#character development advice

[oc-growth-and-development]

I worry I might get hate for this but I have one character who is and identifies as a cis male. But he's very GNC and loves wearing makeup and dresses and is quite beautiful. But my predicament is even though he's canonically bi, he has a girlfriend. But is this wrong to have a character like this? Even if his girlfriend loves and supports everything he does? (They own a restaurant together too. If that makes any difference.)

makeup has no gender

neither does clothing

if he is bi, then he is bi no matter the gender or sex of his partner(s)

So in my opinion: no, it’s not wrong to have a character like this! 

[oc-growth-and-development]

{{ DID info: Everyone experiences it differently. Dissociation is a very broad term, and not everyone is Completely Unaware of their "splits" (which has a lot more meanings colloquially, both reclaimed and in other communities whose members have DID, such as those with multiplicity systems and such). Stereotypical and media-indicated behaviors rarely exist, and are far more fictional than fact. Memory blanks during "identities" that come back when returned to those are common, but not dangerous.

^^^

[oc-growth-and-development]

Hey, schizophrenia anon! @scriptshrink is a blog designed to answer questions about mental illness.

^^^

I also highly recommend that you check out her FAQ before you ask anything!

[oc-growth-and-development]

Hey sorry if this is the wrong place but do you know where there's a list of DID vocabulary? Specifically right now I'm looking for a word or phrase to describe like blending with head mates, like feeling their emotions and stuff like that

Here’s a good vocab list by HeadmatesFAQ

[oc-growth-and-development]

ok so it depends what kinda DID we're talking abt like if its DID or OSDD and if its OSDD what type but if its strictly DID: prettyyyyy pretty please dont make one of their alters a ~dark version~of them because people do that all the time and it looks bad on us so basically.. like.. my advice is to look up what types of alters there are and go from there but PLEASE dont make your character w DID some type of killer its really bad

^^^

[oc-growth-and-development]

yOOOOooooo it's kind of old now but I saw that anon and I wanted to say that HeadmatesFAQ here on the tumble has a really complete page on writing DID !!

here’s the page!

[oc-growth-and-development]

yo is it bad to base ocs on real people?

in my opinion, not really! it’s a pretty good way to get inspiration on how to make more relatable/realistic/human-like characters. studying real people and their motivations is also a good way to examine different opinions and make your story (and sometimes even yourself!) more openminded, even if you as the creator may not fully agree with them. you can even express your emotions about a person through your fiction as a sort of a coping mechanism if you want!

HOWEVER, unless you get explicit permission from the person you’re basing the character off of, you should avoid making the oc exactly like the source. this is especially important if you plan on publishing a work featuring the oc or otherwise making the oc public in any way. the easiest way to do this is to completely change the name (ex. if the source’s name is christina, don’t name the oc something like tina or christine. instead, name them martha). 

tl;dr: nope, as long as you only base the oc off of a real person and not literally fictionalize them.

[xxrunawayrobinxx-blog]

Tumblr Writers (and readers) help me!

Okay so I'm writing this story, see.

And while this isn't the main focus of the novel at all, I am curious as to what y'all think.

The main character (let's call him Steve) is a guy who hasn't been home for a few years. He is characterized as being very guarded, a little paranoid, and detached-- however, many people don't know this because he is very good at pretending, acting out emotions he feels work on a person in order to get them to do/believe what he wants (he's like on the borderline of sociopath, but not clinically one). He recently goes back to his hometown after his sister calls him randomly and he's really concerned when he finds she 'left town'. So he's trying to find out what really happened to her.

Now there are a few side plots, if you will, one of which being (cue cliché flag) romance... ish. I was planning on leaving it heavily implied but not really like "oh kiss scene while bodies fall from the sky love" kind of thing, if you get my drift. I do not want a love triangle at all but I see two girls I can't seem to pick because at first i'd had a girl planned out, but then I began questioning if it made sense for Steve's character. So the girls are:

"Jenna" and "Mandy".

Jenna moved to Steve's hometown a little while before he returned and is in all ways a sweet girl. She'd been the first choice because her optimism and ability to see through most of Steve's crap kind of pulls him out of his shell, makes him feel real emotions again, and show them. With Jenna, the relationship would end ambiguously because Steve would fall for her but Jenna would be more hesitant, especially with everything going on (and she notes that Steve likes to push away things that hurt and is using her as a distraction to his sister's disappearance). But Jenna does care about Steve a lot--- but the problem I think with this pair is that it'd all happen too fast. This could be okay because, like I said, it ends a little ambiguously. But I wanted Steve to really feel love again, you know? Keep in mind, though, he is reunited with other important figures like his mother, his best friend, etc, so they also impact his emotional state, but I still don't know.

Mandy is a girl Steve met in college (they went to the same college and graduate school). Mandy is about the only girl Steve really talks to at the beginning of the story because he thinks she's 'safe'. She's a bisexual who seems to have more of a preference to girls, and (in his mind) even if she fell for a guy, he assumed it'd be her best friend "Max" because they're so close (they grew up together--- also it should be noted that at the beginning the reason Steve views Mandy as safe is because he doesn't particularly like any of the women he wins over. They just distract him). Originally, I wanted to keep Mandy and Steve as friends. But for some reason, the way I write Mandy... I just keep thinking it seems like the way she talks to Max is different than the way she talks to Steve, but the two are close. I think with this one, because he knew her for a long time, if he said 'I love you' (or just thought it) it'd make sense because they have history, and maybe now Steve has had his head jostled well enough (because if he doesn't romantically like Jenna, she'd still have a big impact on him) to realize his feelings for Mandy. IDK, it just seems like Mandy is the type to have feelings for Steven and not say anything...

So I just want to know what do you guys think? Any advice?