For What It's Worth

Unfortunately, I’m sitting around today wasting time instead of writing. My self-discipline seems to have headed for higher ground, and it only bothers me a little bit. A mental health break to play with Facebook and my iPad seems fitting. But back to business. I’m picking some of the good stuff out of Marc McCutcheon’s book […]

Marc McCutcheon’s book  Building Believable Characters is an excellent tool for your writer’s toolkit, and I’m sharing some of the good stuff with you. The next portion of the book is a list of SELECTED DISEASES, DISORDERS, AND AFFLICTIONS, just in case you need a great physical ailment for a character but don’t want to go […]

I’m getting close to the end of this section of Marc McCutcheon’s book  Building Believable Characters. Thanks for sticking with me. Today’s psychological problems include PICA, PRESSURED SPEECH, PSYCHOGENIC PAIN DISORDER, and PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGICAL DISORDER. Those are some fun words to type. Now let’s see what they mean and how they can be used to create […]

I’m digging through Marc McCutcheon’s book  Building Believable Characters. I’m still in the  section called PSYCHOLOGICAL/PSYCHIATRIC PROBLEMS, but I’m closing in on the end if you’re getting bored. Check back in a day or two if that’s the case. I’m skipping paranoia, paranoid schizophrenia, and pedophilia because I don’t want to talk about them. That […]

I’m sifting through Marc McCutcheon’s book  Building Believable Characters for character building goodness. I’m still in the  section called PSYCHOLOGICAL/PSYCHIATRIC PROBLEMS. Today’s problems include MISANTHROPY, MISOGYNY, NARCISSISM, and PANIC DISORDER. There were a few in the list I skipped, either because they’ve been done so many times they’re stale, or they’re too yucky to talk about. […]

Marc McCutcheon’s book  Building Believable Characters has a section called PSYCHOLOGICAL/PSYCHIATRIC PROBLEMS that I’m mining for useful stuff. Today’s psychological problems include manic-depressive, martyrdom, masochism, and megalomania. Sounds fun, doesn’t it?   The definition for MANIC-DEPRESSIVE PSYCHOSIS offered by McCutcheon reads like this: “a disease characterized by mood swings, from normal to depressed or from normal […]

Before Spring Break, I was discussing Marc McCutcheon’s book  Building Believable Characters. (Note: I took two weeks for my break because that’s how I roll.) The book has a section called PSYCHOLOGICAL/PSYCHIATRIC PROBLEMS, and I’m to the bit that lists mania types. The fun part of the list is the right column, which gives the technical […]

Marc McCutcheon’s book Building Believable Characters has a section called PSYCHOLOGICAL/PSYCHIATRIC PROBLEMS. My last post on this topic generated a bit of disagreement, so let’s see what I can come up with today from the alphabetical listing of psychological problems. (Note: the list is in alphabetical order, so you can see I’m just beginning. I’m […]

Marc McCutcheon’s book Building Believable Characters has a wealth of information to absorb, and I’m doing my best to share some of it. Today I’m in the section called PSYCHOLOGICAL/PSYCHIATRIC PROBLEMS. It’s an alphabetical listing, so I’ll just go through it and hit the ones that stand out to me. (For a complete list, buy […]