#protagonist with ocd

[incompleteninny]

The sixty-eighth free, unedited chapter of my upcoming book, “The Heist at Cordia Aquarium” is now available on its website (or click here to read from the beginning).

Valerie's office is foreboding at night. Shadows creep down the walls, cast by the vines of plants. Tons of them — nestled in pots — dangle from the ceiling by chains. At the slightest shift of air, they sway and their chains rattle, filling the room with a haunting melody. The melody of a a gaol-bound lich; of armored skeletons marching.

It sends goosebumps crawling over Avery's skin and resonates with the pain of her dislocated shoulder. She sinks further into the sofa — unable to do more than exist. I'm safe here. I'm safe.

Her usual internal contrarian fails to prod her: maybe it's too exhausted to carry on torturing her. Still, her thoughts aren't silent. They wax and wane, just like the moonlight outside shimmering through shifting clouds. Hazy, ethereal, unstable. Teasing the outskirts of sleep.

With a few more seconds, she's gone. Falling through her mind. She jolts up, out from the depths of the cushion's warmth and onto the edge of the sofa. No! I can't sleep. Not yet. Not until the police get here.

[...]

This week, how about we repost this bisexual disaster’s character concept sheet?

#I'll cram so many D&D references into Avery's chapters that you'll start to wonder if you're reading a source book. #btw I saw the final line work for the next art insert and it's going to be Amazing #I can't wait for it #but I also can't wait for all the rest #but I also have to #so I guess I shall flounder here in my puddle of excitement #anyway book tags #bisexual protagonist #protagonist with ocd #wlw #queer author #queer lit #queers are lit

[dirty-bear-rick-sanchez]

Rewatching Inside Job and I forgot how much I love Reagan

#inside job #reagan ridley #andre became my favourite after the flat earth episode so i always focused on him #bc i like that he has ocd/anxiety (even though it’s kind of made fun of) #i hope we get to see more of that in s2 (but played a bit more seriously) #but anyway i love reagan! #we stan an autistic asshole who’s a mess #also i know i shouldn’t compare it to rnm all the time because i’m sure they’re sick of that comparison #but she honestly does feel like if beth was the protagonist of rnm #like we still get that drunken genius asshole thing that everyone loves about rick #(including me) #but they’re definitely more sympathetic characters #also i like that reagan’s character is very rounded and more realistic? #like she is a bit of an asshole but also she is just genuinely socially awkward #also she’s a mess and it’s not romanticised or anything #idk i can’t explain myself #but i do love inside job #and i love reagan

[rat-presenting]

doing so fine but then, the horrors,

#not art #textpost #the horrors are mentally illness obviously #I’m not a cool tortured gothic novel protagonist I just have ocd

[qbdatabase]

Daily Book - Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute

Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute Talia Hibbert YA Romance, 2023, 336 pg black bisexual male MC with OCD x fat black straight female MC

Bradley Graeme is pretty much perfect. He’s a star football player, manages his OCD well (enough), and comes out on top in all his classes . . . except the ones he shares with his ex-best friend, Celine.

Celine Bangura is conspiracy-theory-obsessed. Social media followers eat up her takes on everything from UFOs to holiday overconsumption–yet, she’s still not cool enough for the popular kids’ table. Which is why Brad abandoned her for the in-crowd years ago. (At least, that’s how Celine sees it.)

View On WordPress

#Talia Hibbert #Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute #2020s #300 pg #enemies to lovers #female protagonist #friends to lovers #lgbtqia #male protagonist #queer books #romance #YA books #daily book #bisexual #bi rep #OCD rep #black rep

[frankotalk]

im having so much fun writing cadet because hes just like this every day

#i love the kubrick stare its just the ocd stare to me #also i think in the end making caddy lamb a VN is the right idea because its a little easier to imply things about the characters this way #like you play as cadet so you have access to his journal and you can read it if you want to learn more about him #and when he experiences intrusive thoughts its a lot more personal and you are trapped in his head because he is the protagonist #and it makes the pious route a lot more interesting because you arent in his mind anymore but hes a lot more open about what hes thinking #but you also arent getting the full scope hes just kinda crazy and you deal with this explosive guy who let his anger issues take over #im just very invested in the ways in which i can convey what its like to have this shitass disorder #like making compulsions a thing that you have to actively choose not to do #and even if you consistently dont do them the options never disappear you just always have to say no #or give in and it doesnt make much of a difference #not so much that it ruins the player experience but just to make it apparent that it is an active battle to just be normal for 2 seconds #urgh i really am getting excited about this because it feels like im finally gonna be able to share this story #and actually be responsible for portraying a character with ocd who isnt like. a square who keeps things tidy. or whatever #not that its gonna be a complete game changer or even be noticed at all #i just need to put this story out there for myself more than anything to be honest

[throwupgirl]

i think dean winchesters great bc hes one of the few tv show protagonists who so clearly has ocd but bc hes poor and their dad has never taken them to a doctor once hes never been diagnosed and he just goes this is normal. im normal. everyone ELSE is the problem and should simply think like me (letting anyone else pick the music in my car will instantly make the world explode. no i cant explain how)

#mosts #spn #AND its trauma induced from being a parent since age. 4

[3hks]

How to Create a Unique Character

As authors, we should want our characters to stand out, to be unique, and to have an everlasting impression on our readers! However, there are simply too many other characters out there to make our creations one-of-a-kind. But in this post, I'll give you some ideas and tips you can use to create a memorable character!

What really sticks out about your character? Appearance wise, it's admittedly easier if your character has some truly unique features, such as heterochromatic eyes, scars, different hair color(s), accessories, etc. If your character doesn't have anything too distinctive about them, then pick out some of their most important traits and embellish them! Notice that I said important, the features that matter to your character should matter to the reader. And finally, if your character is simply just average, then state that. Take time to really describe your characters and the respective parts of them!

What about their backstory? Honestly, a backstory can do a lot! They can change the readers' perspectives on the character and provide reasoning for their actions. With that being said, a backstory can really stick to the audience, so let your imagination run wild with their past! Naturally, you should decide on what influence their background had on them and build a story around that. Does your character live in an orphanage? What type of orphanage is it? What did they learn from it? For quite some writers, their main characters are orphans, but how did they become one? I'm going to be honest here, it's rather common for authors to have their protagonist watch their parents die, and have their motives built around that. Don't just settle for something bland! If they have been through some sort of traumatic experience, depending on the situation, I suggest involving that character, make them a part of what they went through, more than a simple bystander. Maybe they could've helped, but didn't, and that regret was what changed them! If you want your character to have an impression on your audience, the backstory is a part of the foundation for that!

What about their emotions? For a mentally healthy character, this is a pretty obvious answer: they are perfectly cognizant of their feelings and accept them. However, I suspect that most of you won't create a mentally healthy character, and that might work to your advantage! Think about how they would deal with these three feelings: sadness, anger, and stress. Does it differ from a "normal" person? Then at some point, include your character battling one (or more) of the emotions they find it difficult to deal with! How they respond will stick out to the readers!

What about their mental stability? Does your character have some sort of mental health disorder? These don't have to be flat-out depression, but can include OCD, mysophobia, (more commonly known as germophobia) anxiety, ADHD, etc. A disorder or obsession will definitely make your character stand out, but make sure to do some research on the topic! Mental health is no joke; some people may actually have the disorder, and falsified facts could really be offensive.

And lastly, what about their own, private problems? For example, a character's significant other has been distracted with work, and doesn't pay much attention to the former character. Thus, they feel abandoned and not prioritized. How does the character fight to overcome those feelings? How a character feels in specific events can reach out to the reader because they find it relatable!

These are some things to consider when creating a unique character! Every little part counts!

Happy writing~

3hks ^^

#writing #writeblr #writerscommunity #writing tips #writing advice #writing inspo #creative writing #how to create a unique character #unique character #how to make a character stand out

[the-maddened-hatter]

Honestly Monk was SUCH a good show for me to see as a young teen I'm ngl. Like yeah, it's not an overly accurate representation of OCD and I'm sure there's things that probably didn't age very well, but OH MY GOD can you even comprehend how amazing it was to get to see a canonically disabled, ND, and, more specifically, PROFOUNDLY ANXIOUS badass main character when you're a freshly diagnosed autistic & anxious young 12-13 year old with the only real advice from a crappy psychiatrist being to "learn to step out of your comfort zone or consider beginning prescription medications."

To get to see "do it scared" depicted in cinematic action in both heroic and relatively mundane contexts. A touch-averse, routine adhering, socially awkward, sensory issue having character as a SMART AND COURAGEOUS PROTAGONIST!

Hell, it was pretty amazing (for me at least) to see a character use those disinfectant handwipes every episode! I have severe food allergies and I have to carry a pack or canister with me for when I need to eat in town or when I've had to go into a grocery store and now that there's a pandemic and food allergies are rather more of an understood issue it's not all that weird a thing to have, but at the time it was definitely yet another step apart from peers and by god was it awesome to see a (again, smart and awesome) character use them too, even if it wasn't for quite the same reasons.

There's things that took longer to germinate too (and tbh still are).

That you don't owe people being "normal and easy". Yes, you have to be cognizant of their needs, boundaries, and how your behavior affects them, but it's still okay to need help and to do things in odd ways and have unusual needs.

That sometimes you're going to fail, do things badly, not be able to be as reasonable as you logically know you should. That logic can't always beat fear even when it should, and that it doesn't make YOU a failure, it means you have to try again another time or try differently.

And that sometimes people aren't as good for you as they seem, no matter how much history you have, and it hurts, it truly does, but sometimes it leads you to connect, by pure chance, with a compassionate stranger, and time will make the disparities between them clearer to the point that when you look back you don't know how you ever thought they were your ally just because they put up with your problems

#monk #adrian monk #monk tv #tony shalhoub #nerodivergent #autism #anxiety disorder

[thefiresofpompeii]

sometimes ‘unreliable narrator/pov protagonist’ is just ‘narrator/pov protagonist that is suffering from mental illness’. hill house reread and i’m thinking yeah, nell is unreliable to an extent, sure, because the house has chosen to fuck with her specifically as a scapegoat/‘fear condenser’ (crude, i’m aware. i’m not writing academically right now, sorry) for the others, but also this is just. eerily close to how a person with severe social anxiety experiences the world around them and social (friendly) interactions through the lens of their disorder, even without the irresistible influence of vile and deranged architecture. speaking from experience. it’s the same with merricat and ocd but i’ve already talked about that i think and plus she is the actual narrator

#+ social anxiety does not appear from thin air. in most cases it is the logical extrapolation of previous unfortunate experience #i really need to read the shirley jackson autobiography at some point #thohh #jamie.txt

[punkeropercyjackson]

Children's media can absolutely and does radicalize kids when written correctly,it's just that shitty bigoted adults in fandoms deliberately misenterpret their messages and trick them into believing they're canon and that's how we got here.Bleach had Ichigo be a goth punk dude who's a fantastic older brother and choose his female love interest because she's his best friend and he finds her weirdgirlness to be enchanting which is good rep for us because being punk is about nonconformity and so is the fact that he never joined the military system his species was largely a part of because he didn't give two shits about them but over half the fandom is convinced the mangaka is a 'sellout' and 'pandering' for not making him essentially a paranormal cop for the sake of pairing him up with the fem mc that he has a familial and queerplatonic relathionship with as confirmed by the aformentioned mangaka

Pjo had Percy hate the gods as much as Luke does and act on it too but directly TO them instead of grooming younger halfbloods to work for him as soldiers and in fact he basically adopted every one of them he came across as his siblings and pseudo-kids and this is explicitly framed as why he's a hero and Luke's evil but you see nonstop erasure of his anti-corruption and anti-authority mentality and direct action despite being his core character traits to make him more palpable as an 'average fantasy protagonist' when the point of him is that he's not normal in any way

The Owl House had 3/5 of it's mcs be poc with the two white ones being an autistic and ocd lesbian and the other a disabled boy with zero conventionally physical traits that're never made out to be ugly and the protag is an inmigrant afrolatina girl while the big villain is a puritan colonizer and every single ship on the show is queer including the m/f one and the token white boy has almost all the important characters to his arc being black and the only one who isn't is a fat asian girl who's also disabled but the HUGE amount of positive rep in the show is deliberately taken out of context for bad faith critisism by a bunch of 20/30/even 40 year olds who've never written actual good stories themselves and this includes them adoring and gushing over the colonizer guy while dismissing the poc and women in the cast as irrelevant

Across the Spiderverse had an EXTREMELY black in every way character literally named SpiderPUNK who makes his beliefs clear in every single one of his lines and isn't all talk for a single second but he's reduced down to 'annoying edgy older brother figure' and made to listen to Taylor Swift and go to Hot Topic and called 'obviously a skater boy' and every other poser punk trope in the books

Atla had Aang and Katara be a gnc boy of a lesser known type of asian race and Katara a brownskin native girl that reclaims femininity for herself with their character drives being to save the world with Zuko's arc hammering it in again and again that while he always had good in him,he WAS evil,he DOES have a lot of bad traits and that made him do a lot of bad things and THAT'S why he needed a redemption arc to be a hero but Aang gets called racist for following the buddhist belief that in-universe he was sole remaining follower of that killing humans is bad,Katara gets adultified and stripped of her actual personality to make her just 'hashtag relatable teen gurl' and Zuko gets infantalized and upholded as the least problematic character in the whole show

And my last and not quite like the rest example is Harry Potter,including the spinoffs and fanon.Everything in it is neoliberal bs and the fandom just made it worse-Oh,the house that's a metaphor for fascism and white supremacy legacies?They're just misunderstood little babies and every minority-coded🥺The lower class family who canonically were Jkr's best attempt at good people that still flopped?Awful homophobic bastards😡All the female characters?Perfect slay 'You can't sit with us' girlboss,precious little baby angel who can't tie her shoes without her reverse harem's help or manipulative self-obsessed hyperfemme pick me,those are the only three categories they can ever fall in.Marauder's Era not only existing but being very,VERY popular is nothing but whiteness-What is there for you to be attached to there exactly?With the canon cast i can least see why you'd have nostalgia but M Era is literally nothing.You just CHOOSE to pick a franchise that's violently bigoted towards basically everyone and who's creator actively influences and helps caused that hurt irl oppressed groups instead of making ocs since you're already building them from scratch anyway

It's not the fault of actual good creators and especially not kids in fandom that grown ass bootlickers couldn't accept that their precious 'escapist comfort media' isn't apolitical at all instead of absorving it's messages like they should have since they have no care for other people despite insisting how kind and unproblematic they are

#kidcore tag #ichigo kurosaki #ichihime #percy jackson #anti luke castellan #tyson pjo #bianca di angelo #nico di angelo #hazel levesque #luz noceda #willow park #gus porter #hunter noceda-deamonne #huntlow #hobie brown #atsv #spiderman #punkflower #aang #katara #kataang #zuko #anti zutara #anti harry potter #pastel punk tag #bleach #pjo #toh #atla geekery #summerposting

[waitingforthesunrise]

TODAY IS THE DAY I START WRITING MY NEW WIP OFFICIALLY yes I have multiple scenes fully drafted but no official beginning. I am so jazzed about this fr….we’re looking at a fantasy world on the brink of modernization facing innovations in culture and warfare. A female, neurodivergent, bodyguard, Paris Paloma coded queer protagonist with OCD. a hero x villain, bodyguard x royalty, enemies to lovers + daggers and banter and Hozier romance. Queer, PoC, mental health, disabled rep. And yes. There’s also a lesbian knight/princess pairing (and they aren’t the good guys.)

#This is me hyping myself up lol

[incompleteninny]

The forty-eighth free, unedited chapter of my upcoming book, “The Heist at Cordia Aquarium” is now available on its website (or click here to read from the beginning).

I went back and forth on the title of this chapter, but I decided that I have the “capital A” Asexual privilege of giving innuendo filled names to totally innocuous things. So this one gets the name “Hot and Bothered”.

Hot, humid air mixes with the sweat of awkwardly arranged limbs under a pile of blankets. Avery struggles. She flails, kicking both her feet with wild frustration. One foot rockets out of the steaming maw of her comforter and fresh, cold air rushes over her body. The relief nearly distracts her from the headache.

Nearly.

She rolls over onto her back and drapes an arm over her eyes. Why'd they have to turn the radiators on tonight?

Outside, the wind picks up in a whistling frenzy. It billows through sheer white curtains set around her desk's open window and dampens the unbearable heat. This'd be the moment to drift off if it wasn't for the headache. She sighs, letting an odd mix of relief and frustration seep out.

[...]

#my nose holes are no longer swollen from The Sickness and I can breathe through my nose #Now I can smell the newly blooming flowers! #not that I will. outside is scary #book tags #queer novel #queer webnovel #protagonist with ocd #big scary thoughts that bully me #among other emotional damage of course

[seeingteacupsindragons]

Perhaps some of you remember that time I wrote up an entire essay for the TVTropes forums to get William cemented as a Magnificent Bastard because you literally have to get fictional characters vetted by people who care an absurd amount about this to add them to the trope page.

I am now back on my bullshit, and just got Albert confirmed (Louis is in the works, but the voting looks good for him so far). I did his write up today and it should be up later this week? I enjoy the short version as well.

And now:

The Work

Moriarty the Patriot is a (very loose) retelling of the Sherlock Holmes stories combined with James Bond set in the late 1800s, focused on Professor James Moriarty and exploring his motivations.

The Character

This post is to open a discussion specifically on Albert James Moriarty, older brother of Professor Moriarty (who we already confirmed) and one the Professor's Co-Dragons. Albert is the original "Moriarty" family member biologically who took the other two in as children, and is the leader of MI6 for most of the series.

Why Is He a Bastard

I mean, he kills his own younger biological brother and his mother by hand and then arranged for the entire rest of his family and servants to die in their sleep in a fire. So like. Is that enough?

He also took two orphan kids in, then basically said, "Hey, in exchange for getting your little brother heart surgery he needed to live, help me murder like so many people. Kthx."

He tends to come off colder than either of his brothers, which is sort of impressive since they're all murderers.

I like Albert, but he's certainly a bastard.

But Not That Bad?

Much like his brothers, Albert is trying in a very fucked up way to improve society by murdering people he thinks are making society worse. He is...trying to help in a Pay Evil unto Evil sort of way.

Honestly, Albert is the Moriarty brother who gets the least amount of sympathy from fans, although this shifted a fair amount after it was revealed he has severely untreated OCD, which is a massive contributing factor to his need to eliminate the hypocrisies of all these abusive nobles who keep going to Christian churches. But it's not like most people with OCD are murderers, so there's a limit to how far this Freudian Excuse is going to take him.

Is He Charming/Magnificent

Albert is, according to an official Japanese fan poll, the second most popular character in the series (second to the protagonist of the series, who won by a landslide). This seems to track from the interactions I've had with people. So people are charmed by him.

Albert is also in the series pretty much assigned to "socialization" on behalf of everyone else. He doesn't seem to really like it very much, but he gets along with people rather well. According to his official character profile, he's still getting asked out and courted even after losing his title and going to prison for the murders, so apparently people are really into him.

He also has a similar flair for the dramatic to his younger brother. This is absolutely a man who is going to revel in elaborate schemes and acting a part. While he often asks his brother to arrange details and plans, he always shows up to convince people that he's just so worried about his kidnapped brother, please help him, and oh, gasp, people have died, how tragic.

But Is He Brilliant?

This, I think, is a key factor in Albert's case here: Most of William's subordinates are very subordinate to him. It's made clear that William expects all of his crew to be able to think and plan for themselves and make their own decisions, but the series doesn't always take time to show that off for everyone. Albert does get that time.

Albert often sees opportunities before he engages William for a plan to make it work. Manipulating Mycroft Holmes into getting MI6 created so he could lead it was Albert's idea, and he executed the plan (and he leads MI6 when it's not doing Lord of Crime business), even if William came up with many of the details to help him out. Albert is the one who sees the potential in Adam Whitley and brings the topic up to William.

Also, Albert was the first person to bring William's dreams of killing nobles and creating a brighter world into fruition and set it into a tangible, real path. He and William are frequently tagged as the only two who originated the entire plan.

Albert is a brilliant opportunist and an excellent man to have making sure everything goes off without a hitch, even if the details of getting things done aren't really his forte.

He's brilliant.

What About His Competition?

Most of the nemeses in the series are focused on William, and Albert is his subordinate. Basically none of Sherlock or Milverton's attention ever splashes Albert's way. The person he really engages with in a competitive dance with is...Mycroft Holmes. And while Albert doesn't exactly win, neither does he lose to Mycroft. They come to a couple of agreements and passes to work together and watch to make sure the other isn't getting in their way.

Verdict:

Yes.

#Yuukoku no Moriarty #Moriarty the Patriot #Albert James Moriarty

[inexperienced-0]

I almost never see OCD or aroace representation in media. When I end up making something, im gonna make the protagonist aroace and have OCD out of pure spite.

#ocd awareness #ocd #aroace #aromantic representation #asexual representation

[lexyychinchillaa]

so i havent really be keeping up with the TOTA Takeover (i was watching doctor who all day everyday) BUT i will do this last one.

i think the show is wonderful. it discusses mental illnesses without making it the entire plot or entire personality of characters. it displays it realistically and doesnt romanticise (by this i mean they didnt just show positive things or ignore it completely) or... obsess over it, i suppose. it wasnt completely focused on the characters "flaws" or illness. while they were mentioned, they actually still made the characters relatable and realistic, as opposed to (imo) Heartstopper, which felt to me like it fetished queer people, but thats a discussion for another day.

it was nice for a change in media, because its not often that you get media from the perspective of someone outside of the mental hospital willingly going inside because they genuinely enjoy being there and the people there. thats one of the reasons i love Eddie, he isnt afraid of what people will say about his new job, or if he is, its not stopping him even though (im pretty sure?) he doesnt get paid for it. hes a kind and lovable protagonist and it was interesting to have his side and opinions on things.

the side characters (i suppose thats what they are) are easy to fall in love with because they have so much depth and are genuinely interesting as a whole. it had, i think, important representation of Rosalie's OCD. it was important representation because it doesnt seem like we get a lot of OCD in media anymore (not that we ever really did, at least not in the things ive watched). i personally dont know much about the disorder but the representation still felt... correct, i suppose, to someone who has little to no knowledge, which is still a good sign because it means it was easy to understand and, yes, still seemed realistic. it was easy to feel bad for Rosalie because of her story and because she was treated and written as a real person.

have you ever watched something and thought, "this character is a bit cardboard-esque"? doesnt it make it tricky to actually feel bad for the character in question? its difficult to sympathise or empathise with someone who is uninteresting or unrealistically written. like in the Twilight movies, for an example. its difficult to feel bad for Bella because shes a kind of basic protagonist. she has simple wants and has simple struggles. whereas in TOTA, the characters have different wants than is usually displayed. like Campbell for example. he wants to be a radio show host and whats stopping him? his struggle to find a place that wants to take him and, i would say, his fathers disapproval. while Campbell isnt openly warm with his father, its still difficult for Campbell to ignore him because its his dad, the man who was there, but not necessarily there for him, all his life. its still difficult to get over someone whos supposed to love and support you telling you that you wont be able to do something.

Campbell is another example of a well written character. it was easy for me to love him, and not just because he was played by DT. he was a funny character without just being comedic relief. his bipolar disorder was displayed well according to me, someone with again, little to no knowledge in the subject. it was nice to have a character who has specific wants that are different from other characters in other medias. he was interesting because he was, say it with me, written as a real person. Campbell was easy to love because he was written and played like someone i would personally want to be friends with. hes funny, caring, friendly, unique, and protective. he sort of immediately likes Eddie and is friendly and talkative with the older man. he doesnt hold back and doesnt bite his tongue when he wants to say something.

TOTA was silly and light hearted while still bringing up important subjects that i dont think a lot of media is willing to bring up. i think, unfortunately, it might have been before its time. i think if it was made recently or in recent years, a lot more people would watch it and talk about it. i think its a beautiful show that, while not laying too heavily on it, discusses mental illness in a positive way. it doesnt act like the characters disorders are flaws, it treats it as something the characters have that might make them unsatisfactory to other people but not like it is unsatisfactory and i think it was lovely.

overall, i thoroughly enjoyed watching TOTA. it was different from most things i watch but not in a way where i was reluctant to watch more and only liked it at the end. i thought the ending was brilliant, even if it wasnt a massive everyone-got-their-way sort of ending. it was honestly nice to have media that had only two characters that i can think of getting what they want. TOTA had some sad parts that were so well written i cried. and if something bad happened to a character (haha... ha... hm), i cared about the character and was upset because they were well written and i loved them.

i know i used the words "well written" and "realistic" so many times, but the main things that struck me about TOTA were those two things. while i love sci fi and fantasy, its nice to have a show that felt real, like it actually happened. i loved the characters and the plot. the writing was superb. its an amazing show that more people should watch.

(hi. sorry if this is terribly written, im not great at these sorts of things. i tried keep it focused but if i ever strayed away from the main point, i apologise)

#tota takeover #tota #eddie mckenna #rosalie garrity #campbell bain #takin over the asylum #francine boyle

[zippocreed501]

AUTHOR EXTRAORDINAIRE

'Respect your characters, even the ­minor ones. In art, as in life, everyone is the hero of their own particular story; it is worth thinking about what your minor characters' stories are, even though they may intersect only slightly with your protagonist's.'

'Treat writing as a job. Be disciplined. Lots of writers get a bit OCD-ish about this. Graham Greene famously wrote 500 words a day. Jean Plaidy managed 5,000 before lunch, then spent the afternoon answering fan mail. My minimum is 1,000 words a day – which is sometimes easy to achieve, and is sometimes, frankly, like shitting a brick, but I will make myself stay at my desk until I've got there, because I know that by doing that I am inching the book forward. Those 1,000 words might well be rubbish–they often are. But then, it is always easier to return to rubbish words at a later date and make them better.'

'Don't panic. Midway through writing a novel, I have regularly experienced moments of bowel-curdling terror, as I contemplate the drivel on the screen before me and see beyond it, in quick succession, the derisive reviews, the friends' embarrassment, the failing career, the dwindling income, the repossessed house, the divorce . . .'

'. . . Working doggedly on through crises like these, however, has always got me there in the end. Leaving the desk for a while can help. Talking the problem through can help me recall what I was trying to achieve before I got stuck. Going for a long walk almost always gets me thinking about my manuscript in a slightly new way. And if all else fails, there's prayer. St Francis de Sales, the patron saint of writers, has often helped me out in a crisis. If you want to spread your net more widely, you could try appealing to Calliope, the muse of epic poetry, too.'

Author Extraordinaire Sarah Waters

#sarah waters #author extraordinaire #writeblr #writing inspiration #writing advice #writing tips #literature #books #tipping the velvet #fingersmith