Mental illness in adult fiction.

[Shadowmoo]

My main character is based somewhat on my own experiences with mental illness, but I am unsure about pacing of exposing the main character's flaws in novel format. Also how to keep it paced to avoid the cliches of mental illness in the media while still keeping an interesting story. Keep it more like 'the machinist' or something without going into the realm of horror or slasher flicks.

 

[The Urban Spaceman]

Read around some of the subjects here and threads here pertaining to plot and character development, and once you've reached 50 posts, you can post an excerpt of what you have in the Share Your Work forum. The Machinist was a good film, but you shouldn't try to write a good film. Write a good book. Don't think of it as a flick.

You could also read other books which explore themes of mental illness. See what works for you and what doesn't. And what sells, and what doesn't.

 

[cmi0616]

It's tricky to give advice about your specific story without having read it. The last novel I wrote featured a protagonist with MDD. About midway through the story, she experiences a depressive episode after years of having managed her illness very well through medication and therapy. I explain what's happening with a flashback, which (I hope) doesn't feel like an info dump due to the way in which the book is structured--it's difficult to explain here.

My advice would be simply to write the story to the best of your abilities. Revise and have somebody else look at it. If they mention pacing/cliches, then you know you still need to work at it.

EDIT: I should have mentioned that I've been reading a wonderful book lately called Shelter in Place by Alexander Maksik. Its protagonist suffers from un-diagnosed bi-polar disorder. It's wonderfully done and has not as of yet fallen back on any cliches. Worth checking out for your purposes.

 

[Shadowmoo]

I will check it out.

 

[KTC]

One of my novels deals with this. I did alternating chapters. First chapter, the son...second chapter, the mother, etc, etc, etc. In first person. She was the one suffering mental illness. Alternating POV gave me an ability to show it both from the belly of the beast and from the perspective of one suffering the side-effects of her illness. I felt it easier that way. THE REASONS.

I don't know about you, but I felt less inclined to cliche because of my hypersensitivity to the subject matter. I never came out with a diagnosis in the novel. I used her illness as the momentum of the story...and I had inciting incidents to carry the story...and her reactions and deterioration as a result of those incidents. And the son dealt with the fallout. If there is one thing I've always been sensitive to on some level...it's the destruction that the one suffering from mental illness causes around them. Casualties everywhere. And when you have lucid come-to-your-senses moments, you know what you did. That was another reason I wrote it from two perspectives...because of the side-effects...and it gave me the ability to zoom in and out of the turmoil by shifting POV in the alternating chapter.