Afflictions

[SpookyWriter]

Do any of your characters have noticeable afflictions like herpes or another trait of despair or grief that distinguishes them?


af·flic·tion –noun 1. a state of pain, distress, or grief; misery: They sympathized with us in our affliction.
2. a cause of mental or bodily pain, as sickness, loss, calamity, or persecution.


Do you consciously (or not) think of adding an afflicted character to your story?

How do you feel about dramatizing the pain or suffering of another for a story? Or do you?

[underthecity]

Yes, but not a physical affliction. In my story, the actions of my main character cause him to lose his job, then later his wife leaves him.

And when my main character expects unemployment checks, instead he finds out that the company blocked his getting unemployment.

How do I feel about dramatizing this? I feel it's important to the story to show how he caused these events to happen, plus how they affect him and the story. Showing his pain is something readers can identify with.

Losing a job and/or a wife is something familiar with many people. Readers will hopefully be empathetic to the character, while at the same time be saying "You should have seen this coming."

But I've never thought of adding an afflicted character to the story.

allen

[SpookyWriter]

Yes, but not a physical affliction. In my story, the actions of my main character cause him to lose his job, then later his wife leaves him.

And when my main character expects unemployment checks, instead he finds out that the company blocked his getting unemployment.

How do I feel about dramatizing this? I feel it's important to the story to show how he caused these events to happen, plus how they affect him and the story. Showing his pain is something readers can identify with.

Losing a job and/or a wife is something familiar with many people. Readers will hopefully be empathetic to the character, while at the same time be saying "You should have seen this coming."

But I've never thought of adding an afflicted character to the story.

allenI agree. We have the anquish of our afflictions in how a character deals with adversity. Nicely put, sir.

[Haggis]

Would being dead count as an affliction?

[virtue_summer]

My main character is grieving over the death of his wife. It's a major part of who he is in the beginning of the book, causing rifts between him and his mother and him and his son. Seriously, if the character doesn't experience some pain and suffering (physical/mental/emotional) then something's probably wrong with the story.

[RG570]

One of my main characters is a hypochondriac.

[ruecole]

I made one of my short story characters blind. Another had cancer.

There's a guy down the road from us who's in a wheelchair. He's divorced and only sees his kids on weekends. I've often considered writing a story about him.

But mostly my characters have emotional afflictions, not physical.

Rue

[Rolling Thunder]

I currently have a MC who is an alcoholic bent on suicide waiting for a train to run him down.

But, no....no afflictions I can think of.

[Simon Woodhouse]

I gave one of my characters a robotic hand that didn't work properly, and that he couldn't afford to get fixed. It played a large part in one of the subplots. I drew on quite a lot of personal experience (something I don't usually do when writing), to show how having the broken hand affected him. It also helped to introduce a lot of the things that had happened to him prior to the beginning of the book.

[Akuma]

Drug addiction.....



I'm worried, however, that it is too cliche, despite it being necessary for the story.

[Adagio]

Drug addiction.....



I'm worried, however, that it is too cliche, despite it being necessary for the story.

Why should this be a cliche? Leave it there. It's an epidemic worldwide and affects lives. In my WIP one of the characters, the MC's friend, is into drugs. It is necessary for the story and for MC. When MC found out, she was in shock and had to understand her friend's behavior and emotional instability. As a matter of fact, I was thinking to start a thread about cliches used in novels (situations, characters, how to avoid or incorporate stereotypes).

[SpookyWriter]

Why should this be a cliche? Leave it there. It's an epidemic worldwide and affects lives. In my WIP one of the characters, the MC's friend, is into drugs. It is necessary for the story and for MC. When MC found out, she was in shock and had to understand her friend's behavior and emotional instability. As a matter of fact, I was thinking to start a thread about cliches used in novels (situations, characters, how to avoid or incorporate stereotypes).I agree. Drugs kill. Drug addiction is an affliction many writers I found avoid like the plague. But American has a drug addiction problem, so why not write about a character with this problem?

Don't avoid social ills when writing because we do have an obligation to bring these people out into the open so our society knows more of their plight.

Good points!

[thethinker42]

One of my main characters is blind.

[KiraOnWhite]

My characters' afflictions are usually dramatized problems of the general youth, such as the differences between the social classes ( jocks and nerds :P) and true acceptance. Guess this might help readers to relate to them and learn how to handle their lives better...since several of my characters are based on the people I hate and how I can see them truly develop into a better person.

[Sohia Rose]

My main character's affliction is her paranoia. She over analyzes everything. Plus, she's pessimistic; she looks for the worst thing that could happen in a scenario. This adds humor, or so I'm told.

[Andre_Laurent]

My mc has a really bad case of vampirism. Does that count? :D

Just for fun, I gave him a panic disorder. That might count.

[Pagey's_Girl]

I've been playing with a story where the MC is in a wheelchair.

I don't know if it's an affliction, per say, but one of my other characters has synthesisa (That's probably misspelled, I know.) Hers manifests mostly as seeing letters in a rainbow of colors rather than black and white - which causes some rather unusual problems when she color-codes all the files in her office by her own personal color wheel rather than any "logical" alphabetical order and her husband has to try to find something.

[MidnightMuse]

I personally find characters that are perfect in every way both physically and mentally, AND ones who never make a bad decision or have any regrets, to be too boring and vanilla to tolerate.

No one in real life is like that - everyone has something up their butts - so I like to write characters with issues. Usually it's a little personality flaw, an insecurity or emotional baggage they don't know they're carrying - maybe they make a wrong decision along the way and have to suffer (and overcome) the consequences.

Now and again I've tossed in either drug issues or I let them smoke too much (but those of you who smoke probably don't see that as a character issue!) :)

[Shadow_Ferret]

My MC is very shy around women. He battles demons and other supernatural entities, wise-cracking all the time. But stick him next to an attractive woman and he goes into a shell.

[CaroGirl]

Yup. I have a major character who suffers from alopecia universalis (total hairloss), and she's a woman.

In my latest novel, I've decided my MC does not speak. THAT should be quite a challenge!

[Summonere]

Almost all of them, yes. Madness. Mutation. Physical deformity. Narcissism. Self-centeredness. Bastardiness. Variations thereof...

The aim has been to create interesting stories populated with interesting characters. Abnormal characters have thus far held more appeal than normal ones. Sometimes the afflictions are intentional ones aforethought, but mostly they're simply components of characters as they arrive onstage. Dramatizing pain and suffering, by the way, is part and parcel of the kit -- though this pain and suffering need not be centered around the aforementioned afflictions. That is to say, the pain and suffering is less the result of the existence of the afflictions and much more the result of what the characters make of them, or how they let those afflictions rule them.

[AndreaGS]

One of my main characters suffers a drug addiction, another is an alcoholic, one loses his hand near the end of book 1, one has permanently disfigured fingers, one is basically undead. That's all I can think at the moment.

I think burdening your characters with afflictions makes them that much more interesting. These kinds of things happen to "real-life" people, so why not to characters?

[Tornadoboy]

My female protag suffers from a number of anxiety disorders, with social phobia being the most significant, although she lives in denial of just how dysfunctional she has become. To the casual observer she would come across as being a reclusive, needlessly hostile snob, and on the surface she would seem every bit the workplace bit*h we have all known at some point. But what I would like to slowly reveal to the reader and my male protag is that in reality what is really going on within her is reactionary defensiveness, because she has developed neither the social skills or ability to trust that most people take for granted, it is as debilitating to her well being as any physical handicap would be. I'm hoping that by keeping her a walking contradiction like this she will be a lot more interesting and sympathetic than someone completely introverted whom barely speaks at all, which in the real world would probably be more realistic given her problems.
What I want to explore with the story is just how quietly devastating and misunderstood these kind of psychological problems can be, but also how it is ultimately up to the sufferer to take responsibility for themselves in order to recover.

[MightyScribbler]

I have characters with drinking or drug problems. I have violent characters, huge ego characters, easily manipulated characters, etc. I also have one character who was beaten severly and frequently while growing up. With no medical attention he is not easy on the eyes.

It's essential for me to point out the character's flaws and create situations or scenarios where they're too drunk or have to big of an ego to notice danger. Flawed characters are fun to write about.

[CaroGirl]

Flawed characters are fun to write about.
Flawed characters are much more fun to read about too. And are more believable. Perfect people are boring and don't actually exist in nature.

[Adagio]

One of my main characters is blind.

Am I wrong assuming that it's hard to write from a blind person's point of view? My second major character in my story is getting deaf, and this is the end of his career. I did a lot of research in hearing loss, tried to put myslef in his shoes ... I find it difficult. Often times I wonder what am I getting myself into. I wish to make him a normal guy ... yet, he speaks to me but doesn't listen to me (or doesn't hear me). The character wants his affliction! It's hard to keep a balance and not to succumb into sentimentality. Restrained emotions, not melodrama.

[BlueTexas]

Two of my characters have mental illnesses, one more serious than the other.

Is it possible to write an interesting character that isn't flawed in some way?

[platedlizard]

Depends on what story I'm working on. I have a short attention span :D

My current WIP features a heroine who has been depressed all her life (due to an unfortunate childhood), and so doesn't realize that she's depressed because being unhappy and scared feels normal to her. Also, she's badly adjusted to her powers (she's a mage) because of it, and trying to hide it because it's dangerous. In general, she's pretty damaged. The challenge with her is to keep her from getting too emo, really. The hero is a much more positive person, but he gets seriously injured early on. So far, at least. I'm still working on my first draft so all that can change.

I have another story in which the heroine was genetically engineered, illegally. She's not in trouble with the law, but her creators are. She's actually pretty healthy, all things considered, but does have the teenaged holyshitzpeoplearelookingatme!!! thing magnified to the Nth degree. Great big rainbow colored wings don't make you invisible so she's very body-conscious. That, and her driving instinct to learn how to fly (foster family clipped her wings for her own good) make her edgy, but nothing that's too far beyond the usual teenage angst. A little maturity, plus growing her feathers out and learning to fly, will even her out.

Most of my other stuff doesn't have any damaged characters at all, really.

The main problem I have with afflictions is that they can become shorthand for getting the reader to sympathize with the character. It can excuse all kinds of bad behavior on the part of the character, for example, a hero who is a complete asshole gets excused from it because his wife died. Afflictions can also replace, instead of adding to, character development. I know this is the main problem I'm having with the first story, which I hope to fix in my next draft. (I'd fix it now, but if I start doing that I'll never finish this thing).

Basically, afflictions are like anything else in a character, it has to add to the story, otherwise why stick it in? If it doesn't add to the story then it is distracting from it, and that could easily turn off the reader, as opposed to bringing them in.

[IrishScribbler]

My MC struggles with mental illness and self-mutilation. That's what the story is about, so obviously it was a conscious choice.

[thethinker42]

Am I wrong assuming that it's hard to write from a blind person's point of view?

It's VERY difficult. VERY. Wicked difficult.

I started out doing it as an exercise in descriptions using the other senses -- I found I was relying to heavily on visual details. So, I did a short vignette from this character's perspective. Then I started to really see (ha! no pun intended) a story, and developed it from there.

It's been a valuable exercise in sensory details, but trying to get through an already-difficult scene WITHOUT using visual details...well...let's just say it's also been an exercise in teaching my cats how to swear. Loudly. It's a good thing I don't have kids yet...

[Adagio]

It's VERY difficult. VERY. Wicked difficult.

It's been a valuable exercise in sensory details, but trying to get through an already-difficult scene WITHOUT using visual details...well...let's just say it's also been an exercise in teaching my cats how to swear. Loudly. It's a good thing I don't have kids yet...

:roll:

[janetbellinger]

It's certainly interesting to see the special challenges of the blind. I don't know any blind people but one of our dogs is almost blind so that if one of the other dogs challenges her, she can't see what's happening. So it's not only danger from objects you are battling, but perhaps emotional danger as well, as you wouldn't be able to read people's expressions and react accordingly.

It's VERY difficult. VERY. Wicked difficult.

I started out doing it as an exercise in descriptions using the other senses -- I found I was relying to heavily on visual details. So, I did a short vignette from this character's perspective. Then I started to really see (ha! no pun intended) a story, and developed it from there.

It's been a valuable exercise in sensory details, but trying to get through an already-difficult scene WITHOUT using visual details...well...let's just say it's also been an exercise in teaching my cats how to swear. Loudly. It's a good thing I don't have kids yet...

[thethinker42]

It's certainly interesting to see the special challenges of the blind. I don't know any blind people but one of our dogs is almost blind so that if one of the other dogs challenges her, she can't see what's happening. So it's not only danger from objects you are battling, but perhaps emotional danger as well, as you wouldn't be able to read people's expressions and react accordingly.

My dog is almost blind too, so I watch how he relates to things (blind pug + 5 cats...yeah, welcome to my world...).

I've actually tried "looking" at the world through my character's perspective. I'll put on a pair of sunglasses (so no one looks at me like I'm an idiot), and go to the mall or the park and sit or stand somewhere with my eyes closed and try to figure out what's going on around me. Very effective; you'd be amazed what you can pick up around you after several minutes with your eyes closed.

This technique has been less than successful on the freeway though. Which reminds me, I need to call the insurance company about that accident...

[kdnxdr]

My MC has amnesia and is homeless.

[janetbellinger]

I particularly like to read about afflictions when the afflicted character comes across as a hero intead of as a pitiful person.

[SpookyWriter]

I particularly like to read about afflictions when the afflicted character comes across as a hero intead of as a pitiful person.How's that work? Do you have any examples?

[Gabriel]

My character suffers from depression, harbours a large distrust of everyone and doesn't care much about anyone other than his dead wife, this is also his motivation in the entire novel, not the fact that the entire human race will be wiped out if he fails though he does hate injustice. He's such a conflicted git.

[kbax]

You guys got me thinking about my own (not my characters') interesting affliction, and it's making me sweat.

Literally.

I have hyperhidrosis, which is excessive sweating. There are four areas that are usually affected--hands, feet, underarms, and scalp--and I have three of them. The funny thing about it is that if I think about sweating, I start to sweat. My hands are glistening already.

SO...thanks. :tongue

[KimJo]

My YA series is about a group of teenagers with psychic abilities who fight against the forces of darkness who are trying to tip the balance of the universe. One of the main characters/narrators is a boy who was physically and emotionally abused by his mother because of his abilities. He was taken from her at age five and put in foster care. Though his foster mother adopted him and has treated him wonderfully, at age fourteen (when he first enters the series), he doesn't trust anyone, least of all himself, and barely even talks to anyone other than his adoptive mother. He's picked on at school, and his stepfather despises him. But when he learns about the force of darkness that has been taking people from his town and discovers that it's targeting a girl who's trying to become his friend, his first instinct is to fight it, even though doing so means using the abilities he's tried not to have for most of his life and even though he doubts he'll be successful.

[SpookyWriter]

You guys got me thinking about my own (not my characters') interesting affliction, and it's making me sweat.

Literally.

I have hyperhidrosis, which is excessive sweating. There are four areas that are usually affected--hands, feet, underarms, and scalp--and I have three of them. The funny thing about it is that if I think about sweating, I start to sweat. My hands are glistening already.

SO...thanks. :tongueYou're quite welcome. Now dry off and get back to writing. :D

[Penguin Queen]

Would being dead count as an affliction?

:D Now a dead character... that I imagine quite interesting. (Actually... I have this idea in my head of a MC in a coma, but I digress...)

In the mystery novel Ive just finished, the MC has a 'mild' case of multiple personality syndrome. Is that an affliction?

[Old Hack]

I think everyone has an affliction of some sort, it's just that they are not always thought of as afflictions. Tinnitus, anxiety, all those things. They count. And are common.

I've an autistic character, who is proving fascinating to write. He is so particular! And makes such odd connections. He's very immediate. It's wonderful, writing him.

And, incidentally, for someone (sorry, can't remember names) I'm a synaesthete. I see black text on white paper as having rainbow-coloured haloes, and when I'm tired, the letters jiggle about and are impossible to read (but that is probably the dyslexia). I also see sounds as different coloured shapes, and see time as shapes too (a year is an oval with a bulge at the bottom where summer is, days of the week are a brightly-coloured banner...). Just make sure the colours are consistent, and don't change from scene to scene, because they're always the same. So, squealing brakes are always, for me, a silver zig-zag which I see somewhere above my right eye, about two feet away. And kettle drums are slowly-exploding upright ovals, with darker edges, in the same zone. The linked vision never changes. That's very important!

[Alan Yee]

I've an autistic character, who is proving fascinating to write. He is so particular! And makes such odd connections. He's very immediate. It's wonderful, writing him.


I'm mildly autistic (Asperger's), and it seems I unintentionally made my demon-blooded characters have some autistic and/or bipolar characteristics. The full-blooded demon father with two distinctive personalities was actually an exaggerated version of a trait of my own. My characters have changed, showed different sides of themselves, and amazed me as I've been working on it. .

[Michael Dracon]

Two of my MCs lost their parents in a fire. One of them will become a firestarter later on in the novel.

Suffice it to say she's pretty reluctant with using her powers. And that's what makes it fun to write and hopefully fun to read as well.