–I would recommend making the learning disability just one part of the character.

–I’d recommend fleshing out the characters around him. Frequently, when the protagonist has a mental disorder and/or disability, every character in the story is either one-dimensionally nasty about it or one-dimensionally sympathetic/understanding. I’d recommend mixing it up more. Maybe the character’s best friend grows frustrated with him over something or his otherwise loving parents buckle under the strain.

–If you’d like to get published, I would strongly recommend against using a mental disorder or learning disability you have* unless you’re doing an autobiography. Most people don’t have the self-awareness to do an authorial stand-in well and to give the character the flaws, shortcomings and setbacks that editors expect to see. Alternately, if an author is dead-set on going with a mental disorder he has, I would recommend pulling out all the stops to differentiate the character from the author. For example, maybe the character is really, really bad at things the author prides himself on, has a different personality, makes mistakes the author wouldn’t, makes choices the author finds unlikable/hard to sympathize with, etc. If the author is unwilling to differentiate himself from the character, sadly the story is probably a wish-fulfillment fantasy, dead on arrival in the publisher’s office.

…

Have you had any particular challenges or concerns writing the story?

*Or, in the case of self-diagnosed Asperger’s patients, mental disorders you think you have.

Thanks for the help,

echo

Edward Burton – he is 61 years old and more commonly known as Spook, due to years of service he performed for the government. He is a thin, withered man with many types of gadgets and devices attached to his belt, wrists, bandolier, anywhere he can hook one to himself.

His powers are as follows:
Hyper-Intelligence
Hyper-Invention

Edward was nearly driven insane by his abilities. The increased intelligence opened his mind to a whole new realm of possibilities. He was a captive of the government for 10 years and his inventions provided the GFC (Genetics Frontier Corporation) and the SIB (Superhuman Intelligence Bureau)with most of their tech and equipment, at least got them started on it. Once he learned what they were doing, he defected, destroying all of the original work he had done there. He was once a spy, but is now lost in the machinery. He learned that his inventions were being used to hunt and capture emerging superhumans for the purposes of keeping their existence hidden from the public and hoping to harness their immense power for military purposes.

Traits that can be used to describe him are: Creative, Paranoid, Unstable, Faithful, Honest, Energetic, Rugged, Helpful, Reserved, One-of-a-kind, Wierd, Analytical, Anti-Social, Nervous

He is an unsettled, jittery man who mostly speaks in fragmented sentences because his mind is like a chess board, it is always working on several things at a time and it is most often a few steps ahead of his conscious ability to recognize what his mind is doing. He actually has to stop what hes doing to allow himself to catch up to his thoughts.

any input would be very helpful as I find myself struggling to adequately portray this man as I see him in my mind.

Initially, he was just a garden variety rageaholic, but I have read “the curious incident”, and agree that autism might be a better route. *or*>> As I wrote the above paragraph, I realized that there needs to be a cost to using the armor- more stable as human, but more dangerous as a hero; or he begins thinking like the aliens whose technology he is using.

thanks!

After a bad scare or stressful experience, depending on his personality, he might go into some variety of escapism – anything from eating whatever’s handy without realizing he’s eating, to locking himself in his room with a book, or even swinging completely out of his normal personality and trying to be someone else for awhile, outgoing instead of shy, loud and obnoxious instead of quiet, or vice versa. I’ll assume you want to leave drugs and alcohol out of it.

He probably would have at least fleeting thoughts of abject worthlessness, or have the idea that other people think he’s a horrible person even if he’s really a nice guy and in reality has a lot of friends. Depression isn’t something that can be rationalized away with a stack of evidence – it’s there, like a big solid wall, until it isn’t. The way to deal with it is by not looking at it head on, and concentrating on a tiny piece of what can be done in the moment until you get your day’s chores done and realize it isn’t bothering you anymore.

Bear in mind that this is just a (new!) psychology student’s opinon. To get a real feel of depression, I would recommend looking up interviews or life stories. You can probably find a couple on the internet quite easily.

One thing I would like to stress is that those suffering from depression (especially in milder cases) may not neccesarily be inactive. This is especially helpful in a story, where you don’t want a character to sit around doing nothing!

I would recommend picking up a book about depression or something similar.