Creating Your Very Own Multiple Personality Disorder

[First off, let's be very clear: This has little to do with the actual psychological disorder as currently recognized beyond the name. My sincerest apologies for any offense from those actually suffering from said disorder, but I needed a way to explain the situation succinctly, and unfortunately this was the easiest. However, as shall be readily apparent there are enough similarities to warrant its use.]

One of the biggest problems a lot of writers face is that of dealing with multiple characters, especially those that have little in common with them. For some people, this is relatively easy as they can quickly make the mental adjustments necessary. Others restrict their group of characters to a handful of different archetypes that they can use for most situations. However, a better system may be to develop a very sort-of version of multiple personality disorder.

The key to this system is that you develop a set of different personalities and then use them as part of your writing. These personalities are reasonably well-defined, allowing the writer to step into their shoes relatively quickly; eventually, you should be able to switch between them effortlessly and with such speed that it can make even prolonged conversations possible. The problem is developing the characters in enough detail so readers can easily differentiate them, even making conversation tags almost unnecessary.

However, this system is not without risks. This can develop into a full multiple personality disorder if you're not careful; it's advised that you have some system in place where the created personalities are separate from your personality. If the characters are to be of limited use, such as a one-shot or short story, then you may want to have some method of purging the characters. This should sound familiar to actors; the steps used below are the same as some actors use to establish their on-film personas. If necessary, counseling should be at least debated.

For those that do choose to use this system, there are numerous advantages. Besides making conversations easier, it should make general storytelling easier as well: Instead of being forced to think about what the characters will do in a given situation, you should just be observing what they are doing and reporting their actions. Some people will even get story ideas directly from the characters; this will not only help eliminate the "what do I do now?" version of writer's block, but also help eliminate plot holes.

In general, you'll find that your stories tend to flow as you are just describing what you see happening rather than constantly asking, "What's next?"; the answer will be right there unfolding before you.

Know Psychology

It's obviously going to help to know something about psychology, however basic. While it is advised that you take a couple of classes in general psychology with maybe one or two classes that cover aberrant personalities, reading some books on the subject should be sufficient. The point here is to become familiar with how the brain works and to do so just enough that you understand how different personalities work so that you can create personalities that represent them.

This will have some additional benefits, such as being able to write much more realistic characters, and even the ability to extrapolate some alien psychologies. Your characters will also be more grounded, making your likable characters even more likable and your monsters even more monstrous. You'll also have the confidence to try characters that you wouldn't have before, and your characters will have greater nuance. By understanding the human psyche, you'll have a greater intuitive understanding of humans, and that can never hurt.

[Warning: If you're going to use books and/or articles, keep in mind that psychology is considered a soft science for a reason: Too many people publish their pet theories as fact. This means that, while all sciences are subject to non-scientists publishing pseudo-science as real science, psychology has proven even more susceptible, with racists, sexists, homophobes, and worse publishing their beliefs under the veneer of science. With that in mind, screen your books before even purchasing, and be special wary if the book paints any group as inhuman or just diseased.]

Take Acting Classes

If you're already taking classes, you may as well throw some acting classes into the mix. It should be noted that this is not just acting in a local production, but finding out how actors actually get into their characters. While some methods may not be that helpful (such as the classical method), others that help you get into a character's head can be very useful, as can any that use improvisational techniques. Combined with the psychology classes, this makes for some pretty powerful tools: Psychology lets you understand the character while acting allows you to express that character.

[Be wary of using method acting too often. While it's great for getting in touch with the character, some actors get lost within the characters they are portraying, sometimes requiring some sort of therapy to return to the real world. For those juggling several different characters, this could be dangerous to your mental health. So while it's great for research, try to keep some contact with reality and don't be afraid to pull yourself out of the situation if it starts getting just a little too real.]

Know the Details

You need to be able to come up with trivial details in a matter of seconds; this allows you to create more realistic characters and gives you confidence when it comes to creating those details (that confidence is worth it on its own). While this does mean a lot of reading and research, sometimes into some really weird areas, it pays for itself. However, there is one caveat: This will not make you the equal of someone who actually lived the life you've been researching, so you should definitely listen to those who have the actual experience if they are willing to give their feedback.

Know Real World History

Too many people think that they know history but usually only know a very biased version of it; this becomes a problem when they start developing characters based on the biased history. While this is fine if the character is supposed to have the history appropriately wrong, it can be a problem if the character is supposed to know history. Not knowing real history can also be a handicap if you're trying to create a possible future world; your constructed world is going to be off in a lot of ways, possibly way off.

Research Tip: Don't look for histories based on the winner's perspective. Cynics believe that history is written by the winners; the reality is that most of our history has been written by the losers. This ranges from something as simple as the loser was a better writer than the winners (Josephus) or there was increasing sympathy for the losing side (various wars on the indigenous). In some cases, the losers just had the better academics (the Greeks). Modern historians, aggregators that they are, tend to just average things out, ensuring that the losers get another look. So look to the losers when possible; at the very least, it may give you an interesting perspective on history.

Build Livable Worlds

For our purposes, it only helps to know as much as you can about your world. However, you need to build the world so that it can be lived in; that is, you need a world based on the inter-relationships between its inhabitants and the world itself. When you start writing about the world, you have some sort of basis on which to write about and you'll find that once you think about the geography and ecology of the planet, it's a lot easier to mentally map where things are and to keep things consistent.

Yeah, I know: Something that helps pantsers.

This does not mean that you can't have fantasy geographical features, like portals to other universes, plains of magma, or islands floating in the air; it just means that you need to place them so that they make sense and work for the world in question. So have fun creating, just remember to build logically rather than randomly.

Know the Local History/Politics

People forget that groups build more than buildings; they build relationships as well, and the bigger the group the more relationships that will be built. When you start building your world, make sure that you know who's who and who the shakers and movers are. This also means you need to know the local entities, be they countries, empires, or even just the nearest towns.

Knowing the local politics and how your character fits in them, even if it's just who they argue with at the pub, helps you better define the character: You know how the character fits into the local ecology, so to speak, and that helps when define the character's place in the world as well as defining their perspective on local matters. Once you've established the character's beliefs, it's easy to get into their shoes.

Create Character Backstories

This goes without saying. The more details you have about a character, the easier it is to step into that character. The word of caution here is that there can be too much detail: If you're hitting ten pages on a character, then you've probably got too much detail. However, when you're creating the backstory, don't forget three things: How the character fits into the world, how he relates to the other characters, and what his goals are.

Oh, and if you figure that an amnesiac character gets a pass here, you are sorely mistaken. You still need to create some backstory for the character, even if it is a little easier. Even if the details are a mystery that you're exploring in the story, you need some breadcrumbs to follow or else you will never really get anywhere with the mystery; this is why so many amnesiac characters have tattoos, weird items, or are found in suspicious circumstances; these breadcrumbs of a backstory helps direct the solving of the mystery. So while you don't need to create a full backstory, you should still create something.

Watch People Chew the Scenery

Sometimes the best thing you can do is just sit back and enjoy the people around you. It may sound weird, but if you really want to get a crash course in human thought, go to a busy bar or restaurant, order a decent meal (one that justifies you being there for an hour or so), and take in the ambiance. Make sure you've left the laptop at home, put down the phone, and just take mental notes on what's happening around you: You're not trying to learn dialogue, so you don't need to hear the conversations (although that can help), but you are trying to figure out how people interact with each other.

Pa attention to the arguments, how people bargain, and even how they discuss things. Later, when you're at your keyboard, translate what you've seen into characteristics for your characters. Sure, you could learn the same by watching crowd scenes on TV, but it somehow loses something in translation.

Research 

If you have any questions before you start, make sure you do your research. Even if you're doing pure fantasy, where you get to define everything, you'll find that research will do nothing but help; no one is an expert on everything, and sometimes knowing the proper material to wrap a particular sword hilt in and the problems of maintaining it will only help your readers lose themselves. Of course, some readers will be tossed out of a story if you get a particular detail wrong, so making sure you have the details right in the first place only helps keep your readers enthralled in your story.

Question Your Answers

So….by now, you have a lot of information. However, not all of it may be useful and you may need to ignore some of it. Don't assume that just one source is good enough; try to use multiple sources from people with different perspectives whenever possible. If there's only one source available, question its validity; this is your chance to create an alternative hypothesis, so take advantage of it. You may also need to establish a character as unreliable or wrong; having the right answer means that it's easier to provide the right wrong answer.

There will be times when you need to question your answers, either because they don't make sense or because you need the wrong response. If it works for your character, go for it.

* * * * *

Here's the deal: When you write, you're improvising. The more information you have going into the situation, the more detailed that improvisation can get. While this is obviously true for pantsers, as everything they write is basically just riffing on something and then seeing where it takes them, having something to build on benefits plotters as well. Better yet, if you get stuck you can go to your notes to see if something needs to be built up or changed; this can provide the inspiration needed to get rid of writer's block.

It's just hard to be blocked when you have a lot of weird ideas and you want to see how they pan out.

You'll also find that by developing characters, by giving them added dimensions, they'll help you discover aspects that you didn't suspect. It gives you another means to deal with writer's block: If you're stuck, you can consult with the character to find out what they would do. This also helps dialogue: You'll find that you're more likely to listen in on conversations between characters and recording them than just writing what they say; this will give them individual voices and make conversations more lively.

So while this does mean a lot of homework for you, it's homework that can actually help you. Better yet, it can actually be fun and add levels of immersion to your writing. Working out as many details as possible ahead of time can only help, so start there first and have fun with it; your stories can only get better the more solid your worlds are.