Imagine Mental Illness And 'disability' In A Fantasy Setting:

Imagine mental illness and 'disability' in a fantasy setting:

• An Obsessive Compulsive Disorder sufferer that can fight off magic such as mind control and false mental images, because of living with intrusive thoughts for so long.

• An anxiety sufferer who is hyperalert and can hear/see an attacker before anyone else.

• A person with synaethesia who can tell a person’s intentions by the colour of their words. (It’s not technically a disability but I thought it was interesting to include!)

• A person with DID/MPD who’s alters help disguise them from the people tracking them down (by not acting as the other person would, a physical disguise would still be needed!)

• A deaf/Hard of Hearing person who’s immune to sirens and magical suggestion. (Turns out some magic only works when you hear it!)

Feel free to add more! (You can also include LGBT and neurodivergence if you like!)

UNDERSTAND THIS, WORLD. UNDERSTAND IT NOW.

More readers need to understand this concept… It’s disrespectful to “hate” an author or a series because a story doesn’t end the way they want them to. Have some respect for the author and their vision, and try to understand it instead of being an annoying/overly dramatic fangirl. Like John Green wrote, “The world is not a wish granting factory.”

The way he remembers Hughes and is afraid of losing Riza by being useless again and only listening to her last moments… just… @the-flame-and-hawks-eye did you see this?

What are some good tips for getting started with writing a book? I have a concept but i can't put it into place.

Getting Started with Your Story

There’s no one way to start writing a book. For some people, it’s enough to just jump in and start writing to see where the story takes them. If you’re not too keen on that idea, then here is one process (as in, not the only process) that might help you move beyond your concept. 

Concept ≠ Plot

Many writers mistake concept for plot, but they’re actually two very different things. A world where everyone grows up with superpowers is a concept; the plot is what you decide to write about within that concept - the specific characters and what happens to those characters; who your antagonist is and what conflict arises when that antagonist goes after what they want. All of these things contribute to your plot. 

So first, define what it is you actually have at this particular point. Do you just have a concept? If so, you’ll need to take the necessary steps to develop that concept into a plot. 

Concept >>> Plot

If you’ve decided that all you really have is a concept, then how do you take it and turn it into a plot? You brainstorm. All brainstorming really amounts to is expanding your ideas. All you’re doing is asking questions about the concept and delving deep into the answers. 

The most simplistic way to start this process, especially if you’re struggling, is to ask one of two questions (or both, if applicable). These two questions: What could go wrong? What could go right?

Going back to my example about a world where everyone grows up with superpowers. If I were to ask the question “what could go wrong,” I’d end up with a whole list of possibilities. 

The powers suddenly disappear

People start abusing their powers

Someone figures out how to steal powers

A hierarchy of strong vs. weak powers develops, creating superiority/inferiority dynamics

Someone is born without a superpower

There are many more possibilities I didn’t even think of here, but any one (or more) of these could become a plot. Choose one that sounds interesting, and then ask yourself “and then what?” 

Say I choose: Someone figures out how to steal powers. Then what does that person do? Do they recruit people to do the dirty work for them? Do they work alone? Do they hoard these powers and barter them for other goods? Do they attempt to enslave people? Do they attempt to take control of institutions? What do they do?

Your goal is to take your ideas and turn them into actions taken by characters. People doing things. And each piece you add will usually lead into another. If you went with the idea that this character is stealing powers and essentially selling them for other goods, you’d have to ask yourself follow-up questions. First, who are they selling to? Why would anyone buy a new superpower if they already have one? What uses would they have for additional ones? What is the key demographic that this person is trying to reach? Secondly, what are they selling them in exchange for? Money? Favors? Souls? What is this character getting in return?

Now that you’ve examined potential actions that the character takes, you’ve also exposed potential new characters. 

People they’re stealing from

People they’re bargaining with

People that try to police these crimes

People that try to copy this character’s process

At the beginning of this section, I talked about using “what could go right” as another optional jumping off point. This is a good path to follow if your concept is already really negative. For a concept where someone is killing people for some pointed reason, you might ask “what could go right” and explore ideas where the killer is caught and brought to justice. 

The point of all this is to think about change as a means of taking your idea from concept to plot. A concept is static - it doesn’t move, evolve, or change. By developing a plot, you’re forcing the concept to be challenged in some way. If you think about it that way, you’ll be able to formulate conflicts, and the people that orchestrate and fight against those conflicts. 

On that note, I think we’re ready to move onto the third piece of my graphic above. 

Plot = Character Actions and Consequences

At this point, you have sketches for characters. You’ve got this nameless, faceless person that is stealing the powers, and all these other nameless, faceless people that I listed above. In essence, we have character concepts. And just like we turned our initial concept into a plot, we have to turn these character concepts into actual characters. 

The basics are the easiest way to start. You figure out their name, their gender identity, their age, their appearance, some brief backstory and personality traits. I personally prefer the simplest questionnaire that I put together back in the early days because it hits on the poignant pieces of a character without overwhelming you with 100s of questions. 

Now that you’ve given your character concepts names and faces and potential behaviors, you start to consider how one character’s view of the world inspires them to take certain actions, and you then think about how those actions affect your entire story. 

We already kind of talked about the motives of the power thief in our example, but definitely delve deep here. On the surface, this character seems bad - stealing from people and then selling what they steal. But depending on what it is they’re getting in return, could we not argue that this character is a supernatural Robin Hood? Maybe instead of selling, they’re giving, and maybe the characters they’re stealing powers from are people that abuse and misuse their powers. Character motives can take a plot and turn it on its head, forcing you to reconceptualize everything. And that’s okay! That’s part of the process.

But separate from that idea, if we have a character concept of someone whose powers were stolen, and after developing their basic backstory, we discover that person’s name is Rose, and she has an especially close relationship with her brother. So when her powers are stolen, how does this affect her life? Was she using her powers to keep her brother alive and protected? What she using them to keep a roof over their heads? Was she using them as part of her job, as a means of providing? What happens to her life when her powers are stolen? And what will Rose do about it? Whatever Rose does will impact the story. If she does nothing to get her powers back, how does she solve her problems and does that make for a good story? If she does decide to act, then you’ve moved onto a new plot point to dive deeper into.

My point is, character concepts come from plots, but characters themselves often create plot, as their decisions and mistakes and successes create new outcomes. So if I could modify my original flow chart:

Before you develop something, you conceptualize it. You have a concept, then you make it a plot. You have concepts for characters, then you make them characters. And those characters end up driving your plot, to the point that this happens:

Plot inspires character. Character inspires plot. And it just keeps going around and around and around. Breaking it down into these pieces helps organize the process, but developing a story is rarely this neat and tidy. You’ll get ideas that don’t make sense, ideas that aren’t cohesive, characters you don’t need, characters that piss you off, problems you can’t solve, or plot points you’ve committed to that you no longer like…it will be messy. But it’s your mess, and the more you work on developing your own process, the more it’ll make sense to you. And it’ll become easier to know how to go about fixing it when something’s not right. 

Have fun with this process! It’s supposed to be fun. When the pieces start to become clearer, you’re able to put them together in a rough outline. And once you have a rough outline, you can start writing, and really see it take shape. 

-Rebekah

I wish there was a chapter or OVA about this.

That one thing that everyone loves to ignore because it’s awful and there’s no way to twist it into being not-awful: Riza had outright stated that part of Roy’s plan–once democracy has been instated and a general state of peace achieved–includes having him, Riza, and the others tried for their war crimes in Ishval. And considering the sheer magnitude of people Roy and Riza killed, they probably wouldn’t fair well.

Even with Ed loudly protesting against that as a stupid idea, Riza pretty much just maintains that she and Roy no longer have the right to decide when they die, after having taken the lives of so many. That this is about justice

Like man I all but forgot about that because no one ever wants to talk about it. Damn. I mean fuck me you know. And we don’t hear anything past that. If it’s something they ever tried to go through with. …just don’t know…

The Simplest Questionnaire

Without characters, plots are just ideas without direction. They’re little nuggets of inspiration that sit in a notebook or a pocket in your brain. Once you identify a character, a plot comes to life.

The most popular way to develop characters is through the use of character questionnaires. These work great for some writers, but if you’re anything like me, you start to get bored around question 15. (I’ve seen some questionnaires with 1000 questions!) In my opinion, lengthy character questionnaires force writers to spend far too much time planning and not enough time writing.

The questionnaire I came up with has 7 questions. But they are questions that make you think about the deep stuff. Because it’s the deep stuff that you really need to know before you begin writing. Answering these questions will help you understand how your character will respond in different situations, without having to actually imagine those situations ahead of time. It’s an especially good way to develop your characters if you have no idea what your plot will be.

I’m going to go through each question one by one. The “you” in these questions refers to your character.

1. Who are you?

You can answer this question however you wish. You can focus on the type of person they are, where they grew up, what they’re good at, what they’re interested in, whatever you first think of when asked this question. Sometimes, how you answer the question reveals what your character finds the most interesting about themselves, or what their priorities are.

2. Why do your friends like you?

If your character doesn’t have friends, then broaden the question to “people.” I would caution you on making your character completely friendless, however. Even if they start as a bit of a loner (whether by choice or not), try to build friendships for them throughout the story.

The reason I like this question is that it stops you from creating a character that is too self-deprecating. Give them positive attributes that make people want to be around them.

3. Why do your friends not like you?

This question actually does more to develop the other characters (the friends) than this particular character, but that’s why it works! You do not want characters that do nothing but praise another character. So think about this - what frustrates other characters about this character?

4. Who do you trust the most in your family?

Elaborate on why your character trusts this person. If they trust no one in their family (or if sadly, they have no family), then explain why this is. Get deep into family life here. If they have none, then where did the family go? How did they disappear, or how did your character become alienated from them?

5. What do you want most in life?

Feel free to expand on something you mentioned in Question 1 if applicable. If you already have plot ideas, try to keep the answer to this question separate from that. So if, for example, there’s a dictatorial government, don’t make the answer “To bring down the dictatorial government.” Make it more personal than that. Why does your character want this? So they can have a better life for their children? So they can live without fear?

6. What are you afraid of?

Speaking of fear, what does your character dread? You don’t have to be abstract with these - you can mention fears like heights, snakes, tight spaces, and others, but if you do go that route, consider if that fear will come into play in your story. Is it a fear they will encounter at least once, and will it be something that makes or breaks the story? You don’t have to decide exactly what that is right now, but make sure whatever fear you choose is something significant.

7. What do you look like?

This is pretty self explanatory, but this one was too important to leave out. If you’re having trouble visualizing your character, picture an actor or go find an image of someone online. Study their features and describe what you see. This description will not end up in your story, so get super detailed here.

Those are the questions. Fill these out for each of your main characters, but don’t feel pressured to fill out one in its entirety before moving on. Answer a couple for one character, and then skip to a different one.

This method might not work for you, and that’s fine! Some people need more details than this, and if that’s you, then check out this post from FYCD with some detailed questionnaires.