>>7354760
just write about your life

sounds like that's what you're doing anyway

>>7354760
your appropriation of neuro-diverse identities is problematic.

>>7354760
Read personal accounts of what it's like living with schizophrenia. Symptoms, medications, etc and paint a broad picture of an individual with said affliction through the knowledge you've acquired.

Easy. Just write a character with psychosis, but one who's like that for longer stretches of time.

>>7354760
If you plan on publishing this story, don't. The schizophrenic trope runs rampant in amateur writing. Might as well throw in a vampire, bdsm, and an uncontextualized lover scorned while you're at it. Don't forget the purple prose.

>>7354760
Why do you need a schizophrenic character? Just write something surreal

>>7354806
The goal is not to be.

>>7354808
Reading about psychology has helped me a lot in eliminating possible cliché tropes/misinformed character building.

>>7354863
The story is specifically about people with neurological issues. My problem is that I only have personal experience with autism, adhd and depression. Schizophrenia is still something I have to know better.

==

So far I came to know that full-fledged hallucinations are extremely rare and that schizophreniac people almost never have double personalities (that's a whole different issue). Audio hallucinations aremuch more common, visual ones slightly less. Schizophrenia is progressive tho.

Also, most people who hear voices don't actually fear those voices and in some cases those voices are friendly, even while still being intrusive.

So now I'm thinking about givin the schizophreniac character an imaginary friend that is actually a symptomatic auditory hallucination... But I have absolutely no idea what the goal of an imaginary friend should be as a character or even if it should be a character at all and not a simple plot device. What do you guys think?

>>7354886
Because the story is specifically about people with neurological issues. I need a schizophrenic character to, well... Talk about it and share the perspective.

For a decent example see how T C Boyle handled Adam's character in The Harder They Come. Never overtly stating his psychological condition, but showing his behaviour and internal thought processes.

>>7354863
This desu.
Aren't you old enough to know this is a cliché?

>>7355803
Forgot to mention OP but that was addressed to him
:^ )

>>7354760
don't. I find that in most cases this is used as a trick to keep the character core pure while letting the character be a shithead/monster. remove that and keep the acts, you will end up with more complexity

If you want schizophrenia, read (any) of Joyce's work. In terms of the intensity of its manifestation:

Dubliners < Portrait < Ulysses < Finnegans Wake

>>7354760
Watch a couple documentaries and read some books on the subject.

>>7354760
never actually name it, never actually say that something is wrong
if there is a situation in wich your characters behavior differs from the norm, make it look like it's the most normal thing of the world and integrate it into your story. The reader will not know if he is stupid, if the character is stupid or if something fishy is going on and thus concludes, that he has to pay attention. thats important

>>7354889

I'm diagnosed psychotic and I have a dragon that lives in my head. She basically roars at me and insults whenever I'm being pathetic and sometimes helps me with homework or exams. She also gets annoyed when people whistle or make weird mouth noises and asks if she can kill them for me, and I have to tell her no, which she's so far obeyed.

>>7355989
kek. would read a 1,000 page novel about.

>>7356493

Thanks. It's too bad I can't write.

>>7354863

Abortion, suicide, heroin use, murder, adultery... let's just stuff all the arthouse cliches in, senpai.

>>7354806
Kek wew lad

Try meeting people who are schizophrenic or reading memoirs from people who suffer from it. Don't focus entirely on the cool-sounding symptoms like hallucinations and delusions and forget the more prevalent symptoms like thought disorder and flattened emotions. Auditory hallucinations ("hearing voices") are much more common than visual hallucinations, while delusions of grandeur and paranoia are the most typical themes.

Read about the symptoms of schizophrenia
Write characters with these symptoms

One thing I've noticed about schizophrenic people is that they overfill everything. For example, I met a man in a coffee shop and spoke with him for a long time. He was telling me about his kids and his ex-wife. He asked if I wanted to see his journal. He had seemed strange to me before this. Inside his journal, every page was filled, but even more so, every line had been written over multiple times.

He invited me to spend the night with him at a hotel. I politely declined and left.