Ok, so here's the deal. I'm working on a big multimedia film project right now. I've spent the past 4-5 months putting together the story, finding a team, writing soundtrack music and scripts and testing effects. The project is a horror webseries. Without going into too much detail, the plot revolves around encounters with supernatural creatures that are able to slow possess those that they come into contact with. Over time, the victim comes more and more under the sway of these creatures. The main character in the series slowly becomes more and more erratic and dangerous, until he eventually in turn becomes an antagonist to his former friends. The thing is, due to the inspirations from which I drew the plot from, the manner in which these creatures infect the live's of their hosts was deliberately meant to parallel the effects of mental illness. There's an underlying meta-narrative about the flaws in today's society, and how it's resulting in more and more people becoming depressed or whathaveyou. So what you have is a plotline where a character, suffering from something analogous to a mental illness, becomes a dangerous antagonist. Whilst this is largely out of control, and he will ultimately be treated sympathetically, I recently realised that this could be playing into the stereotype of the "dangerous, scary mentally ill person," and therein might in fact be ableist. What do you guys think? I really don't want to have to cancel my big project... we're due to start shooting literally tomorrow.
I think it's fine. I've had my tangles with depression. It was a terrible malevolent creature taking over my brain and turning me against my friends. I did hurt people because of the thing in my brain. So I think it might actually be sort of helpful for depressed people? Like, it's demonstrating that mental illness is not an inherent flaw in them, it's something caused by things they can't control, it's a thing that can be fought. This idea could be done offensively, sure, but your project does not seem offensive to me.
I love the concept, and your execution of it sounds really cool. I have bipolar disorder, and the way it developed sounds a lot like how the creatures in your story act - like I was slowly getting possessed and I had a harder and harder time keeping the 'monster' back. When the monster had hold, I acted awfully, and before I got treatment it had worsened to the point I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to keep it back any longer and I'd become physically dangerous (my manias manifested as mixed states, where I would get utterly furious at practically nothing). So yeah, I think this is a great allegory.
Are you guys sure? The last thing I want is to sink another year into this and then find out later down the line when someone on tumblr reams me.
Someone on Tumblr is always going to be mad about other peoples' art, friend. It doesn't matter how awesome it is, how much it speaks to its target audience, how much comfort it brings - there's always going to be some jerk throwing a tantrum about it, often for completely absurd reasons. Look at the people who get really weird about Steven Universe, for pity's sake! That can be really upsetting, but those peoples' power comes mostly from being loud and angry and being assholes who attack people who seem weak. They can be shut down. Kintsugijin have your back on this - there's at least a few of us (me included!) who are willing to go to bat for someone getting shit. I know the fear - I'm a creator, myself, and there have been times I didn't want to have anything to do with Tumblr anymore because of assholes who like to attack creative people. But... they don't get to control me. Their shitty behavior is not more important than the things I want to say through my writing - or the things you want to say. And, ultimately? The corner of Tumblr whose attention you'll get is a small corner of the Internet. Don't get fooled into believing it's the whole world.
OCD is absolutely a monster. I think this idea sounds really cool! I'll fight anyone who gets mad at you!
I am 100% sure of my stance. The thing that made me realize I had an illness, not inherent moral flaw was a piece of fiction (the Brainbent AU). And sure, I've seen people on tumblr be "such problematicness" about it, but I've also seen people besides me go "holy shit thank you for writing this" at authors. Someone will always be mad, but there will also be people for whom your creation is an incredibly helpful thing.
If it's going to be a longer project with more installments, maybe an installment on treatment would be interesting as well, as a "ok this is bullshit DIFFICULT to get because the monster will try to stop you and bureaucracy will as well, and there's shit [therapists], but there's good ones as well and you can go against this"
I'm not really sure how feasible that would be in the context of the plot, because the characters are fully aware that the effects are being caused by supernatural means and that they need to be combated on their own terms and there isn't really anything directly analogous to a "therapist" in the story. I'll see what ideas I can include though through metaphorical representation... I'm still writing this as we go.
I'm still worried that the plot content might be Not Okay(tm). It's making it very hard to write, whenever I go to I stall because I have these worries and doubts. This is a real problem as I've already sunk so much into this project, and have sort of a lot resting on it, especially considering I'm hoping to go into a career in film. To be honest I'm almost feeling afraid to create entirely. Help?
Look at it this way: if you write it, you may piss off a twit, but you may also save the life/sanity/self-esteem/whatever of people like me. And you will have a thing that shows your skills in your portfolio. If you don't write it, nothing happens. The second option sounds safe, but it's also stagnant. If nothing bad can happen, then nothing good can happen either. I am seriously not kidding about work like this saving lives/sanities/self-esteems. If I had not read a piece of fiction that showed me mental illness was not an inner flaw of mine... well, I would not have gotten better. Or I would have, but a lot later.
... Are you familiar with the term "scrupulosity" as applied to, say, OCD? Because it just occurred to me that you have a pattern where you worry about a thing, and you get solid arguments/evidence about it, and then the worry comes back, and that's actually really characteristic of... wait for it... particular manifestations of some mental illnesses.
Not sure if you're being sarcastic and have seen my other thread, hah, because yeah, that's pretty much the discussion order of the day there. And yes I know that's a pattern, doesn't stop my concern about individual things like this being real though
I hadn't seen the other thread, I just suddenly noticed that hey wait a second this is a pattern. So, in this case... I guess what I'd say is, you can be confident that at least one person will be mad. Because someone is always mad. But I think you can also be confident that this subtext will speak to the experiences of many people. Look at the number of people we run into who have what is clearly a mental illness that actually does totally fuck them up and make them into antagonists for lots of other people. So I guess the thing is... I think my advice would be to go ahead and do the thing, because you are writing about a thing that is important, and I think you are writing something that will be good, and help people. And some people will be mad, and complain about it being "problematic", or whatever... And the thing is, the topic is "problematic" in the real sense; it's a topic that has a risk of communicating things you don't mean, or upsetting people, or whatever. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't say the thing; that means that it's especially important that things on this topic be said by people who care about that, because otherwise all the media will be done by people who didn't care.
Co-signed. I am not a horror person and I tend to get fidgety and bored when watching videos, but I am very interested in your story, because you actually consider what the mentally ill people think. There are enough authors who are like "why did this character do the thing? eh, they're just crazy", and conversely, enough authors who are like "mental illness is so delicate that no one should ever touch it in fiction". You are literally examining yourself and your motivations etc, the thing that everyone tells authors to do. You have actually thought about this. You are doing the Good Author Thing. I maintain my stance. Please write your story.
Yes to everything. The worry does sound like scrupulosity, and I'd like to add my name to your list of interested parties.
I sometimes use demon analogies when talking about my intrusive thoughts and violent urges. Shit's scary, and the fact that you're willing to discuss it frankly and ultimately sympathetically, even if the character in question is doing bad stuff, is really important. Tell your story, friend, people need to hear it.
This reminds me of a story I never finished writing. Basically the main character was writing a dream journal for his intro psych class and over time it becomes apparent that something is wrong. That something wrong being that he is being assaulted by the Prince of Desire Mara. Mara's influence manifested itself very much like OCD. But yeah someone is going to be pissed no matter what. This sort of thing is a matter of how you execute it.
I'd say just be literal and add some authors notes at the end of each instalment that says something like "the monsters in this story are directly analogous to mental illnesses, but thankfully in the real world there is help. If you feel like you have your own monsters to deal with, look at the following resources" I love the sound of your project.
