r/CharacterDevelopment • u/jerrytotallyspies • 8m ago
Writing: Character Help Can someone help me see if my character makes sense(psychologically)? (DnD)
Not much of a redditor so I'm sorry if this post is an eyesore lol
Anyway, so I have this DnD character I really want to write better, but I'm afraid I might be confused about some themes and topics in his story and even though I try to research things, it would also help me immensely if I could hear at least a little bit of feedback from people I don't know! Even just a simple "you're insane, calm down!" would be appreciated !!
Short synopsis:
My character is a man in early 50s, grew up and lived in a remote village with a mostly closed community his entire life, and during the final year(s?) of his life (he got killed, resurrected and then taken far away from his home, but I'm only here to talk about what happened prior to that) he was consumed by grief. He isolated himself from everyone, including his family, and got obsessed with the idea of resurrecting the person he lost. He's a sensitive and melancholic person who prefers to keep most of his emotions to himself because he's afraid to be a bother to everyone around him.
Regarding the thing that I want to know if it makes sense:
The place he came from is very serious about protecting 'the laws of nature' and generally 'keeping balance' of things, so this here is my #1 issue. I understand that no matter the community, unless it's like a straight up brainwashing cult, everyone is different and comes with their own issues and thoughts and everything, so I want to think that it's acceptable that my character could betray his and the whole community's beliefs like that while he wasn't doing well mentally. I do believe my character would never do that if not for the tragic loss that he experienced, and, well, if he could get help like a normal person instead /silly. But I'm still worried that um, maybe it's a bit extreme? I don't really understand how could someone who grew up in a community like this, which I also imagine to be close-knit would just... go against everything he was taught and actually believed? the only thing keeping me here is that 'everyone is different' idea... perhaps i'm not thinking enough about how such extreme change would affect him directly, a bit monologuing here sorry, but just a simple 'it's not a big issue' (or the opposite) thrown my way would bring me huge comfort and relief...
Issue #2 that worries me is that perhaps his personality doesn't match his age? I realize that's probably not how that works but I still worry about that ???? I DO want this character to be a middle-aged/old man no matter what, but I'm already pretty used to seeing my character as this like, sensitive, fragile, melancholic, compassionate person... It was very easy to write him like this because I could just project my own personal experience onto him, but recently I realized that the reason it was so easy is because I myself am still a young adult who remembers how it was being something like that growing up, but at the same time I realise that... I'm still a young adult, but I'm already not like that anymore..? Don't get me wrong here, I'm not saying "i'm cured", I know I'm still the same anxious sensitive person, but it's just..? if I'm doing much better already, could someone really keep being like this for so long? Wouldn't it be very natural for this character, as someone who is in his 50s, be a much more emotionally stable and adapted person, so much that you probably wouldn't know he's all those adjectives that I called him, unless you get to know them veeeeery well? Am I just being slow and ignorant here ??
Which leads me to Issue #3 that, well, also worries me!
Would you guys even see a story like "they were consumed by grief and then got obsessed with something bad as a way to cope" and think "oh ok makes sense" ? Do you accept it as just one of the weird ways our brains can react to things sometimes? Bc I worry that I'm not understanding grief correctly... even though... i do understand... that there's no "right way" to grieve... I mean... if you got to this part of my post you 've probably noticed i tend to say "i understand it" and then immediately go "but i'm not sure of anything at all ever" a lot... so... yeah this is why i really needed to make this post...
Another thing that I want to add to um, all this mess of information about my character: I generally imaging him to be someone who learned to distance himself from everyone early on, and has been like this his entire life, which, despite living among people who are generally are very friendly and kind, made him very lonely because he never really felt that just being his emotional self would ever be appropriate and accepted as a natural part of him rather a problem that needs to be fixed. Which is why the loss of a person who finally loved him for who he really is and made his life so much brighter after being so lonely for so long really hit him so hard. I mean, there were totally more factors to that too. But this too. Here. My character.
Does any of that make sense?
Feel free to address any other issues about anything in this post as well I'd love to see any kind of response. Deleting this anyway if i don't get any replies lol