Mentally unstable "Hero"

[Nihilium 7th]

I'm sure many a story has been told where the main character is a little loopy; what I'm unsure about is the level of insanity that would be accepted in order for readers to "enjoy" the story and which particular psychosis.

 

[Trick]

Sociopathy seems widely enjoyed and accepted but I'm learning that it's difficult to write. At least convincingly.

 

[Steerpike]

I don't think there is a level of insanity that you can quantify and say "this is what a reader will accept." It is all going to come down the what the writer can pull off. I recently read a fantasy novel where the protagonist was mentally unbalanced and you weren't quite sure what was in her head and what wasn't because she wasn't quite sure. Books like American Psycho and Perfume feature psychopaths as main characters. The characters in Gone Girl aren't quite all there. You can go from quirky, to utter sociopath, to completely out of touch with reality, so long as you do it well.

 

[shawnamoe09]

I have to agree. It's not what's accepted. It's what the write is interested in and can pull off. Also depends how well you can understand a certain mental illness yourself.

 

[TheRedPrince]

I agree that it' doesn't really matter how insane your MC is, as long as you make them interesting.

 

[Terry Greer]

Don Quixote is a good example of a hero totally off his rocker.

 

[Mythopoet]

Once again, there is no real answer to this question because all readers are different. There is no "this is the level of crazy readers will tolerate and no further". It's going to vary widely between individual readers.

It's good to be conscious that the crazier you go with your character the more likely you are to leave behind a number of readers who have a lower threshold for tolerating extreme psychosis. Because the more extreme you go the harder it is going to be for readers to relate to the character. A lot of readers want to be able to relate and/or identify with characters. Other readers just want the character to be interesting and don't need to be able to relate. There's surely an audience out there for stories about really crazy people. (Steer's examples of American Psycho and Perfume were successful for a reason.) So the real question you should ask is how do you appeal to those people and how do you get your story in front of them?

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

The difficulty you face is not so much readers accepting them, as readers understanding them. A man in a state of true psychosis has his reality bent to a point where he doesn't make sense. In my view you can push the boundaries only so far before readers will suddenly say - I don't get that - and walk away.

My thought is that if you want to do your MC as a psychotic, first do your research, and then use an older technique - an outside POV / narrator. I.e. Ismael as the narrator / objective POV for Ahab. I mean if you'd been writing the book from inside the captain's noggin, his thoughts would have been depressingly few - "kill whale, kill whale etc."

Cheers, Greg.

 

[Ruby]

Hi Nihilium 7th,

I recently wrote a poem from the point of view of someone with dementia (based on a real person and real events), but to write a whole book from that person's point of view would be very confusing for the 'poor reader'. For example, the person can't remember who he is or recognise his family so the plot, if any, would probably send the reader into a state of confused dementia, too!

As psychotick says, in the post above, you would definitely need another character's point of view to make the story make sense. Actually, that would be interesting. However, I think I'd find it too depressing to want to read this, yet to be written, book.

Writing the poem, on the other hand, was cathartic.

 

[Nihilium 7th]

I think what I'll plan to do is have multiple POV. One of the MC when he's in his right mind, one while he's in his unstable state and another of a companion who watches as he spirals deeper into insanity.

 

[Trick]

Just a thought, by no means do I imply it is an improvement: What if you did your POVs as you described but didn't reveal that the crazy POV and Lucid POV were the same person until later. The 'companion' could even be a third personality or state of mind... could be cool

 

[Nihilium 7th]

That does sound interesting; the only problem would be pulling it off.