenia and the conclusion was somewhat monomaniac in its attempt to avoid ambiguity.
By the time the Psychiatrist destroyed the first pack of cigarettes, the introduction was starting to form an identity. We bargained the information from the background paragraph, leaving the clearest and most urgently relevant info in it.
As night fell over Skopje, I started seeing things in colour. It is good having person with journalistic experience by your side, I thought.
But, “experience is the name people give to their mistakes” – said my Id, quoting Oscar Wilde.
Hmm… should I be glad that I have less then??
By the end of the second pack of cigarettes, the article actually looked composed. I cannot say the same about myself.
Word count – 3 450.
Too much. Another rearrangement of paragraphs and facts. Recount – 3 225.
“Arranging the paragraphs is like playing with ‘lego’ toys” – says my Psychiatrist.
After playing around with the paragraphs, we concluded that the word count was working against us, so the words kept multiplying instead of decreasing. Another revision, Crl + X (cut) and delete and…
The final version is done, the words stopped reproducing, the colouring is better, “the patient has shown remarkable progress”.
From the couch directly to bed. I shall reflect on the final version of the article on another occasion.
