Hello Thunderdome. It’s so nice to see you again. I’d like to call attention to a consistent behavior I’ve noticed: your characters aren’t interesting, and sometimes I finish your stories and I couldn’t describe anything about them.

If it is OK with you, I’d like to help you out with that. This week your protagonist will need to have a Mental Health Diagnosis!

Below this post, I have compiled an exhaustive list of mental health diagnoses as outlined by the most current issue of the DSM.

I want to keep this new, challenging goal simple and measurable so I’m going to make it easy.

Pick one of those diagnoses and apply it to your character. That’s it!

Does your character have to address their disorder? No! Of course not! What matters the most is that I can somehow identify their disorder as part of who they are. That doesn’t mean they need to be a horrible person, or a person who is severely afflicted, less may be more in many cases. I don’t have to like your character, but I do want to know them. I want them to also have motivations outside of their illness. They should want something and try to get it.

Of course, I’ll be right there with you for this whole process. I’ve got my copy of the DSM right here with me, so if you need any further explanation on any of these disorders, and google isn’t enough for you, feel free to ask. At a minimum, I’ll post a little blurb after you claim a diagnosis so we’re all on the same page.


Bonus rules and other shit you should definitely read!

• Once you claims a diagnosis, it belongs to your protagonist and yours alone.
  
  
• If you’d like, you may claim a second diagnosis and apply it to ANOTHER character in your story. You’ll therefore be removing another potential diagnosis from the pool. Doing this will net you a cool 300 word bonus!
  
  
• If you’re feeling gutsy, you may choose one of the :toxx: boxes below. To do this, simply post your choice of :toxx: box number. Once you’ve done that, I will reveal to you what your diagnosis is, and award you a predetermined RNG’d amount of bonus words between 200 and 800. Failure to submit a story after such a selection will result in a ban. One toxx per entrant.
  
  
• If you freely select a disorder that happens to be in a :toxx: box, you will have the option to claim the bonus words with a :toxx: of your own, or decline the bonus words.

Oh, and as a bonus, because I am unwell, if you all submit 20 stories or more, I will render judgment within 12 hours. :toxx: