I'd never cite it in a paper, but Reddit is a phenomenal place to research for creative writing. I don't mean going on r/writers and asking everyone to pat your back and tell you how good you are. The user forums for the types of people you write about can be a gold mine for educating you on people's lived experiences with all sorts of variables you may have cleverly snuck into your characters.
Luke Fields is my number-one example. He's diagnosed in THE FIELDS REFLECTION with borderline personality disorder, which explains a lot about his past behavior and gives him a road to turning his life around. In medical journals, I read about co-morbidities, brain damage and TBI, genetic factors (hey, Eli, I'm looking at you), and treatment modalities. I read a lot of family and patient teaching material.
Nowhere besides Reddit did I have access to a community of people living with BPD. You don't just plop down in a support group and say you're there to observe. I lurked in that sub and watched people cope with trauma, loss, breakups, new loves, miscellaneous hurts and joys. I learned about the difference in people's experiences with good and bad doctors, with supportive and unsupportive families and friends. I learned about the delight and torment of the BPD "favorite person" from both sides, and read about the frustration of splitting.
It's not a zoo. Be respectful, and remember...
Learn without inserting yourself into a conversation.
No one is on those forums to share with YOU.
It is not your space. Just listen.
You don't have to—maybe shouldn't have to—interrogate people to learn about what they're living just so you can write them up in fiction. It's on me to observe and infer, and it's not on them to educate me or answer a list of questions.
I wrote an Afterword to THE FIELDS REFLECTION with notes on the clinical side of BPD as well as how it shapes Luke's journey through the trilogy. Because the BPD diagnosis is a rather subjective framework, there is no single storyline or character that can ever accurately represent a "typical" person with BPD. Luke's experiences with splitting, for example, follow some of the explanations in the subreddit more than others.
The point is to get it right enough that it can be real enough to be respectful of the reality of life with that condition. Not every person with BPD will look at Luke Fields and say yeah, that's exactly my guy, I've totally been there, but I hope they feel seen and respected whether or not they identify with his experiences in the books.
Luke pops up in a few of the Rebekah Reese novels as well as the Sauganac thrillers, back in his college days before the damage of the repeated concussions set in. The college years were Luke at his best, and I hope to finish his redemption arc with a love story one day.
Concussions, of course, are another research journey for another post.
For more information about borderline personality disorder and other mental health conditions, visit nami.org.
Kommentare