#master-plague

Would X even make sure you get to the next world of this one gets destroyed? Would he let you? Would you respawn if you died?

This eloquent ask followed by:

It’s specifically around sunning rocks because if it was just between the clans they would fight over why the humans chose to only block off one clan from sunning rocks

The “worst” part about writing mentally ill (is that the right term?) characters is that they don’t act rationally or “logically”.

People in general don’t always act “logically”, there’s a constant mix of reasoning and brain chemicals that make people do shit. And especially for mentally ill people, those reasonings and chemicals don’t always work in the most rational way.

An arachnophobic person may have an extreme reaction when seeing a spider when a non arachnophobe wouldn’t. The arachnophobia may not be the most “rational” reaction but that’s just how it works. It’s not bad characterization to be irrational.

This is topical to the ask I just answered, and it was sent before I even answered it. What a lucky thing!

The difficulty there, I feel, is the audience reaction. A character being irrational is not a trouble for me to write, at least, but it can bring people to my inbox commenting on how "that reaction didn't make sense" or "that decision wasn't very fair to that other character". This especially goes for worldbuilding, my god. I have had people tell me that writing decisions made on purpose to illustrate hypocrisy and nonsensical cultures, like how the real world has, don't make sense and should be changed. It's very irritating.

But we're specifically illuminating irrational characters here, so I'll focus on that. For me, a character doesn't need to be rational and sensible for a reader - they need to make sense to themselves. And that makes it a lot easier for everyone, writer and reader alike.

Like, a character refusing to look at a portrait of a person is weird and silly to an outsider with no explanations, but to them, that portrait has a camera that activates as soon as they meet the portrait's painted eyes, so if they just don't look, they won't be watched. If that's made apparent to a reader or watcher, it's very easy to make that character be understood, regardless of their "sensibility".

They’re my favorite background character