Cat Fight In The Kitchen-Wattpad Rant

The Great Big Character Depth Rant

Your girl needs a nap, but instead, she's writing a rant. And today we're going to talk about: The Great Big Character Depth Rant (Mental, Physical, Emotional Challenges)

I couldn't think of a better name for this chapter, but essentially we're going to be talking about interesting challenges, problems, and flaws characters must work around in the story. Because the more I think about it, the more I've realized I haven't really seen too many problems that they live with and have to work around. Usually, the most "depth" a character has is when they have a mental disorder (and we've talked about this). They're usually dealing with depression (that a love interest fixes), anxiety (that a love interest fixes), or some sort of OCD issues (that a love interest fixes).

So I did some thinking about things we could add to our character's lives to give them some conflict and depth, and to make our stories more interesting. And this is the list I came up with:

1. Health issues

Usually when there's a health issue in the story, it's that a character has cancer or some horrible, terminal tumor or something. But there are tons and tons of health issues no one has discussed that affect millions of people and could help make for a great, real story when actually written about in a caring manner.

I've never read about a diabetic character. I keep thinking about it, and I can't think of one story where there has been a diabetic character...published or not. Like, I seriously can't, and I would appreciate it if someone would tell me of one, because I swear there has to be and I'm just forgetting it. But think about how awesome this would be! I've known tons and tons of diabetic people. My grandpa was. One of my uncles was. I've had a few friends that were. Co-workers. There are tons of people! And it's not one of those things that has to completely dominate the story (like cancer). It's seriously just a character trait and I think that's really interesting. Because I can imagine the possible plot conflicts that could arise from this.

My ex-boyfriend's dad was a doctor and he told me he's 99% sure I'm hypoglycemic, but I've never had that professionally tested, but it does play a role in my life. If I don't eat for a while I will get really low blood sugar and it used to be a horrible problem when I was in high school. It got to the point where my best friend would keep snacks in his locker (and he didn't use his locker, he left his shit in mine). And that's a serious problem. Like, I'll get super confused about what I'm doing and I'll shake really bad, so we would have writing assignments and I couldn't do them. Or if I did, I'd be shaking so bad you couldn't read them. And it makes you super anxious when you really don't feel good like that.

My best friend used to do this weird thumb popping thing where he could grab someone's wrist and push up on their thumb and pop it, and when he thought I was having an issue, he'd do it to me so he could check my pulse. It was this subtle system we had and I think something like that for your characters would show amazing character development. Or my coach would check my times when running and if they were below a certain point I'd have to sit out with a snack.

So that's a problem your character could have. But, I'd rather someone do full on diabetic. Because I think that would be awesome. Like I said, it doesn't have to control the story, but I think it's awesome to give your character something like that. Something to help them build character. Something to help twist up the plot away from the mundane.

Another thing I never see that's really common that I never see: asthma. I know so many people with asthma that it's not even funny. And I know a few with incredibly severe asthma. So that's another tiny thing you could add to your story for some extra flare. Sometimes you gotta have your inhaler. I ran with some amazing girls that had inhalers. I knew a kid that was late to our fourth hour class every day because he had to stop at the nurse's and use his inhaler. That's just something you can add to your story, because maybe something happens while that kid is going through empty halls on his way to fourth hour after using his inhaler. Like maybe he overhears something that he isn't supposed to. Have an imagination people.