Dramatic character development can be one of the most difficult things to pull off, but if done well, it could become the most interesting aspect of a story. Although there are many ways to go about this, one of the most compelling is with a corruption arc.

When a noble and just character loses their conviction, and they corrupt and distort under the pressure of their desperation; when their desire to achieve a goal takes precedence over the means by which they must achieve it; when they get a taste of how much safer, easier, or prosperous their life would be if they just crossed the line a little… then a little more… until they’re in over their head; THAT is a story worth reading. 

The best part is, corruption can happen to anyone—even the most virtuous of characters. 

What is a Corruption Arc?

Much like its cousin, redemption arcs, corruption arcs take a character through a plot arc that ultimately leads to dramatic character development, though the two are inverted from one another.

A redemption arc sees a villain grow and evolve to the point where they can move on from their past and work towards being a better person. A corruption arc takes an upstanding character and corrupts their point of view, twisting their morals until they inevitably fall into villainy. 

To put it simply… 

A redemption arc takes a bad character and makes them good. 

A corruption arc takes a good character and makes them bad.

Every villain has an implied corruption arc, or something that turned them into the villain they are in the story—it just happens behind the scenes or before the story actually begins. In that instance, it is referred to as a villain origin story, but the principle is the same. 

Villains are complex characters to write, so if you want to explore this idea more or get some tips on writing a complex and interesting villain for your story, be sure to check out my other article: How to Write Good Villains in Fiction. 

Of course, a character doesn’t have to be a virtuous little angel before their corruption arc. You could have a lot of success with a character who teeters on the edge between good and evil, before finally giving in one way or the other. If this idea sounds like a good fit for your story, be sure to check out What is an Antihero? (And How to Write One!)

Making a Character for a Corruption Arc

Any character can experience a corruption arc, but there are a few things you should pay extra attention to if you want to make the job of writing it easier. Although these are not strict rules, here are a few tips for making a character that will fit well into the structure of a corruption arc.

(Psst! I’m not going to talk about the basics of developing a character for a story here. For that, you’ll need to check out How to Make Characters Interesting, Complex, and Unique!)

Start with a Noble Character

I know you’re thinking about how I just told you that characters don’t need to be morally perfect before a corruption arc. I said it alongside a shameless plug for my antiheroes article, but I do stand by the statement! But… starting with a character who is objectively a good (or at least halfway decent) person makes your job a lot easier. It makes the corruption a lot more obvious and creates the perception that the character experienced a real corruption rather than the assumption that they were secretly hiding a dark part of themself the entire time. 

Corruption arcs are all about contrast, so the stronger and more admirable a character’s morals are in the beginning, the more dramatic their inevitable corruption is destined to be. And of course, more drama means more intrigue. 

Their Guiding Principle

A guiding principle is the centerpiece of a character’s moral code. It is the fundamental belief that influences a character’s decisions, and it will be the main ideal that is manipulated to drag the character toward corruption. 

Guiding principles are generally broad and vague, and can thus be interpreted differently over time as circumstances, motives, and goals shift. This is why they play a pivotal role in corruption arcs. As the character’s position changes, they can find ways of twisting their guiding principle to justify what they are doing. 

Here are some examples of guiding principles you can give your characters:

• Nothing is more important than family
• Justice is absolute
• The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few
• The environment should come before the economy
• Everyone should live free
• Equality is more important than anything else
• It is more important to listen than to speak
• Honesty is the best policy
• Respect should be inherent, not earned
• It is better to give than to have
• Traditions and culture must be preserved
• Survive at all costs

While none of these principles are explicitly toxic, all of them can be twisted in a way to justify bad behavior. A person who believes nothing is more important than family would surely be willing to commit heinous acts to protect the members of their family. Someone who believes the greater good should take precedence over individual needs may be able to use that to justify sacrificing individuals’ peace or safety. Someone who believes that justice is absolute may take matters into their own hands if the law fails to convict someone, and take up the role of a vigilante—for better or for worse. 

When selecting a guiding principle for your character, make sure you keep that dynamic in mind. The guiding principle must sound good in theory, but be vulnerable to manipulation.

Their Fatal Flaw

A fatal flaw is a negative personality trait that will inevitably lead to a character’s downfall. It may not be their biggest flaw, but in a corruption arc, it is the hinge on which the character pivots to the dark side. A fatal flaw is what is ultimately responsible for the character’s corruption.

In most stories, a fatal flaw can look like any ordinary flaw, such as greed, pride, selfishness, or impulsivity. In a corruption arc, however, the fatal flaw is often a lot less straightforward, and can even be presented as a good thing in the beginning of the story. Virtues of trust, curiosity, and bravery can be vulnerable to exploitation, and if pushed to the extreme, can become flaws in themselves. Trust is a valuable positive trait, but when a character is too trusting, they can place their trust in the wrong people. Being too curious for their own good can lead a character to learn forbidden knowledge, which could put them in danger or even shatter their perception of reality. Being overly brave could cause a character to overestimate themself, and end up at someone else’s mercy.

Be sure you establish the character’s fatal flaw before the corruption takes root. You don’t have to foreshadow that the character’s mindset could be dangerous, but you need to at least present it as an important aspect of their personality. 

Flaws are fickle things. If you need a little bit more help on how to craft the perfect flaw for your character, you can look at How to Create Complex Flaws for Characters to get a more dedicated explanation. 

Their Motive

Motives, or more appropriately, character motivations, explain why a character behaves a certain way. If a character is charitable and kind at the beginning, but at the end of their arc they are greedy and selfish, you have to be able to justify why they changed—this is where motives come in.

There are three types of motives that are particularly relevant to corruption arcs: desperation, delusion, or temptation.

Desperation: Desperate motives are the things that are tied to a character’s needs of food, shelter, medicine, and safety. The character may be unable to afford food or a necessary medicine. They may be threatened or manipulated by someone else. Perhaps they have a loved one in a dangerous position, and they have to act out in order to protect them. They may feel afraid, cornered, and like they have no choice but to engage in corrupting behaviors. 

Delusion: Delusional motives are based on misunderstanding. Usually that results from a misunderstanding about a situation or process, but it can also extend to a misunderstanding about reality itself. These motives usually look like a character who has a (seemingly) noble goal, but a destructive method of trying to achieve it. These kinds of characters may see sacrifice as a necessary evil to benefit the greater good, and they may see themselves as scapegoats for that ultimate goal.

Temptation: Temptation is the most common type of motive in a corruption arc, and they are based on wants rather than needs. These are the motives that lead characters to seek wealth, power, respect, dominance, or anything else they desire. Characters faced with an easy way of getting whatever they want don’t always make the righteous choice.

Of course, characters can have more complicated motives that blur the lines between these categories. A character may start out doing something illegal to pay off a debt, but once they realize how much money they could make, they decide to keep engaging with it after the debt is paid. That’s a motive that starts out as desperate, then turns into temptation.

If you aren’t totally clear on what character motives are or the role they play in a story, pause here for a minute and take the time to read Character Motivations: The Key to Crafting Believable Characters. 

The Timeline of a Corruption Arc

As with anything, there isn’t a perfect formula for writing a corruption arc.

For my timeline, I’ll be referencing a 12-step story structure adapted from Joseph Campbell’s monomyth structure. However, you might feel like your particular story doesn’t need all the steps, or you want to alter the order of events, or add other steps. The point of this timeline is to break down the major ideas and illustrate how character development happens slowly over time. This timeline is not a strict framework.

Keep in mind that corruption arcs can be playing out alongside other arcs in the story, and could be strengthened by other scenes that break it up and slow it down. The corruption will feel much more integrated with the story if it is laced around other arcs that push characters to solve a mystery, fall in love, go on a quest, or whatever else is appropriate for your story. Those arcs can also draw readers’ attention away from the corruption so the foreshadowing is only obvious in hindsight. 

1. Ordinary World

The first step in the arc is to establish what the character is like before the corruption begins. 

This is the point where you show the kind of life this character lives, and the kind of person that they are. Highlight what is normal to them, what is important to them, and what they want in life. Be sure to highlight any of their struggles, too. Take the time to introduce them like any normal character, and give them a little time to develop before you start any of the corruption.

Be patient. If you rush this stage, readers won’t be as invested in the arc, and they won’t feel the proper impact from the character’s changing behavior. You can’t expect them to care about a character they just met, after all.

2. Call to Action

The call to action is the point where the character first encounters what will drive their corruption arc later. Think of this like planting a seed that, if nurtured, will start to grow uncontrollably later on.

In this part, the character must be faced with the possibility of solving one (or all) of their problems—but with some strings attached. Their troubles could be genuine and severe, such as financial burden, health problems, threats to their safety, or things along that line; they could be superficial, such as believing they deserve fame and wealth; or they could be purely psychological, such as desiring revenge for something someone else did to them. They may even learn about a new problem for the first time—that may not even involve them—and feel empowered to fix it themself. Regardless, at this point, they encounter something that could potentially fix their problems, and all they have to do is compromise their morals just a teensy little bit. 

This solution will depend on what the character’s troubles are. A character struggling financially may encounter a job offer that seems too good to be true, from a company that doesn’t have the best reputation. A character who believes they deserve fame may be told about the possibility of eliminating their competition. A character who is emotionally unstable and feels abandoned by their loved ones may be swayed by some new friends who claim they actually care, regardless of their affiliations. 

3. Refusal of the Call

The character must resist the temptation after they first encounter it. Their morals are too strong to be so easily swayed. But remember, the seed has been planted—it just hasn’t sprouted yet. 

From the examples above, the poor character may assume the letter is a scam and discard the job offer, throwing it into the trash. The character who craves fame may think they don’t have to rely on dirty tricks to succeed, since they believe it’s only a matter of time before everyone else recognizes their talent. The character that feels neglected by their loved ones may still feel a sense of loyalty to them, and wouldn’t want to betray them. 

This initial refusal is important, because it reinforces the strength of the character’s morals, while also foreshadowing the events yet to come. If the character gives in too easily, the corruption would lose some of its impact.

4. Meeting the Mentor

This is the section in which the character encounters something that reinforces their temptation. Think of this like watering the seed that was planted before. 

In the traditional hero’s journey, this would be the point in which the hero meets a mentor who is able to say all the right things to convince the hero to finally embark on their mission, while also arming them with information and tools that may be helpful later. In a corruption arc, however, it is more appropriate to consider this person a manipulator rather than a mentor. 

This manipulator could be someone who is deliberately trying to lead the character astray, or someone who accidentally expresses a sentiment similar to the character’s temptation. They could be in the same situation, or they could have given in to the same kind of temptation and show the character that it did, in fact, fix all of their problems. Or, they could be a victim of a terribly unjust system, and the only way the character can help them is by engaging in the corrupt solution.

Returning to the examples, the poor character could meet someone else who took the job offer and is now living comfortably. The character who craves fame could meet someone they look up to who insists that sabotage is the only way to succeed in the industry. The character who feels neglected could turn to online forums, where the entire user base acts as their manipulator by reinforcing the idea that their friends are terrible and the character deserves better friends. 

Though the section is named for a mentor, this encounter doesn’t have to be with a person at all. The character can encounter anything at this point that reinforces the original temptation. The only requirement is that it builds off of the call to action, and makes it seem more reasonable and rewarding. 

5. Crossing the Threshold

This is where the character makes the first decision in favor of corruption. 

There are many ways this step can play out. Maybe the character gets an opportunity that they’ve always waited for, and it is worth whatever compromise they must make to achieve it. Maybe a character’s desperation reaches a breaking point and they decide to steal a fancy watch from a friend and pawn it off behind their back. Another character could resell a prescription medication. Someone else may indulge in an illicit substance for the first time. 

If we return to the examples from before, the poor character could be faced with losing their house, and they decide to dig that job offer out of the trash and set up an interview. The character seeking fame could face a brutal defeat from a competitor, and vow to make sure they never go through that again. The character who feels abandoned by their friends might hang out with the wrong crowd… just once… just to see what they’re like. 

Though the character may not know it yet, this is the point where they start to turn their back on what they know in favor of something new. Once they get away with this first choice, they will feel emboldened to continue seeking the benefits of that behavior, whatever those may be.

6. Conflict

Now, right as it seems like the character is on the precipice of change, have them pause. Give the character a moment of clarity, and an opportunity to question if what they are doing is really acceptable. Up until now, they may not have even realized just how bad they had gotten.

This is often where other characters in the story also take notice and get involved. You could have different groups trying to influence the character one way or another. Some would try to keep the character on the right path, while others would encourage indulging in corruption. Both should seem like convincing points of view in the way they are presented, complicating the character’s internal struggle. Keep in mind that the character’s original morals are still relevant, and if someone’s argument plays off of those ideas, the character will have a harder time defending their actions—both to their peers and within their own psyche. 

Internal conflict is your secret weapon in a corruption arc, and you should use it generously. Showing the character’s attempts to justify their actions despite knowing deep down that they are wrong not only gives readers necessary context for understanding how this development can happen, it also makes the character seem more pitiful and relatable. The spiraling thoughts of a person on the brink of desperation makes for good entertainment, too. 

Let’s look again at the long-standing examples.

The poor character has gotten hired by the company and received their first paycheck. They are able to pay rent and feed their family comfortably, with money left over. They always had a sense that the company’s dealings were shady, but when they discover explicitly illegal business practices taking place, they begin to question if the money is really worth it. 

The character seeking fame and power has sabotaged their competitor, and cannot shake the deep sense of guilt that follows their own success. They feel undeserving, and perhaps fearful that someone will find out what they have done. Maybe they even swear to never do something like that again. 

The character who feels neglected may get approached by their old friends who express concern over the new people the character has been hanging out with. The character lashes out at them and accuses them of being the root of the problem. Later, however, they cannot stop mulling over the words exchanged in the argument, and they wonder if their old friends are truly right about the situation. 

For more insight regarding conflict in stories, you can check out my other article: The 4 Main Types of Conflict in Stories (And Variations!)

7. Approaching the Ordeal

Ultimately, the character must reach a decision and emerge from this conflict with renewed conviction. This can come after a period of trying to return to their old life only to be reminded again and again that things are not working out, or they could encounter information that confirms the doubts and biases they have been clinging to. They may fall for lies and honeyed promises, or be dazzled by what they can achieve. They may encounter information that proves to them that their original morals were apparently flawed. Regardless of how it happens, the character must pledge to commit to their new way of life. 

The character will not reach this decision without a lot of justification. Be sure that you consider how the character rationalizes their choices, even if you never show their thoughts explicitly to readers. The character may also fail to realize just how far they have fallen at this point, and still assume they are more of a victim than a perpetrator. 

8. The Ordeal

The ordeal marks the point of no return. This is a big event in which the character is faced with an ultimatum. They are forced to choose between their old commitments and their new ones. Think of this like a dramatic scene in which a character is forced to choose between saving their old friend or leaving them to die in order to clear the way for their own success. The ordeal in your story doesn’t have to be quite that dramatic, but the stakes should be similar. The character must face a choice with enormous repercussions—and make the wrong decision. 

This choice has to create or involve some kind of obstacle that officially obstructs their path back to redemption. Regardless of what the character even wants, the circumstances they have created for themself—whether that be legal implications, obligations, tethers, or backlash—leave only one way forward. They must feel as if they have no other choice. 

Prior to this point, the character may have believed they could have everything at the same time (you know, like that old idiom of having your cake and eating it too). Now, however, they understand that nothing can be gained without some kind of sacrifice, and their new ideals must take precedence over all other things. They must be willing to give up anything—family, friends, morality, respect, or whatever else—in the name of what they believe is more important.

The means by which they must achieve their goal no longer matter. As long as the goal succeeds, nothing else is important. 

9. The Reward

At this point, the character can fully reap the benefits of their new lifestyle. If they were seeking wealth, this is the point where they can cash in. If they wanted power, this is where you would show their rise through the ranks of whatever organization they admired. If all they wanted was peace and safety, then they should have it. Reward the character for believing they can have anything they want as long as they are willing to compromise their integrity to get it. 

10. The Road to Change

The character’s success is maybe not as sweet as they were hoping. At this point, you should show how their reward falls slightly short of their expectations, leaving them unsatisfied. Feed their growing obsession, and have them strive for more to make up for this disappointment. A desperate attempt to realize a goal that was flawed from the start will slowly degrade whatever is left of the character’s guiding moral principle. 

Additionally, have the character face off directly with the consequences of their way of life. Show how their rewards come with strings attached, and they now have to deal with some things they didn’t actually want, such as added responsibility, regret, or other challenges. The honeyed promises that swayed them in the beginning fall apart when the reality of consequence catches up to them. 

11. The Transformation

This is the point at which the character reaches acceptance. They understand and accept the consequences, the drawbacks, the obligations, and everything else that comes with their new lifestyle. There is no more uncertainty—they fully understand the implications of their deeds, and they accept all the conditions. 

12. The New Beginning

In the traditional story structure, this part would mark the end of the story and the point where the hero returns to life as usual. In a corruption arc, however, this is more of a new beginning than a return to the old life.

Here, you will want to draw parallels between who they are at this point and who they were at the beginning of their arc. Many things would be in conflict with their former life, but some things would remain the same. Routines, habits, preferences, and many other aspects of a person’s character would resist change, even if the circumstances or environment change drastically. Sure, the character may have different goals and morals than they used to, but they still may want the cup of chamomile tea they’ve had every night before bed for years. A character isn’t going to forget their favorite book, the way they make their oatmeal, or how to sing the intro song to their favorite television show word-for-word from memory.

Remind readers of who this character used to be, and who they still are to some extent. Contrast is always fantastic, but it’s the similarities that make a corruption arc feel genuine. Deep down, this character should still fundamentally be the same person they were before—even if every other aspect of their life is different now.

The Path Back to Redemption

In some stories, corruption is only half the battle. Just as someone can experience a fall from grace, they can also pick themself up again and start down the path of redemption. 

You can read up on redemption arcs in my other article Writing Redemption Arcs: What You Need to Know, but there’s something else you’ll need to consider if this is your ultimate goal after the character experiences a corruption arc: The character will never again be the person they were before their corruption. 

Even if the character is able to make amends, change their behavior, and work to undo any harm they had inflicted, they cannot go back to being exactly the way they were before. They would have seen and experienced too much, and they would forevermore carry the guilt from their previous way of life.

Few things are as satisfying as a redemption arc. The simple pleasure of watching a despicable character turn from their vices, question their behaviors, and express remorse for their actions is unparalleled. Villains are often already fan favorites, and who doesn’t like seeing their favorite character become a happier, healthier, and more fulfilled version of themself by the end of the story?

Redemption arcs are all about healing. A villain who is misled, suffering, or simply upholding a status quo without question, can break away from it all. Despite their past, they may find community, kindness, and above all, forgiveness. When readers see stories where even the most atrocious people can learn to do better and be welcomed back by their communities, it can leave them with a feeling of hope. Anything is possible, and no one is too far gone to come back.

Heads up: this article has been seriously overhauled! All the original information is still here, just organized better, and there’s some new info to provide you with more context and guidance!

What is a Redemption Arc?

Very basically, a redemption arc describes the process by which a character overcomes their flaws to become a better person. In many cases, that involves switching sides and joining or otherwise aiding the heroes of the story, though not always. 

A villain becoming a hero is not the only formula that works for redemption arcs. An antihero can experience a redemption arc too, and any character that has a fatal flaw can overcome it and redeem themself–either in their own eyes or the eyes of the public. This can include things beyond just violent or criminal behavior too, such as addiction, manipulative tendencies, simple biases, or dismal mental health. Sometimes, a character can even start out as a good guy, fall prey to some kind of corruption, and then redeem themself again by the end of the story.

I won’t get into antiheroes in this article, but if you want to learn more about them, be sure to check out my other article What is an Antihero? (And How to Write One!)

What Makes a Redemption Arc Good?

Although there is no perfect formula for writing a redemption arc that will work every time, there are a few things you can pay extra attention to in order to give your arc the best chance of success. 

Pacing

A redemption arc needs to be a full plot arc. Too many stories skip the lengthy arc and rush into a redemption that doesn’t feel deserved or realistic. This kind of arc needs to be dramatic and significant if you want readers to actually care, and to pull that off, you need to give it the time and space to build suspense. 

When writing a redemption arc, you need to have patience. Give the character time to be toxic before you start their redemption. Even after their wake-up call, they will need time to process what they learned before they can figure out how to feel about it. Their feelings of doubt, insecurity, anger, confusion, and more all have to build up over time before they can reach a point where the character will want to act on them. After acting on those feelings, they will need time to break their bad habits, alter their plans, and make all the other necessary personal changes–AND you need to account for the time they spend relapsing or dealing with unexpected obstacles to their growth.

After the character has managed to change their bad habits or evil plans or whatever caused them to need redemption in the first place, they will still need to confront society and the people most affected by them. Remember, it is not just about the character improving themself, but also making up for the damage they have caused. Earning forgiveness takes time, and building trust takes even longer. Don’t make it feel superficial by speeding through all the scenes.

If your entire redemption arc takes only a single chapter, episode, session, or whatever, then you need to rethink your approach.

Contrast

Any time you are writing an arc that centers on drastic character development, you need to be prepared to rely heavily on contrast. Draw comparisons between the way the character is at the beginning of the story with who they used to be, who they want to be, or who the people around them are.

How are they different from who they used to be? What is different about their mindset? Their behavior? Their circumstances? Did they get hurt or taken advantage of when they were younger and lose their optimism or hope? Did they internalize the things they witnessed and experienced and lash out to prevent something like that from happening again? Use this type of contrast to build pity for the character, which will be an important step in getting readers to accept them.

How are they different from others in their inner circle? Are they more empathetic? Are they unhappy? Do they struggle with committing certain deeds that their peers don’t? Utilize this kind of contrast to inform readers of the character’s inner turmoil and foreshadow their coming redemption story.

How are they different from the people they want to be more like? Are they too traumatized or jaded? Have they experienced an aspect of life that none of the people they look up to would understand? Have they committed deeds those people would look down upon? Are they shackled by guilt and shame, while they strive to be like those who have never known suffering or desperation? Utilize this kind of contrast to highlight the barriers the character perceives to be in the way of their improvement and to show readers why the character has not tried to redeem themself in the past. 

Of course, you’ll need to be cautious about how you present this information. Be subtle, and weave these comparisons throughout the narrative rather than dumping everything on readers all at once. If you’re too obvious about it, readers may feel as if the setup is forced or disingenuous. 

Conflict

Conflict is the heart and soul of a redemption arc. Often, it is conflict that drives a person to change, but it also complicates that effort. It adds intrigue, drama, and a relatable struggle to the character’s actions. Without it, everything would be too easy, and the story would be over too soon.

There are many options for the kinds of conflict you can use to spice up your redemption arc. The character may have to face pressure from both the forces of good, who want to see them do better, and the forces of evil, who don’t want to see the character lose sight of their old goals. Old friends will conflict with new friends, and the character could find themself at the center of many arguments and fights. Beyond that, they may face distrust or fear from the people they want to join or help, or be subjected to ongoing harassment from the people who were impacted by their former deeds. 

Internally, the character could struggle with feelings of guilt and shame, or they may feel as if they are entitled to forgiveness now that they are trying to do better. Their old habits may be at odds with their new morality, and falling back into old patterns of behavior could be a source of deep shame or frustration for them. Even before they begin their redemption, they may be forced to do things in pursuit of their goals that simply don’t sit right with them, or they could be confused and unhappy with their life as it is. 

Regardless of the type of story you are writing, you need to saturate the redemption arc with conflict. Making peace with a terrible past and accepting accountability for faults or misdeeds shouldn’t be easy. You should take every opportunity to test the character’s resolution.

If you ever need ideas for conflict in your story, you may find some inspiration in The 4 Main Types of Conflict in Stories (And Variations!). 

Making a Character for a Redemption Arc

If you’re going to include a redemption arc in your story, first you need to have a character that needs redemption. 

Depth and complexity are important for all characters, but they’re especially important for a character who will need to explore their psyche and confront their own insecurities and flaws. You need to be able to justify the character’s desire to go against everything they have known up to that point in the story, and if you haven’t taken the time to really build out their identity, then that desire may not seem genuine.

If you don’t do everything right, your readers may not even care about the character, may see them as unredeemable, or believe that their redemption doesn’t make sense. 

My other article How to Make Characters Interesting, Complex, and Unique may help you understand how to approach this, but I’ll outline some of the most important points below.

Backstory

The character’s backstory is an invaluable tool for you as the writer, even if you never end up sharing most of it with your readers. Keeping notes about a character and making a solid timeline for their early life will help you keep them consistent and better able to justify their reactions to what they encounter.

Beyond that, a solid backstory is important in a redemption arc because it helps you establish pity for the character, and that is extremely important. It is a lot easier for readers to forgive a character if they feel bad for them first!

The easiest way to build sympathy for a character is by giving readers hints about their backstory–but to do that, you have to know what that entails. My article How to Create Compelling Character Backstories can help you out here.

Now, a character who needs redemption could be a victim in their own right. They could have been raised in an environment that set them up to fail, or they could have been fed lies throughout their life to steer them toward a particular path. They may have struggled to be good at first and faced ridicule for it, or they could have had a childhood full of strife and abuse that forced them into a life of crime as they grew up. They could have witnessed an act of cruelty, lost their entire family, suffered a horrific accident, or any number of other things that would leave them traumatized and without proper guidance. You can think of this as being similar to a villain origin story!

Although a pitiful life is not necessary for a character to get a redemption arc, it is important to keep in mind that people are not often cruel for no reason. Rarely does anyone act out when all their needs are met. So consider: which needs are unmet for your character, and how are their actions an effort to address that?

Motives

Motives are a direct result of the character’s backstory. How has their past shaped the way they interpret the present? How have their experiences trained them to believe in certain ideals? Using their backstory as context, consider how they ended up doing evil, committing crimes, or falling into self-sabotaging habits. What motivates them to perpetuate those behaviors once they start? 

A character can have all sorts of motives that set them up for a future redemption arc. They could be:

• Seeking revenge for something they endured
• Seeking the approval of someone important to them
• Desperate for companionship and involved with the wrong people
• Hurting, and taking that out on people who don’t deserve it
• Hurting, and taking that out on people they do believe deserve it
• Misled or manipulated, while someone else is truly pulling the strings
• Seeking to pay off a debt, or make enough money to cover expenses for medical care, housing, etc
• Trying to solve a problem in society, or acting “for the greater good”
• Stuck in a cycle of abuse and merely repeating the mistakes of past generations

These are all empathetic motivations. They come from a place of misunderstanding or desperation, and all of them can evolve into something more productive once a character is able to question their circumstances. Keep in mind, however, that your character’s sins cannot be unforgivable. There are some actions for which it is impossible to build genuine empathy for the perpetrator, even with the most convincing and pitiful motives. 

I strongly, strongly recommend you check this article out as well: Character Motivations: The Key to Crafting Believable Characters. A character’s motives will be the driving force behind their redemption arc, so taking care to make them realistic, complex, and relatable can seriously help you out later down the line. 

Vice and Virtue

With all that said, you want readers to be able to feel more than just pity for a character—they have to actually like them too. Although there are a ton of different factors that go into a character’s likability, there is a trick that can help you steer a character towards readers’ favor: relatability. Readers are far more likely to feel fondness for a character if they can relate to them in some way, whether that be to their backstory, motives, flaws, or the way they think. 

A good rule for establishing relatability is to give the character a balance of positive and negative traits. For each fault you give them, you should also consider a good quality. The flaws will help readers relate to the character’s struggles, while their positive traits will make the flaws seem more acceptable.

For example, a character who is cold and unsociable has a clear flaw, but that isn’t enough to make them likable. However, if that stony character also has a sense of stoicism, suddenly their behavior is a lot more endearing. Similarly, a character who is outwardly selfish isn’t going to be very likeable if that’s all they have going for them, but if they are particularly funny on top of that, then readers will allow them to get away with more while still counting them among their favorites.

Many people can relate to flaws such as unsociability or selfishness, and by presenting them in tandem with what makes the character lovable, readers can form deep attachments to the characters in which they can see aspects of themselves.

You could also check out How to Create Complex Flaws for Characters for even more guidance on how to craft suitable flaws and why that is important.

The Timeline of a Redemption Arc

Of course, there is no perfect formula for writing a redemption arc, but you can find a lot of common themes among any arc that centers around major character development.

This timeline is based on a 12 stage story structure adapted from Joseph Campbell’s Monomyth, or “Hero’s Journey,” but you don’t have to use all 12 steps nor use them in this exact order. The idea behind breaking it up like this is to emphasize how important pacing is in an arc like this, and to highlight certain ideas that will strengthen the credibility of the character’s development. 

1) Ordinary World

When you first introduce this character, you need to make sure you give readers a good sense of just how bad they are. Don’t rush into making them seem sympathetic, and don’t give any early indications of the character’s coming redemption. At this stage, they are simply an antagonist, and you should show them off as such. Be prepared to show off the worst of what this character is capable of. A character who is almost too far gone to be saved is more fun to root for anyway.

2) Call to Action

Once you have definitively established who this character is and what their daily life looks like, you can move on to the “call to action.” This is an event, big or small, that has the power to transform the way the character sees the world or their role within it. Think of this like tipping over the first domino in a row—it might seem inconsequential now, but it will set off a chain reaction, with each subsequent event or choice leading the character closer to their inevitable redemption. 

What this event looks like will depend on the character and their situation, but it can take a few forms. The most traditional call to action in a redemption arc is when the character, who is ordinarily removed from the impacts of their crimes, comes face to face with the suffering they have directly caused. Other options involve the character receiving an ultimatum, losing someone they care about, having a near-death experience, getting a message from some spiritual or divine force, or receiving ridicule from the people they strive to impress with their misdeeds. They could find evidence that they are being lied to or used as a pawn, or that the plan they are working toward is not what it seems. 

Whatever shape this event takes, make sure you give it enough attention and emphasis. The situation has to be impactful enough to change the entire course of the character’s life, so you should take care not to gloss over it.

3) Refusal of the Call

The call to action plants a seed of doubt in the mind of the character, but seeds don’t take root overnight. The character will need time to process what they witnessed or experienced, and people are, by nature, resistant to change. No one is quick to drop their closely held ideals or their personal moral code, and even when confronted with information that suggests they aren’t on the right path, it may still feel safer to them to stick with the life they have always known.

Still, even if the character initially refuses to act on it, doubt should creep into every facet of their life. Have them question the meaning behind everything that has become habit to them, and ponder the implications of everything they do—even if they ultimately remain stubborn or double down on their misdeeds. 

4) Meeting the Mentor

In this step, the character typically meets another person who understands what they are going through and is able to say all the right things to convince them to initiate or progress the plot.

In a redemption arc, this could be someone who believes there is good inside of everyone, who convinces the main character to find that within themself. Or, it could be a person whose life has been directly altered as a result of the character’s failures or misdeeds, who represents the kind of suffering the character wants to prevent moving forward. It could be an old friend who remembers how kind they used to be, or an old enemy who expresses remorse and serves as an example of someone who has overcome their own flaws and become a better person.

Technically, this doesn’t have to involve an actual character if that doesn’t work in your particular story. All that needs to happen here is that the character encounters something that reinforces the doubts that they have been having since the call to action. 

5) Crossing the Threshold

This is the point at which the character decides to attempt to change for the better. Conviction stems from the seed of doubt that was planted earlier, and though the character may not believe they can succeed, they now believe that it is worth it to try. 

This represents the end of the “known world” in the traditional monomyth, since this is the point at which the character turns their back on everything that is familiar to them in order to venture into the unknown. 

6) Conflict

There are two main types of conflict that are important in a redemption arc, but they are inextricably woven together: interpersonal conflict, and internal conflict.

The moment a character begins to act contrary to what is expected of them, other characters on both sides will take notice and get involved, creating tension between the subject of the arc and the people around them. However, the personal opinions of others can force a character to reevaluate what they believe is true, question their own ethics, or agonize over what others think of them. 

In this way, supporting characters play a pivotal role in shaping a redemption arc. They can be the voice of reason that can snap the character out of a spiral, or they can be an antagonizing force that the character will want to prove wrong. They may draw the character’s attention to the good that is coming from their efforts for redemption, or accuse them of never being able to make up for what they have done. 

Never underestimate the power of a well-timed compliment or a new accusation in the face of already unbearable stress. Comments from supporting characters, whether offhand or in earnest, can influence the character’s behavior moving forward. This can be further complicated by disagreements between different characters. Some are bound to forgive the character before others, and they may openly argue amongst themselves–witnessing which would also leave an impression on the character in question. 

Remember, however, that each type of character is going to respond to these comments differently, and even positive comments can result in inner turmoil or conflicts. One person may get inspired by encouraging words, but withdraw or relapse under the weight of too many accusations or negative comments. A different character may be driven by spite, and double down on their efforts to improve in the face of skepticism or cruelty, but regard praise with distrust.

7) Setbacks and Relapse

In the face of so much conflict, it’s only reasonable to assume a character could crack under the pressure and attempt to retreat to the way things used to be. 

No one is perfect, and even the most determined character can experience some sort of setback, or relapse to their previous actions or behaviors. Changing habits and altering the way a person thinks is already challenging, but doing so while also forcing them to face the suffering they have caused and the backlash they receive from people can utterly crush their morale. That character is bound to stumble, have second thoughts, or make mistakes along the way. 

In the most extreme examples, a character may even give up on their redemption to return to their old life, only to be reminded of why they turned against it in the first place. Maybe the system they are used to has become hostile to them, or they have more context to understand its faults. Ultimately, however, returning to their past life should only remind them of their former grievances, and solidify their conviction to change for the better.

Even if a character does not give up or fully relapse, they may still do or say things that don’t necessarily reflect their new morals, simply out of habit. Whenever these mistakes happen, take care to show how the character reflects on it. They may regret it immediately, or not realize they did or said anything wrong until someone else points it out. Even if their behavior is determined to be unacceptable, they may still feel somewhat conflicted—and that’s okay! Let them have these feelings, question their situation, feel that they are being needlessly criticized, or doubt themself. Those feelings are human, and they reflect a genuine desire to be understood.

Showing the character struggling to adjust to their new life can humanize them. Lots of people have struggled with doing the right thing at one point in their lives, and they’ll be more likely to relate to a character who struggles similarly. 

8) The Ordeal

The ordeal is the part of the arc that is considered the point of no return. This is where the character fully commits to their redemption, often in dramatic fashion.

One of the most straightforward ways this is achieved is through having the character sacrifice something important to them in their quest to better themself. This could be wealth, security, status, the love of their family and friends, or anything else. It could even be the superficial pleasure of a vice, such as substance use or a harmful habit. You don’t want them to have nothing to lose one way or another, after all! 

When a character is willing to sacrifice something, that highlights both their determination to change and the sincerity of their penitence. It shows that the character is committed to righting their wrongs and taking responsibility for their actions. It can even make them seem a bit pitiful, which as we’ve established above, can have a huge influence on a reader’s willingness to support them. 

Forcing the character to confront the fact that they must choose between doing the right thing or maintaining all the luxuries they are used to can be a source of anguish for them. They may question if they are doing what is best for themself, or feel like they are being punished for trying to do the right thing. Ultimately, they will have to learn that they cannot continue to benefit from their crimes or the systems of oppression they upheld at the same time they are trying to make things right.

9) The Reward

No one is going to truly change for the better if they believe their efforts aren’t appreciated, or that they are wasting their time and not making a real difference. Once the character starts to feel this way, or they start to buckle under the weight of the stress or pressure, it is time to employ a new tactic: positive change. 

As the character suffers through the painful process of self-improvement, battling their old habits, vices, and mindset, you need to show that their efforts are worth it somehow. Depending on your story, you could show how much healthier they are, or how they now have friends who are willing to lend their support through anything. Show how the town is better off, the people are happier, or how nature blossoms where it had previously withered. The main characters could be making progress in their quest to stop a major villain, improve their society, pursue their dreams, or any number of other things—all because of the good that comes from the character who chose to not give up on themself, even when it got hard. 

However, just because the positive change is happening doesn’t mean the character will necessarily see it without help. They may hold themself to higher expectations, or be too caught up in how difficult this process is to notice anything around them. A simple remark from a friend or stranger could help them realize their true impact. Once they have the realization that they have the power to change things for the better, not just for themself but for the people around them, that should ignite the motivation they need to see this redemption arc to its conclusion. 

10) The Road to Change

Turning one’s life around is not as simple as just working on personal habits or thought patterns–especially if the character in question was a particularly heinous villain. Beyond working on themself, the character will also need to decide what they want their new life to look like and what steps need to be taken to achieve that. In most cases, that comes with the obstacle of atoning for their past misdeeds before they are able to settle down. 

Ultimately, a character seeking redemption will look for approval from the people who were most affected by their past misdeeds. This can be a single person, such as a sibling or love interest, a whole community, like a small town, ship, or academy, or even the character themself. Redemption can take the form of personal growth and self-forgiveness too. 

In many cases, however, the people who were hurt the most by the character are likely to be the last ones to forgive them. A small town made to suffer under a tyrannical government won’t be all that quick to forgive those who perpetrated it. Someone who was injured by the character likely still bears scars from the encounter with them—both physically and emotionally—that would be hard to move past. Someone who has witnessed the character at their worst could even assume that they aren’t capable of doing good, or that their new behaviors are some kind of trick. 

Earning the trust of the person or people they wronged should be a large part of the redemption arc. Simply doing good is not enough if the hurt from their past deeds still pervades. This idea can be a source of recurring conflict in the story and can push the character to try increasingly desperate things to atone for their past. 

A redemption arc can also lead into another beloved trope you can read about here: Writing From Enemies to Lovers: Creating Dynamic Relationships. 

11) The Transformation

Like the “crossing the threshold” stage, this part is all about the transition from one point of their life to the next. While that stage was about heading into challenge and conflict with a noble goal, this part is about leaving that conflict behind and moving on to the peace they have worked so hard for.

The character knows that they still have work to do, and that things will not be easy for them, but their faith in themself and the belief that the struggle is worth it keeps them going. 

12) The New Beginning

With their redemption arc behind them, the character is free to build a new life from the ground up. They can settle down how they like, pick up old hobbies or start new ones, and find a new routine that suits the kind of lifestyle they want to have.

However, when you compare your character at the beginning of their arc to who they are at the end, they should still seem like the same character. Regardless of the type or degree of growth the character has had to experience, they should still be fundamentally the same person by the end of their arc. It doesn’t matter if they have had to completely alter their morals, their habits, their social circle, the way they speak, or anything else–they still need to be recognizable as the person they used to be. The point is that they had the potential for redemption this whole time, not that they would have to change everything about themself to be forgiven. 

That doesn’t mean they have to act exactly the same as before, but you need to rationalize any changes. If the character becomes timid after their redemption arc, you need a justifiable explanation for that. Is it because they are prone to hurting others when they get angry, and the fear of what they could do subdues that anger? Are they nervous about how others perceive them? Are they still learning to trust others? Were they naturally timid this whole time, and merely had to act differently to uphold appearances?

Consider the character that you have and where you want them to end up. Decide in advance how you want them to behave at the end of their redemption, and make sure enough of their core personality traits remain. You can also continue their character growth after their major redemption arc is over! Have them continue to struggle with their old biases, repeat old sentiments, or even develop new coping mechanisms as a result of their guilt, unmet desires, or grief. And of course, keep in mind that not all of a person’s problematic behaviors will disappear after they get their redemption! A character who struggles with anger will likely still experience some version of that struggle forever, and the same is true for a lot of other behaviors. 

The Last Second Redemption

Sometimes, a character is too far gone for traditional redemption, and the only way they can be forgiven is through a radical act of self-sacrifice. Some sins are too unforgivable, and even if the character can completely come around, they can never make up for what they have done. Only through a willingness to give their own life to atone for their mistakes can they ever truly be redeemed. Killing off a character is not a decision you should make lightly, and it’s something to approach with care and consideration for how it will impact your entire story. For information on how to do this, be sure to read my other article A Guide to Killing Your Characters.

Villains are often fan favorites in fiction. Their dubious morals and lovable flaws solidify their place in readers’ hearts. But… what happens when the hero walks the line between good and evil? 

Antiheroes combine all the best qualities of traditional heroes and villains. Their surplus of flaws gives them charm and relatability, while their strong commitment to achieving their goals makes them easy to root for. Some of the most successful protagonists are the ones that drift into antihero territory. 

If you want to craft your own antihero that readers will love to hate (or love with their whole heart), then read on to learn some of the most important aspects of working with this trope. 

What is an Antihero? 

An Antihero is a leading character who lacks the expected qualities of a hero. 

Antiheroes may be aggressive, cowardly, or even downright morally corrupt. Often, they advance the plot by pursuing selfish motives, rather than following some righteous calling or duty. They may still end up rescuing the princess, slaying the beast, or saving the world, but they won’t do it just because it’s the right thing to do. They act because it’s in their best interests to do so. They rescue the princess because they were paid, slay the beast out of vengeance, and save the world because… well, they have to live there too. In other words, antiheroes can do the right thing, but for the wrong reasons.

Are Antiheroes Villains?

Antiheroes are not inherently villains, but the answer isn’t quite that simple.

Antiheroes walk the line between hero and villain and could easily tip one way or the other depending on how the story plays out. By definition, antiheroes have more flaws than traditional heroes and are motivated by their own needs or desires, rather than some higher purpose. However, unlike traditional villains, their flaws tend to be more forgivable, and there are lines that they do not cross. Part of the fun lies in seeing whether the character can be shaken, and if they will fall victim to the consequences of their actions or start down the path of redemption. 

In some stories, the only reason a character can be considered an antihero instead of a villain is the presence of a much more ruthless and formidable villain to compare them to. Readers can find themselves rooting for a bad guy, as long as he is fighting to stop an even worse person. This is just one way the framing of the story can influence how the character is perceived.

Antihero vs Anti-Villain

An anti-villain is a villain who lacks the typical qualities readers would expect a villain to have. 

Anti-villains may be righteous, kind, patient, and forgiving, or they may have a noble goal that they wish to achieve (by any means necessary). They are easy to sympathize with and relate to, and their reasoning for doing the things that they do may resonate with readers. They take the role of sympathetic villain to a whole new level—often one that makes readers question if their hero is the one doing the right thing. 

Ultimately, however, an anti-villain is still a villain. Even with a noble goal, they must still be willing to do unmistakably evil things to achieve it, and even if their heart is in the right place, readers should still want them to be stopped. With this kind of villain, vanquishing them is often a tragic event, not one worth celebrating. 

To put it another way: Antiheroes do the right thing for the wrong reasons, while anti-villains do the wrong thing for the right reasons. 

If you want a bit more help crafting the perfect villain for your story, be sure to check out my other article How to Write Good Villains in Fiction next!

How to Write an Antihero 

If you want to create an antihero for your next story, there are many things you will need to consider. First, you need to make sure you are following the standard framework for creating a good character foundation.

For an introduction to the basics, check out my other article How to Make Characters Interesting, Complex, and Unique.

However, an antihero isn’t just like every other character. There’s a lot more you will need to keep in mind as you are creating them. 

Give Them a Motive

Like any good character, an antihero needs a motive.

A character motive is like the character’s wants and needs, and it is the driving force behind the character’s behavior. 

Don’t just think about what the character wants. You need to know why they want it. A character fights off an evil beast because they want to impress the girl. Another character may want to do so because they believe it is right. Another does so because it sounds like fun. The motive in these scenarios is whatever follows the “because.” 

In the case of antiheroes, these motives tend to be dubious, selfish, misleading, or extreme. They still end up doing the right thing (most of the time), but they do so for pretty untrustworthy reasons. Let’s take a look at the examples from a previous section. 

• An antihero rescues the princess because they were paid to rescue her.
• An antihero slays an evil beast because they want vengeance for the loved ones they lost to the beast.
• An antihero saves the world because that’s their home too.

In each of those examples, the motive is self-serving, but it still encourages the character to go out and do potentially heroic things. 

Antihero motives can also be things like:

• Ruling the world
• Getting revenge
• Becoming famous
• Overcoming their past
• Finding love
• Achieving perfection
• Surviving
• Escaping confinement
• Becoming wealthy
• Winning (anything)

There’s a lot more to creating compelling character motives–so much more that I had to dedicate an entire article to it. Check out Character Motivations: The Key to Crafting Believable Characters if you want to read more! 

Antihero Traits

Antiheroes, by definition, cannot be flawless characters. I would argue that no character should be completely without flaws, but that is especially true for antiheroes. Flaws are the foundation of a character’s status as an antihero, and they help inform and uphold the character’s motives. 

There are thousands upon thousands of character flaws that you can apply to your antihero, but here are just a few ideas. They could be:

• Angry
• Solitary
• Uncommunicative
• Selfish
• Relentless
• Remorseless 
• Humorless
• Cruel
• Biased
• Greedy
• Arrogant
• Harsh
• Sarcastic
• Alcoholic
• Fearful
• Mentally unstable
• Apathetic
• Jealous
• Overly emotional
• Emotionless
• Pretentious 
• Nervous
• Impulsive
• Narcissistic
• Spiteful
• Overconfident 
• And many… many other things.

I really recommend taking a look at my other article How to Create Complex Flaws for Characters since flaws are such a hugely important part of writing an antihero character. Just giving them a superficial label without doing the work to consider how these flaws developed, how the character views their own flaws, and how those flaws inform (or conflict with) the character’s motives can make a character feel inauthentic and stale. Remember that flaws are the backbone of an antihero!

An Antihero’s Heroic Traits

With that out of the way, you need to start considering what redeeming qualities the antihero character should have. They can’t be nothing but a clump of unlikable traits mashed up into the shape of a person, after all. No one would read your story if they hate the main character’s guts. (Unless you have really, really good supporting characters…)

The positive traits you give your character shouldn’t be enough to make their negative traits seem justified. All these positive traits have to do is make readers like the character, in spite of their less-than-admirable qualities. As a bonus, a good balance of positive and negative traits can make a character more relatable, and readers will be more likely to stick with your story if they can see a little of themself in the main character. It may even make readers more hopeful that the antihero will get their own redemption arc at some point in the future.

Like with flaws, there are countless positive traits you can apply to your character. Here are just a few! They could be:

• Funny
• Attractive
• Dedicated
• Passionate
• Loyal
• Empathetic
• Intelligent
• Generous
• Charismatic 
• Disciplined
• Resilient
• Witty
• Courageous
• Kind
• Humble
• Gentle
• Righteous
• Patient
• Honest
• And any more!

Make sure that the positive qualities don’t conflict with the flaws you’ve already given them unless you have a good way of justifying that. And remember, the character’s flaws should be much more pronounced than their good qualities–at least at the beginning of the story!

Antihero Origin Story

By now, you should have a pretty good scaffold for the character’s personality and the role they will play in the story. What you need now is a justification for their behaviors and ideals. That’s right, just like with villains, antiheroes need an origin story!

Now obviously, there’s a ton of work that goes into giving a character a fully fleshed-out backstory, and I can’t cover all of that here. However, you should consider how the character’s upbringing and experiences shaped their motives and led to the development of their flaws. The things we experience in our pasts steer us towards becoming who we are today, and the same is true for characters. What are the defining moments of the antihero’s past? What happened to them to make them turn out this way? How did their past lead them to this particular point in their life?

If you want a good breakdown of the different elements of a character’s backstory, be sure to read my other article How to Create Compelling Character Backstories, and give extra consideration to the section titled “The Defining Moments.”

Let Them Make Mistakes

One of the most important strategies you should use when writing about an antihero is having them make decisions that a traditional hero (or even any reasonable person) would not make. These can be mistakes, or they can be deliberate poor choices. Although an antihero’s heart might ultimately be in the right place, that doesn’t always mean they are the best suited to the job. 

A good example of this is an antihero turning their back on others to save themself or otherwise benefit. A true hero would put themself at risk to protect the lives and safety of other people, but an antihero might not be rushing to put everything on the line for people they don’t know or care about. 

In a more extreme example, an antihero could end up doing something straight-up immoral, such as failing to show mercy, falling into their vices, or deliberately harassing someone else, like an ex or former partner. They might be rude, sinister, or downright cruel, and do things that look more like the actions of a villain than a hero.

Alternatively, they might just not be very bright, and prone to making mistakes despite their best efforts. 

The point of all this is to create conflict in the narrative. Conflict is the lifeblood of a story, and it is the very thing that will make your antihero so lovable–or abhorrent. Creating conflict, making it worse, or failing to navigate it effectively are characteristics of an antihero, so don’t neglect this idea!

Keep the End in Mind

This is good advice in general, but when you’re writing a story with a morally dubious or ambivalent character, you need to have a clear understanding of what the end looks like for them. Are they doomed to die at the end of the story? Will they descend into villainy or madness? Do they get a long and difficult redemption arc? Do they get what they ultimately deserve? 

If you keep the ending in mind from the beginning, then all of your plot arcs can contain little hints that help build up to the most impactful delivery of the finale. If you can do this well, then you could even incentivize readers to read through your story again to search for this foreshadowing. 

Give Them a Deeper Meaning

Antiheroes call into question what it means to be good or evil. They show that the hero of a story can be an ordinary person–one who has their own problems that they’re dealing with outside of the confines of the plot. They may have personal struggles or flaws, and they aren’t going to perfectly handle every situation they find themself in. The character’s struggles don’t make them “evil,” even if it makes them behave in ways that aren’t necessarily heroic. Even characters who are ultimately bad people can still do the right thing when the situation calls for it. Rarely, if ever, is anyone fully good or fully evil. 

Antiheroes can also create a hidden commentary on notions of fairness, justice, and what it means to be human. Consider how your character’s mindset and behaviors explore ideas of morality and guilt, and how their actions build up to a larger message you want readers to take away from your story. 

Although it isn’t strictly necessary to have your antihero play into some deeper meaning, it’s never a bad idea to add some profundity to your story. Just make sure you keep it implied and don’t spoon-feed the moral of the story to your readers like kindergarteners–unless you’re writing a story for children, I guess. 

Why are Antiheroes so Popular?

Time and time again, antiheroes find themselves among readers’ favorite characters, and it’s with good reason.

There are many reasons why antiheroes will never go out of style. For one thing, their flaws make them more realistic and relatable than a hero who can always make the perfect, selfless choice every time. Readers like to see their own characteristics in the characters in a story, especially if those characters find acceptance or support regarding their flaws, or show that growth is possible. Antiheroes who find themselves on the path to redemption can be particularly cherished for that reason. 

Alternatively, it can also be satisfying to watch a character who deserves to fail… fail. Sometimes, that’s the hook that keeps readers engaged until the end–will he make it, or will his poorly executed plan actually fall apart as readers expect it to?

Will the character face redemption? Will the underdog succeed? Will the selfish character who refuses to change get a satisfying reality check? Will the character find love and support despite their flaws, or will they reach an unfair, tragic fate? All of these scenarios can end up being impactful finales, and those are the moments that keep readers looking forward to the end.

Sarcasm can be an essential part of giving a character distinct personality and speech patterns, but it’s not exactly the easiest thing to convey in writing. After all, much of what makes sarcasm recognizable is the tone of voice a person uses. Without that, a character’s dialogue can come across as confused, aggressive, or just downright mean, when the character is supposed to sound playful instead. 

Thankfully, you don’t need to turn your story into an audiobook just so readers can pick up on a character’s sarcasm. There are several tricks you can employ to give readers all the information they need to understand how characters communicate beyond the words they say. 

Dialogue Tags

Dialogue tags are a quick and easy way to give readers an indication of how a character is speaking without drawing a lot of attention to it. You don’t always need to saturate your work with flowery descriptive language—in fact, in fast-paced scenes, it’s better to get the information out there and move on so you don’t ruin the scene’s momentum. In an action scene, it’s better to simply state the character said something sarcastically than to make readers play a convoluted guessing game about the character’s tone when it probably isn’t instrumental to the plot. 

With that said, don’t go overboard. If your story has too many dialogue tags, it’ll read more like a script, and you’ll have a harder time keeping readers’ attention. Relying too heavily on adverbs all the time is also generally seen as lazy writing.

Body language

Body language is one of the key ways you can tip readers off to a character’s sarcasm. By simply having a character roll their eyes or gesture exaggeratedly, you can tell readers that the character isn’t being genuine without wasting a whole lot of space on the page. 

Using body language also allows you to “show, not tell” how the character is feeling. Rather than telling readers that the character is being sarcastic, you can illustrate that through their movements. If you’ve done this well, it’ll end up being a much more authentic experience for readers.

For tips on writing body language well, you can check out another one of my articles: Writing Body Language: Bringing Your Characters to Life.

For information on “Show, Don’t Tell,” be sure to check out: Show, Don’t Tell: What It Is and How to Use It (With Examples).

Action Beats

Action beats are by far my favorite technique when writing dialogue for any situation, but it is especially helpful when writing sarcasm. Action beats combine the ideas of dialogue tags and body language, allowing you to get the benefits of both simultaneously. 

Rather than using the tag “Mark said sarcastically,” you can instead use an action beat: “Mark rolled his eyes.” You still indicate who is speaking, and you show how he is emoting. Additionally, the action beat doesn’t take up any more space than the traditional dialogue tag.

If you intend to use action beats in your story, make sure you know how to format them properly. My article Action Beats: What They Are and How to Use Them can help. 

Emphasis

Another way you can indicate a sarcastic tone in dialogue is by changing the way you write it. People naturally emphasize certain words as they are speaking, but when people are being sarcastic, their tone generally shifts, and they will emphasize different words. You can indicate emphasis using italics in writing.

Here are some examples of what it looks like to indicate sarcasm with italics:

• “Oh, I definitely won’t do that.” 
• “I am being so careful.”
• “Well, aren’t you smart?”
• “Yup. That’s me, the athlete.”
• “Yeah, give me a sec. I’ll just run to the nearest island.”

Other Characters

Other characters can also be a tool that you utilize to control readers’ perception of a scene. The way other characters respond to a sarcastic comment will clue readers in to the words’ true meaning. If characters respond to a comment genuinely, readers will take the words at face value. If other characters get offended, snap back, or make their own sarcastic comment in response, then readers will be more likely to pick up on the sarcasm in what the first character says. 

In other words, you can use the reactions of other characters to give readers the context that they are missing. Oftentimes, a well-placed “smartass” can be all that needs to be said for readers to understand. 

Some Parting Tips

Of course, there are times when it is not a good idea to have characters being sarcastic. Sure, everyone loves a snarky protagonist, but sometimes it’s better to be clear even if you have to sacrifice a little bit of personal flair. Making sure your story flows well and readers can follow what is going on is more important than a little comedic relief. 

It’s also important to keep in mind that most people are not completely sarcastic all the time. Characters that do behave like this will give readers the impression that they have something to hide—whether that’s their true self, a dark secret, or simply more vulnerable emotions. Of course, you can use this to your advantage. Also, if a consistently sarcastic character suddenly gets serious, that can add a lot of suspense to whatever situation elicits this reaction from them. 

Finally, regardless of how you decide to handle writing sarcasm, be sure you get beta readers. Getting the opinions of other people before your story gets officially released to the public can really help you iron out any misunderstandings in the sarcastic character’s dialogue.

Good luck!

ADHD is one of the most prevalent mental disorders in the world, but despite this, storytellers only seem to rely on inaccurate stereotypes when crafting characters with ADHD. If you want to write a character with ADHD, taking the time to understand the disorder is the first step towards writing about it authentically. 

Like the article about Autism, this topic is personal to me since I have this disorder myself. Seeing offensive portrayals of ADHD in mainstream media is unfortunately commonplace, but if you’ve made it to this article, you’re already a step ahead of those stories.

What is ADHD?

Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by differences in communication, behavior, and experiences. “Neurodevelopmental” means this is a disorder present from birth. It cannot be cured, nor can it be acquired later in life. It is not a disorder that only affects children.

Individuals with ADHD can be categorized as having Inattentive Type, Hyperactive Type, or Combined Type ADHD, however, this is debated a lot in ADHD communities for being generally inaccurate and unhelpful categorization. 

What Causes ADHD?

ADHD is thought to be caused by an imbalance of neurotransmitters and receptors in the brain, resulting in deficiencies of dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine.

• Dopamine controls the reward center of the brain. This is what makes people feel a sense of accomplishment for finishing a task, which in turn motivates someone to start, stay focused on, and actually finish things. 
• Serotonin regulates internal processes, such as sleep and digestion, but it also plays a large role in controlling emotions and creating a sense of relaxation or pleasure. 
• Norepinephrine regulates cognitive function and stress reactions. It works closely with Epinephrine, another kind of neurotransmitter that triggers the stress response commonly referred to as “fight or flight.” 

Although this might sound a bit convoluted for an article about writing ADHD characters, this explanation is important for understanding how ADHD affects a person’s brain. Knowing a list of symptoms and behaviors is not going to help you if you don’t understand the processes behind them.

As you can probably guess from the explanation above, ADHD is much more complicated than just being inattentive and hyperactive. 

What is ADD?

Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) is an outdated term to refer to the idea of “Inattentive ADHD.” It is no longer used in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM 5).

The label is no longer used because researchers learned more about ADHD over time, and have come to discover that ADD and ADHD are the same exact condition. ADHD, like all complex disorders, affects people differently, and having a different diagnostic label to refer to individuals with a different presentation of the same disorder is not necessary or helpful. 

What is Neurodivergence?

If you’ve done any research about ADHD, you have probably already come across the terms “neurodiversity” and “neurodivergent.” 

“Neurodiversity” describes the idea of disorders like ADHD and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) being part of natural human biodiversity.  The neurodiversity movement promotes acceptance of these differences since differing perspectives and ways of thinking can help create a more intelligent, creative, and overall empathetic society. Additionally, the movement highlights the inherent worth of individuals regardless of their abilities, and aims to encourage the development of a more accommodating and respectful world. 

“Neurodivergent” is a term used to describe a person whose brain differs from the structure or function of a “typical” brain. This is generally understood to include neurodevelopmental conditions like ADHD and ASD, but many others are welcomed under the umbrella term, including those with PTSD, Dyslexia, OCD, and more. 

Some may be inclined to argue about which conditions should or should not be included, but since the movement is about acceptance and celebrating differences, it is against the spirit of the movement to single out or exclude specific mental or neurological conditions. 

Symptoms and behaviors

ADHD is not simply being “bad at listening” and “energetic.” This is a complicated neurodevelopmental disorder, and the list of behaviors and experiences it encompasses is lengthy. In addition to that, it affects people differently, and what is true for one person with ADHD might not apply to another. 

Keep in mind that this is not an exhaustive list, nor is there an expectation for your character to have all of these traits. Go through and pick out the behaviors that make sense for your character—don’t just apply the whole list. 

Social

There are quite a few communication differences between Neurotypical (NT) people and those with ADHD. As you can imagine, it is not always easy for NT people and ADHD people to communicate effectively with one another—oftentimes, it results in frustration for both parties.  With that said, those with ADHD are much more likely to connect and get along with other people who share their condition. 

People with ADHD are likely to:

• Talk fast
• Talk loud
• Ramble
• Overshare
• Have trouble knowing when it is their turn to speak
• Rapidly change topics of conversation
• Have many seemingly unrelated thoughts happening in quick succession or simultaneously
• Be socially anxious

There’s one other trait that merits a bit more explanation: Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (RSD). RSD is defined as a condition in which a person has intense emotional reactions to perceived rejection. Rejection causes the person severe emotional pain, and almost always results in them developing methods of avoiding rejection at all costs—often at the expense of their own quality of life. People with ADHD have a much higher risk of experiencing RSD as a result of ADHD’s impact on emotional regulation.

Emotional

Some people with ADHD experience what is known as “emotional dysregulation,” which is just a more clinical way of saying they aren’t able to process their emotions well, leading to intense emotional outbursts.

Here are some examples of what emotional dysregulation looks like in ADHD:

• Mood swings
• Excitability
• Anger issues
• Low tolerance for frustration
• Low tolerance for boredom
• Difficulty coping with stress
• Crying easily
• Agitation

Another aspect of emotional dysregulation is delayed emotional processing. This means that a person may not know how to feel about a situation they experience until they have had time to think about it—even if a situation is inherently traumatic. They may appear good under pressure or apathetic to what is happening, when in reality, the emotional weight of the situation has not set in yet. This can be good and bad since it makes someone more capable of acting in the moment, but it can also delay healing in situations dealing with grief and emotional pain. 

Mental

As mentioned above, ADHD encompasses a myriad of complex psychological symptoms—aside from hyperactivity and inattention.

Here are some examples of the psychological symptoms a person with ADHD may experience:

• Constant internal dialogue, chatter, music, etc (like constantly having a song stuck in your head)
• Poor working memory
• Brain fog
• Spacing out 
• Impulsiveness
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Maladaptive Daydreaming 

With that said, not all psychological differences are negative! In general, people with ADHD also tend to be creative problem-solvers and passionate people. 

Physical

Although ADHD is a mental disorder, it has its fair share of physical symptoms as well. The mind and the body are inextricably linked, and when a person feels mentally unwell, their physical health is certain to follow. 

Here are some examples of what the physical symptoms of ADHD can look like:

• Difficulty sleeping
• Clumsiness
• Fatigue
• Restlessness
• Headaches
• Achiness

Behavioral 

When most people think of ADHD, they tend to think of the behaviors associated with it. Using these behaviors for your character will be the most obvious way to indicate that they have ADHD, but don’t neglect the other sections of this article. A comprehensive understanding of the condition is required to portray it authentically. 

A lot of the behaviors associated with ADHD are dictated by a need for stimulation—generally meaning sensory information. Here’s what that looks like:

• Difficulty in waiting for things
• Fidgeting
• Inability to stay seated or sit normally
• Lack of organization
• Picky eating
• Extreme attention to detail
• Perfectionism
• Inclination to multitask

And finally…

• Stimming. “Stimming” is shorthand for “self-stimulating behaviors,” and it references any behavior that a person utilizes to increase their overall level of stimulation. This is most often stereotyped as the hand flapping associated with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), but the list of behaviors that qualify as stims is endless. Stimming can look like bouncing a leg, swaying back and forth, humming, twirling, pacing, touching something textured, staring at music visualizers, chewing on things, and so so much more.

Other ADHD behaviors are dictated by a need for immediate gratification, since, remember, the condition is characterized by a deficit in the neurotransmitters that induce feelings of satisfaction and pleasure. Here’s what that looks like:

• Novelty-seeking or thrill-seeking behaviors 
• Procrastination
• Overeating
• Promiscuity
• Impulse spending
• Extreme lack of attention to detail
• Starting and abandoning hobbies suddenly
• Substance abuse and addiction

Notice that some of the points in each list are opposites. This is because the condition not only affects people differently but also presents differently depending on the context. A person may approach stocking grocery store shelves at work with perfection in mind, but keep their desk at home a cluttered disaster. Similarly, a person may be a picky eater, but when faced with one of their favorite foods, will eat in excess. Keep this nuance in mind. 

Sensory

As you can probably guess from reading through the sections above, ADHD has a lot to do with managing sensory stimuli. In general, understimulation is the default for people with ADHD, and their behaviors reflect an effort to take in more stimuli.

However, to complicate things, many people with ADHD also have something called “Sensory Processing Disorder” (SPD), which makes a person much more sensitive to stimuli that a normal person would not be bothered by. This can result in a person swinging rapidly from understimulation to overstimulation. Additionally, SPD can interfere with a person’s ability to decipher stimuli that they take in. Here are some examples of what this looks like:

• Inability to understand words spoken aloud, despite having no hearing loss
• Tendency to hear sounds other people cannot
• Inability to ignore or dismiss background noise
• Inability to focus when multiple people are talking at once (such as in a public space like a grocery store or stadium) 
• Extreme reactions to loud sounds, bad smells, unpleasant taste, certain textures, and bright lights
• Inability to tolerate things like tags in shirts, hair in their face, or substances on their hands/skin
• Heightened appreciation for pleasant sensations, like swimming, petting a soft cat, or listening to music
• Difficulty in recognizing bodily cues, such as when to get up and stretch, when to use the restroom, and when they are hungry
• Delayed processing, such as requiring more time to think about something they see or hear in order to understand it

Executive Functioning

The phrase “executive function” refers to the skills associated with the completion of tasks—both mundane and significant. These skills are things such as planning, organizing, managing time and expectations, scheduling, self-motivation, memory, and self-control.

People with ADHD have impaired executive functioning because, as mentioned above, the condition results in part from a deficit of dopamine—the neurotransmitter responsible for satisfaction and accomplishment. People feel incentivized to complete tasks because of the sense of accomplishment that follows, but in a dopamine-deficient brain (like those with ADHD), that sense of accomplishment never comes. The person with ADHD must endure an unpleasant task with none of the neurochemical reward that NT people expect. Doing something as simple as unloading a dishwasher can feel comparable to voluntarily placing one’s hand on a hot stove burner—as in, the activity is unpleasant and there is no inherent biological point to it. 

Executive dysfunction in ADHD looks like:

• Disorganization
• Trouble multitasking (or, inability to focus without multitasking)
• Trouble focusing
• Poor Time management skills
• Poor memory
• Being easily distracted
• No attention to detail
• Frequently losing things
• Poor planning
• Trouble starting tasks
• Trouble prioritizing tasks
• Trouble following through with tasks 
• Procrastination
• Starting many tasks but not finishing most of them
• Working well under pressure
• Time anxiety
• Work momentum (difficulty getting started and difficulty disengaging)]
• Losing all ability to continue working if attention is broken (such as a coworker approaching with a question) 

And finally… 

• “Waiting mode.” Waiting mode is at the intersection of anxiety, time blindness, and executive dysfunction. It describes the phenomenon of a single scheduled activity (such as a phone call, appointment, party, etc) stopping any and all productivity prior to the event. Rather than doing other things in the meantime, people with ADHD can find it nearly impossible to start something else, even if their appointment isn’t for another 5 hours, which results in them simply waiting… for the entire 5 hours. Naturally, this is one of the most frustrating parts of ADHD, since, as mentioned above, waiting is very taxing for people with the condition. 

Hyperfocus

One of the reasons why “waiting mode” happens is because of a behavior known as hyperfocus.

When a person with ADHD engages in a task that is particularly interesting and stimulating, they can slip into a state of focus that completely tunes out all thoughts not relating to the task in question. This includes bodily cues of pain, discomfort, hunger, tiredness, and more. A person may not have any awareness of the passage of time, even if the room gets dark around them with the setting sun (as long as the change in light doesn’t interfere with their activity, like ones that involve screens). The instant their focus is broken, they will become suddenly aware of all the bodily cues they missed while absorbed in the activity. 

A person’s awareness of their tendency to hyperfocus on things can trigger anxiety about losing track of time, which helps explain why they avoid engaging in activities if they have a scheduled event later in the day. Hyperfocus also explains why people with ADHD are so prone to forgetting things and burning their food when cooking.

Additionally, people with ADHD often have hyperfixations similar to Autistic special interests. Unlike special interests, however, fixations are often short-lived, with new interests being picked up and abandoned according to a person’s whims. For the brief (or not so brief) period of time a person engages with a fixation, it will be their entire world. It will seem like the only thing the person can talk about, and it will be the only thing they want to engage with in their free time (or even when they are supposed to be working. Like… on an article for their website, for example…).

Hyperfixations can be vague or broad, and just about anything you can think of qualifies—such as learning an instrument or language, creating some new kind of art, learning to skateboard, collecting something, playing a game, obsessing over a specific character or actor, and more. In fact, it’s pretty common for a person with ADHD to purchase all the equipment they need for a new fixation only to lose interest in it after a little while. (I haven’t opened my guitar case in years…)

If you are making a character with ADHD for your story, you need to consider what their current hyperfixations are, and what kinds of things can trigger hyperfocus. For some people, they may get sucked into scrolling social media easily, whereas someone else may easily slip into hyperfocus when reading articles about history. Another person could zone out often and hyperfocus on their own thoughts or imagination. Likewise, a person’s current fixations are a large part of their life, so neglecting to consider what a character is fixated on would be like neglecting an entire aspect of their personality.

Masking

“Masking” is the behavior of hiding one’s true self in order to appear more socially acceptable. For people with neurodevelopmental disorders like ADHD and ASD, this usually means hiding their symptoms and unusual behaviors, often to a detrimental extent. People have a variety of reasons for masking, but the most prevalent reasons are to avoid stigma and feel more accepted within peer groups. 

There are many different strategies people employ when masking. Even if a person is unaware of their disorder, they will often instinctively utilize these strategies based on the reactions of people around them.

Here’s a brief explanation of some of the different masking strategies:

• Mirroring describes the behavior of mimicking other people’s mannerisms in conversation in an effort to “fit in.” A person can use a “mirror” in the same way an actor plays a character, and they will likely develop different ones for different people they interact with. This can, of course, get rather messy when a person is faced with many people in a group. A type of mirroring can also occur when a person adopts the personality or traits of a person or character they resonate with from tv. 
• Scripting is the process of developing go-to phrases to use in conversation, or practiced answers to common questions like “how are you?” and “what did you do today?” If a person has something they want to share with someone else, they may also practice saying what they want to say—usually while looking at their own reflection. 
• Overcompensating is fairly self-descriptive. A person with a neurodevelopmental disorder may have to work twice as hard as someone else to achieve the same outcome, and then lie about what they suffered to achieve that. 

Aside from those strategies, there are thousands of tiny ways a person may police their behavior in order to be seen as “normal.” They can repress stims, make assumptions about things they didn’t hear or understand someone saying, lie about how they feel, and gaslight themself by invalidating their emotions.

To be clear, masking is not the same as learning emotional regulation strategies or communication skills. Masking is self-sabotaging behavior stemming from shame and stigma, all because harmful expectations are projected onto someone whose brain works differently from the majority.

Comorbid Conditions 

Like with many neurodevelopmental disorders, ADHD commonly occurs alongside other conditions. In fact, roughly half of all people with ADHD also have another co-occurring condition, and when you consider diagnostic bias and missed diagnoses, that percentage can be presumed to be even higher. 

Although the reason for this isn’t entirely clear, it is theorized that many neurological conditions share a common genetic cause, thus increasing the likelihood of two or more similar disorders co-occurring. Additionally, living with ADHD can make a person more susceptible to traumatic experiences like bullying, ostracization, and abuse, which can lead to the development of further mental health issues. 

Commonly comorbid conditions include:

• Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
• Learning Disabilities
• Auditory Processing Disorder
• Sensory Processing Disorder
• Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)
• Anxiety (including Generalized Anxiety, Social Anxiety, Health Anxiety, Panic Disorders, and more)
• Depression
• Anger Disorders (such as Intermittent Explosive Disorder (IED))
• Bipolar Disorder
• Tourette Syndrome (TS)
• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
• Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (cPTSD)
• Eating Disorders (Such as Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) and Binge Eating Disorder)

If you choose to give your character one of these other conditions (or something else not listed here), make sure you do the appropriate research to portray both/all conditions appropriately. 

Tips for Writing a Character with ADHD

Writing a character with any complex disorder (even one that you have yourself) can be daunting. However, if you do the research and just keep a few things in mind while you’re drafting the story, your ADHD character will end up being vibrant and authentic.

Here are a few tips to keep in mind:

• ADHD has positive and negative aspects. A person with ADHD isn’t necessarily going to suffer every day of their life through every situation they encounter. Many of the things that can be bad about the disorder can also be reframed as positive for a different setting or character. A lot of extra energy might make one character restless, but it may give a different character extra spunk and enthusiasm. Hyperfocus could make someone anxious in one setting, or incredibly helpful to the protagonist or story progression. Thrill-seeking behavior could also be a powerful asset in any kind of adventure story.
• Stating the character’s disorder isn’t necessarily…necessary. Although I believe in proudly naming characters’ disorders for the sake of representation, I’ll admit it isn’t always important to bring attention to. If you do everything right, readers who understand the condition should immediately be able to pick up on the character’s distinctly ADHD behaviors—or at least be able to resonate with the character on a personal level. 
• Give the character a sense of self-awareness. Generally, people with ADHD are aware of the behaviors they exhibit, but that doesn’t mean they will be able to change them. They’ll know when they’ve upset someone, interrupted someone, or failed to follow instructions, and generally, they will feel bad about it—and then probably do it again. It’s not something they can help, but I promise you, it bothers them as much as it bothers other people. 
• Have the character subtly fidget frequently. Any time there’s a pause in dialogue, utilize an action beat to draw attention to how the character is moving. Whenever the character is idle, thinking, focusing, or otherwise present in a scene, casually bring attention to their stimming behaviors. You can also use these fidgets to help show how a character is truly feeling beneath a “mask,” since they may rely on specific, comforting stims when upset or frustrated. 
• Exaggerate the character’s reactions to things. Remember that people with ADHD often experience heightened sensations, and their boundless energy often translates to bombastic personalities. Use this to your advantage to create contrast between characters and add emotional depth to scenes. Remember that masking may play a role in how a character projects their emotions, making them exhibit an emotion (or a degree of emotion) that is different from what they truly feel. 
• Don’t be afraid of showing the realities of living with a neurodevelopmental disorder. Ultimately, it is hard to live with something like ADHD. On top of all the stigma, it also simply makes every aspect of life more difficult. It’s okay to show your character getting frustrated with themself, or experiencing hardship as a result of their disorder. Just be sure to give the character positive traits and don’t make them seem like a burden to the other characters. Also, be cautious about not telling a story that is only about ADHD suffering—leave that to someone with personal experience. 
• Center the story around connections between characters. This might sound a little cheesy, but ADHD people function best with a strong and stable support network of people who understand them. Many executive functioning struggles are lessened with the presence of other people since a group creates a sense of community, accountability, and support. ADHD characters will be much more motivated to achieve things on behalf of the group, rather than themself alone. 

Shared Traumas and Experiences for People With ADHD

ADHD is a complex disorder with many different ways it can manifest. With that said, there are a lot of things that many people with ADHD can relate to, and those are important for you to understand in order to highlight your character’s experiences as a person with this condition. 

One of the things everyone with ADHD is (unfortunately) aware of is the presence of diagnostic bias in clinical settings. Like with ASD, ADHD is much more commonly diagnosed in boys as opposed to girls, and much more likely to be diagnosed in children as opposed to adults. Marginalized identities, such as being Black or Queer, can further complicate the pursuit of official diagnosis. 

In addition to that, many people with ADHD have shared experiences in the ways they were raised and treated by peers. Individuals with ADHD are often accused of being lazy, when what they are really experiencing is “ADHD Paralysis” as a result of executive dysfunction. When a person is relentlessly accused of being worthless and lazy (especially during formative years), they can develop incredibly toxic self-image and esteem issues. 

Finally, people with ADHD are taught from a young age that their behaviors are seen as unpleasant, unwanted, and inconvenient for other people. They are taught to change or hide their behaviors, even those that are harmless. Even if the intention behind the words isn’t bad, being told to “sit on your hands” or “stop disrupting others” will inevitably contribute to internalized shame. 

However, not all shared experiences are traumatic. There are many behaviors that ADHD people experience independently that are better described as funny or silly (albeit sometimes only in hindsight). These are things like:

• Pacing around while reading or talking on the phone
• Watching the same movie or playing the same game regularly (usually referred to as a “comfort movie/show/game/etc”)
• Placing an item in a place they couldn’t possibly forget it and then forgetting where it is
• Literally constantly listening to music, leaving the TV on, or otherwise having some distraction playing (even while sleeping)
• Checking the time and still not knowing what time it is
• Burning food while cooking because there are so many things to get distracted by in the few minutes it takes for something to cook
• Never replacing the toilet paper because the moment they start washing their hands, the thought leaves
• Relating to others’ experiences by telling similar personal stories (usually to the dismay of the conversation partner)
• Frequently changing up clothing styles or haircuts 
• Having way too many tabs open at once
• “Out of sight, out of mind” applying to all the fresh produce in the fridge
• Buying something at the store, only to come home and realize there’s already a bottle in the pantry—and then doing the same thing again next time
• Putting things away in the wrong place (like making coffee and then putting the milk in the pantry and the sugar in the fridge)
• Feeling the absolutely irresistible urge to finish other people’s sentences (especially when the topic is exciting!)

And so on and so forth. For more ideas like this, you can check out forums like r/ADHD and other related Reddit forums. 

Avoid Stereotyping Your Character with ADHD

Really this whole section exists to simply say: Don’t use the “ooh look, a squirrel” joke in your story. That’s it. Just don’t do it. 

In all seriousness, it is important to keep in mind that people with ADHD are complex individuals with diverse experiences and personalities. If you’re creating a character with ADHD, you need to approach it the same way you would approach making any other kind of character. They need flaws, history, experiences, culture, passions, goals, and depth. They are so much more than a disorder or a diagnostic label.

For tips on character creation, you can check out some of my other articles!

How to Make Characters Interesting, Complex, and Unique

How to Create Compelling Character Backstories

Character Motivations: The Key to Crafting Believable Characters

If you’ve made it this far, thanks for sticking with me! I hope you found this useful. 

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(As an aside… The fact that this article took me 2 years and 3 months to complete is a testament to how Executive Function works. There is nothing I am more passionate about than this blog, and nothing I am more knowledgeable about than my own experiences. AND YET… it still took me THIS LONG to finish this particular article.)

If you’re struggling to come up with a name for a fantasy character, you could end up finding all the inspiration you need in the plant kingdom. Flowers evoke feelings of elegance and grace, which can make flower names most suitable for characters like elves and centaurs, or, if you’re making a character for a D&D campaign, these names could work well for a firbolg or druid as well. Really, any character associated with the fey or nature could be a good fit for names like these. 

Although these names are best suited for fantasy characters, they could end up being meaningful for any character. Take a look, and you might find something you like!

Acacia

The word Acacia describes a genus of shrubs and trees. These plants have iconic seed pods and often bloom white or yellow flowers, though some species are red or purple. They are notoriously challenging to grow—often requiring someone to manually chip away at the seed coat—but they have been coveted throughout history for their medicinal and preservative properties. 

As a name, Acacia has Greek origins, and means “thorny,” since many plants in the Acacia genus are covered in thorns. It would be well-suited to a character who has a lot of positive qualities, but holds themself back due to anxiety, past trauma, or some other personal obstacle. 

Alcea

Alcea is the name of the genus of flowering plants commonly known as “hollyhocks.” These plants are coveted as ornamental plants due to their bright flowers and tendency to attract hummingbirds and butterflies. 

Alcea is an uncommon name of Greek origin, and is understood to mean “foundation” or “strength, courage, and protection.” In the language of flowers, this flower symbolizes ambition. Naturally, this name would be well-suited for a character who is driven and passionate, with a tendency to care for and protect their friends. 

Alyssum

Alyssum is the name for a genus of flowering plants that are iconic for having clusters of tiny bright white or yellow flowers, though some species can be pink or purple. They are often used as food for caterpillars, and they have been known to attract many moths and butterflies to a garden. 

As a name, Alyssum can mean “shelter” and “protection,” and the Greek definition for the word is “without madness,” or “to cure madness.” It could be a good name for a doctor or a character with healing abilities, or simply someone who takes on the role of protecting their friends. 

Amaranth

Amaranth derives from the genus Amaranthus, which includes species of plants used for food and ornamental gardens. It is known for its distinct flowers, which are small clusters that can grow in long tendrils, and range in color from striking fuchsia to deep maroon. Amaranth seeds are commonly used in cuisine, though all parts of the plant are technically edible. 

The name Amaranth is of Greek origin, and means “unfading,” so it could be suited to a character who powers on regardless of their circumstances. 

Anthurium

Anthurium is the name for a genus of plants that are most commonly known as “laceleafs,” “flamingo flowers,” and “tailflowers.” These plants have unique flowers called bracts, which feature a spiky cluster of flowers (called a spadix) that grows on the end of a stem and a specialized (often brightly colored) leaf that surrounds it (called a spathe). They often have large, heart-shaped leaves, and berries that are mildly toxic.

Although Anthurium has not historically been used as a name, and the Greek definition (“flower tail”) doesn’t offer much in terms of meaning, it could end up being a good name for a character who is flashy and bombastic—or anyone who is distinctly unusual. 

Bryony

Bryony is a genus of plants known for being poisonous—often extremely so. The leaves, flowers, berries, and roots can all be fatally toxic if ingested. However, that is not the only way this plant has been known to be destructive. Its ability to climb and its dense foliage can overcome and shade out most other vegetation around it, which can disrupt gardens and ecosystems alike. That said, sometimes they are planted in gardens deliberately, for their soft green flowers and bold red, black, or green berries. 

As a name, Bryony has Greek origins, and means “climbing plant.” Based on the destructive nature of the plant itself (and its common classification as an invasive weed), it could be best suited for a character who has their fair share of toxic traits as well. However, if you wanted a more positive spin, it could also work well for a character who is able to overcome adversity and rise above their peers. 

Calla

Calla is a genus of plant that only contains one species: the Calla palustris, more commonly known as the “bog arum,” “water-arum,” or “marsh calla.” It looks quite like a peace lily, with a similar greenish-yellow spadix and a curved white leaf, called a spathe. It produces bright red berries and is highly poisonous. 

As a name, Calla is of Greek origin, and means “beautiful.” It could end up being the perfect name for a character who uses their beauty or charm to trick or manipulate others.

Calliandra

Calliandra is a genus of plants that are delightfully nicknamed “powder-puff plants” or “fairy dusters.” This is because of their iconic flowers that resemble fuzzy pom-poms or feather dusters due to their many long stamens. In addition to that, they are known to bloom year-round, and are often red, pink, purple, or white. 

Calliandra is also a name that is derived from the Greek name Calandra, which means “lovely one.” Given that meaning, and the adorable fuzzy flowers that are iconic to this plant, this name could be perfect for a delicate and graceful character, such as a nimble elf or some other fae creature. 

Camellia

Camellia is a genus of flowering plants that are highly coveted for their gorgeous (and often very large) pink flowers. They are used most often in ornamental gardens and for making tea, but the seeds can also be pressed to make oil that is used in cooking, hair care, and cleaning and treating blades. However, these plants are extremely delicate and susceptible to many pests and parasites. Many of the most commonly cultivated species are rare in the wild due to their natural habitats being destroyed. 

The name Camellia has Latin origins, and means “religious attendant” or “helper to the priest.” It could be a great choice for a cleric or paladin, or any character who deals with religious themes. It could also be a good fit for someone who has a wide range of skills and abilities. 

Cassia

Cassia is a genus of flowering plants that, for a long time, was used as a label to classify plants  that didn’t fit neatly into other categories. Additionally (and confusingly), many plants in the Cinnamomum genus are also commonly called “Cassias.” Because of the unconventional use of the label, it is unclear how many true cassias exist, and many have wildly different properties and uses from one another. Some are edible, some are toxic, some are shrubs, some are trees, and some are used in herbal medicine. Over the years, many Cassia plants have been moved to more appropriate genera. 

Cassia is a Latin name that means “cinnamon,” because of its relation to the Cinnamomum cassia, a tree that produces a warm, cinnamon-like bark used as a spice (and, shockingly, it’s not in the Cassia genus). This name could be fitting for someone warm and inviting, or, alternatively, someone who is not who they say they are. 

Celosia

Celosia is a genus of plants commonly known as “Woolflowers.” The flowers vary wildly in color, from common yellows and reds to the more unusual white, silver, and fuchsia. It is a popular food in many parts of the world, and it is said to have a delicate texture and a taste similar to spinach. It is hardy and grows well in conditions that would be inhospitable to many other kinds of crops, and it is highly successful at spreading its seeds without human intervention, making it extremely low-effort to grow. 

The name Celosia derives from the Greek word for “burning” because of their bright pointed flower heads that look almost like flames. It would be a great name for a character with an unshakable will and an independent attitude. 

Crocus

Crocus is the genus of plants that is famous for the Saffron Crocus, which is responsible for producing the most expensive spice in the world. The flowers are often purple, yellow, white, or orange, but the saffron it produces is used to make orange or red dye. In addition to that, saffron is a highly valued spice in the culinary world, and is widely considered to be luxurious. 

Although Crocus is not generally used as a name, it could end up being just the right fit for a character who values the finer things in life and likes to live luxuriously. 

Cyclamen

Cyclamen is the name for a genus of plants with an unusual appearance and an even more unusual way of growing. Unlike many similar ornamental plants, cyclamen flowers grow from a round tuber that resembles a potato. The flowers themselves face downward and have upswept petals, giving them the appearance of being inside-out. The leaves are large and heart-shaped, with purple undersides and a distinct “Christmas tree” pattern on the top. 

Although Cyclamen is not generally used as a name, that’s a bit of a missed opportunity. Not only does it come with the convenient and suave nickname “Cy,” but it could also end up being a perfect fit for a truly unique character. 

Cypress

Cypress vines (not to be confused with cypress trees) are little red star-shaped flowers that grow on vines. It is also known as “star glories,” “cypress vine morning glories,” and “hummingbird vines.” The plant grows quickly and can cover a wide area in a short span of time, earning it the unfortunate title of “invasive species,” though it thrives just as well in small spaces. Still, its beautiful flowers and tendency to attract hummingbirds keep it popular for ornamental gardens.

As a name, Cypress derives from the Greek name “Cyparissus” or “Kyparissos.” It is generally used in reference to the cypress tree, which is often seen as a symbol of mourning. This could work well for a character who thrives in any condition and makes the most of their circumstances. 

Dianella

Dianella is a genus of flowers more commonly known as “flax lilies,” or, more specifically, “blue flax lilies.” They are known for their soft blue flowers and vibrant, shiny blue berries, and have long strap leaves that sprout up directly from the ground. Some of the berries are edible (and reportedly taste nutty and sweet), but some other species are highly poisonous.

The name Dianella is said to originate from the Roman Goddess Diana, and the diminutive suffix -ella. Although it is not often used as a name, it can be seen as a unique reimagining of more common similar names such as Danielle or Diane. It could work really well for a character who is full of surprises.

Dicentra

Dicentra is a genus of plants known by the common name “bleeding-hearts.” These plants are iconic, and some of the strangest-looking flowers in the world. Some flowers are heart-shaped, some look like teardrops, and some look entirely alien, with multiple layers of different lengthed petals contorting out like tentacles. The flowers can be a range of colors from pink and blue to cream and even brown. 

Although Dicentra is not generally used as a name, it has a beautiful sound that could work wonderfully for a tragic villain or some creepy or wildly unusual personality. 

Eglantine

Eglantine is a species of rose that is also known as “sweet briar.” It is coveted for its large, pink blooms that smell of sweet apples, and the large rosehips (the fruits) that are used to make a popular and nutritious tea. Uniquely, it is considered to be critically endangered in some parts of the world (like Portugal), and invasive in other parts (like Argentina). It is able to grow in almost all climates, barring the extreme north. 

The name Eglantine generally means “sweet and prickly,” or similar variations of that. It would be a great fit for a character who uses a sweet persona to get people to trust them, only to later betray that trust. 

Euphorbia 

Euphorbia, also commonly called “spurge,”  is the name of one of the largest genera of flowering plants, including roughly 2,000 different species. The eclectic mix of different plant species that fall under this classification includes succulents, trees, tiny shrubs, and even the classic poinsettias that pop up around Christmastime. One thing that makes them similar, however, is that all the species share the same poisonous, latex-like sap. In addition to that, all the species are known for having flowers that lack the common structures of traditional flowers—namely petals. The actual flower is more like a small bulb, and what looks like petals are actually leaves that have taken up the characteristics of petals in order to attract pollinators. 

As a name, Euphorbia originates from the Greek name Euphorbus. Both the modern name and its original Greek form have a mystical sound to them and could be a good match for an eclectic scientist or wizard. 

Flax

Flax, also known as “linseed,” is a plant cultivated primarily for its practical uses, like making linseed oil, textiles, or flax meal for cooking. Linseed oil has many uses, including in wood finishes and paints. However, these plants do have ornamental potential, since they are known to stand tall and bloom red, yellow, white, or violet, depending on the species. 

As a name, Flax is short and bold, and that, coupled with the versatility of the flax plant, leads it to be a good fit for a pragmatic or resourceful character.

Forsythia

Forsythia is a genus of flowering shrubs that grow in the early spring, and are often referred to as “Easter Trees.” They produce bright yellow flowers with four distinct petals, and in autumn, the leaves turn a soft peachy color before the plant goes dormant for the winter. The fruits of this plant are actually dry pods containing several winged seeds, which allows the seeds to be carried on the wind to propagate in new locations. 

The name Forsythia actually comes from William Forsyth, a famous Scottish botanist from the late 1700s and early 1800s. It means “man of peace,” so it could be a good fit for a character who is serene and even-tempered. Alternatively, you could lean more into the spring imagery, and apply it to a character who is young and spritely—and perhaps has wings, just like the seeds of the forsythia plant. 

Freesia

Freesia is a genus of plants best known for their large, funnel-shaped flowers. They are sought after for ornamental gardens because of their large iconic blooms, and they are frequently included in wedding bouquets as well. Not only that, their strong fragrance is often utilized in the production of creams, perfumes, and other cosmetics.

The Freesia got its name from the German botanist and physician Friedrich Freese in the late 1700s and early 1800s. It is gaining popularity as a given name, and it is generally understood to simply mean “flower.” It is simple and elegant, and may be a good fit for a character who shares those traits.  

Galax

Galax is a genus that only contains one species: Galax urceolata. The plant is referred to simply as “wandplant,” “wandflower,” or “beetleweed.” These nicknames come from the long tendrils of white flowers (called a “raceme”) that grow up above the rest of the plant, resembling a magic wand made of flowers. The leaves are known to be dense and leathery, and are heart-shaped with serrated edges.

As a name, Galax invokes that same sense of magical wonder as the plant itself. It could be a great name for any character who uses magic. 

Gaura

Gaura, also known as “Lindheimer’s beeblossum,” “Lindheimer’s clockweed,” and “Indian feather,” is a gorgeous ornamental plant known for its unique shape and delicate blossoms. The flowers bloom in white or pink, and despite their fragile appearance, the plant itself is quite hardy and can survive a long period of time without water. The stem and leaves of the plant are covered in a fine, soft hair, and the edges of the leaves are slightly serrated. 

The name Gaura comes from the Greek word for “superb,” for the plant’s impressive appearance. It could really suit a character who is full of surprises and is stronger than they look—or someone who really dresses to impress. 

Heliconia

Heliconia is a genus of plants that are delightfully unique. They are often called “lobster-claws,” “toucan beak,” “wild plantain,” and “false bird-of-paradise.” The plant is closely related to bananas, and a lot of the main structure of the leaves resembles those plants, with large palm-like leaves on the end of long stems. However, Heliconia’s drooping flowers stand out by being bright red and resembling lobster claws—though some varieties are orange, pink, or yellow.

Although Heliconia is not often used as a name, it could work well for a character who is always doing something spontaneous or unexpected. 

Ixora

Ixora is a genus of flowering plants most commonly known as “West Indian Jasmine,” though it has many other names. Ixora plants are highly coveted as bonsai because of their large, dark, leathery leaves and tendency to bloom year-round in the right conditions. The flowers themselves are tiny, but grow in large, round clusters. They are often red, white, yellow, and pink. 

Ixora is a gorgeous name with impressive origins. It comes from a Portuguese translation of “Isvara,” which is Sanskrit for “lord.” Likewise, a character named Ixora could be imposing and impressive, commanding respect simply by being present. 

Jonquil

Jonquil, also known as “rush daffodil,” is a flower very closely related to the common daffodil. There are many differences between them, from subtle differences in the shape of their leaves to the climate in which they grow, but the most striking difference is their scent. Daffodils are known to be subtle and sweet, but jonquil flowers have a strong, perfume-like scent. Despite these differences, many people assume that Jonquil and daffodils are the same. 

The name Jonquil originates from the Latin “Juncus,” which means “reed.” It would work out well for a character who feels like they don’t totally fit in with their peers.

Junellia

Junellia is the name of a genus of plants in the Verbena/Vervain family. These plants are characterized by small flowers that grow in tight clusters, and are often a light pastel pink, lilac, or white. Like other plants in the Verbena family, these flowers are highly sought-after for ornamental gardens for their soft colors and flower coverage, as well as their tendency to attract many butterflies and hummingbirds.

Although Junellia is not traditionally used as a name, it bears resemblance to other names like Junia or Junellie, which simply means “born in June.” It could be a good name for a youthful and sunshiney character, or anyone with ties to nature, like druids or fae. 

Kalmia

Kalmia is a genus of flowering shrubs with blooms that resemble tiny parasols. They are often a delicate pink, white, or red, and are so renowned for their beauty that when they were first discovered, they were incredibly expensive, and sought after by botanists like they were gold. However, despite its unparalleled beauty, the plant itself contains a lethal neurotoxin, and has earned itself titles like “lambkill” and “sheep poison” for its tendency to be accidentally eaten by sheep.

As a name, Kalmia is well suited to a character who deals in poisons, or someone who is known for having a pretty face and an abrasive personality. 

Kennedia

Kennedia is a genus of peculiar-looking plants with flowers that somewhat resemble pea pods. The stem and leaves are hairy, and the blooms are so unusual it is hard to describe them in words. With multiple bracts, petals, and stamens, many species of Kennedia look more monstrous than beautiful. Additionally, these flowers can be bright blue, red, violet, and even black. 

As a name, Kennedia comes from the name “Kennedy,” which hails from Ireland. Although it has a sweet sound and harkens to a more traditional name, the monstrous flower from which it derives makes it more suitable for someone hiding a dark curse, like a monster form or some kind of evil corruption. 

Lantana

Lantana is a genus of flowering plants known for their iconic, bright flower clusters that come in almost any hue. These clusters grow out in a spiral shape and often change color as they age, resulting in mesmerizing patterns with two or three colors within a single cluster. Despite its gorgeous appearance, some species of Lantana plants have been known to wreak havoc on ecosystems by being lethally poisonous and aggressively invasive. 

As a name, Lantana is as fiery as the blooms on a Lantana plant. It could be well suited to a character who is a skilled fighter or potion-maker, or simply someone with an attitude to match their namesake’s vibrant nature. 

Larkspur

Larkspur is the common name for the genus Delphinium, which is well known for having spike-shaped clusters of flowers (called raceme). These blooms, which resemble spurs, are most commonly blue or purple, though some species can be pink or white. Because of the vibrancy of the color, some species are used to make brilliant blue ink. However, like many of the prettiest flowers, larkspur are toxic, and can result in a slow, painful death.

Because of their alluring appearance and slow toxin, Larkspur could be a name well-suited to a character who ends up betraying their friends, or one who uses their appearance to lure their foes into a false sense of security. 

Linaria

Linaria, also known as “Toadflax,” is a genus of flowering plants that thrive so well it is often characterized as weeds. The flowers have a wide variety of shapes and colors, and many species are known for having unusual and oblong blooms. They are simple, alluring, and easy to grow—but they can get out of hand quickly if they are not often trimmed back. 

As far as names go, Linaria is one of the more elegant ones. With repeating vowel sounds and no hard consonants, it is befitting for an elf or other species of graceful disposition. 

Lonicera

Lonicera is the name of the genus of plants that contains the famed honeysuckle. These plants are named for their sweet, edible nectar, and are coveted for ornamental gardens because of their bright colors and tendency to attract hummingbirds. They grow best when they are able to climb up existing plants and structures, and because of this, they are often utilized to disguise unsightly walls or fences. However, if not trimmed back carefully, it can quickly grow out of control. 

The name Lonicera comes from the Renaissance botanist, Adam Lonicer, and it adapts quite well to being a given name. Although it sounds graceful and dignified, it could also end up working well for a character who is attractive, but overbearing and high-maintenance. 

Narcissus

Narcissus is the name for a genus of spring flowers containing species like the common daffodil and the jonquil. These flowers are known for their characteristic bell-shaped corolla in the center and six conspicuous petals beneath that, always white or yellow in color. These iconic flowers have been a popular choice for millennia, with records showing that they were cultivated in ancient Rome and Greece in 300 AD—and possibly even earlier than that. 

The name Narcissus comes from an ancient Greek myth of a youth who fell in love with his own reflection and wasted his life gazing at himself. When he died, a narcissus flower sprouted up in his place. Naturally, this name would be well suited to a character who is rather grandiose and attention-seeking. 

Nerine

Nerine is a genus of plants commonly known as “Jersey Lilies” or “Spider Lilies.” Their long and spindly petals resemble the legs of a spider or small octopus, and come in shades of pink, white, and red. Interestingly, despite their common names, they are not considered true lilies. Although these delicate flowers are gorgeous and unique, they are not often cultivated, and many species are threatened with extinction. 

The name Nerine means “sea nymph,” so naturally, it would be well suited to any character associated with water or the sea, like a sea elf, mermaid, or pirate. 

Nivale

Nivale comes from the flower “trillium nivale,” which is an iconic little flower also known as the “snow trillium” or “dwarf white trillium.” These flowers bloom while snow still blankets the ground, and rarely grow above 9 cm. Their flowers are small and white, bearing only three petals in a triangular shape. They have an indefinite lifespan and can live for many years, however, they bloom for only about three weeks before the entire plant drops its seeds and recedes back underground. Additionally, they are known to be extremely delicate plants, and simply plucking the flowers from them can damage the plant so significantly that it dies.

The name Nivale, predictably, means “white,” after the white flowers that grow from the trillium nivale plant. The name could work well for a character who is sensitive and has a tendency to withdraw, but has a lot of positive qualities they could share with the world if only they had the confidence to. 

Nolana

Nolana, also known as “Chilean bell flower,” is a genus of flowers in the nightshade family. They are known for their trumpet shape and range of colors from white to blue, with a bright yellow center. It is a simple plant often used in commercial landscaping and home gardens, and it requires full sun to thrive.

As a name, Nolana (and the more masculine form “Nolan”) is of Gaelic origin, and means “champion.” It is a name that would be well-suited to a character who is charming and universally liked, with an uncanny ability to persuade others of anything. 

Ophrys

Ophrys is the name of a genus of orchids with a peculiar set of attributes. Known as “bee orchids,” the flowers of this plant mimic the appearance and pheromones of female bugs (often bees), effectively fooling male bugs into trying to mate with the flower, thus pollinating it. Additionally, bee orchids are highly dependent on symbiotic fungi to absorb nutrients from the soil, so removing these plants from their native habitat is nearly impossible.

In another weird twist, Ophrys is the Greek word for “eyebrow,” since the plant is known to be fuzzy like the body of a bee—or, well, an eyebrow. The name could end up working really well for a deceptive character, or someone who relies on their appearance to elicit information from others. 

Plumeria

Plumeria, also known as “frangipani,” is a genus of flowering plants with a delightful appearance. Each flower has five leaves that overlap each other in a spiral sort of shape, giving them the appearance of tiny pinwheels. They grow in clusters and are often white, orange, pink, or yellow. Fittingly, their seeds have little wings on them to be carried by the wind and propagated elsewhere. 

The name Plumeria comes from the 17th-century French botanist Charles Plumier. It could be a good name for a character who is free-spirited and goes where the wind takes them. 

Scilla

Scilla is a genus of flowering plants that are known for their iconic blue flowers and dark stamens, though pink, purple, and white variations exist. They are considered to be a valuable ornamental plant because of their vibrant color, but also because they bloom very early on in the spring season, and are often among the first flowers to appear after winter.

The name Scilla means “ancient,” and it works really well both as a standalone name and as a nickname for Priscilla. The name could also stem from the Greek name Skylla, which references a terrible sea monster. It could end up working well for a character who is associated with the sea.

Settia

The name Settia comes from the poinsettia plant, which is well known for its bright red and green foliage that often finds its way into traditional Christmas decorations. Although they are known for their red leaves (known as bracts), there are varieties that come in orange, cream, white, pink, or even multiple different colors at once. These leaves all start out green, however, and when the nights are long enough to leave the plants in darkness for 14 hours at a time, the bracts change colors into the iconic red that everyone knows and loves.

As a name, Settia (also spelled as Setia), means “faith” or “truth.” It could be a perfect name for a paladin or cleric, or any character associated with deities or festivities. 

Sorrel

Sorrel, also known as “spinach dock,” is an herbaceous plant with green and crimson leaves. When it blooms, its flowers grow in large whorled spikes, though they aren’t exactly visually impressive. Although it has little to no value as an ornamental flower, it is coveted for use in cuisine for its sharp and sour flavor, despite being poisonous in large quantities. It is often puréed and added to soups or sauces.

As a name, Sorrel has French origins, and means “reddish brown.” It is a warm and gentle-sounding name, and would be a good fit for a character who is authentic and dependable. 

Teasel

Teasel (or Teazel) is a common name for the genus Dipsacus, which includes some pretty unique flowers. Teasels are known for their prickly leaves and stems, and the large, spiky inflorescence (cluster of flowers) that can be purple, pink, or white. These tiny flowers grow close together, covering the entire seedhead and creating the illusion of one large, spherical flower. 

The name Teasel means “to tease,” and the plant likely got that name from its use in textile processing, where the seedheads would be used like a comb to tease wool fabric to make it more textured or fuzzy. It would be a name well-suited to a character who likes to joke around, or perhaps a fae trickster. 

Ursinia

Ursinia is a genus of flowering plants in the daisy family. They are known mostly for their iconic circular, bright orange or yellow flowers with striking, dark centers, though some species of Ursinia can also be red, white, or cream. It blooms often and for long periods of time, and is well-known for being easy to grow. Although they might sound unremarkable, they are often compared to a vibrant sunrise.

Ursinias get their name from the German scholar Johannes Heinrich Ursinus. Both Ursinia and Ursinus could make good names for fantasy characters, and may be a particularly good fit for a character who is reliable and upbeat. 

Verbena

Verbena, also known as Vervain or Verveine, is a genus of semi-woody flowering plants, although the name is often used in reference to the species known as “common verbena.” Their flowers are tiny and grow in clusters, and are often a soft blue or purple color, though white, pink, and red varieties exist. They are highly valuable for their uncanny ability to attract many different kinds of butterflies, moths, and hummingbirds, so they are considered by many to be an indispensable part of butterfly gardens. Additionally, the common verbena is known for being a “honey plant,” which means the plant’s nectar is used by bees to make honey. 

The names Verbena, Vervain, and Verveine all have great potential as fantasy names. The name Verbena means “sacred foliage” because the plant was believed to have spiritual significance to ancient Romans. It could be a good fit for a cleric or paladin character, or simply any character with connections to the divine or nature.  

Vinca

Vinca is a genus of flowering plants commonly known as “periwinkles.” The flowers are violet (or occasionally white), and always have five petals. They tend to grow low to the ground and can spread across a landscape fairly rapidly, creating a dense ground cover. However, although they are beautiful, their ability to spread rapidly in many different climates has earned the plant the title of invasive species. 

The name Vinca means “to bind or fetter” (in chains), or “to conquer.” It could be a good name for a villain, or someone with tragic elements to their past. 

Wisteria

Wisteria is the name of a genus of twining vines that become woody at maturity. They are well-known and loved for their iconic, drooping clusters of purple flowers, and they have a long history of use in art, particularly in Japan. Although the lilac varieties are the most often cultivated, pink, white, and deep purple varieties exist. 

Wisterias are known in the language of flowers as the flower of devotion, and they are often used to symbolize romance. The name Wisteria could fit a character who is sweet or suave, or perhaps a bit of a hopeless romantic. It may even be a good fit for a charming bard.

Zephyranthes 

Zephyranthes is the name of a genus of ornamental flowers often referred to as “fairy lilies,” “Zephyr lilies,” “rainflowers,” and “rain lilies.” Their flowers are large and funnel-shaped with six petals, and they may face upward or tilt toward the ground. They bloom in a range of different hues of yellows and pinks, and though their flowers only last a few days, they grow in a sequence so there are always new blooms on the plant—particularly in rainy weather. They are particularly prone to blooming right after a lengthy rainstorm. 

There is a lot of good symbolism you can draw from Zephyranthes. The name stems from the Greek god Zephyrus, the personification of the west wind, and the fact that the flowers bloom after rainstorms means the name could really suit a character who has flourished after getting through hard times. 

Zinnia

Zinnia refers to a genus of plants with truly recognizable flowers. The thing that makes these flowers unique is that they appear to be a composite structure, with a cluster of small blooms in the center of a larger flower. In addition to that, each flower grows on the end of a tall, isolated stem, and can come in a huge variety of colors, including white, yellow, orange, red, purple, lilac, and even green. Even more interestingly, however, is that these flowers can be cultivated in zero-gravity conditions, and have bloomed aboard the International Space Station. 

The name Zinnia comes from the German botanist Johann Gottfried Zinn. Though it starts with a sound that is often underutilized in common naming conventions, its short length and traditional -ia ending makes it feel like the perfect mix of unique and classic. Add to that the fact that it is currently blooming in space, and you have a ton of great inspiration for adding history to a character’s name. It could suit a character with some connection to the cosmos or the divine, or it could simply fit someone who stands alone and depends only on themself. 

Some Final Notes

Names don’t always have to have some kind of special meaning! Sometimes, picking a name for a character is as simple as finding one that sounds cool. However, all names have some kind of history, and examining the origins of those names can not only help you decide which one fits the character best, but it can also give you inspiration for the character’s past and personality. Plus, it gives you a cool fact you can share about your character on a whim, which can be fun if you get to introduce them to people for group roleplay or tabletop gaming. 

Regardless of your methodology, you can’t deny that names are important! They become the cornerstone of the character’s identity, and in most settings, they play a role in others’ first impressions of the character. Names can seriously impact how your characters are perceived—for better or for worse—so it’s best to take the process seriously. 

I hope you liked this list, and if not, I wish you luck in your continued search! The perfect name is out there, I promise!

Diversity representation in works of fiction is becoming more and more mainstream, and with good reason! People of all races, genders, and abilities deserve to see themselves represented in the stories they read. However, a lot of representation ends up being poorly researched and presented, and that is often the case for blind characters. This lack of research contributes to the perpetuation of harmful stereotypes and overused clichés, and in many cases, will make readers (not just blind ones) put down the story in disappointment. 

If you want to include a blind protagonist in your story, but you aren’t sure how to go about it (or if it’s even a good idea at all), then you’re not alone! Writing a blind protagonist can be daunting, but it’s not as challenging as you might think! All it takes is a little research and practice, and you’ll be able to create a compelling blind character to add to your diverse cast of characters. 

What Is It Like to Be Blind?

This might surprise you, but the vast majority of blind individuals (about 80-90%) actually retain some form of sight. Usually, that means a person is still able to perceive light and shadows, but sometimes a person can still see colors or vague shapes, or they may have tunnel vision or only be able to see in their peripheral. Some conditions can cause visual impairments that look like snow or debris that obscures vision, or dark spots could cover a large portion of a person’s field of vision. Some people just have eyes that vibrate so intensely that their sight is too blurry and dizzying. 

With that said, 10-20% of blind people are completely blind, with no light, shape, or color perception at all. And, obviously, if your character does not have eyeballs at all (due to accident or birth defect), then they would fall into this category.

Contrary to what you might expect, totally blind individuals don’t “see” darkness–they actually don’t see anything at all. Most people assume that the absence of sight is equivalent to darkness, but that isn’t the case. Darkness requires sight to perceive. Even if your eyes are closed, you are still seeing the inside of your eyelids, thus why it is dark when you close your eyes. 

However, experiences can vary. A person who was born blind will not even know what darkness is supposed to look like. Someone who loses their sight later in life may remember, and their brain could try to fill in the gaps in perception with what makes the most sense. If the brain isn’t receiving any visual information, it may assume that it is dark, thus creating the imaginary perception of darkness. 

How A Character Can Become Blind

There are three primary ways a person can become blind: injury, illness, and birth defects.

No matter what you choose, do the research to make sure you are accurately portraying the character’s experience. 

Injury

There are several ways an injury can result in blindness, and some are not as obvious as you might think. 

The most straightforward option is to have the character experience some kind of physical trauma to the eye that would cause the eye to rupture. Other options include acidic or corrosive substances getting into the eye and burning it, lasers, shrapnel, or anything else that could cut, smash, bruise, or burn the eye or the tissues around the eye. 

In addition to trauma to the eyes themselves, a character can become blind when the part of their brain that processes sight becomes damaged, or if the nerves connecting the eyes to the brain are damaged or severed. This can happen in a high-speed car crash, hitting the ground from a high distance, concussions, stroke, asphyxiation, and more. 

If you decide to justify your character’s blindness with brain damage, there are a ton of other complications that you’re going to need to be aware of. I highly recommend taking a look at my other article How to Write About Brain Damage (Accurately!) just to make sure you can write about the topic convincingly. 

Illnesses

Illness is another way that you can justify a character being blind in your story. 

Brain tumors and some kinds of cancers can end up interfering with the eyes or optic nerves and result in blindness. Aside from that, however, there are a ton of other options for illnesses impacting a character’s vision. Autoimmune disorders can sometimes result in a person’s immune system attacking the cells in and around their eyes, whereas diseases that interfere with cardiovascular health may cause the eyes to degenerate because there isn’t enough blood and oxygen getting to the eyes’ cells. 

Of course, there are also many eye-specific diseases like cataracts, glaucoma, and macular degeneration that can result in vision impairment or loss. Bacterial or viral infection can result in blindness as well.

If you’re writing a fictional story, then the disease that makes a character blind doesn’t even have to be a real disease. You could create your own disease from scratch with blindness being one of the symptoms. Of course, that’s a lot easier said than done, but if you’re willing to consider it, creating a fictional disease for your story can be a cool experience. Check out my other article How to Create a Fictional Illness for Your Story for a comprehensive breakdown of how to do this!

Birth Defects

Blindness caused by birth defects is referred to as “congenital blindness,” and it can be caused by a variety of different conditions. The two most common kinds of congenital blindness results from anophthalmia and microphthalmia, and these conditions can occur on their own or as a result of another birth defect or disorder. 

Anophthalmia is a condition in which a child is born without one or both of their eyes. 

Microphthalmia is a condition in which one or both of a child’s eyes do not develop properly, which makes the eye(s) small and non-functional. 

With that said, any condition that results in the underdevelopment or mutation of any of the tissues or nerves in or around the eyes and occipital lobe in the brain can result in some form of vision impairment. 

Curse

Okay, okay. I know I said there were three major ways for a character to become blind, but this is worth mentioning too. 

If you’re writing a story in which magic is possible, it stands to reason that a character can lose their sight due to being magically cursed. This option is of course very niche so I won’t go into detail here, but if you want to know more about curses, you can check out Curse Your Characters! (Writing About Magical Curses).

What Do Blind Eyes Look Like?

Contrary to what popular media would have you believe, blind eyes usually look just like normal eyes. Almost all of the most common types of blindness don’t affect the appearance of the eyes at all. Of course, there are exceptions to this, but it is your duty to do the research for the character’s specific condition to see if their eyes would look any different from anyone else’s eyes. 

In general, a character’s eyes will not look cloudy or milky unless they have sustained the right kind of damage that would result in scar tissue forming on the cornea (the clear membrane that covers the eye). This can occur as a result of surgery that was done poorly or didn’t heal well, acid or foreign objects getting into the eye, corneal ulcers, or other physical trauma to the eye. Cataracts are the most common cause of cloudy eyes, but there is a surgery to reverse this. Some other conditions can result in cloudiness as well. Wikipedia has a good list of some of these conditions, but be warned that they do include images of scarred eyes.

Naturally, if the character was born without eyes, or had them removed (either traumatically or surgically), you won’t be describing what their eyes look like–you’ll be describing what their lack of eyes looks like. Do they still have fully formed eyelids and sockets? Do they wear fake eyes? Is there any scar tissue around where the eyes used to be? Depending on how they lost their eyes, your answers to these questions could be quite variable. 

There are also some rarer conditions that can make eyes look rather unusual, while also affecting vision. (Emphasis on RARE.)

Ocular albinism describes a condition in which there is a lack of pigment in the eyes, so they appear very light blue (or even pale pink in certain light). The condition often results in extreme light sensitivity and blurry vision.

Coloboma is another interesting congenital condition that results in the eye’s pupil being distorted due to missing tissue. Sometimes, this condition interferes with the optic nerve, which results in blurry vision that cannot be corrected using glasses or contacts. 

Polycoria is a condition in which an eye has two pupils. Although it is cool to look at, the condition can cause problems with blurry vision and light glare. Both of these pupils can constrict and dilate. Pseudopolycoria is a similar condition, but rather than an eye having multiple pupils, the iris simply has holes in it that look like additional pupils, but they cannot constrict or dilate. Unlike with polycoria, pseudopolycoria does not generally affect vision.

Remember that just because a person cannot see does not mean their eyes will be cloudy. In most cases, if a person becomes blind, their eyes will not suddenly turn white. 

Tips for Writing Blind Characters

Writing a character in a story who cannot see can be a challenge–especially if you are not vision impaired yourself. There are many things you will need to keep in mind as you are writing, to ensure you don’t make any simple mistakes to contradict the character’s condition. In addition to that, it can be difficult to know how a blind character would navigate in different situations, and that can end up stalling your plot.

Here are some tips for things to keep in mind before you get started. 

Make the Character Interesting Before You Make Them Blind

I’m sure everyone is tired of me saying this by now, but here goes. As with any marginalized community, disabled characters deserve to be interesting and complex in ways not related to their disability. Your blind character needs to have a personality that isn’t centered around being blind, and they should have interests, hobbies, skills, flaws, dreams, love interests, and more. Being blind should not exclude them from any of the character development that any non-disabled character would have. 

If you want some pointers for creating characters that are complex and interesting, regardless of their disability status, then you can take a look at another one of my articles: How to Make Characters Interesting, Complex, and Unique.

Utilize Other Characters

In a story with a blind protagonist, your supporting characters are going to become really important. Generally, the blind character will rely on others to help them navigate and understand their surroundings. These characters will also play an important role in narrating the visuals to your readers, especially in a story told in first-person or closed third-person from the perspective of the blind character. 

Supporting characters are going to be the voice through which you describe the visual setting. However, they should not just be mindless plot devices who objectively narrate their surroundings.

The way each character describes the world is going to depend heavily on their personality and biases. For example, there are many ways different characters could describe a group of college boys approaching them. One character may say “There are a bunch of guys coming towards us. One of them is really cute…” A different character might have something to say that’s entirely contrary to that sentiment, like “Dudebros inbound, watch out.” Very rarely will anyone give an unbiased account of what they see around them. 

Of course, if you want this kind of commentary to feel natural, then you’re going to need to have a good handle on what the supporting character’s personality and biases are. Depending on the role they play in the story, you could go about creating them in the same way you would any other major character, but if they aren’t that important to the plot, you shouldn’t sink a lot of time into fully fleshing them out. You can check out one of my articles, How to Write Minor Characters, for tips on finding the right balance. 

A fun consequence of relying on supporting characters to relay information is the fact that you can mislead your readers (and your main character). Everyone is inherently a little bit of an unreliable narrator, so some things they say might be misinterpreted, misunderstood, or downright misleading. If you want to foster distrust or conflict in your plot, that’s one way of doing it.

And of course, there may be times when your blind character is alone, and that’s perfectly reasonable. Blind people can often live independently. But if you have other characters present, it would be a waste not to take advantage of their presence. 

Emphasize the Character’s Other Senses

Blind individuals have to rely more heavily on their other senses, like hearing and touch. Setting can be a challenge in a story with a blind protagonist, but you’ll be surprised just how little the visual descriptions matter. The things the character hears, smells, and feels creates the setting—what the place looks like doesn’t matter. For example, if a protagonist is outside, do they feel the sun on their face, a breeze, rain, or some other kind of weather? Do they hear or feel bugs flying around? What other sounds can they hear? Birds chirping, wind chimes, crowds chattering, or children playing? Do they smell flowers, trash, or bread baking? You can really bring a setting to life just by describing the sound, smell, and feel. 

It can be helpful to remember that readers can’t physically see a setting when they’re reading either, so they’re already fairly good at filling in the gaps with their imagination.

It’s important that you don’t misunderstand this section. Blind people do rely on their other senses a lot to compensate for their lack of sight, but this does not mean those senses are heightened. A person’s hearing does not magically get better once they lose their sight, and the same rule applies to their other senses as well. 

The reason it may appear that a blind person is better at picking up on things with their other senses is due to two things: practice, and a lack of visual distraction. No one is born good at picking up on subtle vibrations or picking out specific sounds in a noisy environment. These are things a person gets better at doing because they have to, and it is very much a skill that has to be learned, not a superpower. Secondly, not having visual stimuli as a distraction means that a blind person’s brain can spare more energy on interpreting audio and tactile information. Multitasking is hard, but the moment you eliminate one of those tasks, the others become a little easier to focus on. 

Understand The Limits of the Blind Character

Blind protagonists are inherently unreliable narrators. They are not going to be able to narrate a story perfectly if they are missing a major part of the experience–namely the visuals. This is not in any way a bad thing, however! In fact, it is an opportunity for you as a storyteller to find creative ways to utilize that in the narrative. With that said, there are some things you need to be careful to keep in mind. 

When a blind character is moving about the world, they are going to miss a lot of information around them. Even if they retain some sight, they might still not be able to tell the difference between signs, displays in shops, and even a dog from a pile of garbage. They might not know about ice on the road or a puddle until it’s too late. 

They won’t be able to tell who they are talking to without being given some indication (like “Hey it’s George”). Even something distinctive like the smell of a strong perfume or the sound of someone’s voice may not be enough to confirm who they are speaking with. Generally, unless a character’s voice is particularly unique, the blind character is only going to recognize people they are really familiar with by the sound of their voice, such as family, close friends, or an actor they listen to a lot. 

If you’re writing a story with a blind protagonist and they notice something that doesn’t make sense with the limitations of their abilities, then you’ll end up ruining the immersion and making readers question your authority as a storyteller.

How to Write a Character Who Uses a Guide Dog

Guide dogs can be a huge help to people who cannot see. Giving a blind character a guide dog in a story also comes with the added bonus of them having an iconic animal companion that travels with them (almost) everywhere. However, there are some things to keep in mind if you want to write a guide dog realistically. 

What is a Guide Dog?

Guide dogs are service dogs that help a blind or vision-impaired individual navigate. These dogs undergo intensive training programs from a young age to ensure they are able to recognize and act upon the required commands to help their blind handler. Guide dogs must be the right size to easily guide a person around, and though any dog that is the correct size can become a guide dog, the most common breeds are shepherds, labradors, and golden retrievers. 

You need to understand that guide dogs are not superheroes–they’re just dogs. Don’t get me wrong, they’re some of the best-trained dogs that exist, but they’re still just dogs. Not only are they going to make mistakes every now and then, but they’re also going to behave like regular pets when they’re not working. They’ll play, bug people to pet them, and dig holes in the yard, among many other things. They can be bratty, mischievous, lazy, or playful, but once their harness goes on, they mellow out and take their job seriously. 

What Can Guide Dogs Do?

Next, you’re going to need to understand how guide dogs do their jobs, and what specific tasks you want your character’s dog to be responsible for. 

The specific list of commands, how they are communicated, and how they are executed depends a lot on the individual’s needs and preferences, as well as the institution that trained the dog.

However, in addition to standard obedience commands like sit and stay, all guide dogs know the commands:

• Forward. This means the dog will lead the person in a straight line in whatever direction they are facing. If the dog stops suddenly, that alerts the person of some kind of obstacle in the path that they can use other context (like sound, touch, and their knowledge of the location) to determine the nature of, and maneuver around it.
• Left/Right. Simply saying one of these commands will instruct the dog to turn 90 degrees in the specified direction.
• Halt. This directs the dog to stop moving.
• Hop up. This directs a dog to step up onto an elevated obstacle, such as a curb or step. This can also be used for getting the dog to step onto a moving escalator. 
• Forward up/Forward down. This command is used to instruct a dog to move up or down stairs.
• Get busy. This command (or a similar one) is used to tell a dog when to urinate. As long as their harness is on, a guide dog will not go without being directed, to ensure they don’t stop unexpectedly or relieve themself somewhere inappropriate. 

In addition to these, many guide dogs will also know commands for finding exits in a building, finding a specific person (like “find grandma” or “find Holly”), locating an empty chair for the handler to rest in, finding a curb, and more. It depends on the needs and preferences of the handler.

When a handler gives a command that would put them in danger (such as giving the “forward” command into a road with traffic), the guide dog will demonstrate what is known as “intelligent disobedience,” and refuse the command to protect the handler. Similarly, the dog may act without commands to navigate the handler away from imminent danger or around immovable obstacles like a parked car.

What Can Guide Dogs NOT Do?

Guide dogs do not have GPS. The blind handler has to know the route in advance, and then they tell the dog where to go, one step at a time. The dog’s job is to navigate around unexpected things in the path and respond to potential hazards–not to show the handler how to get from point A to point B. 

Similarly, dogs cannot read traffic signs, and since they are colorblind, they cannot tell the difference between lights on a stoplight. It is still the responsibility of the handler to gauge when it is safe to travel across a road. 

This should go without saying, but even the best guide dog in the world cannot read minds. That is to say, dogs are not good at intuitively guessing what the handler wants them to do. Guide dogs need verbal commands to know what is expected of them, so if your character is being led around by a dog they never communicate with, that’s simply not realistic. 

How to Write a Character Who Uses a Cane

Blind individuals often rely on what’s known as a “long cane” or “white cane” to help them move around. Canes can be used to roll or tap along the ground to ensure the path in front of the person is clear, to minimize the risk of stumbling on obstacles. Canes also make it easier to identify landmarks and changes in terrain that can help orient the person to their location, since different surfaces will feel and sound different. Because of this, snow on the ground can really disorient a person who uses a cane to navigate, since all their tactile landmarks will be indistinguishable while under a blanket of snow. 

For tips on writing about how blind individuals do this, as well as how different surfaces sound and feel to cane users, you can check out this article on the Late Night Writing Advice Blog on Tumblr: Writing A Blind/Visually Impaired Character: Canes, Guide Dogs, O&M. It gets far more in-depth than I would be able to, and is written by a visually-impaired person with cane experience. 

In addition to all this, some individuals may even be able to use their cane to echolocate in very specific instances, such as in a large parking lot in front of a store. Tapping on the ground and listening for the echo can help inform the person of how close they are to a large building. However, it’s important to keep in mind that this technique only works in certain environments when it is sufficiently quiet, and not everyone is able to do this. 

How to Write About Assistive Technologies for Blind Characters

There are many different technologies and assistive devices to help blind individuals navigate the world independently. It’s important to do the research to understand some of the technologies that might be easily overlooked or considered mundane, so you can have your characters talk about them or use them casually throughout your story. 

The first and most obvious thing that falls under this category is braille, which is a written language comprised of raised bumps that a person can feel with their fingertips. You don’t need to know how to write in braille in order to include this in your story, but you should know where braille commonly appears–such as elevator buttons, bathroom signs, and ATMs. You should also familiarize yourself with where braille frustratingly doesn’t appear in places it would sure be nicer if it did. 

One thing that blind people use on a regular basis to navigate online spaces is a screen reader. This is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: a program will read out text and image descriptions that appear on a webpage, as well as anything the person scrolls over with their cursor. This is an easy thing to familiarize yourself with since you can install one right now and try it out for yourself. You’ll be able to hear the exact phrasing the program uses, as well as details about the tone, words it would mispronounce, and the descriptions it gives for things like emojis. 

Similarly, most smartphones have accessibility settings that make them easier to use for people with vision impairments. These settings often include a screen reader, but also certain gestures, voice-to-text options, accessibility shortcuts, digital assistants like Siri, and more. Like with the point above, you can turn these settings on right now and try them out for yourself to get some real experience with them. 

Obviously, understanding the digital technology is really only going to be important for you if your story takes place in a modern or futuristic world. 

Writing Dialogue for Blind Characters

Dialogue is something you’ll have to pay extra attention to if you’re writing a blind character in first-person or closed third-person perspective. The reason for this is simply because the action beats that writers commonly rely on to break up dialogue are dependent on the conversing characters being able to see one another.

(pst! Check out Action Beats: What They Are and How to Use Them for tips!) 

If you’re used to writing dialogue for sighted characters, you may include details like the character running their fingers through their hair, smirking, or gesturing, without really thinking about it. However, if you’re telling the story from the perspective of a blind character, they aren’t going to be able to see their conversation partner move or emote. If they cannot notice it, then it should not be included.

However, action beats are really important for reducing redundancy, setting the tone of a character’s speech, and breaking up large bits of dialogue into manageable chunks. You don’t have to (and in fact shouldn’t) cut out action beats entirely. You just need to be more conscious of how you use them. 

If you’re writing action beats for the blind protagonist’s lines, then you can freely use beats that describe movement, body language, and whatever else you want. The character doesn’t have to see what they are doing with their own body to know that they are doing it. However, if you are writing action beats for other characters’ dialogue, then you need to focus more on the tone of their voice, the noises they make, and how they articulate. Only include things that their blind conversation partner would notice. 

Dos and Don’ts for Writing Blind Characters

DON’T cure their blindness as part of the story’s resolution.

DO show them living well and being fulfilled as a disabled person.

DON’T have them touch other characters’ faces to “see” them. That doesn’t happen in real life (except perhaps with children).

DO have them learn to associate important people with the way they smell, speak, and sound.

DON’T give them superpowers that negate their blindness.

DO make blind superheroes if you’re writing a story about superheroes. (And make their blindness an obstacle to them. It’s a disability, not an accessory.)

DON’T victimize your blind characters just because they are blind.

DO give blind characters stories with depth, including those with heartbreak, loss, pain, and anything any other character could experience in a story.

DON’T make the character’s entire personality about mourning their blindness.

DO depict a character grieving realistically if they lost their sight recently.

DON’T give characters heightened senses as a result of being blind. That is not the reality for most people with vision impairments.

DO show how blind people rely on their other senses to navigate the world.

DON’T make your blind characters completely useless or wholly reliant on other characters.

DO show how your blind characters can be independent individuals.

DON’T normalize other characters babying the blind character too much.

DO show other characters accommodating and including the blind character casually, such as announcing their arrival with their name, making noises to let the blind character know where they are, and describing interesting things in the environment.

DON’T assume things about being blind if you don’t have the lived experience to back it up.

DO conduct lots of research on different topics related to being blind, like guide dogs, lifestyles, habits, accessible technology, and microaggressions or struggles blind people regularly face.

Things to Keep In Mind When Writing Blind Characters

Don’t assume that you will never have blind readers. I know that sounds odd, but blind people actually read (well… listen) to stories all the time, so you will likely have real blind people reading about your blind characters. In fact, they might have specifically sought your story out because of the blind character. Make sure you take the time to represent this community respectfully.

Fiction can be a great escape from reality, and people of all marginalized communities deserve to have stories where they are represented fairly. If your blind characters are stereotyped caricatures, or they are victimized and taken advantage of simply because of being blind, that isn’t going to be fun for blind people (or any compassionate person) to read. In fact, you could be preying on the insecurities and paranoia of the people you’re trying to represent, taking advantage of their lived experiences and fears just to create a cheap thrill. 

Take the time to do the research, and do your best to create good representation for the groups you depict in your stories. Try finding blind beta readers, or asking them for advice on the character you’ve created or the way they are depicted. They might have some good insight for you to make them even more realistic. 

I know this can be tough, but I believe in you. Good luck!

If you’re writing a fantasy story, or any story containing magical themes, it’s pretty likely that you’ll end up including some kind of magical curse (also known as a jinx or hex) in the storyline somewhere. A curse can provide a straightforward backstory and motive for a character (not just in written works, but for D&D and other roleplay environments too), but it can also tie the character into the lore of the world and the overarching plot. It can also lead to the development of good conflict—both internal and external. 

As far as plot devices go, a curse works well for establishing a lot more than just the plot. However, it’s not always easy to include a curse in a storyline without it getting messy, confusing, or cliché. Once you understand the formula, however, you’ll be able to create a unique and interesting curse that will have your readers cheering the poor character (or characters) on from the sidelines. 

What Counts as a Curse?

A curse can be defined as something that negatively affects a character, group of characters, region, etc, in a way that wouldn’t naturally occur. It is often inflicted (usually by gods or supernatural entities) as retribution for some sort of crime or misdeed, and almost always exceeds the severity of the original offense.

If you want some examples, you can take a look at the many Ancient Greek stories that feature curses as major plots, such as Prometheus being cursed for giving humans the gift of fire without Zeus’s permission. He was chained to a rock and had an Eagle eat his liver, which would grow back each day to start the torment again. Medusa is another famous example—she was transformed by the Goddess Athena into that snake-headed monster that turns men to stone, as a consequence of breaking her vow of celibacy.

Curses are magical by nature, so you’ll need to have a good grasp on how magic works in your world before you can start thinking about the specifics of a particular curse. If you want to reference a guide for creating a magic system for your world, you can check out my other article: How to Write About Magic.

How to Curse Your Character

There are many things to consider when writing about curses, so it can be helpful to break the task up into manageable sections. This way, you can be sure you haven’t neglected any one element. 

Who Does the Curse Affect?

First and foremost, you need to decide who is getting cursed. Traditionally, the recipient of a curse is a single individual, but it can also extend to the person’s entire family, their descendants, their town, or any groups they are associated with.

Your character may be the original recipient of the curse, or they may not. They might have simply had the misfortune of being associated with a cursed person in one way or another, such as inheriting their parent’s curse or being the victim of collective punishment. Some also involve passing the same affliction onto anyone the cursed person loves or interacts with. 

What Does the Curse Do?

Curses can end up looking like whatever you want. A character could be doomed to have wet socks forever, or they could be forced to always taste anchovies. Characters could grow extra limbs, occasionally split into clones, or have hair that grows an inch a minute. More severe curses could result in a character causing depression or poor health to anyone who spends time around them, killing whoever touches their skin directly, or sleeping eternally. Really, there are no limits to what you can do. 

However, it is common for a curse to bear some resemblance to the crime committed. A person who stole food could be punished to always feel hungry, no matter how much they eat. A person accused of lying may lose their ability to speak at all. A person who has caused pain and suffering to others may get afflicted with wounds that can never heal. If you’re stumped for ideas, examine what the character does to get hexed in the first place, and you may find the inspiration you’re looking for. 

Who/What is Responsible for the Curse?

A curse has to come from somewhere, but you have a lot of options to pick from.

If your story operates under a hierarchy of gods, demigods, and other higher powers, that’s an easy source for a curse. The Ancient Greeks often wrote about the curses their various gods and goddesses would bestow on mortals, and it would make sense that only deities can manipulate fate and reality in the way a curse often requires. However, relying on the divine to dole out magical misfortune is not something that is going to work for every story—and even if your story has gods, you might not want that to be the only way a person can wind up getting jinxed. 

Similar to the above point, curses can be the result of meddling with other supernatural beings, such as fae, demons, witches, and more. Creatures that are generally known as tricksters, such as kitsune and imps, may end up cursing someone more out of boredom than to punish anyone.

Finally, curses can come from ordinary people in a myriad of situations. Curses could come from strong emotions, like despair or anger, and a truly impassioned person must only speak their intention aloud for it to become true (regardless of if they would regret it later). A person can even jinx themself in this manner (“I’ll be doomed if I lose this competition”). Similarly, a person on their deathbed may be able to use their last words to curse someone who wronged them in life. 

Additionally, even if cursing someone isn’t something everyone can do, it may be something people can learn. If magic is learnable, then it stands to reason that a person would be able to learn how to curse someone too, even if they have to dabble in forbidden magic to do so. 

Of course, you don’t need to use all of these ideas in your story. You might want to make it so only fae (or something else) can curse people, and that’s okay. Only you know what’s going to work for your story. 

What Triggers the Curse?

The trigger is the event or action that results in a person being cursed. 

There are a ton of reasons a person can get cursed, but by far the most common one is by doing something they aren’t supposed to, and getting punished by whoever (or whatever) is harmed as a result. If a person steals secrets from the gods, then naturally the gods would want to discipline that person to put them in their place. If a person traps a fairy in a cage, naturally that fairy (or the other fae) would want to punish them appropriately. If some rich politician has been extorting a town to gain wealth, then the collective ill will of the townspeople could set a curse upon him. 

Now, of course, the trigger for a curse is not always quite so justified or obvious. A curse could fall on someone undeservedly, or by simple misfortune. A person could get cursed simply for witnessing something on accident, or touching a cursed object (books are a common choice). They could end up the victim of a trickster, or they could stupidly stumble into a bad situation. 

If the character you’re writing about in the present is not the person who triggered the curse, you need to consider who got hexed initially, and why, and by whom. If it’s a generational curse started by the character’s grandmother, consider what she did in the first place. If your character fell in love with a cursed character and inherited their plight as a result, what did that love interest do to merit that?

How to Break the Curse

Often, the point of a curse is to force a character on a journey to break it—even if that seems impossible at the outset. 

Sometimes, the steps that need to be taken to break the curse are outlined from the moment a person gets cursed. A witch may reveal that only true love’s kiss would set them free (a favorite trope for Disney), or that discovering some truth or solving some mystery would bring about an end to their suffering. Breaking a curse may involve falling in love, righting some wrong that was committed, solving a seemingly unsolvable problem, or (in a more straightforward approach) killing the character who jinxed them to begin with.

Other times, the solution to a curse is not as clearly defined. A character might set off on a quest to break their curse with no actual idea how to do that, in which case, figuring out what to do in the first place plays an important role in the plotline. Other times, a person may just try to continue living their life as normally as they can, under the impression that their curse is impossible to break—at least until something spurs them into action. 

Even if a character is plagued by an eternal curse that can only be broken by completing an impossible task, a character can actually end up finding a loophole to take advantage of. For example, if the curse stipulates the only way to break it is to die, and the character dies and is resuscitated or resurrected, then technically their curse has been broken. 

Tips for Writing About Curses

Stories that revolve around curses often have an inherent moral objective. In the past, people would use stories about curses to warn others about the consequences of defying the law, the gods, or the social code, and this has left its mark on modern stories as well. 

In order to break a curse, a character often has to undergo trials that teach them something they wouldn’t have learned otherwise, often in relation to whatever they did to get cursed in the first place. For example, a person who was cursed for stealing can only break free by sacrificing something they love. In the end, they learn not to steal again, but not because of the threat of being cursed again—rather, they learn not to steal because they learn to understand loss and become sympathetic to victims of theft. 

Your story doesn’t have to include some subliminal moral messaging in order to be successful, but it can be helpful to understand why stories like this exist in the first place, and why they continue to resonate with people, even after millennia of storytelling.

Character motivations are the driving force behind all stories. Without motivation, no one would want to go off on an adventure, take risks, fall in love, or do any of the things that make a story worth reading. Motivation is necessary in order for a story to have any plot, since motivation is what determines characters’ actions. 

It’s not always easy to give characters believable and interesting motives. On top of that, there’s a huge list of used-up tropes and clichés that are temptingly easy to slap onto just about any character. With a little extra work, however, even those old tropes can be used as part of a character’s complete and complex backstory. 

What are Character Motivations?

As stated above, character motives are the reasons behind a character’s behavior, and they are determined by the character’s wants and needs. A character who needs to survive a dangerous situation is going to behave in ways that help them stay alive. A character who wants to become rich is going to take action to help them make more money. 

To break it down: 

Goals are what a character wants. 

Motives are why a character wants that goal.

Here are some examples of what that looks like:

• Jenny goes to the mall (goal) because she wants to buy new clothes (motive).
• Ronny plans to rob the corner store (goal) because he didn’t get enough tips at work to be able to make his rent payment (motive).
• Elenore sets out for Riverville (goal) because she plans to sell her fresh fruits to the elves there (motive). 
• Eve has to commit fraud (goal) because her employer threatened to fire her otherwise (motive). 
• Cole plans to vandalize his boyfriend’s car (goal) because he found evidence of infidelity and was heartbroken (motive). 
• Nora is going skydiving (goal) because she’s a thrill-seeker (motive). 

Two characters can have the same goal, yet wildly different motives. For example, two characters both want to save the world, but one of them wants to help other people, while the other only wants to be famous. 

Characters often have multiple different goals at the same time, and these goals can overlap, conflict, and be long- or short-term. After all, most people have a desire to continue living, but they also may want to start a family, go on an adventure, avenge their dead father, or any number of other things. 

Character motivations are important for all characters, but villains especially need to have carefully considered motives. A hero rarely needs to justify their behavior, but villains often need clear motives for readers to take them seriously. Any time you have a character who behaves in ways that most people would consider abhorrent, they should have a clear reason for doing so—even if their reason is just that they’re insane or like to see people suffer. The villain’s monologue has become a popular trope for a reason, after all. 

In the interest of not derailing this article, I’m going to link to my other article How to Write Good Villains in Fiction, and you can check that out if you want a deeper dive into why a villain’s motives are so important. 

Why are Character Motivations Important? 

Motives not only help readers understand that character and their behaviors, but it also gives them something to relate to. Motives reveal not just what a character wants, but how they think, which can open them up to be better understood. Readers may not sympathize with a character’s goal of hunting ghosts, going to space, or committing a crime, but they often can sympathize with a character’s motives. 

In addition to that, motives simply make a story more interesting. The more complex a character’s reasoning is, the more fun it is to read about. Think about a road trip story, for example. A character going on a road trip for no reason is boring and unrealistic. A character going on a road trip to hunt down artifacts from their late grandfather’s old collection is a story with life behind it. It opens up so many more questions about who these characters are and what their history is, and it makes it clear to readers that more interesting things are going to come up throughout the course of the story. 

Different Types of Character Motivations

When it comes to discussing character motivations, many people rely on something called Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. You’ve probably seen a variety of different triangular graphics depicting a hierarchy of needs, from basic needs like food and shelter at the bottom, and self-fulfilling needs like creative activities at the top. The idea is that a character can only worry about needs higher on the pyramid when all the needs below are met. A character cannot spend time worrying about love or creative pursuits when they struggle to find enough to eat.

Personally, I think it’s much easier to understand and keep things organized if motives are sorted into three categories instead: needs, wants, and obligations. This also makes it easier to see opportunities for internal conflict.

Needs

Every human (or humanoid, for that matter) needs basic things to ensure their health and survival. These needs are often straightforward, universal, and necessary. If we’re comparing it to Maslow, this would be the “basic needs” section, which includes “physiological needs” and “safety.”

Needs include:

• Food
• Water
• Shelter
• Sleep
• Survival
• Security
• Healthcare
• Employment 
• Freedom

Depending on your perspective (and the perspective of the character in question), you can also include social needs in this category, such as:

• Company
• Self-love 
• Love
• Friendship
• Family
• Understanding
• Intimacy

Wants

People are diverse and unique, and they often desire a wide variety of different things that they don’t really need in order to survive. In fact, sometimes a person’s wants contradict their needs, such as a person sacrificing personal safety to go thrill-seeking. 

Wants include:

• Money
• Power
• Fun
• Influence
• Respect
• Lust
• Skill
• Revenge
• Competition
• Achievement
• Adventure
• Aesthetics
• Knowledge
• Thrills
• Creative pursuits
• And much… much… more.

Obligations

A person may be driven to complete something without needing or wanting to do it, but rather, they act because of external pressure. Often, the person feels compelled to complete something because of the threat of consequences if they fail to do so. 

Obligations include:

• Work
• Fate
• Promises 
• Debt 
• Fear
• Threats
• Honor
• Laws
• Contracts
• Morality
• A curse
• And more.

How to Give Characters Motivation 

Now that you know what character motives are and why they are important, you can move on to applying them to your own work. 

In many situations, character motives develop naturally as you plot out and write your story. However, if you’re having a hard time deciding what motivates your characters, you may actually need to work backward and examine how you’ve built them to begin with. 

Backstory

Trying to create character motives for an underdeveloped character is going to be a constant struggle. In order to know what they want, and why they want it, you’re going to need to know who they are first. Having a clear understanding of the character’s personality and history will help you figure out what motivates them. 

Motives often manifest as a result of a character’s situation and ideals. Take a look at their past, how they were raised, and what they were taught as they were growing up. How do they view the world? What are their ideas of right and wrong? What are their specific morals? Even their financial status can have a huge impact on the motives they develop. In fact, just about everything about them can influence their motives.

For a more in-depth explanation of how to create every aspect of a character’s backstory, check out How to Create Compelling Character Backstories.

Or, if you don’t have much at all figured out about your character, you can take a look at How to Make Characters Interesting, Complex, and Unique too. 

Once you have a clear framework for the character’s backstory, it will be easier to see what they are willing and unwilling to do, what they desire, what drives them, and more. The character’s backstory should always come first. 

Goals

Once you’ve fleshed out the character you’re working on, you next have to decide what it is you need them to do. Characters exist for a reason, after all. Every character you introduce in a story is introduced to do something. That’s the point. The struggle is figuring out how to justify what they do. 

For example, say you’re writing a story, and you know you need to introduce a villain to slow the hero’s journey down. For the purpose of this example, let’s say the villain kidnaps the hero’s sidekick to force the hero to come look for their friend instead of continue their quest. Stopping the hero is their goal, but what’s their motive? The villain could simply disagree with the hero’s quest, they could disagree with the hero’s methods, or they could simply hate the hero because of a childhood grudge they were never able to get over. Maybe they secretly have a crush on the hero. Maybe they have a crush on the sidekick. Maybe they just think it’s fun to mess with the hero. The specifics of their motive are going to depend on, you guessed it, their backstory. 

Flaws

Flaws play an important role in character motivations. The reason for this is that a character’s flaws can get in the way of their goals, and can thus change the ways they think about and try to achieve those goals. Sometimes, overcoming one’s flaws is the goal. Not only that, but a character’s flaws can impact the way they think about situations, and can lead to characters having some morally dubious or downright confused motives. 

Consider what the character struggles with, and how that could impact the things they want and why. What are the limits of what they’re capable of? What obstacles are between them and their goals? Do they have fears? Traumas? Biases? How do these flaws interfere with their ability to make decisions and act on them? 

Consider the flaw of impulsivity. An impulsive character could make decisions in the heat of passion, and could end up making mistakes they can’t take back. They may have intense and short-lived goals of getting even with someone, stealing, or committing some other kind of crime. Even if they regret it immediately afterward, it still counts as a motive. 

If you want more ideas for character flaws, you can find more info in How to Create Complex Flaws for Characters. 

Writing Complex Character Motives

As I’ve already hinted at throughout this article, conflict is the key to writing complex motives for your characters. A character being stuck between what they want and what they need is an important storytelling trope. They could also be stuck between what they really want, and what they think they want—the latter being someone else’s ideals that have been imposed upon them. Or, they could be stuck between what they need or want, and what they are expected or forced to do. 

When two character motives conflict, the character will often have to make a choice between one or the other. Sometimes, achieving one goal will render the other one impossible, and the character must learn that they cannot have absolutely everything they want. They can even end up making the wrong choice based on their flaws and biases, and end up regretting it. 

Conflicts like these can be a reliable way of adding some interest and internal turmoil to their character. If you want some more inspiration for giving characters conflicting motives, then be sure to check out The 4 Main Types of Conflict in Stories (And Variations!). 

My favorite kinds of character motives are the ones that are desperate, often forced as a result of the character’s perceived lack of options. When a character is cornered and they don’t know what else to do, their actions can reveal a lot about how they think. 

Aside from conflict, you should also be considering your character’s growth and development throughout the story. A character’s goals and motives are dynamic, and they can change as the person grows and obtains new information. Motives and goals can both change at the same time, but one can change without the other. 

A character’s motive can change, while their goal remains the same. For example, a person sets out on an adventure because they want to become rich and famous. Their goal is to go on an adventure, and their motive is to find fame and fortune. Along the way, however, they end up saving other people, learning more about their fellow adventurers, and overall just enjoying their freedom. Over time, their motives shift, and although they still retain the goal of adventuring, now they do it for the joy they get out of it.

Inversely, a character’s goal can change while their motives stay intact. For example, a character with a strong moral compass may try to do what is right at all times, and if their original goal ever comes into conflict with that motive (or they learn information about their goal that is contrary to what they believed), then they can choose a new goal that aligns better with their motives. 

How to Reveal a Character’s Motives in Your Story

You don’t always have to tell readers outright what the character’s motives are, but you certainly can. A villain monologuing about how they became evil and why they believe what they do is a hugely popular trope for a reason. However, you can be more subtle about it if your story requires it.

The easiest way to reveal a character’s motives subtly is to take your time, and plan out when you want to reveal specific elements of their motives throughout the story. Associate different pieces of information with different points in the plot, so you can control exactly how much readers can know at that point. If you want to be cheeky with it, you can utilize some careful foreshadowing to lead up to the reveal. 

If you’re dealing with a character who is more mysterious or out of reach (such as a villain or absent character), you can utilize secondary sources to reveal bits and pieces of their motive. These can include things like journal entries, letters they’ve written, objects of significance, their browser history, side characters, and more. After all, a character who isn’t around or doesn’t particularly like the other characters is not going to explicitly tell them whatever they want to know. 

Even if you plan to give your BBEG (Big Bad Evil Guy) a long and dramatic monologue, you should still keep in mind that readers don’t often like to be spoon-fed information. Leave just a little bit for readers to figure out, and they’ll feel more invested in the plot.

It’s not uncommon for a character in a story to become concussed—in fact, when was the last time you read or watched someone get knocked unconscious after being bashed in the back of the skull? It was probably recent, wasn’t it? However, despite that being a popular tactic for writers to quickly incapacitate their characters, it’s not the sort of thing people can realistically brush off as easily as characters tend to do in fiction. Concussions are serious injuries with many consequences, after all. 

Injuries abound in stories of all genres, but head injuries are among the most confusing and challenging to write. When a character takes a blow to the head, their recovery could be anything but simple. Since the brain is responsible for everything the character does and understands, brain damage can impact the way they move, think, speak, behave, and live the rest of their life. Recovery looks different for every person, and some people may never fully recover. Not only that, but the way the injury was sustained and the area of the brain that was affected can have huge impacts on the way the damage manifests. Even if the injury doesn’t seem severe, it could still have lasting consequences.

Naturally, writing about such a complicated topic is not the easiest thing in the world. With that said, it’s not impossible. As long as you take the time to understand the basics, you don’t need to be a neurologist to be able to write about brain damage convincingly. 

What is Brain Damage?

“Brain Damage” is a term used to describe any damage done to the brain for any reason, whether that be permanent or temporary. 

A Character suffering from brain damage will have some kind of impaired brain functioning as a result of the damage, often in the areas of memory, motor control, sleep, emotional control, pattern recognition, learning, and logical thinking. What that specifically looks like, however, is also going to depend on what caused the damage and how severe the damage is.

What Causes Brain Damage?

If you’re like most people, you probably think of Traumatic Brain Injury when you hear the term “brain damage,” but taking a baseball to the skull isn’t the only way a brain can become damaged. 

Traumatic Brain Injury

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is a type of brain damage caused by external trauma to the brain, and it can be mild (such as taking a soccer ball to the face) or severe (such as surviving a high-speed car accident). 

Concussions, also known as Mild Traumatic Brain Injuries (MTBI), are some of the most common and widely understood forms of brain damage. Concussions occur when the brain moves suddenly inside the skull, causing it to stretch, twist, or bash against the inside walls of the skull. This happens when a person’s head moves suddenly—often due to a violent blow or accident. This sounds pretty serious, but most concussions heal perfectly fine on their own with proper rest.

Repeated concussive or subconcussive blows to the head over a period of time can also result in degenerative brain damage. This is referred to as Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), and it is most common in people who play high-intensity sports like football or boxing. 

More severe forms of TBI, on the other hand, can be devastating. TBI encompasses not only severe blunt force trauma but also when something actually breaks through the skull and pierces the brain tissue itself. 

Illness

Physical trauma aside, a brain can also become damaged as a result of illness. Some of these illnesses include, but are not limited to:

• Meningitis
• Stroke
• Encephalitis (inflammation of the brain)
• Brain aneurysm (swelling of a blood vessel in the brain)
• Brain hemorrhage (also known as “brain bleed”)
• Brain tumor
• Hydrocephalus (excess fluid around the brain)
• And more

In some cases, even the surgeries done to treat these conditions or repair damage done by TBI can result in brain damage as well. 

Anoxia/Hypoxia

The brain will also become damaged if there is an insufficient supply of oxygen to support normal brain functioning. If the cells in the brain do not get enough oxygen, they begin to die very quickly. This is referred to as Anoxia (complete lack of oxygen in the brain) and Hypoxia (a partial lack of oxygen to the brain, which is still enough to cause damage).

Anoxia/hypoxia can occur as a result of:

• Cardiac arrest
• Low blood pressure as a result of bleeding out (aka “Shock”)
• Asphyxiation
• Electric shock
• Carbon monoxide poisoning
• Smoke inhalation
• Seizure
• Asthma attacks
• Poison
• Extremely high altitudes 
• Nearly drowning
• And more

How Does Brain Damage Affect Someone?

Brain damage can have devastating consequences for individuals unlucky enough to experience it. The extent to which it’s going to affect someone, however, depends on several different factors, including:

• How severe the initial damage was
• What caused the initial damage
• Which parts of the brain were affected
• How soon the person received treatment
• How much therapy the person received during recovery
• Whether the person had preexisting conditions, particularly psychological or neurological

The only general thing that can be said about brain damage is that the character will suffer from a deficit in some area of functioning that wasn’t there prior to the injury or illness. That is as specific as the description can be without any additional information about the brain damage.

Some of the most common issues a person may experience relate to:

• Cognition (thinking, memory, and reasoning)
• Sensory processing (sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell)
• Communication and language (expression and understanding)
• Behavior and mental health (depression, anxiety, personality changes, aggression, acting out, and social inappropriateness)

Specific symptoms are more or less likely to manifest depending on which parts of the brain were damaged. Knowing the different parts of the brain and what they are responsible for can help you make educated decisions regarding which symptoms your characters would have.

The Different Parts of the Brain and Their Functions

Different parts of the brain are responsible for different things, so naturally, the symptoms of brain damage will vary depending on which part of the brain is affected. An injury to the right side of the frontal lobe is not going to be anything like an injury to the back left side of the brain. Knowing which parts of the brain are responsible for different functions can help you understand how your character would be affected by their brain damage—or it can help you decide where they need to be injured in order to have the desired symptoms for your plot.

Disclaimer – I’m not a neurologist, and this is all a lot more complicated than I am making it seem. This is just to give you a quick overview of what areas of functioning would be affected depending on where the injury was sustained. Keep in mind, however, that although many parts of the brain can be attributed to certain functions, these different parts work in tandem to achieve different things. Damage to one part of the brain can have unexpected consequences on other aspects of functioning. 

Cerebrum

The cerebrum is the largest part of the brain, and the most often injured. It has two hemispheres, the left and the right, which each have four different lobes. Each lobe is responsible for different kinds of tasks, and each hemisphere has unique functions. 

The left side of the brain controls logical thinking, such as writing, arithmetic, speech, and comprehension, while the right side of the brain controls musical ability, creativity, spatial understanding, and artistic ability. Additionally, each side of the brain controls the opposite side of the body, so the left side of the brain controls the right side of the body, and the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body. An injury sustained on the right side of the brain will affect the left side of the body, and vice versa.

The four different lobes in each hemisphere of the cerebrum are called the frontal lobe, the parietal lobe, the occipital lobe, and the temporal lobe. 

The Frontal Lobe

The frontal lobes, as the name suggests, are the frontmost part of the brain. They are the largest of the four lobes, encompassing the entire front part and most of the top of the brain. As you might expect, most concussions occur in the frontal lobes.

The frontal lobes are responsible for many things, but their primary functions are:

• Executive functioning (planning, organizing, and executing tasks)
• Problem-solving
• Personality
• Emotions
• Voluntary movement
• Speech and writing (specifically the motor functions of these tasks, not language comprehension)
• Intelligence
• Concentration
• Working memory
• Self-awareness

Because the frontal lobe is responsible for so many different things, damage to the frontal lobe can result in varied symptoms. Damage to the frontal lobes can result in:

• Personality changes
• Working memory problems
• Impulsivity
• Emotional dysregulation
• Motor or muscle weakness (particularly in one side of the face or body)
• Impaired speech
• Difficulty concentrating
• Decreased libido
• Diminished sense of taste or smell
• Clumsiness
• Depression
• Impaired judgment
• Impaired problem-solving abilities
• Executive dysfunction 

The Parietal Lobe

The parietal lobes are the part of the brain that sits beneath the crown of your head. This part of the brain primarily deals with perception, so it is a little more specialized than the frontal lobes. 

The parietal lobes are primarily responsible for:

• Interpreting and understanding language
• Interpreting sensations (such as pain, temperature, touch, etc)
• Interpreting signals from the senses (such as sight, smell, hearing, etc)
• Memory (particularly long-term)
• Spatial perception

Damage to the parietal lobes can result in:

• Hypo- or hypersensitivity to stimuli (like pain, touch, flavor, texture, sound, etc)
• Numbness or tingling sensations
• Difficulty understanding language 
• Difficulty communicating
• Confusion between left and right
• Difficulty maneuvering around a new (or even a familiar) environment
• Inability to recognize objects or people
• Poor hand-eye coordination

The Occipital Lobe

The occipital lobes are located in the very back of the brain, and they have an extremely specialized purpose. Due to its location at the back of the head, it is particularly susceptible to damage. 

The occipital lobes are responsible for interpreting visual cues, including:

• Color
• Motion
• Form
• Light
• Etc

Damage to the occipital lobes can result in:

• Blindness or blind spots
• Vision distortion
• Inability to read
• Inability to recognize colors
• Simultanagnosia (the inability to see things as part of a whole; ie seeing parts of a face without seeing the whole face)
• Motion blindness (moving objects may appear as a series of still images in a sequence)
• Visual hallucinations 

The Temporal Lobe

The temporal lobes are the lowest part of the cerebrum, and sit underneath the parietal lobes. 

The temporal lobes are responsible for:

• Understanding language 
• Memory
• Hearing
• Processing emotions
• Learning
• Remembering verbal information
• Organizational skills

Damage to the temporal lobes can result in:

• Inability to understand language (particularly if the damage is on the left side)
• Impaired auditory processing
• Difficulty learning and retaining new information
• Loss of musical or artistic ability
• Difficulty categorizing objects or ideas
• Loss of inhibition (particularly in regards to speech)
• Face-blindness
• Changes in libido
• Impaired long-term memory
• Loss of existing memories
• Changes in personality (particularly relating to increases in paranoia and rage)

Memory problems are common in individuals who suffer from damage to their temporal lobes. That’s a challenge in itself to convey, so if you want some pointers, make sure you check out How to Write a Character with Amnesia. 

Additionally, the development of anger issues is common in individuals with temporal lobe damage. Take a peek at Writing a Character with Anger Issues if this is something you want to explore for your character. 

Cerebellum

The cerebellum is the part of the brain that sits beneath the cerebrum, in the back of the skull. It is primarily understood to be the brain’s motor control center.

The cerebellum is responsible for:

• Balance and posture (otherwise known as a body’s vestibular sense)
• Coordination
• Fine motor control
• Voluntary movements
• Motor learning (“muscle memory”)

Damage to the cerebellum can result in:

• Clumsiness
• Uneven gait
• Lack of coordination
• Inability to judge distance
• Tremors
• Abnormal eye movements (such as jittering back and forth or up and down, causing scattered vision)
• Dizziness (particularly immediately following the injury)
• Slurred speech
• Weakened muscles
• Inability to measure strength being exerted (such as using more or less force than necessary to do something)
• Inability to perform rapid alternating movements

Brainstem

The brainstem is the part of the brain that connects to the spinal cord. Brain damage occurring in the brainstem is relatively rare, but among the most alarming and severe kinds. 

The brainstem is responsible for regulating automatic processes that keep the body alive, such as:

• Breathing
• Blood pressure
• Swallowing
• Body temperature
• Sleep/wake cycles
• Taste

Damage to the brainstem can result in:

• Dizziness
• Abnormal sleep patterns or insomnia
• Balance issues
• Persistent nausea
• Difficulty eating or drinking
• Slurred speech
• Abnormal breathing patterns or difficulty breathing
• Impaired vision
• Altered heart rate
• Paralysis
• Coma

A person with brainstem damage may depend on life support technology to keep them alive, either only during their initial recovery or for the rest of their life. 

Writing About Comas

When a person experiences severe trauma to their brainstem (and other parts of their brain, in some cases), they may end up slipping into a coma. A coma is a prolonged period of unconsciousness from which a person cannot wake up, due to their brain’s inability to function normally.

In almost all cases, this is temporary, and the person wakes up again within a matter of days or weeks. Only rarely does a coma last more than a month, regardless of whether it is medically induced or the direct result of brain trauma. I cover this topic at length in another article: How to Write a Character in a Coma. Check that out for a lengthy explanation of the different kinds of comas, the length of time a character could be in a coma, and what the process of waking up from a coma looks like.

Is Brain Damage Reversible? 

The answer to whether brain damage is reversible or not is a little complicated. Once brain cells die, they are simply dead. They cannot heal or be replaced. However, a character can still regain many (or all) of the skills they had prior to the injury—even if that injury was fairly severe. 

Brains are remarkably adaptive. Often, when an injury occurs, the brain finds ways to rewire neurons around the injury. These new neural pathways can allow someone to relearn functions they lost when they first experienced their injury, such as social appropriateness, the ability to read, or the ability to perform specific motor tasks. This doesn’t mean they will make a full recovery, but rather, their brain simply learns a new way to achieve a similar end. 

With that said, this retraining of the brain is not something that happens automatically. This is the result of specific therapies and lifestyle changes guided by a team of medical professionals. Without appropriate treatment, the character’s ability to recover will be severely inhibited. 

For a really cool story about someone who recovered from a metal rod going straight through his brain, check out the story of Phineas Gage on Wikipedia. Read at your own risk, though—some of the descriptions are pretty graphic. 

Writing About Treatment for Brain Damage

If you’re going to give one of your characters brain damage in your story, then you’re going to need a basic understanding of what treatment for brain damage looks like. 

Initial Care

When a character sustains an injury to the brain, the very first step in their treatment would be stabilization. If the character is bleeding out, then that would be addressed first—injuries are bandaged, fluids are supplied via IV, and blood pressure is stabilized. The most important thing is to ensure the brain maintains a stable blood flow, since a lack of blood results in not enough oxygen getting to the brain’s cells, which causes more damage. 

Next, the extent of the character’s injuries has to be determined. Doctors will examine them for signs of whiplash, bruising, broken bones, and more. In cases where something has broken through the skull, bone fragments often get lodged in the brain and must be surgically removed.

Surgery is sometimes a necessary step in the character’s initial recovery. If there is uncontrollable swelling in the brain, areas of the skull, face, or scalp that need to be reconstructed, dead brain tissue that needs to be removed, or any number of other complications, surgery is the only option. 

The Early Stages of Recovery

Treatment in the days or weeks following the injury varies greatly depending on the extent and area of the damage. For concussions, as long as there are no obvious signs of complications, recovery mostly constitutes resting at home for a few weeks and gradually introducing physical activity when the character begins to feel better.

For more severe brain damage, characters would be kept in the hospital to be monitored 24/7, to ensure they continue to breathe and eat, but also to ensure someone is on hand to respond to complications like hemorrhaging or seizures. 

At this stage, depending on if the character is conscious or not, doctors would quiz them on various things to determine if they are delirious or suffering from any damage to their intellect, memory, or critical thinking skills. 

If the character is unconscious (either momentarily or comatose), then their care at this stage would mostly involve keeping them stable and attending to their vitals and everyday needs. 

Therapies

Once the character is conscious and physically recovered, their treatment would shift. They would no longer require constant attention from doctors to keep them alive. Even if they were left physically scarred from the accident, or they require certain medical technology to stay alive, self-managed care at home is often an option. 

At this stage, the character would likely require some combination of physical therapy, speech therapy, cognitive therapy, occupational therapy, psychotherapy, and social support depending on their individual needs. The process of recovering could take several years, and the person may never get back to exactly how they were before the injury.

Can Brain Damage Cause a Personality Change?

Brain damage can (and often does) result in changes to a person’s personality, but it’s not really as simple as you might think. It’s important to keep in mind here that correlation is not the same as causation. 

When a person is in a serious accident that results in brain damage, it is not just physical trauma they experience, but emotional trauma as well. Serious accidents are scary. Medical problems are terrifying. Gaps in memory and periods of unconsciousness, pain, and confusion can be extremely traumatizing. 

A character suffering from brain damage likely also has PTSD from the situation that gave them the brain damage, and as a result, also likely develops some combination of depression, anxiety, anger issues, dissociative disorders, paranoia, and more. These psychological problems could be the root of most personality changes following a traumatic brain injury. That behavior shouldn’t be misattributed to brain damage when it is more appropriately attributed to psychological stress.

With that said, in some cases, severe damage to the brain (particularly in the frontal lobes) can directly result in changes to a person’s personality. A person may experience mood swings, lack of appropriate reactions to situations, loss of empathy, and a lack of awareness of their own deficits. They may behave as if they have no inhibitions, and act inappropriately in social situations. However, brain damage does not vastly alter who a person fundamentally is. Rather, personality changes are most often exaggerations of the person’s previous personality traits. 

The Worst-Case Scenario

As with many injuries, no one is guaranteed a chance to recover. Sometimes, brain injuries are too severe to recover from.

Characters with brain damage can die as a result of:

• Brain hemorrhage 
• Seizure
• Infection
• Brain death
• Stroke
• Blood clots
• And more

If killing your character was always your goal, you could find some useful information in A Guide to Killing Your Characters.

As always, remember to be compassionate and considerate when portraying conditions like brain damage in your fiction. 

I know this topic is challenging, but I believe in you! Keep creating, writers!