Writing Tips and Reviews

The Serious Topics

I want to talk about this, there are some serious topics that you can integrate in your story but you have to be careful about them. If you do anything wrong, it'll look bad on you.

Suicide:

We all know how hard suicide is in real life and it's the worst thing a person can joke about. We also all hate it when people use suicide as a manipulation tactic, such as "if you don't unblock me I'll kill myself and it'll be your fault." Those people are the scum of the earth and I could only see someone using that in a character as a parody of those terrible people or using it to stop the bad guy. Meaning they're needed to complete a plan and they killed themselves to stop it. You can be creative on that one.

So, how do you write it well? Due to it being such a heavy topic, I don't recommend this for first time writers, but if you're experienced, have a try at it. I suggest looking up the symptoms of depression, then the mindset that a person goes through, the more you understand, the better. Show what the character is going through, how they feel, what they think, and what others think of them. A big part of why people commit suicide is that they believe the world will be better without them.

The biggest thing I think you should do when integrating this topic into a character is make sure you don't come off as making fun of it. Do your research and don't be an idiot.

Mental Illness:

If it wasn't for Kalia making fun of drugs and mental illness, I don't think I would need to say "don't make fun of these topics", but god forbid that girl do anything intelligent so here we are. First of all, don't use mental illness as an excuse, "I just threatened to kill you, but I have autism so it makes it OKAY and makes you the bad guy." It's a reason as to why something can happen, but not an excuse, because that would be enabling behavior, and we don't want that. Unless you're writing a spoiled petulant child, don't do that.

"My soul is shattered", "my mind is broken", "I'm so damaged", treat it like a trophy why don't you? Have you ever heard of Catch-22? To give you all a short run down, if you say you're insane, you're not insane. Do your research, insane people think they're normal but those around them can see they're insane. The dictionary says "insanity is when you do the same thing and expect different results," that's not the best way to describe the illness. I'm not psychiatrist, I'm a writer, let's move onto applying this to characters.

Again, do your research on the symptoms, the behaviors, and the basics. You'll need to know these so you can integrate it into your story. It's easy for kids to be dark and edgy with their "I'm so insane" character, it's hard to write it in a way that truly shows what it's like to have insanity. It's a mature topic for a reason, because you need to know about the illness to write it well. Else you end up like the dark edgy kids, and those are good one time characters, not full time.

Murder:

If it isn't one of my favorite genres, the murder mystery. Shut up, I like Sherlock Holmes, even if he isn't as good as Amakusa or Jeanne.

The topic of murder itself shouldn't be too heavy, since it has its own genre. However, there are those morons who can't write murder well and we need to talk about it. First of all, no sane character just walks up to someone else and throws them off a cliff for no reason, that's bad writing. If you're going to do that, give them a reason. Long time enemies, cheating partner, business reasons, literally any reason at all is better than nothing.

It should be elaborate and hard for the reader to figure out. Unless the murderer is a dumbass, which those do exist. Treat it like a chess game if that helps you. And for the love of everything, don't have a character give out death threats and look all cool then have no one die ever. Things like "she kept killing the guys" or "she shot another guy" is just the worst writing, it's boring after so long of it that people stop caring.

Drugs and smoking:

Would it be redundant to say "do your research?" I think that goes for this entire thing so I'll stop saying it now.

These are ways people escape reality when it gets too harsh. Reasons why it happens and how they deal with it afterwards are up to you. But the dumber you make the reasons, the less serious people will take your character. "Because it's cool", as much as I hate it, is an actual reason kids get into bad things and get hooked. So, I guess this is the only time I'll let that specific reasoning slide.

Self Harm:

Don't make fun of this, if you do, you're an asshole. Don't do it cause "it's cool and my character will look so cool if they have scars from cutting themselves". No, just no, as someone who went down that route, I'm going to tell you now that "because it's cool" is not a reason people do it. Sometimes it's to get rid of the emotional pain, sometimes it's to make sure they're still alive, they can actually die from this.

Making the character "immortal so it doesn't matter what happens to them" doesn't make me invested in them if nothing that happens to them matters. If you go down this route, focus on the emotional aspect rather than the physical, because that way the reader can be invested. But then there are those idiots who use immortality for no consequences so excuse me for expecting good writing.

Look, just don't be making fun of this okay? Don't be making fun of any of these.

Don't do this:

Stabs self.

"What?"

Smiles.

"What?"

Keeps stabbing self.

Abuse:

Whether it's mental, physical, partner, child, abuse is bad. All I can say is that you need to explore both sides, both of the abuser and the victim. Show the characters involved and how they deal with the situation. Give reasons as to why the abuser is like that and why the victim stayed around. Some are children and can't leave, others are adults and feel trapped, that's up to you.

Depression:

What ties these together. Or at least the ones that aren't from peer pressure into being "cool". Depression can be chemical, it can be from peers, it can be from family, people they thought to be friends, betrayal in any form really. Depression is the most common among these, and in today's world, I don't blame people for having it. I wouldn't blame anyone for making a character who has depression and constantly talks about killing themself, because that's a way to vent. It's sure better than "I can't die no matter what (shoots self in head and stabs self) see? I'm immortal!"

If you've had depression, you would know how it feels, how it can lead to suicidal thoughts, how it can lead to drugs, alcohol, or smoking to get away from it, how it can lead to self harm. It's debilitating, and you need to keep that in mind when writing that into a character, put yourself back during that time if you have to.

Conclusion:

This wasn't the easiest part to make, I don't want to restrict you on what you do, but I also don't want you to go so far that you don't know what you're doing. These are real life problems, and making fun of them is just shitty. People who are the "dark, edgy, cool" kids wannabes are the ones who think they can write well with these topics, but they can't.

It takes a mature writer with experience to do these well and in a way that both represents what it's like in real life and has a creative aspect to it. Once you know the symptoms, the treatments, etc. you can shape the character the way you want them to be. The problem only arises when people like Kalia think they're being cool by combining them all to an immortal, invincible, "I'm so cool" character that people get the wrong impression on these topics.

Making them into jokes and attention seeking methods are why some people can't get help, because others think they're trying to get attention. And some even say "go kill yourself then! The world will be better without you," which is just shitty.

AND FOR THE LOVE OF EVERYTHING DON'T ROMANTICIZE THESE, YOU WILL LOOK WORSE THAN GREG.