Teaser Tuesday: Putting on a Show #fantasy #adventure

Posted on April 14, 2020 by Charles Yallowitz

Here is a fun excerpt from Legends of Windemere: Curse of the Dark Wind that might have a little bit of spoiler.  It’s part of a fight scene, so you get to see Sari in action.

Sari is caught off-guard when the chaos elves charge, her mind reeling from the ghost’s final word. The assassins are nearly upon the gypsy when the snow swirls and rises into a wave that pushes them back. Shaking her head clear, Sari darts to the side and hurls a dagger into an enemy’s chest. The others give chase as she uses the snow and ice to glide out of reach, the gypsy never straying very far from her helpless friend. Ducking under a wide slash of a cutlass, she slips her hand into a snowdrift and flicks her fingers. A lance of ice spirals out of the ground and impales the nearest assassin through the throat. Spinning around the falling body, she throws another dagger at a female chaos elf that is approaching Luke. The weapon hits the swordswoman in the head, dropping her at the base of a tree.

“Leave us alone!” Sari desperately screams, charging the nearest enemy.

The gypsy’s opponent parries her stiletto and strikes her in the head with his shield. He hesitates long enough for Sari to drive the hilt of her weapon into his groin. Feeling groggy and her vision swimming, she stumbles away from the collapsing chaos elf. She awkwardly dodges a hurled spear, the crude head grazing her side. The weaponless assassin rushes forward and leaps to tackle her to the ground. He feels his shoulder dislocate when he hits the immovable gypsy, so he attempts to roll away. Before the warrior can get to his feet, the snow around him turns into a toothy maw and swallows him whole.

“Nice spell,” a female chaos elf says, watching her companion cower from the effects of Sari’s illusion. With a muttered spell, a crackle of lightning dances between the woman’s gloved fingers. “Odd that you’re suddenly going non-lethal after killing three of my friends. Are you already weakened?”

“Heat of the moment has worn off,” the champion answers as she circles the caster. “I’m only going to kill the ones that go after Luke. So it’s best that all of you focus on me if you want to survive this.”

“That’s very kind of you, but you’re the one we’ve been sent after. The warrior is not really our concern.”

“It doesn’t mean we won’t kill him,” General Vile announces. The halfling is kneeling next to Luke with a blood-dripping shortsword held back for an easy killing blow. “Drop your weapon and turn on your special power. Stephen wishes for you to suffer before you die.”

“Don’t torture the girl,” the other caster argues. She bravely approaches Vile, leaning forward to whisper. “You told us she didn’t have to suffer. We should simply kill her and leave because the others could return soon. Besides, my queen has a soft spot for this girl and I would hate to be involved in something that upsets her.”

General Vile sighs and lets his sword arm fall to his side, his eye turning to the nervous gypsy. With a swift flick of his wrist, the halfling’s shortsword slices through the chaos elf’s neck. The Eblem poison works quickly and blood gushes from the wound, the woman’s choking gurgles making some spurt out of her mouth. He moves to the other side of Luke to avoid the pooling mess and aims his shortsword at the slumbering half-elf again.

“Do as I say or the same thing may happen to your friend,” Vile says, his voice cold and steady. “I’ve no idea how the Eblem blood will react to the living curse. It could turn him into a monster or grant him an agonizing death. I suggest you not push me to find out.”

“Okay,” Sari replies in defeat. Her body grows a thick layer of frost, but she stops when the halfling clears his throat. “What? You wanted me to use my powers.”

“Not the naiad abilities,” he states with a cruel grin. He beckons to one of the remaining chaos elves, who nervously walks into the open. “You can prevent yourself from being moved, but you still feel pain. Turn that on and let me find out how much you can take. I promise this will be brief.”

“I’m really getting tired of you people torturing me,” the gypsy mutters, snapping her fingers to give a show of her immovability turning on.

General Vile points his finger at the anxious chaos elf warrior, who draws his longsword and takes careful aim. He strikes her arm with the flat side of his blade, which quivers from the impact. The warrior beats on Sari’s limbs and sides while she patiently waits for Vile to call for the painful assault to stop. At the halfling’s request, the warrior attempts a few stabs to her shoulders and knees. The tip pushes in enough to draw blood, but the weapon is shoved out of the wounds by an invisible force. Feeling brave and hoping to end the display, her tormentor slams the hilt of his sword into her forehead. With a surge of anger, Sari draws her stiletto and stabs the chaos elf in the stomach. Both collapse to the ground, but only the gypsy is able to drag herself to her hands and knees.

“I prefer to be quick, but Stephen wanted a show,” the halfling soldier says as he approaches Sari. He kicks her in the head when he gets close, knocking her onto her back. “Now you’re truly defenseless.”

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Check This Out: The Edge of Anything

Posted on April 14, 2020 by Charles Yallowitz

L. Marie's avatarEl Space--The Blog of L. Marie

With me on the blog today is another of my awesome Secret Gardener classmates from VCFA: Nora Shalaway Carpenter. You might remember her from this post. She’s here to talk about her young adult novel, The Edge of Anything, which debuted on March 24. It was published by Running Press Teens/Hachette Book Group. Click here for the synopsis.

  

Nora is represented by Victoria Arms Wells of Wells Arms Literary in association with HG Literary. Now let’s talk to Nora!

El Space: Four quick facts about yourself?
Nora: 1. My favorite food is watermelon.
2. I am a certified yoga teacher.
3. My favorite imaginary creature is a phoenix.
4. My hair is often blue.

 

El Space: The Edge of Anything is very powerful and moving. How did it come to be? What came first—the characters or the plot?
Nora: Thank you so much, Linda. I’m glad…

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The One-Time Use Power

Posted on April 13, 2020 by Charles Yallowitz

Back when I wrote my topic list, I had a bunch of examples for what I’m talking about here, but I forgot them.  Sorry about that.  I did remember one that really brings the general idea to the forefront.  Couldn’t find a video though, so let me example:

In the original ‘Teen Titans’ cartoon, one of the heroes fights the big villain at the end of the season and his body is badly damaged.  Don’t worry because he’s a cyborg . . . named Cyborg.  Not the point.  He’s unable to move until he suddenly realizes the reason the psychic villain can’t control him isn’t because of the tech, but his human will.  So, he suddenly repairs himself by absorbing the surrounding evil, full robot copies of himself and saves the day.  When asked if he’s got new powers, he states that he’s pretty sure it was a one time thing.  In other words, this incredible regeneration ability appeared and will never return.

This is a common trick in stories where the character stumbles onto a power, skill, or tool that is exactly what they need.  It might not be what they use right away, but it comes in handy at a climactic moment.  Once it’s used, the ability or tool disappears.  Sometimes there’s an explanation like it’s a potion or certain environmental factors allowed it to occur this once.  There are also stories where it’s used . . . and nobody ever mentions what happened again.  That guy just unloaded a massive energy wave that turned every zombie into a harmless Go-Go Dancer?  Let’s not talk about such things because then it might have to happen again.

Don’t get me wrong though.  It isn’t always a bad thing and you can make it work if it fits the character.  Being a natural evolution or addition to their already established set of abilities means it’s a possibility.  They could simply not have any idea how to do it again or decide it’s too dangerous.  Again, we find that a reason really should be given.  These are great set pieces to create that ‘awesome’ moment, but some authors tend to forget that things happen afterwards.  Only way to avoid it is if you do this at the finale and never return to the characters.  Totally fair, but it is a shame if there ends up being more that you can tell.

Kind of related is something with video games too.  Ever see a character do something killer attacks in a cut scene or they’re insanely difficult when you fight against them?  Then, you get to use them and they aren’t able to do anything of the things that you either saw or had trouble with.  It’s a major inconsistency and I’m starting to see it in movies recently.  That exhilarating scene in the trailer might not be in the movie, which can be very disappointing.  Sadly, I think many people do focus so much on flash and one-upping the previous big move that they forget to reuse things or carry them over when the situation changes.

So, what do you think about one-time use powers?  Have any examples?

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Mini-Reviews of a Bunch of Anime

Posted on April 12, 2020 by Charles Yallowitz

For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been watching a lot of anime.  Some of it I have mentioned like Fairy Tail, Naruto, and My Hero Academia.  I’ve been watching these series with my son.  They’re fairly big ones too.  By myself, I have tried out a few obscure and smaller ones.  At least, I’d never heard of them before except for one that I don’t think I’ll review.  That one is fairly adult and I went looking out of curiosity because I’d seen so many people say that there was a good story beneath the nudity and sexual innuendos . . . It was okay, but the adult stuff really overshadowed what could have been a fun story.  Oh well.

By the way, I did run into a strange pattern of most of these shows being labeled MA because there was adult themes.  I read the descriptions, which were more adventure and fantasy.  Next thing I know, there’s nudity and harems turning up.  That or nearly every female character was endowed to ridiculous proportions.  Always was that one girl with a small bust too.  Thankfully, most of these spent more time with the story, which overshadowed the adult part.  Still, I know many will have an opinion there, so much of what I’m going to talk about isn’t for them.

Blood Lad

I grabbed this one because it was only 10 episodes long and it mentioned vampires.  The main character ended up have the first name of Charlie, but whatever.  Basically, he is a vampire who runs one of the areas of the Demon World.  A human girl turns up in his territory and he’s attracted to her . . . blood.  Unfortunately, she gets eaten and turned into a ghost before he can do it.  So, he swears that he will bring her back to life . . . in order to have her as a snack.  I liked this series because it had colorful characters that you got a feel for even within the short run time.  Don’t think there will be a second season considering it’s from 2013 though.  Oh, and Charlie is obsessed with manga, especially Dragonball Z.

How Not to Summon a Demon Lord

Another one that I grabbed randomly on Hulu.  After getting really bored with Overlord, I was avoiding this one.  It’s another story where a person from Earth gets pulled into a video game to become their avatar.  Diablo is summoned to the world by two girls who try to enslave him as one does with summons.  The spell backfires and they get bound to him through collars, but he doesn’t order them around at all.  Only to be nice to each other because he doesn’t see them as property.  He still publicly claims they are because the guy is playing into his character of Diablo the Demon Lord who is the strongest character around.  This is similar to Overlord where very few things are a threat, but Diablo has two big differences that hooked.  One is that he seems to have genuine trouble with some of the fights.  The other is that his true personality is that of a severe introvert, so his inner voice is constantly freaking out when in public.  He says the wrong things at time and gets visibly awkward.  There was a lot of sex-based stuff (no actual acts or full nudity shown) that I didn’t expect.  It got really silly at times, but the story and main character were enough to get me through the 12 episodes.

Chivalry of a Failed Knight

It’s a world where some people are able to summon weapons and they become warriors known as Blazers.  He is considered the ‘Worst One’ because he has no magic and only a simple strength enhancing ability.  She is a princess with incredible power.  They are made roommates, he walks in on her changing, they duel, and he shows that he is stronger the rating system would lead you to believe.  Big warning here is that he has a little sister that wants to sleep with him, which nearly made me quit.  Her transgender best friend kept me going because it was really nicely done in my opinion.  They make mention of Alice’s identity and then she’s treated like every other character.  Now, the story is divided into a few sections through the 12 episodes.  The romance between the two leads is fairly fast-paced and took more screen time than I expected.  Thought it would be all about the battles, but most of those were really fast.  I can only think of 5 fights that took up most of an episode.  The rest were a minute or two.  The payoff for sticking with this series was also the dark twist near the end.  The male lead’s past comes back with a vengeance and it was fairly brutal.  Not a bad one that I would like to see a sequel to.

Arifureta

 

This is one that I just finished and it’s another ‘people from Earth being taken to another world’.  This time, a class of kids is summoned to be holy warriors.  Don’t worry.  We don’t really follow that path.  The main character is weak, but tries to help in the big dungeon, but they’re attacked.  During the escape, he is betrayed by a teammate and sent falling to the bottom of the monster-infested labyrinth.  He finds holy water to keep himself alive and eats the monsters to become stronger.  Always makes friends with a vampire girl who he falls in love with . . . I think.  The main character was nice and kind at first, but then he snaps when struggling to survive.  Not crazy, but he goes cold.  All he wants is to return to Earth and doesn’t care about fighting for the gods.  Anyone in his way is an enemy and he’s able to use his original transmutation abilities to create guns, a jeep, a motorcycle, and a vast array of magi-tech items too.  There were times I thought he was too cruel and callous, but that’s because of my own nature.  The writing of a hero who doesn’t give two shits about anyone outside of his circle and being cold-hearted was really good.  Yes, there is the harem side of things and sexual stuff.  I will say that I was happy to see the female lead was the fairly normal proportioned one this time.  Supposed to be a second season of this at some point and I am looking forward to it.  The monster CGI was a little weird and off-putting at times.

Cells at Work

This one isn’t sexual at all.  I watched it all two weeks ago to see if it would work for my son because it’s oddly educational.  Yes, there is a lot of blood when the neutrophils (white blood cells) kill germs and bacteria.  It’s cartoonish levels at times and it doesn’t take away from the story.  Every episode involves a new threat to the body like influenza (episode 3), abrasions (episode 2), and a cancer one.  Here’s the real catch.  None of the characters are named beyond their role.  Red Blood Cell, White Blood Cell, Killer T Cell, Macrophage, and the rest only use their roles as identities.  The narrator and their actions explain their purpose in the body.  Every disease, injury, and effect that is used gets a narrative that tells the audience what is going on.  I read that it’s so good that some colleges put the series on the syllabus for Pre-Med.  My son is enjoying it so far.  A lot isn’t sticking in his head, but he’s getting some of it.

And that’s what I’ve got so far.  Don’t know how many anime fans I have following this blog.  Many aren’t into the stuff that I’m describing too.  Now to figure out what I should watch next.  I only have Netflix and Hulu to work with.  Guess we’ll see what’s on the list.

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A Week of Work, Holidays, Birthdays, and Limited Exposure

Posted on April 11, 2020 by Charles Yallowitz

Another week of schoolwork and housework.  Look, I’ve got very little else going on here since New York is such a mess.  Things were a little easier since our spring break was supposed to start on Thursday and we have holidays.  Next week was said to be a simple week with more fun stuff than strict work.  We’ll see what happens because I think it really depends on teacher.  Many are trying to cut back the workload to give the kids and parents time to focus while others are continuing to barrel forward.  My son has been lucky in that he has been flooded to the point where we can’t do anything fun.  We still get to play time around mid-afternoon, which helps him relax.  That’s what life is now.

Last weekend, I attempted to challenge the stores to get a few things.  I need to figure out a better way to do it.  Liquor store has been the only place I’ve gone to where I don’t feel like I’m going to be infected.  Target had a line because they’re letting a limited amount of people in at a time.  Problem here is that the line goes pretty far and nobody is staying away from each other.  May have begun that way, but people always begin to crowd when patience wears thin.  So, I didn’t even try there.  Ended up at Walmart, which had more than I expected.  Still, there were a lot of people without masks and the aisles are too narrow to always be 6 feet away from others.  That really wasn’t the worst.  Many times, I headed into an aisle and saw someone coughing all over without covering their mouth.  I just turned and got away, so whatever I needed in that area wasn’t grabbed.  Most times it ended up being the same elderly woman too.  In fact, I noticed a lot of elderly here aren’t doing anything to protect themselves.  It’s a little worrisome.  By the time I got home, I was stressed and rethinking my weekend shopping idea.  I might have to do it after I drop my son at his mom’s on Thursday.

I managed to get the first 2 chapters of War of Nytefall: Savagery done last weekend.  I’ve had too much going on Fridays to get anywhere, so it’s really just Saturday and Sunday where I can work.  Thursday is still outlining day since I’m coming down off the workload of the week.  I finished the setup for Do I Need to Use a Dragon? (Tips to Writing Fantasy) and came up with a possible title.  What do you think?  I might make every chapter/entry section a question too.  After all, I’m writing these like blog posts and those tended to be started by someone asking me a question.  I’m going to let it sit for a bit and tinker more this week at night.  My hope is to get 1.5 chapters of Savagery done since I didn’t get my usual time.  There was a lot going on this week.

Passover began and I’m not feeling it.  This is when Jews stop eating leavened (rising) bread, which means no pizza, pasta, cereals, pastries, etc.  It’s difficult enough to do this during normal times, but now we have bigger limitations with the pandemic.  Matzah gets boring really fast and dinners are lacking.  My lunches have usually been rices or soups that include pasta, which get me looks now.  I think I’ll break by Sunday and get pizza just for some sense of normalcy.  On Thursday, I really only had a few pieces of matzah before our cheat dinner for my birthday.  It was Red Robin burgers and an ice cream cake.  That’s not the point.  Before the food arrived, I began getting really dizzy and that kept going until I passed out.  Starting to wonder if I should press my luck this year because it was fairly scary.  Not sleeping well this week probably didn’t help, so I’m going to try to do better next week.

I finished the blog posts for June . . . I’ll start working on July topics when I feel like it.

Got a strange mini-review post for various anime I binged going up tomorrow.

Thinking I’m running to the end of this post.  Getting tired and wanting to curl up for a nap in a bit.  On Friday, I got back to an old project where I made the characters, but not the outline.  This is for the Sin series where I have 2 more core novels and 2 spin-offs to fit into the notebook.  I write these books in 4 Acts because the original concept was heavily influenced by Final Fantasy games that had multiple discs.  So, Sin gets involved in some really big and globe-spanning adventures.  It’s frustrating that I haven’t come up with a good series title and keep calling it ‘Sin’.  Think I made some suggestions to myself last Saturday, but nothing stuck.  Master of Ether or something along those lines may be on the right track.  It is difficult going back to this since it’s been a year.  My hope was to work on it last summer, but that never happened.  Stopped at a crucial point, so I’m relearning the whole thing.  Only thing saving my butt is that this is a rewrite of an older idea, so I have tons of notes to work with.

Goals of the week:

  1. Write a little more of Savagery
  2. Outline more of Song of the Conqueror
  3. Entry titles for Do I Need to Use a Dragon? (Tips to Writing Fantasy)
  4. Schoolwork for me and my son
  5. Fun time
  6. Sleep time
  7. Puzzle time
  8. Brave the outside world for shopping
  9. Okay.  Master of Ether isn’t sitting right.  Dang it.
  10. Watch more anime.
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A Heaven for Toasters: Chapter 10

Posted on April 11, 2020 by Charles Yallowitz

Nicholas C. Rossis's avatarNicholas C. Rossis

A Heaven for Toasters | From the blog of Nicholas C. Rossis, author of science fiction, the Pearseus epic fantasy series and children's book After relaunching A Heaven for Toasters, complete with new cover, I promised to publish it here in installments. Here’s the next chapter.

Note: You can find a link to all published chapters at the end of this post or read more parts on Wattpad.

A Heaven for Toasters

What if your perfect man was a robot?

Detective Mika Pensive has a new partner. He’s hot. Smart. Funny. And an android.

Set in the near future, A Heaven for Toasters is more than a sci-fi crime adventure with plenty of romance and wit. It’s the book that will make you look at your toaster in a whole new way.

CHAPTER 10: Warehouse

4:53 a.m.

“Leo,” I hissed, “you nearly gave me a heart attack.”

He raised his hands in apology. “Sorry. I thought you’d heard me.”

“I was panting too hard for that, wasn’t I?” I gasped. The red…

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7 Tips to Writing Characters with Anxiety

Posted on April 10, 2020 by Charles Yallowitz

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A few disclaimers here because we’re heading into delicate territory again. Eh, I’m just copying and pasting here.  I am not an expert on mental health by any means.  I read up on it and have my own experiences to work off, which is what fuels these posts.  Also, I always try to add some humor into my posts, especially the 7 Tip Lists.  I find that humor can relieve tension and allow for serious stuff to be listened to and swallowed more easily.  So, let’s get to this one . . . Okay . . . Yup . . . Staring it now . . . I’m really twitchy about this one because I’m not striking close to home. I’m hitting the roof dead center.

  1. Like depression and sadness, be careful using anxiety as a synonym for nervous or mixing the two up.  This can be done and I do it a lot too.  A person can be momentarily anxious and that’s fine.  When it comes to the mental illness, it’s much heavier and long-lasting.  A character with anxiety will see a small problem and have a reaction that one could say is ‘too big’ for it.  For example, maybe they are texting back and forth with a friend, but there is a sudden stop.  An anxious person will fixate on it for hours and imagine that they offended the friend, something bad happened, or any number of horrible ideas.  The possibility of the friend being busy, showering, bathroom, phone losing power, or anything innocent doesn’t click very often.
  2. Anxiety can make for awkward social situations, which may be tempting to play up for laughs.  It’s easier to do it for this than depression because people may focus on the physical side to the anxiety issue.  They may flail while babbling or comically rush out of the room in some fashion.  If this is the tone of the story then it can work since the character isn’t the only one being the source of humor.  If they’re the only ones that it happens to then you may want to rethink things.
  3. Panic attacks are a thing and they aren’t pretty.  Stereotypically, it’s shown as hyperventilating and nearly passing out.  There can be more to it and the severity isn’t always the same.  Chest pains, rabid heartbeat, chills hot flashes, and trembling show how some are visible and some are internal.  If the attack reaches the point where the character has limb spasms because of the shaking or even locking up entirely then it shows the severity.  Another symptom is itching, which I’ve noticed getting used in a few recent shows and animes.  The more anxious the character gets, the more vicious the scratching.
  4. Unlike depression, a character with anxiety can voice a source even if it’s something that isn’t a big problem.  The point is that they are worrying about whatever it is that has set them off.  It could be a clear issue like fighting with a loved one or needing to pay bills.  Yet, it can just as easily be that they have a small pain in their arm and start thinking they’re about to have a heart attack.  Could also be the wrong arm for that or it’s clear to everyone else that it stemmed from earlier physical exertion.  Again, a person with anxiety has a high chance of overreacting.
  5. Anxiety hampers the decision-making process.  Once you go past the level of thinking clearly, you can’t immediately reel it in.  So, these characters may have trouble acting under pressure.  They can lock up or focus on a small part of the problem instead of the overall issue.  Yes, the red button to save the world is in the locked safe and it’s good that you know this, but there’s also a fire-breathing dragon, lasers, and a very angry leprechaun that we have to handle first.  Anyway, these characters may be snapped back to attention in some fashion, but it isn’t easy and you need to have them work up to this.
  6. These characters don’t always have to be hyper and constantly talking when they’re really anxious.  In fact, there’s a higher chance of them turning inward because their thoughts are racing.  They are stuck in the avalanche of paranoid thoughts that they no longer realize what is going on around them.  This is not something that should be played up constantly, but it is a possibility.  Don’t use the anxiety to routinely sideline the character for the majority of scenes.
  7. You will probably be tempted to have other characters attempt to calm the anxiety one down.  Go for it, but decide on which tactics will work.  Slapping and being aggressive probably won’t help.  If anything, it will make the panic attack worse because now they’re upset that they made their friends mad.  Positivity without any meat such as inspirational sayings or mindless cheerleading will fall on deaf ears or irritate.  At least, I think they would, so feel free to ignore that one.  Personally, I think having a character softly and gently coax the anxious one out of the attack is the best thing to do if you want interaction.  Physical contact isn’t necessary, but an acknowledgement of emotions and slowly talking them out of the spiral can help even if it takes a lot of time.
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Going from Inspiration to Inception

Posted on April 10, 2020 by Charles Yallowitz

Very cool post.

Staci Troilo's avatarStory Empire

Ciao, SEers. Last time it was my turn, I wrote about the first step in writing your masterpiece—idea generation. Some would argue that’s the most important part. Without that initial spark of creativity, wherever it comes from, there’s no story. But is it the most crucial part? That’s hard to say. If the spark can’t be developed past its initial interesting premise, it’s no more than a compelling tidbit. It may eventually inspire something larger or become a scene in a fully fleshed-out work, but on its own, it’s useless. By all means, save it in your inspiration file, but don’t waste your time trying to turn it into something it can never be.

Easier said than done, I know. If you liked it enough to write it down, you won’t want to give up on it. So, how can you tell if it’s worth working on?

Let me…

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The Big 4-0

Posted on April 9, 2020 by Charles Yallowitz

We interrupt Immortal Wars: The Summoning to bring me a break because it’s my birthday.  I’m 40, which means:

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7 Tips to Writing Characters with Depression

Posted on April 8, 2020 by Charles Yallowitz

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A few disclaimers here because we’re heading into delicate territory.  I am not an expert on mental health by any means.  I read up on it and have my own experiences to work off, which is what fuels these posts.  Also, I always try to add some humor into my posts, especially the 7 Tip Lists.  I find that humor can relieve tension and allow for serious stuff to be listened to and swallowed more easily.  Finally, this is about actual depression and not a character simply feeling sad or upset.  That brings us right to #1!

  1. Depression does not always, in fact it rarely, has a direct source.  Your character can simply go into a depressed state or be there the entire time.  Of course, it can be triggered by something, but it doesn’t always have such a direction.  Good chance that they can’t even explain it.  After all, if you can clearly explain what is causing the problem then it’s much easier to fix.  Wouldn’t that be a nice addition to the depression diagnosis.  Make my life easier.
  2. You really need to make sure that you don’t equate depression with simply being sad.  A character can use the term since people do, but you need to remain aware of what this condition is.  It is INTENSE sadness with a sense of worthlessness, hopelessness, and helplessness.  You feel like the world is crushing you or that it would be better off without you.  This is debilitating and it lasts for days or weeks or months or years to the point where life is difficult.
  3. Remember the symptoms for your character, but they don’t have to be imbued with everything off the list.  Trouble sleeping and low energy can be there, but maybe they mask their depression with a false sense of optimism.  Having a hard time focusing, being irritable, eating disorders, and an inability to gain pleasure or happiness from stuff are possibilities too.  If you slap everything on your character and them handling their depression isn’t the main part of the story then you’re going to run into a lot of obstacles.  So, consider what the story is before you decide on the degree.
  4. For the love of everything, don’t have the character snap out of their depression because a person gave them a pep talk.  That really doesn’t work.  Maybe it gets them to acknowledge the problem and get help, which is a good thing.  On the other hand, it can just as likely make a person feel like they’re not being understood or even mocked, so they curl even further inside themselves.
  5. If you aren’t sure if something falls under depression or not then either do some research or skip it.  This is like any other delicate situation that you’re including in your story.  Sure, instinct and common sense can work if you’re able to imagine what it would be like for yourself.  I do that with some of my things after reading up on the basics and factoring in my personality.  Still, you want to be careful since people will look at this character very closely.
  6. Depression does not mean the character is useless, but good luck getting them to believe that.  They will have moments where they cannot function and may fail because of their depression, which will make things worse.  They can also have times when they save the day and remain depressed.  This is the nature of the illness.  A step forward can have absolutely no effect on their mental state while even a perceived stumble is the equivalent of stepping on somebody’s newborn baby.  Not that thought specifically, but depressed people focus more on what they do wrong than what they do right.
  7. It’s very tempting for some people to use characters like this for humor or to play the ‘negative’ role.  Yes, a person with depression can be a pessimist because they have trouble seeing the positive side of things.  This isn’t always the case.  A depressed character can also be shy and only speak when they muster up a lot of courage to voice their opinion.  There’s a fear of rejection here that can be played out and create sympathy here.  Again, it also depends on personality because some may be more chatty and open because they’re hiding their pain.
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