Timeline for Can I conceal an antihero's insanity - and should I?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
48 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 2, 2019 at 8:27 | answer | added | Stefanos Zilellis | timeline score: 0 | |
| Sep 29, 2019 at 17:28 | vote | accept | Monty Wild | ||
| Sep 27, 2019 at 7:26 | comment | added | Stefanos Zilellis | For a person to hate her kind and within the frame of higher enemy (aliens) there must be good reason to excuse. Female is a good choice, i should add autistic genius plus been black. Scientist and mechanic as skills, and the human community rejects her young age theories and technologies mostly by racism. Then aliens came and events flow. If mankind has adopted her theories and techs, things may be different. Then she finds a way at the refugee camp to develop her first something to begin changing things. 1% of profit is mine :) | |
| Sep 17, 2019 at 11:46 | comment | added | JCRM | Memoirs of a space-tyrant? It's a few decades since I read it, but ISTR it having a similar quirk. | |
| Sep 16, 2019 at 15:00 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/StackWriting/status/1173612650569306114 | ||
| Sep 14, 2019 at 2:45 | answer | added | awsirkis | timeline score: 0 | |
| Sep 13, 2019 at 22:57 | comment | added | kayleeFrye_onDeck | How are you going to write a character doing all these things and somehow misdirect the reader from making the connection to their generalized amorality? Seems a tall order. | |
| Sep 13, 2019 at 22:25 | history | protected | Cyn | ||
| Sep 13, 2019 at 22:23 | comment | added | Cyn | Welcome to Writing.SE Roshan, glad you found us. We have a tour and help center you might wish to check out. We're different from other sites as we're pretty serious about questions and answers instead of discussion. Your answer would be better suited as a comment. I know you don't have enough rep yet to comment, so I'll convert it for you. Look for it immediately after the question. | |
| Sep 13, 2019 at 21:18 | comment | added | Roshan | Have you read East of Eden? Cathy Ames from that book is pretty good at pretending to be sweeter than she is. | |
| Sep 13, 2019 at 14:24 | comment | added | user41196 | @dolphin_of_france I disagree. While I agree that a villain or antihero who believes they are the hero can be very interesting, there are also well-written villains who know that they're doing bad things. | |
| Sep 13, 2019 at 10:51 | comment | added | V2Blast | Reminder: comments are for suggesting improvements to the answer or for asking clarifying questions. Answers should be left as answers, not as comments. | |
| Sep 13, 2019 at 2:15 | comment | added | Jasper | Have you read Piers Anthony's Bio of a Space Tyrant series, Lois McMaster Bujold's The Vor Game, or John Ringo's Prince Roger series? Anthony's Hope Hubris has a similar career, but has empathy. Bujold's Cavilo is a similar character to your anti-heroine, who fails because of this character flaw and too much willingness to change her plans. Ringo's Prince Roger learns "in a hard school" to make harsh decisions; his tendency to do so is lampshaded; and he values advisors who recommend moderation. | |
| Sep 12, 2019 at 20:16 | comment | added | IT Alex | If the PoV is from someone in the inner circle that she has purpose for, They would be able to see the "pretend" side. The twist that changes the perspective later could be when she decides she doesn't need that inner circle anymore. | |
| Sep 12, 2019 at 20:07 | answer | added | Brendon Shaw | timeline score: 1 | |
| Sep 12, 2019 at 18:04 | comment | added | krb | @MontyWild Are you familiar with the phrase "Show, don't tell?" | |
| Sep 12, 2019 at 16:12 | answer | added | Standback | timeline score: 6 | |
| Sep 12, 2019 at 7:34 | answer | added | Stig Hemmer | timeline score: 0 | |
| Sep 12, 2019 at 2:35 | comment | added | Michael MacAskill | "Insanity" is a legal term, and not a psychiatric/psychological one. But if mapping it to psychiatric disorders, it lands closer to schizophrenia and other thought disorders rather than a personality disorder like psychopathy. Insanity (legally) implies a break in perceiving reality: the inability to tell right from wrong. Psychopath's know right what is right and wrong, they just don't care. They have a lack of empathy, not an inability to deal with reality. You probably need to read up more on the terms you are using. | |
| Sep 11, 2019 at 22:49 | comment | added | EvilSnack | His name is Deadpool. | |
| Sep 11, 2019 at 21:14 | comment | added | Acccumulation | "insanity", to me, means a disconnection from reality, not simply having a nontypical neurological condition such as sociopathy. | |
| Sep 11, 2019 at 18:28 | comment | added | Vality | You need not make it explicit the character is a sociopath, merely portray her being unphased by doing whatever she needs to do to reach her goals. This is not obviously insanity and could seem more like a "Templar Knight" trope initially, and perhaps become gradually more clear as it is obvious she isnt scarred or phased about anything she does that her mind is not normal. | |
| Sep 11, 2019 at 18:25 | comment | added | Vality | Its something of a misconception that sociopaths all enjoy hurting people. Although this is occasionally the case (everyone has a hobby) most don't actively desire to hurt people but simply have no objections to doing so due to empathy if it gets them something. You could possibly portray this character as believing "the ends justify the means" but being willing and undisturbed by performing horrific acts to achieve this. | |
| Sep 11, 2019 at 17:58 | answer | added | Michael Richardson | timeline score: 0 | |
| Sep 11, 2019 at 17:55 | comment | added | Monty Wild | She just hurts people, either physically or emotionally, and manages to do so in ways such that others percieve her as having been justified in doing so. | |
| Sep 11, 2019 at 17:53 | comment | added | Monty Wild | Sméagol had multiple personality disorder as portrayed. Not the same thing at all. | |
| Sep 11, 2019 at 17:52 | comment | added | dolphin_of_france | @Monty Wild: oh you mean like... Sméagol? In that case you don't need to hide the fact that she is insane at all. | |
| Sep 11, 2019 at 17:49 | comment | added | Monty Wild | @Alexander, I can't give you a specific comparable real-life person to use as an exemplar. However... she appears to be kind and helpful and loving... but people around her get hurt by her - or even killed - and it's never percieved as being her fault. She's taken hostage by a madman with a gun, and breaks free and shoots him with his own weapon in the process - in front of a cop no less - and is still seen as the victim, even though killing him is unnecessary. She's "raped" by a fellow student and a paedophile, reports them to the police, testifies, and they are convicted wrongly. | |
| Sep 11, 2019 at 17:34 | comment | added | Alexander | I'm still trying to figure out where does your character fit on the psychiatric spectrum. I mentioned Lady Macbeth - can you think of a better example? | |
| Sep 11, 2019 at 17:31 | comment | added | Monty Wild | @dolphin_of_france This isn't a character who does the wrong things for the right reasons, she ultimately does the right things for the wrong reasons... and leaves a trail of human wreckage as she does so... | |
| Sep 11, 2019 at 17:29 | comment | added | Monty Wild | @Alexander Oh, she's a real-enough sociopath, she's just had psychiatric treatment and has enough self discipline to avoid being an unsuccessful sociopath, however she still likes having power over people, including hurting or killing them. She just chooses the time and the means well... | |
| Sep 11, 2019 at 16:19 | comment | added | Alexander | She is not a real sociopath then. Her lack of moral restraint would be difficult to hide from the reader (and, for a primary character, what for?). If you still want to use the insanity theme, you can do a "Fight club"-style plot twist. | |
| Sep 11, 2019 at 15:29 | answer | added | laancelot | timeline score: 2 | |
| Sep 11, 2019 at 15:03 | comment | added | dolphin_of_france | insanity doesn't make a good villain or a good anti-hero. a good villain or a good anti-hero is a hero in their own mind. They totally believe in what they do. And they think they are doing it for the greater good. like Thanos. the sociopath line, is something you should let the readers should decide for themselves. no need to dictate that at all. | |
| Sep 11, 2019 at 15:01 | comment | added | Cyn | Welcome to Writing.SE Monty, nice to see you cross over here. Here are links to a tour and help center if you haven't seen them yet. | |
| Sep 11, 2019 at 14:22 | answer | added | Chris Sunami | timeline score: 24 | |
| Sep 11, 2019 at 14:05 | history | became hot network question | |||
| Sep 11, 2019 at 13:46 | answer | added | Galastel supports GoFundMonica | timeline score: 3 | |
| Sep 11, 2019 at 11:12 | answer | added | Amadeus | timeline score: 4 | |
| Sep 11, 2019 at 10:45 | review | Close votes | |||
| Sep 11, 2019 at 12:36 | |||||
| Sep 11, 2019 at 10:01 | comment | added | Monty Wild | Her first appearance as a secondary character: medium.com/universe-factory/… Look for Morgan. | |
| Sep 11, 2019 at 9:59 | answer | added | Blub | timeline score: 2 | |
| Sep 11, 2019 at 9:42 | comment | added | Monty Wild | I didn't see her as certifiably insane, since for the most part, she follows the social contract. However, when the opportunity to break it in an acceptable way occurs, she will take advantage of it with some enjoyment... not that she would let anyone know that she enjoyed herself. | |
| Sep 11, 2019 at 8:50 | comment | added | Alexander | Do you want your character to be just ruthless and morally unhinged (like Lady Macbeth), or someone "certifiably insane" (like Caligula or Henry VI)? | |
| Sep 11, 2019 at 7:09 | answer | added | Viktor Katzy | timeline score: 15 | |
| Sep 11, 2019 at 7:07 | answer | added | Anna A. Fitzgerald | timeline score: 45 | |
| Sep 11, 2019 at 6:10 | review | First posts | |||
| Sep 11, 2019 at 8:18 | |||||
| Sep 11, 2019 at 6:05 | history | asked | Monty Wild | CC BY-SA 4.0 |