#and not every mentally ill or traumatised character has to survive their struggle. suicide is human therefore deserving of

[wickershells]

One of the attitudes that frustrates me most about the mainstream response to art these days is the general insistence that it must impart some grand moral lesson or enlighten you to something you did not already know. Art can and very often does exist merely as a reflection or portrayal or expression of something otherwise unseen. You write a poem about grief not to illustrate how to cope with it but to write about grief. To embody the disembodied and make it solid, tangible, palpable

[scripttorture]

(1/) One of my characters has been in captivity for around 4 years. He's been fed properly, allowed sleep whenever he needs it, and has a moderately large cell for him to move around in. For the first 3 years or so of his confinement he would spend 6 or so hours of every day in tests and experiments (he was awake for some, tranquilized for some, and straight unconscious for some). After those 3 years they were finished with all possible tests they could do on him and so he has essentially been

(myconnection died when I hit send on part 2 of my ask so I am reallynot sure if you got it or not, if you did please ignore this, andI've lost my place in my thinking so I'm sorry if this is messy ordoesn't make sense anymore) (2/) after the 3 years of the tests andexperiments, they're done, so they essentially just leave him insolitary confinement. His mental state of course just depletes evenfurther. He physically harms himself [managing to keep it from hiscaptors who have just left(3/If you received the origional number 2 you can ignore this too) lefthim to rot in his cell (which is mid size, not particularly damp, notrat infested, but bare with only a toilet). He continues to be fedproperly and allowed to sleep whenever he needs it but he startsphysically harming himself. [I'm sorry this ask series is quicklybecoming messy, I can't remember what I have already told you]. Afterhis second suicide attempt they decide to bring him a playmate: agirl a few years(4/or 3/ if you received the origional 2). years younger than he is at17. They don't perform any tests on her, she's really just there assomething for him to latch onto. I want them to become close and veryprotective of each other, but how would this sudden introductionaffect him? I imagine he would be skittish and wary, with almost nosocial skills given the length of time and his age, but I'm not surewhich direction to go. Thank you for your patience with my mess!

Noneed to apologise tumblr can be a mess. :)

Oneof the things that’s standing out for me here is the potential todownplay how difficult this would be for both characters. Thatdoesn’tmean they can’t have a positive relationship or be protective ofeach other. And I completely understand how it feels writing twocharacters that you really want to get along.

ButI think given the severity of the situation it’s important toinclude problems and set backs as their relationship develops.

He’sbeen treated abominably and has some very severe problems as aresult. He’s also just had a massivechange introduced to his environment with no warning. She’s beendropped into this, is probably very scared and probably doesn’thave a deep understanding of his health problems. On top of thatshe’s being expected to somehow ‘fix’ him by people she’s nowdependant on for her survival.

They’reboth under a huge amount of stress and pressure when this starts. Andthey’re both traumatised.

Trynot to give in to the temptation to make it easy. Give them the spaceand time to have the relationship develop properly, hiccups and all.

I’vefound sometimes having an end goal in mind for the relationship canhelp writing bits where the characters are struggling with eachother.

There’sa romantic relationship I’ve been writing recently, thesecharacters have known each other for years and had crushes on eachother for about as long. But when they finally start a romanticrelationship it is, despite their best intentions, disastrous.

Oneof the character’s is from a minority ethnic group in the countryand she’s also just had a massive loss in her life. The othercharacter doesn’t realise just how big this loss was, in part bynot understanding the full cultural importance of that relationship.This situation, the first character’s understandable emotionaldifficulties at the time and the second character’s lack ofknowledge about her culture, all form a pretty negative atmospherethat nearly kills their friendly relationship completely.

Andit’s hard writing that, showing things going so badly when you wantor need them to go well.

Butoften in fiction these conflicts are an opportunity to give thecharacters a deeper understanding of each other. They’re anessential part of the process of building a really solidrelationship. Without the arguments and drama those culturalmisunderstandings caused my characters would have carried on with avery shallow view of each other. And that shallow view would haveultimately doomed their relationship.

Withyour story I think one of the key things is to appreciate howdifficult a situation the girl is in.

Theboy has been tortured and from everything you’ve said I think youappreciate how much he’s suffering. But she’s been suddenlydropped into a situation where she’s expected to ‘fix’ all ofthat. Which is a hugely unrealistic expectation to put on anyone.

Theaverage psychologist would struggle in this situation. I think mostpsychologists with considerable experience working with traumasurvivors would struggle. So an untrained teenager in the sameposition- is going to have considerable problems.

Ithink I have… above average experience with mental illness andpeople in distress, considering that I’m a lay-person rather than aprofessional. And some of that experience was gained as a teenager oryounger. But I know I couldn’t ‘cope’ well at that age in thatsituation.

Abig part of this relationship developing is going to be… showinghow tough mental illness can be to deal with without assigning blameto the character for his mental illness.

Dependingon the symptoms you’ve picked out for him he could be incrediblyaggressive, unresponsive, spend hours talking about how awful hefeels/how he wants to die and so forth. That’s hard for the personon the other end.

It’seven harder when she has no way of taking time to herself to unwindand care for herself.  There’s no where for her to retreat when,for instance, talking about suicide becomes too upsetting.

Noneof which is the boy’s fault. But I can very easily see how adistressed child could blame him for his symptoms causing her evenmore distress. And I can see how he’d struggle to comfort herbecause he’s not really learnt how to.

Honestand open communication is part of the answer. That will allow each ofthem to learn what helps and what distresses the other person. But itwill take time and they’ll both still make mistakes. One of thecommon ones I’ve found is assuming that because something helpsyou/someone else you knew with this condition it ‘should’ helpthis different person now. That isn’t always the case.

Therewill probably be moments when one of them feels awful and the otherone just doesn’t feel like they’ve got the energy to ‘deal withit’. But they’re trapped in the same room and don’t have achoice.

Sharedantagonism towards their captors will probably help somewhat. It’sa small piece of common ground.

They’llalso need to learn how to give each other emotional ‘space’ inthis cramped environment. They’ll need to learn to be patient witheach other.

Andwhile the boy will almost certainly have worse symptoms (and the girlwas introduced to help him) I think it’s important to show that heis going to have to help her deal with her trauma sometimes as well.

Todo this sort of relationship justice you need to make sure it has thenarrative time and space to progress.

Ifind that having a plan of attack can help with that. For me thatusually means having a clear idea of how their relationship starts,what I want the end point to be and a couple of key moments inbetween where the relationship shifts.

Someof those might be big blow up arguments that help lead the charactersto more open and honest communication. Some might be quieter momentsof comfort. I’ve found the content and action matters less than theemotional resolution and understanding. Lots of little shifts inperception and understanding gradually getting the characters to thestate you’d like them to be in.

Thesudden introduction is likely to affect both characters negatively.But that doesn’t really have to do with the other person, it’sabout the lack of control they have over their lives and theirenvironment.

Itwould set off the boy’s mental health problems and emphasisefeelings of helplessness they’ll both be experiencing. But that issomething they can get past. It’s a temporary dip caused bydisruption. And any change in routine for someone who is severelymentally ill can cause a dip or low period.

Theexact responses would depend on the individual and exactly whatsymptoms you’ve picked out for them. In broad terms though most ofhis mental illnesses would get briefly worse, there’s likely to bean especially noticeable jump in symptoms related to anxiety,depression and aggression.

Idon’tknow if self harm would increase as a result. It would depend partlyon what’s driving self harm in this character particularly.Essentially this sort of sudden change makes people extremelystressed and when you have a mental illness that tends to manifest inunhealthy ways with an increase in symptoms.

Thisin itself may provide a first moment of understanding in theirrelationship; the realisation that the other person isn’t at faulteven if they’re ‘difficult’ or distressing. The situation isbeyond the control of both victims but they may initially assignblame for it to each other. Reaching an emotional point where theycan accept that isn’t the case is going to be a necessary step. Andhaving it early on may help you set a more positive, healing tone forthe rest of the relationship.

I’dalso suggest including moments which show the characters they canrely on each other for help and support. It would probably take theboy a long time to really appreciate that and have it sink in.Difficulty trusting others would be normal in a child as traumatisedas he is.

Thevillains could be used to help cement that idea by providingsomething they’re both opposed to and working against.

OverallI think you’re approaching this in a good way and I think whatyou’ve got in mind is possible. It’s about structuring and pacingthe narrative to show the emotional work and relationshipdevelopment. There’s a lot to fit in when you’re planning totackle something this complicated. And that’s OK. But it can comewith pacing difficulties; the progress of the relationship stillneeds to be something readers are looking forward to.

It’sa difficult balancing act, including all these elements in a story. Ithink getting some beta readers or joining a writing group could helpyou a lot. Because sometimes it’s difficult to judge if you’vehit the right emotional tone consistently. Readers help with that.

Ithink you’ll also find a lot of good information related to thecharacters’ age groups on @scripttraumasurvivors blog. Almosteverything I’ve just talked about applies to adults as much aschildren. I have much less knowledge about child development andsymptoms or behaviours specific to children thanScriptTraumaSurvivors. Going through their tags on child abuse willhelp you make both character’s responses more age-appropriate.

Ihope that helps. :)

Disclaimer