Writing Excuses 8.11: Abnormal Psychology

Robison Wells joins us again, this time to help us with a discussion of writing characters with abnormal psychology. What are our resources for describing these characters in compelling, believable ways? What are the tricks, the pitfalls, and the landmines. Brandon frames the discussion with some terms from his abnormal psych class, but let's lay down a caveat right now: none of us are experts in abnormal psych. We have done lots of research in lots of different fields, we all love learning things, but we're not doctors. And that's where you need to start -- love learning, and research this heavily. This is an exercise in "writing the other." Dr. Laura Skellchock helps us with this research by describing what's going on with his panic disorder, giving us helpful insight into the sorts of details we'll need to make any mentally ill character believable.