28. Have you ever written a character with
physical or mental disabilities? Describe them,
and if there’s nothing major to speak of,
tell us a few smaller ones.
Well, considering I'm bipolar there's a lot of crazy characters in my stories. I don't always mean to go there, but yay there are quite a few "ecentric" characters. Balthazar is great example of someone who is totally nuts but honestly thinks he's sane. The guy has so many issues, it's not even funny how messed up he is. Which is why he would totally and painfully kill me if he ever met me in person. Also in Destiny (the novel) "King" Gergio is pretty far gone mentally by the time Ketlan actually meets him, and he's actually partially responsible for becomming crazy because Gergio is punishing himself for what he did by very slowly poisioning himself. And France Wah in Pandora's Box is pretty crazy too. I'm not entirely sure what it is, or what happened to her but she doesn't really make sense, likes to blow things up, but she does also have lucid moments.
Then I have characters who seem crazy but aren't. Molly and May seem totally and completely bonkers to everyone, but as the reader gets to know them we realize that M&M are perfectly sane and extremely intelligent and crafty. They act goofy to throw people off. The same is true of Minerva Silverstone, who seems a little off in the head because she often acts bizzare and random, but she just has no problem being herself and enjoys freaking out people who are stupid enough not to know the difference being having fun and being crazy.
I don't have a lot of physical disabilities among my characters, mostly because I don't really know what it's like to only have one leg or be deaf or mute, so I don't think I can accurately portray it. The closest I come is a character from State Line Road - Cecelia C. Montgomery (aka Cece). She's a blind seer who can only see auras, but once she sees a person's aura she knows everything about them including how when and where they die. She had other abilities but I simplified it. Seeing how someone dies, but not being able to say anything (she tried that, it didn't work, and Death got pissed off at her) makes life difficult - far more difficult than not being able to see the world around her. I think I'm doing okay with her character, but I do a lot of walking around with my eyes closed to get a feel of her world when I work on her character.
Some of my characters have phobias and/or allergies that pop up as quirks and randomness, but sometimes end up as big plot points. Turlo, in Pandora's Box, is allergic to mushrooms - especially the hallucinegentic kind, which leads to a seriously bad reaction to a mushroom based hallucinegenic drug that drives him temporarly insane. Balthazar, in Destiny, has a very powerful (almost dibiliating) fear of fire (arsonphobia), which is the only way the heroes can get past him/defeat him, if only temporarily. I know there are other characters with phobias or allergies but I can't think of them off the top of my head. I think someone was allergic to carrots, but like I said I can't remember.
And now I'll leave you with a mini-collage of Cece Montgomery from State Line Road (a part that will hopefully someday be played by Kate Weber):
Hey look! It's me!
ReplyDeleteMore on topic: I'm not sure I've ever written anything about a character with any sort of mental or physical disability. I mean, there have been a few crazies, but nothing well-defined. I've considered writing from the point of view of a deaf or blind person, if only because the sensual descriptions would be entirely different from someone who relies more on sound/sight, respectively.
I look forward to the challenge of someday playing Cece.
Dude, I so want to film State Line Road. I really love the characters and concept. I may just have to finish the scripts and say "F*ck it" to the budget and film it anyway. But we'll see. I know SLR won't happen this year, but I'll film something this year (hopefully Color Me Crazy, but I have to finish the script first)
ReplyDelete