CW: talk of psychosis (including schizophrenia), delusions, hallucinations & similar symptoms
hi friends, i hope you're all doing well! today, we're talking about how to use psychology to write about characters going through psychosis. most of the things written here are based on what i learned in university, but please feel free to fact-check everything- science and concepts are always evolving. we'll first look at the definition of psychosis, then the symptoms, and then related disorder. let's get started!
What is psychosis?
According to the Oxford Dictionary, "psychosis" means "a serious mental health condition in which somebody sees or hears things that are not there, or believes things that are not true". At first glance, that looks easy enough, right?
Well... true. But what does that mean, a serious mental health condition? In this case, we can use the general opinion of clinical psychology: A psychological disorder is a psychological dysfunction that causes distress or impairment in the way someone functions, and also causes atypical/culturally unexpected responses.
Next comes the part that most people will think of when they imagine a character with a psychosis: Seeing or hearing things that aren't there, and believing things that aren't true. In science-talk, we call those two things hallucination and delusions.
It appears that, at least according to the dictionary, we can write psychosis by simply including those two symptoms. Let's have a closer look.
Hallucinations and delusions
Technically, we just read the definition of both- seeing or hearing things that aren't there, and believing things that aren't true.
Hallucinations and delusions both fall in the category of "positive" symptoms. Positive doesn't mean "good" though, it means something is added to the experience of a "normal" person. Because something is added, we call it positive (on the other hand, something like absence of speech would be a negative symptom). Let's look at a list of common hallucinations and delusions.
Hallucinations
Experiencing any sort of sensory event without there being an external input
Can be present for any sense or even multiple at the time (seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, tasting)
Funfact: There are two theories as to why people experience auditory hallucinations. 1: People actually hear their own thoughts (in their "inner voice") but don't recognize them as such, or 2: The primary auditory cortex in the brain is abnormally activated, leading to the brain thinking there's a sound when there actually isn't.
Delusions
Believing something that's not true to an extreme extend, to the point you cannot prove the delusion wrong even with logic
Delusions of persecution -> you believe someone is following/stalking you
Delusions of grandeur -> you think you're greater and better than you actually are
Cotard's syndrome / Walking corpse syndrome -> you believe your body has changed in a way that's impossible, namely in a way that would realistically kill you- for example your inner organs rotting, or you having lost all your blood
Capgras syndrome -> you think someone close to you (partner, friend, family etc) has been replaced by an evil imposter that looks exactly the same as them
Interesting- those are the two symptoms named in the Oxford Dictionary. However, there's more: Clinically, wouldn't we want to label someone with something more specific than "simply" being in psychosis? Technically we could, since hallucinations and delusions are common to multiple different disorders. If you decide to write a character with psychosis, consider actually assigning them one of these conditions so that you can write their experience and symptoms with more nuance:
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a spectrum, and often gets mixed up with dissociative identity disorder DID (people with which have multiple personalities). That's because "schizophrenia" translates to "split mind" (thanks, Eugen Bleuler...). In reality, to get diagnosed with schizophrenia one must experience two or more of the symptoms in the cluster for ≥1 month, and one of those symptoms must be delusions, hallucinations, or disorganized speech. What's that? Another main symptom we haven't talked about yet? Let's see:
Negative Symptoms
Like we talked about before, "negative symptoms" mean things that are missing from what would otherwise be a "normal" experience of life or behavior. In schizophrenia, negative symptoms include:
Avolition, aka apathy -> the inability to initiate & persist in activities
Alogia -> the (partial) absence of speech
Anhedonia -> we assume that people with schizophrenia experience less pleasure from social activities, eating good food etc (but this is hard to prove)
Asociality -> lack of interest in social interactions
Affective flattening -> emotional reactions are masked / unexpected (emotions are experienced, but not shown outwardly)
Disorganized Symptoms
This is the category where, basically, every symptom goes that fits neither positive nor negative symptoms. We call these:
Disorganized speech -> "associative splitting" (jumping across topics) & "cognitive slippage" (talking illogically), both of which show most when schizophrenic people are asked to list things within a category
Inappropriate affect & disorganized behavior -> “unusual” behavior, “weird” emotional displays/reactions
As we can see, schizophrenia includes a wide spectrum of psychotic symptoms. But it's not the only one- while schizophrenia is the most "stereotypical" form of psychosis, we know multiple other disorders that have the same or similar symptoms.
Schizophreniform Disorder
Here, the same symptoms as in schizophrenia are present, but they only last a few months
We don't know for sure why people have these "phases" (though it might be related to stress and genetics)
We also don't know what causes the symptoms to stop again
(Which is rather terrifying)
Delusional Disorder
In this condition, someone experiences "only" delusions (not hallucinations or any of the other symptoms)
Also, the delusions are more "realistic" than in schizophrenia
For example: Instead of having Cotard's Syndrome, you instead believe you have a probable physical defect or medical condition (somatic delusion)
Brief Psychotic Disorder
This is similar to schizophreniform disorder in that you only experience your symptoms for a month or so
However, you only experience one positive symptom (either delusions or hallucinations)
This is usually caused by extreme stress, which is why it disappears after a few weeks (because the stressor fades)
Attenuated Psychosis Syndrome
Here, someone experiences symptoms of schizophrenia, but in an early stage
We call this the "prodromal stage"
The main difference is that the person is actually aware of their symptoms, and prevention measures can be taken
Substance-Induced Psychosis
This is what we call it when the psychotic symptoms are caused by intoxication or withdrawal from a substance (usually drugs)
Symptoms usually include mostly visual and haptic hallucinations
The person might believe they're seeing people that aren't there, or feel as if their skin were on fire
Religious Psychosis
Technically, the symptoms here are very similar to schizophrenia, though mostly limited to the positive symptoms (again: Hallucinations and delusions)
What's most important here is the content of the symptoms, because they have to be related to religion
For example, a person might hallucinate hearing the voice of God, or be under the delusion they're on a special holy mission
as we can see, there are loads of ways for symptoms of psychosis to manifest in different mental conditions. like always, we realize that there's a lot of stigma about something that's not innately a violent or horrifying thing, and that should be represented in media in a respectful way. there are many people with a disorder such as schizophrenia who, through medication, therapy, support and effort, are able to live their life freely. as usual, whether you use this advice to write clinical representation or to really put your characters through it is up to you. i hope this helped, and happy writing!
hi friends, i'm back with another post! today, we're looking at motivation and how your characters' beliefs affect their goals. let's jump into it!
Why is it important?
Self-efficacy has a huge influence on performance. If you go into a test telling yourself you will fail anyway cause you're not smart enough to pass, you will most likely fail. However, if you have high self-efficacy, you wouldn't be discouraged by the challenge and also not care about failures/setbacks so much.
What is self-efficacy?
"Self-efficacy" was made famous by the psychologist Albert Bandura (who also did loads of other fun stuff). It describes someone's belief in their ability to get to a desired outcome- aka someone's belief they have the ability to reach their goals. There's "self-efficacy expectation", which is the belief you can execute specific behaviors, and "outcome expectation", which is the belief that those actions will in fact lead to your goal.
How is it developed?
There are three main ways those expectations are formed:
Performance accomplishments (when you succeed at something)
Every character has a goal (source: trust me bro). However, the way characters go about reaching their goals can (and should) vary a bunch! As we just learned, self-efficacy has loads to do with self-image and the belief in your own ability. Those are not innate- which means they are formed through experience. When you look at your character's backstory, do they experience lots of setbacks? Do they recover quickly? If so, that would mean they have high self-efficacy. How did they form that? And if not: What has led to your characters having low self-efficacy? Answering those questions will make your characters feel way more consistent and, therefore, realistic!
Learned helplessness
A "fun" phenomena you might have heard about, best illustrated with an experiment by psychologist Martin Seligman: Imagine you have a dog in a box with a small obstacle in the middle that divides it into two spaces. The floor of the space the dog sits in gets electrified, giving the dog a shock, and he jumps into the other space in which he is safe. Now, if you do the same but electrify both spaces (ergo giving the dog "no escape"), the dog learns his actions don't change his situation. And even when experimenters stopped doing shocks on both sides, the dog just sat there and accepted his fate without even trying to get to the other (safe) side.
While cruel as hell, this teaches us something about our characters: There will be situations in which a character has learned their actions don't matter, and it will influence their behavior in the future. For example, a character that has learned speaking up about their opinion will get them ignored or dismissed, they will continue to hold the belief their opinion doesn't matter even when in a different group setting.
As you can see, self-efficacy influences humans- and therefore characters- quite a lot! You're probably already writing with it in the back of your mind when writing fleshed-out characters. If not, thinking about your characters self-efficacy can really help making their backstory shine through in their actions. Please use my psychology knowledge for good (exam season is killing me). Happy writing!
Hello!! I was wondering if you have any tips or advice for how to write a good "insanity" arc? A character I have goes through one and I want to do it right, yknow? If not that's ok, thank you if you do do one though :]
TW: Mentions of suicide, talking about mental illnesses and insanity
Thank you for the request, it's such an interesting topic! I found that there isn't that much information on it, but I'm glad to say that I'm pretty confident in what I did find. Anyways, let's get to it ^^
How to write an insanity arc
1. What is an insanity arc?
The first step to writing something is to understand it, so here is a quick definition that explains insanity itself, taken from Oxford Languages: "the state of being seriously mentally ill; madness/extreme foolishness or irrationality". Therefore, an insanity arc means that a character changes throughout the course of the story, descending into madness and irrationality. Sometimes, insanity is equated to certain mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, but personally, I wouldn't define it like that, at least not in fiction, because it could be confusing and also build harmful representation. To sum it up: An insanity arc means that the character slowly spirals into madness until they are mostly unrecognizable.
2. Symptoms of insanity (sorted by possible appearance)
Confusion/irritabbility
Extreme moods
Excessive fear or anxiety
Social withdrawal
Drastical change of eating and sleeping habits
Anger issues
Delusions/Hallucinations
Unability to cope
Suicidal thoughts
Denial
Physical problems
Substance abuse
3. What's the reason?
Insanity can be caused by heavy abuse, trauma, corruption, and also by experiencing mental illnesses that gravely impact the person's daily life (it has been discussed whether or not genetics have an impact as well, like in Alzheimers etc., but theory is yet to be proven). So, with all those overlapping symptoms, you can basically choose any reason for the insanity arc to happen, as long as you make it seem reasonable. Typical examples in fictions are:
Getting kidnapped by villains and corrupted
Turning against the system the character has originally chose to support because of betrayal
"Yandere-Symptom"
Something that could be hard about choosing a reason is the fact that as an author, you're probably trying to make your characters feel complex and realistic to the reader. So, if you haven't chosen why a character has an insanity arc, you should think about what would break them. Sometimes, the process of becoming insane is the arc itself, but, especially when it's not the main character experiencing the arc, sometimes it's about the process of noticing. In that case, maybe the character already went insane, but nobody knows yet and only slowly realizes because of the symptoms mentioned above, which means that the character could have a snap-scenario instead of a "slow burn". What's important is the knowledge of Where does the character start? and Where does the character end up? because the point of an arc is some kind of character development. It really depends on whether your character is going to end up broken and pale-skinned in a prison cell, happy as a psychopathic mafia boss or dead as the new "crazy" villain.
4. Writing from the character's perspective
Even though it could get tricky to only drop hints in the beginning that get more and more, it would probably be real fun to hide those little details and confusing the reader, because in the beginning they won't realize what's going on until they notice that they are the ones going insane with how they see the world, because they only viewed it from the character's eyes. Also, speaking as a reader, there is little greater than re-reading a story and finally noticing all the red flags and small hints, realizing Oh, that's what it means! One big advantage it has to write from the perspective of the character that goes insane is the illusion of clarity, especially when the character has been a reliable narrator so far. If the reader trusts their perspective, they can easily fall victim to believing anything they read without second thought. They might even think that the other characters are going insane! A huge aspect of insanity is a delusional view on the world, causing the symptoms mentioned earlier. The character will keep thinking that they are perfectly fine, or at least they'll be unsuspecting of what's to come. Their overreactions will seem normal, whereas the other characters could be portrayed as unbothered and therefore "weird". Their actions have to seem reasonable in their own mind, even though they do not follow moral codes. For example: An insane character would kill someone for being suspicious and "planning to murder them"- when they were really just trying to to some small talk.
5. Writing from someone else's perspective
If your to-be-insane character is not the main character, you will have to turn the whole thing explained in 4. around. The main character may notice all the symptoms from 2., but the question is: How do they deal with that and how do they react? Just from the symptoms, your character will probably not know what exactly is going on with the other, they might even suspect other mental illnesses, depending on what caused the beginning of the insanity arc. But there's probably going to be a moment of realization at some point. It could be because someone else tells your character "Hey by the way your friend's kinda insane" (unlikely), or, and this is what is more realistic, the insane character does something so out of the ordinary that the main character notices- whether that's an evil speech declaring war to all morals or them showing up by the villain's side fully depends on the story. In that case, the main character will only consciously notice the insanity arc when it has almost fully reached it's end. However, they will probably notice some things before that- like, to keep the example, the insane character being a lot more murderous than before.
6. Things an insane character might be doing (sorted by "heaviness")
Not getting social cues they used to get
Not understanding jokes
Reacting heavily to minor news
Feeling uncomfortable or annoyed around their friends
Binging/Having no appetite at all
Not liking the food they used to
Have depressed phases
Sleeping/being tired all the time or not sleeping at all
Developing insomnia
Getting overwhelmed by things they were fine with before
Getting angry easily and letting it out on other
Develop unhealthy coping mechanisms
Thinking more black-and-white
Ignoring obvious problems / their own mental state
Feeling nauseous, getting a migraine etc. all the time
Being paranoid and untrusting
Ignoring morals / only following their own
Not caring about consequences of illegal actions
Mad at system -> mad at individuals and vice versa
Find relief and happiness in their (sometimes) horrible and weird actions
That's it for this post! I hope this helps, and good luck writing your arcs and stories!
requested by @noa-i - check out their blog, they have amazing lists of helpful links to writing guides!
As a writer, it is mostly inevitable to get to the point in writing where you are questioning whether anyone will actually want to read what they have created. A question greatly important to writing something the reader gets hooked up with is: How do I lure them in and make them feel like they are part of something? Sometimes, writing immersive makes THE difference between a scene quick to skip over and a scene you can't take your eyes off. But how do you create immersion?
In this post: 1. Worldbuilding 2. Narrators 3. Writing visually 4. Setting the scene 5. Example to summarize
Step 1: Learn your own facts
It might be banal, since you are the author, to re-read your own notes and think about what you have written so far. However, to get the reader hooked up, make them INTERESTED. This is easily accomplished by creating a detailed fictional world that doesn't seem flat. It might be a tiring process, but it always pays off! Knowing exactly what kind of world your character finds themself in makes it a lot easier to fill in details that subconsciously make the reader believe they are dealing with an actual real-world instead of "just" a fictional one. But even though it may seem harsh, cutting out some details and facts might make the reader feel much more comfortable. Their mind wants to insert them into the universe they're reading about, so overloading them with too many unnecessary details can be just as defeating as giving them too little info. Here is a link to a great beginners-guide on worldbuilding.
Step 2: Know your narrator
As we all know, there are a bunch of different narrator types to pick from when starting a new story, and each of them is good for a different thing- reaching from the typical first-person narrator (The Hunger Games, Percy Jackson) over personal third-person (Warrior Cats, Harry Potter) to omniscient third-person (Anne of Green Gables) and biased third-person (A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy). If you are writing an unbiased third-person narrator in your WIP, you can just skip this step. However, if you have any indication at all in your story as to who the narrator is, you might want to think about this more closely. The narrator is the bridge that connects the reader to the fictional world. To immerse the reader in a book, it's usually easiest to use the first-person narrator or the personal third-person narrator, because that way the reader will either imagine themself as the narrator or as a friend of the main character, which keeps them interested. If your narrator is an actual character in the story, it is necessary to keep their speech and description patterns consistent with themselves and the events of the story. For example, a character narrating that has never visited a school or similar should not use highly scientific words to describe what's going on, etc, because it will interrupt the reader's reading flow and disturb the immersion just as much as time skips do.
Step 3: Writing visually
After making sure you have the narrator and the world they're in all set, it's time to choose a writing style, more specifically, to decide the visuality of it. What I mean by that is that having a fictional world so flat it's boring is just as bad as not describing it in a way that delivers it in the way it deserves to be delivered. Picture it like this: Every scene starts in a white room, with neither windows nor doors. If you as the writer don't describe what is going on in that room and what it looks like, at best while keeping the narrator's character in mind while doing so (to make it "3D"), the reader will never know what is actually happening. This also includes adapting the length and complexity of sentences to the scene: In a combat scene, you will usually find short and cut-throat sentences to represent the intensity and living-in-the-moment mindset of a fight, however, in a meaningful conversation between two characters about a heavy subject, it's more likely that longer and more complex sentences are of use to mirror the narrator's deep thinking of the subject and their concentration on the conversation.
Step 4: Setting the scene
By setting the scene, you fill in this white room in the reader's mind, adding characters, sounds, furniture, windows, and scenery in general, while still leaving space for the reader to fill in the blanks. To find a middle between these two extremes is up to every individual writer and depends on the writing style. If you over-describe the room, the reader will know every detail about it, but it will take away their focus from what is actually happening in the scene. However, if you don't set the scene at all, the reader automatically makes up what the room might look like based on what they imagine, and then breaks out of the immersion as soon as you mention something, later on, to be in the room that they did not picture. For example, if you just say that A enters B's bedroom, the reader might quite as well imagine there to be small windows, some bookshelves, a standard bed, etc. If you don't set that up right in the beginning and later on mention that B has small windows, the books stacked on the floor, a bunch of plants, an aquarium, and a bunk bed, the reader will get confused because it doesn't fit what they had pictured before. So ask yourself: What is so important that the reader should know it before the scene actually starts? Context also matters in that case.
5. Example
In the following, I will write the same scene multiple times in different styles to illustrate what makes a difference in writing immersion. The scene goes as following: Jae falls into a dark room underground with a hooded, mysterious person waiting for him. The hooded person greets him and lights a candle, and in the emitting light, Jae realizes who he is talking to. Remember: These are more caricatures of the different writing styles than actual representation and are very overexaggerated, but you get the idea.
1. first-person narrator (Jae), scene not set properly, no visual writing, no consistency in speech pattern
After three seconds, I landed on something soft and realized I had landed in a chamber underground, slightly lit by the moonlight above me. I walked through the only doorway and found myself in a second room. A hooded figure in the middle of the dark lifted their arm. From the table beside them, they picked up a candle and lit it using a lighter. "Hello, Jae", they said, and in the newly emitting light, I recognized them in front of the fireplace.
-> feels flat and jumpy, gives no significance to the change of scenery
2. biased third-person narrator, scene set properly, overly descriptive visual writing, consistency in speech pattern
After falling for what felt like an hour, even though it was probably just a few seconds, Jae finally landed on something soft. Before even attempting to get up, he shivered at the fresh memory of what slimy, earthy, suddenly appearing tunnels felt like. He stared up through the hole at the moon and the stars, and immediately recognized the constellation of Cassiopeia, high up above him. Cassiopeia is said to have angered the Gods, so they gave her the gift of divination, but made it so that nobody would ever believe her prophecies, finally banning her into the sky as this constellation. Weirdly enough, the stars' pattern doesn't look like a woman, or a human, at all. Jae slowly stood up from where he landed and realized he had fallen onto a rather big cushion with a print of primroses in yellow, pink, red, and blue. He looked around in my new location and found himself stuck in a small portico with no windows at all and only one doorway. The walls seemed just as dirty and muddy as the tunnel he had fallen through, and as he looked closer, he spotted about a dozen small, pink worms slithering through the soil. The floor on the other hand was made out of dark wooden panels- if you wanted to call it a "floor". The pieces were just loosely stuck onto the earth underneath, and mud squeezed out from the gaps in between. Jae slowly walked over them and reached the doorway after just four steps. He saw a hooded figure standing in the center of the next room. The room had two sources of lighting: One, the moonlight shining through the disgusting tunnel, and two, a crackling fireplace. It looked like it belonged in a small cottage, being made out of red bricks and looking a little old with the small black-and-white pictures put on top of it. The flickering orange glim of the fire met the silvery-white shine of the moon in the middle of the room. On the right side, Jae saw a big old round table made out of similar wood as the floorboards outside. There were obvious scratches on it, some made by smaller knives, others bigger and maybe made by swords, with splinters on their edges. Apart from two, the fours chairs around it seemed just as maltreated, but the two others were polished and reflected the two light sources, with no scratch marks at all. On top of the table rested a metal candlestick with one slightly burned-down candle stuck inside it. The candlestick had a few scratches as well, on the side and at the bottom. "Hello, Jae", the figure said snarkily, with a voice deep and rough like sandpaper. They wore a black cape, smooth on what Jae could see of the inside and rough on the outside, with a big hood covering their hair and most of their face. A few of the blue buttons with a golden pentagram engraved on them were missing from the coat, and it was slightly ripped in a few places. One strand of dark hair fell into the person's eyes as they reached out for the candlestick, lighting the candle inside with a silver zippo-lighter. The lighter had small scratches as well as a few symbols on it. Slowly, the flame grew bigger and bigger, until the shine from below reached the figure's face. Jae's eyes went big as he realized who he was talking to.
-> little place for the reader's fantasy, but details make scenery deeper and less flat. This kind of description does make sense if the narrator/the character the narrator fixates on (Jae in this case) is very observant and/or intelligent because they will notice details that others don't. The question is whether those details are important enough to keep in the story.
3. first-person narrator (Jae), scene set properly, visual writing, consistent speech pattern
After what felt like an eternity of falling and silently begging not to die from the impact, I finally landed with my eyes squeezed shut. Okay, legs, arms, and head still in place... I slowly opened my eyes again, realizing I had landed on a soft pillow with a flower print. Cautiously, I got up, gazing up at the tunnel through which I had fallen. The view of the slimy earth made me shiver involuntarily as I blinked against the bright moonlight far above me. The sky was clear enough to see stars, which could have been far more enjoyable if it hadn't been for my miserable situation. I had landed in a small chamber underground, with a single doorway leading into a bigger room. The walls were just pure earth and seemed to swallow all noise, but when I took the first step, the sounds of my shoes on the dark wooden floorboards and of the mud squishing out from beneath them was louder than I had anticipated. I could hear the crackling of fire from the next room and see the orange glow as I made my way over to the doorway and took a glimpse into it. The room was not very big, but also not as small as the one I had landed in. There wasn't much space because of a wooden round table and four chairs, which all seemed very old and maltreated, judging from the scratches on them. I could make out a few pictures on the fireplace, and in front of that- "Hello, Jae." I had to suppress a gasp as I realized that I was not alone. In the middle of the room, right where the silvery moonlight and the orange glow of the fire met, stood a hooded figure. Their coat looked as old as the few pieces of furniture, with missing buttons and rips. I couldn't make out much of their face, even though I squinted my eyes, but the flickering light made it hard to see anything, let alone recognize. But that voice... Before I could come to a conclusion, the figure reached for a metal candlestick standing on the table and lit the candle inside with a silver lighter. As the flame grew bigger, they dispelled the shadows below the hood that had disguised the person's features before. I could feel my eyes get big as I finally realized who was standing before me.
-> Gives enough information to "fill the white room" without dwelling on details too much, shows the context of the story, gives Jae a consistent personality
So that's it for this post! I hope I managed to pass on a thing or two that I learned while researching and that this post will help you with your writing. Please acknowledge, I am not trying to attack anyone's style of writing!! If you write the way I wrote a "non-immersive" scene, it does NOT mean that your writing style is bad, let alone wrong, because the existence of many different writing styles is what keeps it individual and interesting! Find your own way and let nobody get you down :)
So when you write a story, some of your characters might travel the world and see new places. That can be really scary and confusing at times! Here’s a small guide on how to write that realistically.
1. What does the character already know about the country?
Depending on how spontaneously they decided to get there, they might know very little about the culture and rules of the country. For example, what if you came to Greece without knowing that nodding your head up meant “no” instead of “yes” (which would be nodding your head down)? So that’s something you should think about first. Did the character do research before their travel? Did they just google it on the plane or did they spend at least a month planning? This could greatly affect how confident the character is in themselves when they arrive. That planning also has to do with the character’s personality, whether or not their quickly anxious and how spontaneous and confident they are in general.
2. How different is the new country from their own country?
There’s a big difference between going from the Netherlands to Germany and going from Russia to Japan. Your character might experience something called a “culture shock”, which means that they start feeling absolutely out of place because they don’t feel incorporated in the new culture they’ve got thrown into. For this, you should try to research the different cultures of the character’s original country and the one they are visiting. Sometimes, there’s also the possibility that the different countries are quite similar. That can be used for funny situations where the character thinks everything’s fine and familiar and then something happens that throws them of. What about for example England and America? They aren’t so different in many ways, but one big thing that pops into mind is that in England you drive on the left side of the road, and in America they drive on the right. Imagine stepping out of the airport, thinking to yourself “Yass welcome to America!” and then almost getting run over by a car because you looked the wrong side of the road- That can be quite shocking. But the character might also find comfort in the small things that remind them of their original country. You could also try to find out how the currencies are in the two countries- will the character have to adapt to a new system? Do they have to go to the bank to exchange currencies? Will they need time to get used to paying “2 dollars” instead of “17,85 Dirham”, or is the currency the same after all? That’s an important thing to take into consideration.
3. Languages
Of course, language is a very important part of traveling and living in a new country. In most countries, people can speak English and that’s really practical, but on longterm, not knowing the language of a country you want to live in evolves into a grave problem. And even if your character already knows the language, modern slang could be a real struggle. Textbook-Vocabulary might be enough for work and studying, but in daily life, not knowing what certain words mean can get so very annoying. Another thing to consider when including struggles with language could be accents and dialects. As an example, people from the north of Germany and people from the South can barely understand each other because of their different dialects, so even if someone knows German, they might have to learn even more just to live in a certain area of the country. Also, obviously British English and American English are not the same at all. On one side, there’s the accent, on the other, some words are completely different. In school, we used to do exercises that were like vocabulary tests where you had to “translate” words from British to American English, which included “cab” and “taxi”, “holiday” and “vacation” and so on and so forth. The point is, even if your character already speaks the “right” language, locals will probably notice rather quickly that they are not from around, whether it would be from their accent, because they don’t know the slang or because they use different words for the same thing.
4. People and structures
This point is a little abstract, but I wanted to include it anyways. Depending on how far away the character is traveling, they will probably encounter people that behave very differently than what they are used to. Here, you should look out that you don’t overdo stereotypes. However, you can say with quite some certainty that America is much more diverse than Germany, and that in France, the people are more warm and matey than in England. But don’t go into the extremes and make every American a bald-eagle-breeder that quotes the Declaration of Independence at every possible occasion and every German a beer-loving N*zi, that’s just unrealistic. With “structures”, I mean that you could look into the classical architectural styles of the country that the character came from and the one they’re in now. Sometimes, those can be very different, so it can be a cool detail to include in your story.
5. Reactions
As mentioned, when you’re new to a country, people WILL notice. The question is, how do they react? This also has to do with where exactly your character is living, not only country-wise, but also whether they’re in a big city, a suburban neighborhood or the countryside. Furthermore, of course you’ll have to find fitting reactions for your character. Are they intimidated by the big buildings of the city because they’ve only known small two-level-builds so far? Are they excited to get to know new people and learn a new language, or are they scared? You should consider that and more to make that part of your story as realistic as possible.
6. Example
As originally requested, here’s some inspiration for writing a british character coming to America for work/study.
They’ll probably be very much confused by what side of the road the cars drive on, and, depending on whether they have a car, will have to concentrate a great deal the first few times they drive themselves. They will have to adapt to the American English and try to stop saying “chips” instead of “fries” when ordering, and it their accent could make them insecure at times, especially if they’re surrounded by locals. Furthermore, they would have to participate in Thanksgiving and the Independence Day because all of their new acquaintances will. Halloween may not be a much bigger deal in America than it is in England (because it’s a really important thing there), but the Christmas traditions can differ greatly. The character would have to deal with the fact that they pay in dollars now instead of pounds, and would have to arrange themselves with the knowledge that one of their favorite snacks doesn’t exist in America.
There are several things you should think about when you want two characters to fall in love with each other.
1. What kind of romance do you want them to have?
This seems unnatural to think about but it’s important: Do you want them to fall in love because they’re alike? Because they’re complete opposites? Is it a Romeo-and-Julia kind of romance or an unhealthy relationship they have, even before they fall in love in the first place? Here are some examples:
Rey Palpatine and Kylo Ren/Ben Solo: Unhealthy. You don’t just forgive a mass murderer and have a healthy relationship with one (Weird, I know). Yes, Ben tried to redeem himself, but the main point in a relationship isn’t “fixing” the other person.
Magnus Chase and Alex Fierro: Healthy. They are actually in love and it’s not because they want to change the other person significantly.
Severus Snape and Lily Potter: Unhealthy. He had a crush on her and it made him a horrible person, but he made it seem like it was other peoples’ fault (James, Harry etc.)
2. What do the characters want?
Next, you should try to sort out what the characters individually are looking for in a partner. Romantic attraction is something that can be very different from person to person and has lots to do with how they were raised and what their experiences are. If you already know who you want to be together, at least try to make it fit. Here are some examples:
A person with “daddy issues” is more likely to be attracted to people that are older than them. That is because they are subconsciously looking for someone to replace their father figure. This doesn’t have to mean they only get with people that are way too old for them, it is just a preference that can be observed.
A person with [!TW!] abusive parents, relatives or teachers, or someone who has been bullied, is more likely to be attracted to “bad” people because they have learned a different defintion of love when they were young. That doesn’t have to mean they only get into unhealthy relationships, it just means that they have a different perceiving of love.
Also, usually a person is attracted to someone who reminds them of “first lovers” like their parents. However, it can also be the complete opposite, if e.g. someone hates their parents.
3. How to hint romance
Even before the characters directly realize they are in love, there are ways to hint that they’re fancying each other to the reader before it’s explicitly stated. That’s, however, a tricky process, as we wouldn’t want the reader to know too much, right? Here are some ways to hint romance before the characters even know themselves:
Being protective of each other. For example, if the characters get in danger, A would subconsciously make sure B is okay first, or if A gets insulted, B would be the first one to get angry.
Noticing appareance more. For example, with a first-person narrator/3rd-person selective narrator from A’s perspective, A would spend more time describing what B is wearing without using the “oh no I’m staring”-clichée (or use it if you want, it’s just not as subtle). That way, they also notice little changes in the other’s appareance.
Subconsiously testing limits. That means teasing, joking around and subtle flirting, even if you’re not aware that you’re doing it. People do that to find out how far they can go with the other and how they react.
Remembering tiny details. For example, remembering each others’ favorite sort of ice cream or knowing what the others’ favorite color is.
Here’s a little example on how to do that, with A(sh) fancying B(ay) and B having a crush on A, written from A’s perspective:
When I arrived at the coffee shop on 5th Avenue, barely with my shoe laces bound because I got in such a hurry, Bay, Cora and Daniel were already waiting for me, sitting outside under one of the yellow umbrellas. Slightly panting, I let myself fall on the empty chair at their table.
“Who said you could sit with us?”, Bay asked, teasingly taking a judging sip from their coffee. Two sugars, as always, I guessed.
“You want me to go?”, I replied, raising my eyebrows.
Bay chuckled. “Here’s the menu”, they said, handing it over.
When I reached out for it, I noticed they had painted their nails... red? That was something else, usually they were black.
“So, why did I have to get here so fast?”, I asked, remembering the message Daniel sent me.
“Oh, well”, he said, “We just thought you’d like to hang with us. Also, check this out!”
He took off his jacket and revealed a shirt of his favorite band. I nodded appreciatively. At least he switched his shirt every once in a while. If I wasn’t mistaken, he was even wearing the same jeans. I never understood how he could just live like that- and how Cora was able to put up with it. Love, I guess.
“At least you switched your shirt this week”, Bay said while scrunching their nose in overdramatic disgust, an echo of my thoughts. Of course, their outfit was well picked out, black skinny jeans, a red flannel and the usual hairstyle. Something else I would never understand: How could someone look so elegant while also looking so chill?!
“So, Ash”, Cora said, pointing to the menu I was still holding, “Picked something?”
“Don’t bother.” Daniel rolled his eyes. “She’s going to pick the same cupcake she eats all the time.”
“Nothing better than a good cupcake”, Bay said, “What will you pick, the same pie you eat all the time?”
“Nothing better than a good pie”, Cora repeated what they had just said, but she winked at me as she said it.
Notice how Bay was teasing Ash, yet defended her when Daniel commented on her order, and how Ash immediately noticed that Bay had painted their nails a different color? I tried to not make it obvious that they like each other, even though it wasn’t hard to tell because I put so much into that little of text.
4. How do the characters find out?
There are, as I like to put it, two ways to make the characters “click”: The boom way, and the soft way. Which one of those you use is your decision, even though you should make sure it fits the plot of the book.
The boom way: In a nutshell, something grave happens that makes the characters realize how important they are to each other. That can be a ton of things, e.g. one of them almost dying, them having a fight, them having to split up in a dangerous situation or even someone else telling them how obvious it is.
The soft way: When there is no actual event that has the characters like “oh no I love them”, this is how it could go instead. Usually, A would realize that they love B when B does nothing “special” at all, maybe just singing along to their favorite song in the car, and A would just think “Yep, call it love I guess”. This way is much more calm and gentle than the other (and, in my opinion, a little harder to write, but thus also rarer in literature, which makes it interesting).
I’m terribly sorry this took me so long, I had a few problems researching for this post because romance isn’t really my strongest side :)
Now for the comparison of colors to things that are not a color but typically have a certain shade of one. That’s not only helping the reader to better imagine the exact color you mean, but also to subtly pushing their emotional state in a certain direction. If you e.g. compare someone’s haircolor to something pleasant, the reader will subconsciously like the character better. Contrary to that, when you compare something with unpleasant things, it makes the reader’s mind associate that thing described being unpleasant even though you didn’t specifically said it was. Here’s an exaggerated example:
“The walls were as green as those small plants you can buy at Ikea.”
vs.
“The walls were as green as that invisible algae that touches your leg when you’re swimming in a lake.”
If you read the first sentence in a room’s description, it would make you subconsciously think of it as cute and bright because you associate it to cute and bright things like small Ikea plants. However, the second comparison rather gives you an uneasy and oppressive mindset about the room described.
Many colors have overused comparisons, like green and emeralds or blue and the sky. If you want to use those, it’s of course okay and simple, but also consider using things not many authors use to compare colors to, because it gives you something special the reader will remember. It’s your choice if you want to make those comparisons funny, relatable, weirdly specific or just fancy and special. Here are a few examples of things to compare colors to for some of those categories that can e.g. use by writing “Their hair was [color] in a way that reminded me of [comparison].”
Weirdly specific/funny
Yellow- Pikachu’s forehead, the frenchiest fry McDonalds ever made for me
Orange- Trump, garbage truck that comes every tuesday
Red- Weasley hair, Elmo’s prettiest curl, Knuckles the Echidna
Purple- An evil Minion, that one tasty grape that’s better than the others
Blue- The tardis’ front door, that one pair of jeans you kinda like but never wear
Green- Kermit’s ruff, Mike Wazowsky, Shrek’s ears, Yoda but only in VI
Brown- Gumba’s shoes, Timon and Pumbaas’ supposed lovechild
Black- A cat with green eyes named Loki, Buttercup from Powerpuff Girls’ hair
White- Some paper you stare at in class because you don’t know what to write
Grey- Karen’s hair before she dyed it, my favorite werewolf’s fur at their neck
Rare/special
Yellow- A bumblebee, a daffodil, happiness
Orange- A lion’s mane, sandstone, a salamander
Red- Fire bricks, chili, imperialism
Purple- Heathers, summer rain, dusk
Blue- [random specific ocean], a swimming pool, an iceberg, space
Green- A post-apocalypse, mint ice cream, seafoam, the jungle
Next up is the description of the colors without comparisons. Here are some cool words to avoid cliche descriptions with by saying e.g. “They were dressed in [word] [color].”
bleached – very pale by chemicals/sunlight
bleak – gloomy
blotchy – patchy
bold – clear, strong in colour (thus easy to notice)
brash – unattracively colorful
brilliant – intense
clean – clear and fresh
cold – (a color mixed with) white, blue, or grey
cool – colours mixed with blue or green
delicate – pleasant, but not too strong
dusty – a color mixed with grey
electric – metallic (mostly blue and green)
festive – bright and colourful
fiery – very bright in colour (mostly red, orange, yellow)
fluorescent – seems to reflect light
glistening – shiny
glowing – seems to emit soft light
harsh – very bright in an unpleaseant way
jazzy – bright, colourful, and attractive
loud – ‘very bright’ as in ‘bad taste’
mellow – soft and warm
opalescent – seems to change color/hues
pastel – pale and soft
rich – strong in a good way
sepia – ‘old’, colors mixed with yellow-brown-red
soft – pale, gentle
splashy – brightly coloured
tinged/tinted – a color with another color hidden in it (e.g. reddish blond)
vibrant – bright and colourful
violent – so bright it almost hurts
vivid – strong, lively
warm – (a color mixed with) yellow, red, or orange
watery – pale
I hope this helps you guys to better describe colors and create associations for your reader through comparison :)
As we all love doing subtle foreshadowing and meta hints, why not learn about the chakras? You can e.g. use these information to maybe locate a character's wound at a place of their bodies which has to do with why they got it (like when they get a wound at the base of their spine because they were scared of fighting). If you're writing a fantasy story, maybe there's a parallel universe in which you can only see peoples' life energy. Anyways, it all can be helpful to know!
Disclaimer: I am not a professionel Guru and I am not trying to be offensive towards any cultures or beliefs by posting this. If I am anyways, please tell me so that I can change it or take the whole post down!
Root Chakra: Also called the Earth chakra. It deals with Survival and is blocked by Fear. It is located at the base of the spine and mostly described with the color red. When the root chakra is imbalanced and/or damaged, it can cause low self esteem and energy to do things.
Sacral Chakra: Also called the Water chakra. It deals with Pleasure and is blocked by Guilt. It is located at the lower back and mostly described with the color orange. When the sacral chakra is imbalanced and/or damaged, it can cause loss of creativity and inability to find solutions to problems.
Solar Plexus Chakra: Also called the Fire chakra. It deals with Willpower and is blocked by Shame. It is located at the stomach (or the solar plexus, obviously) and mostly described with the color yellow. When the Solar Plexus Chakra is imbalanced and/or damaged, it can cause helplessness and the inability to complete a begone task.
Heart Chakra: Also called the Air chakra. It deals with Love and is blocked by Grief. It is located at the heart and mostly described with the color green. When the heart chakra is imbalanced and/or damaged, it can cause the feeling of being unwanted and breaking relationships.
Throat Chakra: Also called the Sound chakra. It deals with the Truth and is blocked by Lies. It is located at the throat and mostly described with the color light blue. When the throat chakra is imbalanced and/or damaged, it can cause the inability to express or explain yourself.
Brow Chakra: Also called the Light chakra. It deals with Insight and is blocked by Illusion. It is located at the center of the forehead and mostly described with the color dark blue. When the brow chakra is imbalanced and/or damaged, it can cause indecisiveness, confusion and nightmares.
Crown Chakra: Also called the Thought chakra. It deals with Cosmic energy and is blocked by Earthly attaches. It is located at the crown of the head and is mostly described with the color purple. When the crown chakra is imbalanced and/or damaged, it can cause loneliness, depression, anxiety and apathy.
Those are the seven "3D" chakras. There are 15 more, but they only exist in another plain of existence.
Even though every character should have different ways of showing they’re angry, here are some tips on general body language.
Face
Clenched Jaw
Mouth in a thin line OR lips pursed
Furrowed brows
Narrowed eyes
Intense eye contact
Flared nostrils
Reddened cheeks, ears and neck
When only slightly annoyed or, on the contrary, very angry and trying to control it, the signs of anger might be limited to a persons face.
Posture
Standing with feet apart (Fighting pose)
OR
Strutting with big strides
General tension especially at the torso (body instinctively shields vital organs)
Leaning forward
The posture mostly depends on the environment (obviously you can’t strut when you’re sitting).
Actions likely taken
Heavy breathing
Shake fists
Point with finger / stab someone’s chest with finger
Slam fist on table / against the wall
Baring teeth
Strong gesturing (e.g. swailing arms around)
Cutting others off when they speak
Entering others personal space to intimidate
Slamming doors, cupboards etc.
Rolling up sleeves / loosening collar
The four types of anger
Desert / Dry Anger - The “Ready to fight”-type. Acts very aggressively and intimidating, the type of anger you feel when you are mad at someone and/or want to hurt them. Example: A won’t leave B’s friend C alone and C is too scared to do something, so B gets angry at A. B’s main goal is to intimidate A so that they leave C alone, not to start a fistfight. But if A would start the fight, B would be happy to oblige. So B feels the T1-Anger.
Ocean / Wet Anger - The “Mixed with other feelings”-type. The anger resorts out of sadness and/or hurt. The kind you feel when someone hurt you and you are trying to be mad at them but you’re actually sad because you don’t know why they did it. Angry body language paired with teary eyes or strong crying. Mostly ends in a breakdown. Example: A lied to B about going on a dangerous mission and B only finds out when A is back. B feels many things at once: They’re happy A made it out alive, they are sad that they didn’t trust them enough to tell them in the first place, they are hurt that their trust got used, and above all they are angry that A lied to them. B’s main goal is to get A to make it up to them and apologize, not to hurt them. B will probably break down crying after a short time because the anger they felt at first gets less and the sadness and hurt overcomes them. So B feels the T2-Anger.
Ice / Cold Anger - The “I simply hate you”-type. When you’re past all feelings for someone and all that’s left for them is cold emptiness. Has similar body language as the others, but is mostly about showing the person how much you hate them and intimidating them, so mostly external physical signs like slamming a fist on a table etc. Example: A is a serial killer and B an officer interrogating them. A has killed multiple of B’s people, but B had no personal connection with them. B’s main goal is not to kill A or to show A how hurt they are, but to get a confession by intimidating them. B hates A, but there are no other feelings involved at all. So B feels the T3-Anger.
Fire / Inferno Anger - The “Seeing red”-type. It feels like you’re on fire. Doesn’t leave you a choice but to physically hurt the person you’re mad at. Example: A just killed B’s best friend C in a battle. B hasn’t processed the loss enough to grief yet, so they only feel the anger, so they attack A and their other enemies without thinking anything but ‘revenge’. B’s main goal is to physically hurt everybody they’re mad at without any regret or remorse. So B feels T4-Anger.
