This is why they call me "Scary Carrie".
I have always had a strange fascination with the mind and how it functions. When I was a senior in high school, (years ago) I had this grand idea that I was going to go to college and become a phycologist. Then I graduated, had very little money, a broken transmission in my car, and started working in a factory. The rest is a strange, twisted, morbid, tormented, struggling, resurfacing, climbing, self-resurrecting history that not many people know.
I was reminded of the Phycologist part the other day when I was talking to someone about "schizophrenia", now referred to as Multiple Personality Disorder. I recently bought two used (and very outdated) books on the disorder for character research. (yes you read that right) This area of phycology has always fascinated me the most. I've met two people with paranoid multiple personality disorder before. The person creates an alternate reality that they control. It is odd to watch them twist and bend the real reality into something that fits into their own.
With MPD it is an extreme case of the mind and its mis firings. But it had me asking strange questions about the mind and how a person processes thoughts. One is this. I read an article about a man that murdered his ex wife by stabbing her 84 times. This is my thought process upon reading that. Isn't there a point, if you are stabbing someone 84 times, that you say to yourself, I don't think this is right. I want you to really think about this. Grab a pillow and mimic the stabbing (84 times is going to take awhile even if you do it fast) when would you say to yourself, I shouldn't be doing this. I want to know why that person's mind was completely shut off to rationality.
This brings me to another scenairo. It is not as extreme as what I have just mentioned. As a women I can state that what I am about to write about does not always happen. I'm sure that there are situations out there that are completely fine, I have not come across them yet.
People that I refer to as "friends" are more along the line of "acquaintances". I think a friend is someone that you still hang out with, even outside of the evrionment that combines you. I don't have many of those. It only takes to have one thing in common to make a friend. With this being stated, all of my friends are male. The male mind truly does function a lot differently than a females. I feel that the female mind is more impulsive and runs on emotion. (Again, this is not all females but the majority.) A male is more rational, and quick on their feet, able to connect the dots faster and more efficiently.
When I am working with a team of people, I don't care for it if there is more than one other girl. I can't comprehend this whole scenario but I have seen it over and over. Two girls will find a common denominator and typically get along. For some reason when another female is added it goes off track. I'm not sure if it is a competitive thing, but when one is not present, another will talk ill of the other.
This brings me to another question of the mind. Why can't the ill talker see what they are saying? They generally do not even realize that they are retaliating against the absent person, unless you point it out. Then they become more defensive of their statements. They try to rationalize what they have said, but deep in their mind, they realize that what they had said was inappropriate. Then the sting on shame will hit them. Why didn't their mind rationalize the behavior before? And where is the justification in their statements that are usually unfounded? I truly believe that 90% of statements that people (not just woman) make, that attack another person's character, is stemmed from jealousy.
These mental impulses that I write about, made me want to challenge myself in writing. When I wrote Endlessly, I was dead set that I wanted to write in first person, because I enjoy first person books the most. The challenge; I did not want to write from a females point of view. I thought to myself that females are too emotional. I didn't want it to be another sappy love story as a girl falls head over heels for a dark, mysterious, attractive guy. Why is this always the scenario in a vampire novel? I have not read a book where it is narrated by a man as he falls for a girl. If anyone has let me know about, I would love to read it.
When Endlessly was a rough draft, I handed it over to three females, and the question was always the same? Why didn't you write it from Ashley's point of view?
This became my second challenge. Writing from a females point of view even though I resisted the thought of it. It was like a hate book before I started. I didn't want to write it, but I made a promise to those three women that I would write sequel from a females point of view. I went into it trying to make myself think with more emotion and less rationality. When I wrote Endlessly, I want to hear people chuckle when they read certain parts. I know that I have accomplished this by first hand witness. The challenge for Legacy was to make them fell the emotion of the story.
Jason's story came easy. Too easy. I told someone the other day the foundation for Jason's character. They laughed. Each of the three have a foundation in the personality. All three stem from me. I took traits of myself and pushed them to an extreme to make them. It was sometimes confusing because I found that their emotions and thought processes were interchangeable. Their reactions, statements, and decisions would essentially be the same if I swapped one character out for another.
I tell people now that the three characters are my alter egos and laugh about it. But this stirred the pot on Multiple Personality Disorder. (We come full circle on this passage.) What would it be like to write first person from a person with this disorder? Another challenge and one to keep you thinking.
www.authorcvhunt.comwww.authorcvhunt.com
I was reminded of the Phycologist part the other day when I was talking to someone about "schizophrenia", now referred to as Multiple Personality Disorder. I recently bought two used (and very outdated) books on the disorder for character research. (yes you read that right) This area of phycology has always fascinated me the most. I've met two people with paranoid multiple personality disorder before. The person creates an alternate reality that they control. It is odd to watch them twist and bend the real reality into something that fits into their own.
With MPD it is an extreme case of the mind and its mis firings. But it had me asking strange questions about the mind and how a person processes thoughts. One is this. I read an article about a man that murdered his ex wife by stabbing her 84 times. This is my thought process upon reading that. Isn't there a point, if you are stabbing someone 84 times, that you say to yourself, I don't think this is right. I want you to really think about this. Grab a pillow and mimic the stabbing (84 times is going to take awhile even if you do it fast) when would you say to yourself, I shouldn't be doing this. I want to know why that person's mind was completely shut off to rationality.
This brings me to another scenairo. It is not as extreme as what I have just mentioned. As a women I can state that what I am about to write about does not always happen. I'm sure that there are situations out there that are completely fine, I have not come across them yet.
People that I refer to as "friends" are more along the line of "acquaintances". I think a friend is someone that you still hang out with, even outside of the evrionment that combines you. I don't have many of those. It only takes to have one thing in common to make a friend. With this being stated, all of my friends are male. The male mind truly does function a lot differently than a females. I feel that the female mind is more impulsive and runs on emotion. (Again, this is not all females but the majority.) A male is more rational, and quick on their feet, able to connect the dots faster and more efficiently.
When I am working with a team of people, I don't care for it if there is more than one other girl. I can't comprehend this whole scenario but I have seen it over and over. Two girls will find a common denominator and typically get along. For some reason when another female is added it goes off track. I'm not sure if it is a competitive thing, but when one is not present, another will talk ill of the other.
This brings me to another question of the mind. Why can't the ill talker see what they are saying? They generally do not even realize that they are retaliating against the absent person, unless you point it out. Then they become more defensive of their statements. They try to rationalize what they have said, but deep in their mind, they realize that what they had said was inappropriate. Then the sting on shame will hit them. Why didn't their mind rationalize the behavior before? And where is the justification in their statements that are usually unfounded? I truly believe that 90% of statements that people (not just woman) make, that attack another person's character, is stemmed from jealousy.
These mental impulses that I write about, made me want to challenge myself in writing. When I wrote Endlessly, I was dead set that I wanted to write in first person, because I enjoy first person books the most. The challenge; I did not want to write from a females point of view. I thought to myself that females are too emotional. I didn't want it to be another sappy love story as a girl falls head over heels for a dark, mysterious, attractive guy. Why is this always the scenario in a vampire novel? I have not read a book where it is narrated by a man as he falls for a girl. If anyone has let me know about, I would love to read it.
When Endlessly was a rough draft, I handed it over to three females, and the question was always the same? Why didn't you write it from Ashley's point of view?
This became my second challenge. Writing from a females point of view even though I resisted the thought of it. It was like a hate book before I started. I didn't want to write it, but I made a promise to those three women that I would write sequel from a females point of view. I went into it trying to make myself think with more emotion and less rationality. When I wrote Endlessly, I want to hear people chuckle when they read certain parts. I know that I have accomplished this by first hand witness. The challenge for Legacy was to make them fell the emotion of the story.
Jason's story came easy. Too easy. I told someone the other day the foundation for Jason's character. They laughed. Each of the three have a foundation in the personality. All three stem from me. I took traits of myself and pushed them to an extreme to make them. It was sometimes confusing because I found that their emotions and thought processes were interchangeable. Their reactions, statements, and decisions would essentially be the same if I swapped one character out for another.
I tell people now that the three characters are my alter egos and laugh about it. But this stirred the pot on Multiple Personality Disorder. (We come full circle on this passage.) What would it be like to write first person from a person with this disorder? Another challenge and one to keep you thinking.
www.authorcvhunt.comwww.authorcvhunt.com
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