: Re: What to avoid when writing a villain that is insane? If let's say one wants to portray a villain in a novel that suffers from insanity/psychosis as he has literally lost his grip on reality

Start by defining the insanity. Mental illness is a very very broad field: you need to narrow down what you mean by "insanity/psychosis"; give your character a defined condition, and write him with the correct characteristics and actions for that condition. You don't have to name the condition, or refer to it at all outside of your personal notes; just understand that insanity is not a case of just behaving randomly; there is always an underlying reason for any symptoms.

Pick any insane or troubled character you can think of from literature -- Don Quixote, Hamlet, Moriarty, Scrooge, Eeyore, or many many others -- for all of the good ones, it is possible to read the stories and come to a definitive diagnosis of the character's mental illness.

You need to write your character like that. If you don't, people simply won't connect with the character and will find them unbelievable.

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: Survival fiction-Plane crash logistics In my book, five middle-school students are stranded in a desert when their small plane crashes. The pilot dies saving one of them, and there is no civilization

@Rivera824

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: Writing garbage to see if the characters do something interesting? I need a change ~ 80% of the way through my story. At the moment, I'm just throwing my characters into different combinations

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: Where should I put my tl;dr? By definition TL;DR, short for "too long; didn't read", is Internet slang to say that some text being replied to has been ignored because of its length.

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: Is it okay to use "fell" in one sentence, and "fall" in the next sentence? I am an adoptee writing a story about meeting my biological mother. I had to get on a plane to meet my mother.

: Re: What to avoid when writing a villain that is insane? If let's say one wants to portray a villain in a novel that suffers from insanity/psychosis as he has literally lost his grip on reality

More posts by @Rivera824

: Survival fiction-Plane crash logistics In my book, five middle-school students are stranded in a desert when their small plane crashes. The pilot dies saving one of them, and there is no civilization

: Writing garbage to see if the characters do something interesting? I need a change ~ 80% of the way through my story. At the moment, I'm just throwing my characters into different combinations

: Where should I put my tl;dr? By definition TL;DR, short for "too long; didn't read", is Internet slang to say that some text being replied to has been ignored because of its length.

: Is it okay to use "fell" in one sentence, and "fall" in the next sentence? I am an adoptee writing a story about meeting my biological mother. I had to get on a plane to meet my mother.

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