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Jun. 5th, 2013 11:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seriousficSo right now I think I’ve got this new book a lot pinned down. It may end up being the first of two or three books, in which case I have a pretty good ending place picked out. I’ve also come up with a rather good setting for all the events to be contained and, oh yes, I’ve figured out the character’s issues.
The funny thing is, as I’ve got on, all the characters have turned out to be mentally ill to some degree or another. It’s one of those things I worry about how it plays—like the cast being mostly female or one of the main characters getting kinda sorta fridged—in this case because I’d hate for it to come across as some Burger King Kids Club “look, diversity!” instead of coming from a real, character-oriented place. But I can promise you it all came out in development instead of me saying “oh, I want to pander to people!” So, for the record, our heroes and how the gods destroy them.
Cross—our protagonist, who has clinical depression. Which is probably pretty common in our age of dark and gritty heroes, but I wanted to get a little further than just “he has man-pain now, oh now he’s happy.” And actually depict a psychological condition instead of a five o’clock shadow. Which is where the stopping point comes in, because the first book would show him sort of grappling with this, and then he gets to the point where he’s not sad, he’s just numb, and that’s his thing in the sequel.
Ruby—our gadget girl. Actually the first person who it occurred to me would be mentally ill. The story is sort of a period piece—like a steampunk novel, almost—and one of the issues people take with these urban fantasy period pieces is that they white-wash real history in favor of “top hats and steam, fun!” Which I actually tolerate more than your average social justice blog. If someone wants to write a story set in 1836 that doesn’t cover how it would suck to be Chinese during 1836, how is that any worse than writing a story in 2013 that doesn’t cover how it would suck to be Turkish during 2013?
But on the flipside, it does feel right to be doing a story about oppressed people fighting against an empire and actually include people who would’ve been oppressed. And Ruby’s backstory is that she’s bipolar, she can handle it, but the mental health system of this world wasn’t any better than it was in our world and she spent a few years unnecessarily institutionalized, which accounts for her membership in Team Revenge.
Avalan—our queen. Probably the least issued of our leads, she actually helps the other two out by these old breathing exercises she knows. And I’m worried this’ll be taken as an endorsement of Yoga or something—just Yoga your personality disorder away, dummy. But in a world without prescription drugs, it’s just meant to represent some kind of treatment. Like, a regiment you’re actively committing to. In another book it’d be pills, or talk therapy, or whatever—since it’s a fantasy world, here it’s just something that allows them a measure of control.
Oh, and Ava herself was in an abusive relationship, but by the time of the story’s start she’s left the relationship way behind and is spearheading Team Revenge. At most, she suffers from mild PTSD—not something you’d really notice, unless you’re observant of how carefully she locks the doors each night or how sometimes she doesn’t sleep, just stays up to ask people how they’re doing… long conversations that ensure she isn’t alone.
—So, depression, domestic abuse, and bipolar disorder. Would you believe this story started as an implicit criticism of how dark and moody the Bond series had gotten?
By the way, people, if you’ve read any books or fics that you feel did a particularly good job of capturing those mental illnesses I mentioned, feel free to rec them. Reading is part of my writing process.
The funny thing is, as I’ve got on, all the characters have turned out to be mentally ill to some degree or another. It’s one of those things I worry about how it plays—like the cast being mostly female or one of the main characters getting kinda sorta fridged—in this case because I’d hate for it to come across as some Burger King Kids Club “look, diversity!” instead of coming from a real, character-oriented place. But I can promise you it all came out in development instead of me saying “oh, I want to pander to people!” So, for the record, our heroes and how the gods destroy them.
Cross—our protagonist, who has clinical depression. Which is probably pretty common in our age of dark and gritty heroes, but I wanted to get a little further than just “he has man-pain now, oh now he’s happy.” And actually depict a psychological condition instead of a five o’clock shadow. Which is where the stopping point comes in, because the first book would show him sort of grappling with this, and then he gets to the point where he’s not sad, he’s just numb, and that’s his thing in the sequel.
Ruby—our gadget girl. Actually the first person who it occurred to me would be mentally ill. The story is sort of a period piece—like a steampunk novel, almost—and one of the issues people take with these urban fantasy period pieces is that they white-wash real history in favor of “top hats and steam, fun!” Which I actually tolerate more than your average social justice blog. If someone wants to write a story set in 1836 that doesn’t cover how it would suck to be Chinese during 1836, how is that any worse than writing a story in 2013 that doesn’t cover how it would suck to be Turkish during 2013?
But on the flipside, it does feel right to be doing a story about oppressed people fighting against an empire and actually include people who would’ve been oppressed. And Ruby’s backstory is that she’s bipolar, she can handle it, but the mental health system of this world wasn’t any better than it was in our world and she spent a few years unnecessarily institutionalized, which accounts for her membership in Team Revenge.
Avalan—our queen. Probably the least issued of our leads, she actually helps the other two out by these old breathing exercises she knows. And I’m worried this’ll be taken as an endorsement of Yoga or something—just Yoga your personality disorder away, dummy. But in a world without prescription drugs, it’s just meant to represent some kind of treatment. Like, a regiment you’re actively committing to. In another book it’d be pills, or talk therapy, or whatever—since it’s a fantasy world, here it’s just something that allows them a measure of control.
Oh, and Ava herself was in an abusive relationship, but by the time of the story’s start she’s left the relationship way behind and is spearheading Team Revenge. At most, she suffers from mild PTSD—not something you’d really notice, unless you’re observant of how carefully she locks the doors each night or how sometimes she doesn’t sleep, just stays up to ask people how they’re doing… long conversations that ensure she isn’t alone.
—So, depression, domestic abuse, and bipolar disorder. Would you believe this story started as an implicit criticism of how dark and moody the Bond series had gotten?
By the way, people, if you’ve read any books or fics that you feel did a particularly good job of capturing those mental illnesses I mentioned, feel free to rec them. Reading is part of my writing process.
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Date: 2013-06-05 05:16 pm (UTC)So, regarding books with mentally ill characters: Crown Duel. There's a character called Tamara. She's rather minor, but bipolar. It's done so well, because in the court setting and given her personality, you wouldn't think it was anything. But she's definitely bipolar - I even asked the author. And it's fascinating to me how she disguises it by incorporating it in her personality, and yet it occasionally shows in the book. As I wrote, she's a minor character, but it's a good enough book to be read for its own sake.