Research Writing A Book, Need Some Advice

[lostforgottensoul]

However, I have no experience with PTSD.

This stands out to me. I would actually like to bold it. You could NEVER make an accurate character this way!

Read my replies on this thread Survivor Guilt Stories as they all apply here.

All experience PTSD differently. All have a flashback differently. I have a flashback many different ways.

All have different issues. I have issues due to not having any real life support but if your character does have support then that would be way different. Those supporters would have their own issues. If you browse the forum you could get an IDEA of how PTSD shows itself and what issues there are with it, what supporters go through, how it all plays out in life, how kids may sufferer or at least have their own issues. How a career may sufferer or how the character deals with work stress. Etc.

You can browse around the site with your character in mind gaining understanding on her issues and how she would feel and how it would play out. But getting it this way will not work as even all our stuff together is still our stuff, not Becca's stuff.

To be a bit more accurate you would need to research, always having your character in mind, and gain some understanding that way. Not copying stuff but just gaining some understanding of the issues we face and our loved ones face and then make up an individual story. That is accurate!

 

[VICTORIA WILLIS]

How about you don't write about PTSD? There are enough people who don't know anything about...

I agree!
Don't write about PTSD.
You don't know what to say or not say.

 

[Casey_03]

I would like to echo what a few others have said and suggest writing about the trauma, but not explicitly about the PTSD. Honestly, I think it'll be much stronger that way. It would seem too contrived if you say outright that she suffers from PTSD. In my opinion, the strongest fiction I've ever read was always sort of vague with labels -- and that's why it worked. It captured the essence of things without pinning human emotions/experiences down with a certain label or category. And even if you haven't experienced trauma, if you're a good, ambitious writer, you should be able to plug into the empathy required to write about trauma and its effects on the psyche just by immersing yourself in stories of trauma survivors. There's a lot of literature out there that contains case studies on victims of abuse, victims of domestic violence, victims of rape, etc. I would recommend getting a book like that and researching.

P.S. I don't agree with the notion that you have to "write about what you know." To write about something well, you have to know something from the inside out, but that doesn't mean you have to have experienced it yourself. Good writers have empathy. And empathy goes a long way for making powerful writing.

 

[mp2277]

Not being mean spirited but IMO you have little chance of much success writing this far out of your field of life experience. I have suffered with PTSD since childhood, rejected multiple diagnoses because I refused to admit it, and after accepting the truth of it a few years back, seeking therapy and making a good effort to educate myself I still don't pretend to understand the broad and sweeping parameters of the syndrome. Do yourself a favor and seek a different topic. :)

 

[Kate Van Sant]

Hey guys!
I'm writing a novel about a young woman who suffers from PTSD due to physical and mental ab...

I think some of the few things we have in common is called "hyper vigilance." When we walk into a room, we look for all the exits, we never sit with our back to the door. Our reaction to a loud noise is totally out of proportion of a non-ptsd person. One of my former therapists had in his training to talk to a general about ptsd. The general realized that he had an abnormal startle response whenever the phone rang. This is a GENERAL with ptsd. And so many things can cause it. Mine's from growing up in mining camps and often having my life or my father's life in danger, culture shock, domineering father and emotional abuse. Not the standard stuff. My cousin was studying to be a nurse administrator (she was already a nurse), and I helped her through her chosen final essay on PTSD, and her professors thought it was wonderful, so I must be able to talk about it fairly well. And my late husband had a terrible case of it, 100% disabled, service related by the Veterans Administration. He gradually fell into paranoid schizophrenia the last few years before he died, so if you include anyone in your book who's older, there are often complications, especially among anyone exposed to Agent Orange. Writing is about the best therapy we have, so don't hesitate to ask me questions, keeping in mind that I'm not sure whether I still have all my marbles, but I've noticed a hole in the bag. Take care, Kate Van Sant

There's a movie with Bruce Willis, I think it's called "In Country" or something like that. It's a GOOD representation of PTSD.
Everybody raves about J.D. Salinger, well, the reason his writing is so good is that he's pouring out PTSD that he had really badly (I've never heard this discussed anywhere). And I don't mean "Catcher in the Rye," which is rather whiny, but his short stories, especially "A Good Day for Banana Fish," and another whose title I don't remember, but is in the same anthology of his short stories and concerns a soldier relating to a precocious little girl (no sexual content, that's not a trigger here). This is a guy who I think lived through the bombing of Dresden; a PTSD cause if there ever was one.

And I think we should encourage people who don't have PTSD to learn as much about it as possible, because we have a lot of soldiers returning home with various degrees of it. I was assistant to a police chief, and they couldn't figure out why one of their new hires had trouble controlling the cruiser on the street. He was just back from Iraq; I told the chief that he was probably used to running into IED's when he was driving around Iraq, and he couldn't get used to the relative safety of American streets.

 

[Deleted member 8714]

First off, I would just like to say I am very, very sorry about anything I did or said...

#1 Rule of Fiction = Write What You Know.

Actually it is better to write from Who You Are than What You Know, though don't write an autobiographic novel.

So in that case Jules0260, if I were you I wouldn't be writing about PTSD. Even if you "hear" our experiences you're not fully getting our experiences.

Another option could be to have someone with PTSD co-write your book with you. That way it will come off as realistic because it will be. ;)

On that note, I do know someone who wrote about the aftereffects of sexual abuse in their novel. They canvassed as many survivors as possible. They created a character based on a compilation. Still I wonder how the book will turn out as it's better to write from who you are.

 

[Deleted member 37474]

I don't mean to be rude, but I don't want you to write this book. I had no clue what ptsd was till I had it. Now I am actually feeling paranoid that you have possibly been reading my comments or threads and might use something in your book. I have only told a handful of non online people about my ptsd. I know that online stuff isn't by any means ever truly safe, but your presence here has taken away some of my perceived security and I really need this site for support.

 

[Friday]

@TexCat

MyPTSD holds the copyright of everything written on this forum for JUST that reason! :happy: :D :sneaky: Meaning if anyone takes the content written by members here and uses it? We sue their asses off for copyright infringement / get the content removed post haste.

I really love this site :inlove:

 

[Fadeaway]

He gradually fell into paranoid schizophrenia the last few years before he died, so if you include anyone in your book who's older, there are often complications, especially among anyone exposed to Agent Orange.

You can't get schizophrenia from PTSD. Some elderly people, develop dementia. perhaps you are mistaking it for that? PTSD is not a cause for elderly dementia either. There maybe complications, but they are more economic, social, physical health, but it seems to me you not talking about those types of complications. Meaning, PTSD is not a progressive disease like cancer.

 

[Deleted member 487]

Jules, how old are you and what is your education level? Not asking that to be a dick, but honestly, I am uncertain if you have sufficient experience in writing and composition to make it even worth your while. At the very least, take the college courses English 1010 Expository Composition, English 2010 Intermediate Research Writing, English 2220 Introduction to Fiction, English 2250 Creative Writing, English 2300 Introduction to Shakespeare, English 2400 Special Topics in Literature and Culture. Because if you don't know already how to do the subject research, which I can see that you don't, how are you going to compile this into something worth printing?
Go to college Jules, and learn how to write professionally. THEN come back. Ok?

 

[shatter eyes]

Hey guys!
I'm writing a novel about a young woman who suffers from PTSD due to physical and mental ab...

Welcome everyone belongs.
Your desire to write and reach out to those who have been affected is honourable. From reading your words i can feel you are very excited.

Please do not take offence for what i must share in response.

Have you asked Ms. Kardashian about getting jacked? She can tell quite the story. Det. Olivia Benson is knowledgable in traumas also.

I feel insulted that you can claim no experiences of trauma and want to write about it without building a symptomology base and or understanding how much effort energy is required for suffers to speak. Trauma not only affects one person; it affects families and communities. Flashbacks are haunting and can be worse than nightmares because we cannot wake up from flashbacks. Night terror is another condition that develops grouped as Polysomnias. Trauma is intertwined with many triggers and i say is delicate to navigate like a stranger in a spiderweb.

I may be insulted because you want to spin a spiderweb when you are not a spider.

As you wish to publish your book I wonder about your audience. Are they happy dandies that ponder fantasy of trauma? Or are you hoping to inspire a healing path by bring Becca to life by resonating to the Becca within your readers?

I am sure your intentions are pure and sincere. However, i would advise to tread lightly by learning cues and compassionate communication when interviewing those affected and afflicted with trauma.

Have you considered connecting with social workers, group homes, juvi centers, recovery houses, halfway homes, AlaNon, MADD, or local womens shelter? Or a Church to hear how trauma affects communities?

Would you be traumatized if your book hit the wrong emotional button triggering a reader to end their life?

I am very interested in your project. It is a sensitive topic and I wish you success. Source your story substance from fakes and it will be fantasy. If you want to connect to how readers feel... u gotta keep it real.

Not insulted anymore.
Mr. Spider

 

[420kitty]

Write about something you can understand and have a mental grasp over. I love writing also but I tend to write more about what I know and fantasy items. Plus, writing is all in the details. If you know more about your subject then it will come out a lot better! I thought I had a pretty good understanding of PTSD before I got it. Little did I know, I never understood it at all, or could even attempt to understand. Even with all of the research it is still difficult for psychologists to grasp.

I may be insulted because you want to spin a spiderweb when you are not a spider.

Beautifully stated! This sums it all up.