10 BEST TIPS FOR WRITING MENTAL ILLNESS IN FICTION

I’m honored to welcome fellow dark fantasy writer and child counselor Iona Wayland to the channel to discuss how to write mental illness in fiction! We cover how authors can research mental illness, avoid offensive stereotypes, and ensure they craft multi-dimensional characters. Stay ‘til the end to get the full details 🤖

–Straight from my cold, dark heart,
Your Cyborg Queen
#JennaMoreci #CyborgQueen #CyborgArmy

ABOUT IONA WAYLAND:
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National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI):
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH):
National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV):
Adverse Childhood Events Scale (ACES) explained by Nadine Burke Harris:
Vulnerability explained by Brené Brown:
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CHANNEL PLAYLISTS:

[nugget]

I’ve seen so many books that the main character is like
“I’m Kathy and I’m not like other girls because I’m edgy and my only character trait is depression”

Bad representation sucks man

[seanhastings]

Two hours before this video dropped, I was thinking, "Man, it's a shame Jenna hasn't done a video on this topic."

Jenna: *I sense a disturbance in the Force.*

[thisistheaccountname]

I hate when reading a thriller or something and the giant twist is that the main character had some kind of mental illness.
While there are many kinds of mental illnesses, it just feels like lazy writing and kind of like they're not accurately representing a person with that certain mental illness.
I as well as many of my family members have a mental illness and it is so disappointing to see those kind of "twists".

[tabithadeskins]

Whenever one of my friends asks me how to write mental illnesses, I always tell them that the only assumption they're allowed to make is that they know nothing. Research! Research! Research! Different people have different ways mental illnesses shows in them, and you have to account for that. Writing what you know can be helpful, but character has to come into it at some point.

[FortyTimes]

This is so great. I'm high functioning autistic and it seems like every character written on the spectrum is written as a sexless, cyborg genius savant. It takes away the vibrancy of a community and gives people who need a diagnosis to get help not be able to recognize themselves.

[sarahherbison]

I have a character with drug addiction but she's the most powerful hero in the story, but her power leads to her destruction. It's based on a friend I knew that passed away from his 😢

[silverscreen]

Mental illness is something I feel is better done visually.

I thought I could possibly portray my ADHD as sort of a crossword or word search puzzle.

Each page would just become a more and more elaborate puzzle as he sinks further and further into a never ending spiral of non-sequiters until the word "door" gets highlighted before he walks into one.

[aimansteele]

How is it you talk about mental illness the day i was insanely trying to understand my OCD & how to discuss it in a book. You genius❤️

[YukikoAimiyo]

I love that you talked about this. I have schizophrenia and boy oh boy do people love depicting us as the villain.

[doctorelfinstone]

It’s so true about the “using mental illness as twist” being 1) tiresome and 2) insulting; I lately decided to start reading some of Agatha Christie’s work and she’s waaay too apt to lean on that trope.

(BTW, If there’s anyone else out there who’s either survived or currently experiencing emotional and/or narcissistic abuse DO NOT read Endless Night - its portrayal of that experience was so insulting and and triggering that I legit threw my copy into a wastebasket a couple times while reading it.

[sarahherbison]

Also the trigger warning is just an updated ”viewer discretion is advised", which has been around since the fall of the Hayes Commission.

[yippycat]

Yup, a touchy subject for everyone, but very much important!

[AndaraBledin]

Funny story about the whole "breaking into tears" scene. That's not a sign or symptom of Depression, that's evidence of *Grief.*

When my grandfather died when I was still in school, I was ok for a while, and then one day, I literally did just that; I broke into tears in the middle of class because that's how I happen to express grief over a loss.

[SMACKtheSoupGoblin]

Not even through it but thank you so much for this, Jenna. I'd love to see you speak with experts about representing gender identity, sexualities, and ethnic cultures outside of my own

[chelseadanico]

I have a video suggestion for you:
Can you do a video on how to write characters with disabilities
I feel like that is not well talked about and written about in novels and it could make novels more diverse and more interesting

[jerlinej]

I got two great points from this :
1. Mental illness can be pretty subtle depending on environmental context like who you're around and what you're doing
2. Mental illness doesn't define personality but HOW a person deals with mental illness gives clues into their personality

[kahlanweir]

What absolute perfect timing, I had a new book in mind that I was STRESSED about because I realized the way I had designed the MC’s background and her current situation she had been exposed to a ton of mental trauma and would likely suffer from PTSD at least and I was concerned bc I’ve never written from the perspective of a character who suffers from PTSD so thanks for all the wonderful resources 💜

[JonasBelgi]

As an author who deals with PTSD and all the super fun symptoms that come with it, I rely on personal experiences a lot. Being a nurse with a background in psychiatric healthcare, I really try to make depictions of mental illness as trained on the characters I'm writing as possible without relying on cliches. I love and appreciate this video because it'll help a lot of people. And, of course, it's all in the name of supporting a fantastic organization, so that's amazing!

[joelmavity]

My MC suffers from depression and I’m basing his experiences on what I’ve gone through.

[ericarowanarts]

I used to be a dudebro who thought trigger warnings would spoil the book but after having a few books give them upfront I changed my tune. It made the reading experience SO MUCH BETTER. Like you guys said, if you can get into the right headspace you can really immerse yourself in the book. I have been a proponent for trigger warnings for a few years now and am so happy I was proven wrong!!!

Also, this was incredibly helpful. The internalized stigma section of this video hit me particularly hard. It gave me a lot to think about. Thank you so much for putting this information out there!