but I realized that I may as well share it here just for those interested. Whether I'll start writing here again remains to be seen (I'm not going to force myself to write something I'm not currently interested in), but I've finally started taking a hammer to that wall that keeps me from working on creative pursuits in my life.
EXTREMELY IMPORTANT Message for those who enjoyed U.E. · 12:30am Sep 3rd, 2017
PLEASE READ THIS WHOLE MESSAGE, IT'S REALLY IMPORTANT TO ACTUAL LIFE STUFF!
Two years it's been.... wow. I gotta be honest with myself and you all, it's probably not going to be finished. But I'll explain everything about the story, and much more importantly, explain some real life things you should all know and will probably be interested in knowing.
I had this issue with writing where I wasn't able to really plan out what I wanted to write in stories, which is never good. You need to have a layout beforehand for a novel like the kind I was writing, but I just wrote on the fly. It makes it reeeeally hard to have real structure. But that's how my stories were written.
So sadly, I can't really say what would've come next. Probably some stuff about overcoming social anxiety. But I'm not sure. You guys can create your own ending I suppose... sorry.
But I realized something good this story could do for the real life story of so many people. That I could reach out with this information to you, the readers who enjoyed the story and it's concept of dual personalities and body sharing, co-consciousness ect.
These things are not Hollywood fiction. They're real, though definitely not in the way most media portrays them. And definitely not in the way I portrayed it. When I wrote the story, I simply knew it was concept bait, an inherently interesting idea that I liked and that most people would like. And as it shows, it really is inherently interesting to most people.
So you are the people I first mass reach out to with the knowledge of Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID).
It used to be called Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD), but that title is wrong now, and incredibly stigmatized by false media portrayal. It's actually a Dissociative disorder, one of three that I know of.
It's a real thing, and way more people than you'd think have it. The exact count is of course unknown, but it's estimated anywhere from 1/1000 people to 1/100 people have it (though the 1/100 sounds way too frequent to me.) Either way, it's not nearly as rare as is thought.
During the writing of Caged Inside and Unnatural Existence, I met someone who has D.I.D. and I spent a ton of time getting to know them, and becoming good friends. I've learned a lot. And even though we don't speak anymore, I still care about them a ton and I've done so much of my own research on the condition. But that also made me uncomfortable continuing to write an incorrect representation of people who have this. It just continues the problem.
I plead with all of you to look into this yourself and become educated. Who knows when you might meet someone who has D.I.D. or if it comes up in conversation. It's probably the most misunderstood and unknown mental condition there is. Most people don't even know it exists.
Here are a couple websites I used for learning. Of course a ton of what I learned was from talking with my friend, but these all helped me learn a lot more, especially about cases of it in general.
And please feel free to talk to me about anything related to this, as I'd love to share what I've learned with you all. So that others hopefully won't repeat the mistakes I made.....
http://www.net-burst.net/counselor-therapist/DID-explained.htm
That is understandable and thank you for sharing with us
4656593
No problem, I'm glad I finally did ^^;
You know I've always planned to do a comparison/review of your story with another similar story.
4656738
There's quite a few stories similar to mine. Mine just took more of a slice of life approach.
That's okay, Shadow.We understand
4658076
Thanks
I've long been curious about this. Thanks for the resources, and please let me know if you find others that are particularly useful/informative.
4661621
Sure. And I'm happy to answer any questions you have. I care a lot about knowledge of this being spread. It's really important for it to be understood better...
I know how the feeling of social anxiety because of my Asperger Syndrome. I did get treatment for it, but I never fully grew out of it. This site, even though I fully became a member just a little while ago, helped me finally reach out to people who are nicer than what I normally get around my house, and that's saying something!
For my stories, I usually only plan the beginning and the ending and going on from there to get the middle. You know how your story begins and ends, use that to find the middle of the story.
"Beginnings are usually scary, and endings are usually sad, but it's everything in between that makes it all worth living." ~Bob Marley
Also... “I see now that the circumstances of one's birth are irrelevant. It is what you do with the gift of life that determines who you are.” ~Mewtwo If a view-of-life-changing quote came from Pokemon, then it's probably something to consider.
*Note*
Please go back to writing, I want to see/read Probe getting his plot launched into space!
4813350
I have Asperger's Syndrome too. It's not really something you 'grow out of', but like anything you can learn and become more able to cope with and minimize symptoms.
Yeah with writing you should usually get the ending planned first, then the beginning, then the middle. I didn't really do that for my stories most of the time. Id love to see Unnatural Existence finished. I actually for a while was working on chaoter 6, and am pretty happy with what I write, but I got stuck halfway through and lost motivation. I might work more on it again someday. If I ever get the motivation and ideas again I will, anyways.
4815129
If you find the motivation and need some ideas, don't be afraid ask.
4818994
Sure! Thanks