Run fast for your children, for your sisters and brothers

[mortalcity]

Maybe some day I will stop giving basically every protagonist ever some variety of crippling anxiety. ...but it's definitely not going to happen on this story.

Plus, you know, I don't think I have a single friend who's not mentally ill in one way or another, so whatever. So what if all my characters reflect that? Like with queer characters, at a certain point I just... yeah, straight people exist in the world. So do neurotypical people. And someone else can go write stories about them, because I don't care.

(This post brought to you by a lot of second-guessing myself, because wow, Birdie, that is the third main character in a row with anxiety maybe reel it in a little there. BUT NOPE I REFUSE.)

Comments

[balsamandash]

Yeah, screw that. There need to be more protagonists with well-done anxiety problems. Give it to them all.

(On a semirelated note every time you mention FSMG I just get Fairies Stole My Keys stuck in my head. Even though it has nothing to do with anything.)

[mortalcity]

(...I don't think I know Fairies Stole My Keys, but I am interested.)

[balsamandash]

It is a really ridiculous, bouncy little song about fairies stealing your keys. I love it.

[mortalcity]

I finally actually listened to this, and it is super cute.

...and also my life.

[alexseanchai]

\o/

[teaotter]

*hearts*

[auto_destruct]

This is absolutely something I have to do to myself. "No fuck you, invisible dissenter-man, I WILL MAKE EVERYONE AT LEAST PARTIALLY GAY IF I WANT!" (Strangely, I've never had the flail with mental illness even though literally everyone I have ever written is in some way. o.O)

Also I realized writing Angelspeakers that this is the second main character I have written who is both non-binary and mute, and side-eyed myself a little bit there before kanyeshrugging and carrying on. (In my defense, otherwise the characters are totally different.)

So yes. Carry on with All The Anxious Characters! Anxiety is also something that's so underrepresented in fiction anyway, even when other mental illnesses are around, because it's So Unromantic. So anxious characters done well? Bonus!

[mortalcity]

Thank you! I am apparently exactly the opposite of you - don't even think twice about queer characters, but then I get to mental illnesses and I start going "ehhhhh maybe this is too much?" Maaaybe this is too personally revealing or something? (I say, as if most writers don't have weird way-too-personal tics if you look at enough of their stuff...)

But you're right, it is comforting to me that when I actually step back and look at them, all of the characters are totally different outside of their anxiety, and they even deal with that differently.

[silveradept]

Baaaaah. Stories need more diverse protagonists, including those with anxiety. Write what works for you, yeah?

[mortalcity]

Thanks for the reassurance. I usually don't blink before throwing in all the diversity, but every now and then it gets a little too personal and I start to freak myself out.

[longmagpieroads]

You mean you write stories about people like me? NEVER STOP.

[mortalcity]

I WILL DO MY BEST. But yeah, pretty sure I keep doing this because I need more of these characters myself. So many more. (And also maybe because I don't even know what neurotypical people are like anymore... I think they might be a myth.)