Just one question, how do you handle them? Ok, maybe amnesia is not the right word, perhaps some kind of return to childhood. Suppose I have a character, who, having been under a spell, no longer remembers anything. He has vague memories that might or might not have meant something to him once, and he goes into the wide world looking for adventure (well, sort of). How do you handle his POV so that his state of mind shows through?
Posted by djvdakota (Member # 2002) on :
I'm thinking of an Alzheimer's patient who, in a moment of complete bewilderment, sneaks out of the nursing home.
POV is difficult to handle since the protag. is mentally incapacitated. Maybe from the viewpoint of someone very close to the victim? First person? OO!! How about if the narrator is as stated above, but at the end we find that he/she was all really a figment of the protag's distorted senses! I don't know. Just rambling now.
Posted by rickfisher (Member # 1214) on :
I'm not sure what the problem is. The character knows what the character knows. What would be difficult would be to handle the POV in such a way that his state of mind didn't show through. (At least I think it would be difficult. I can't imagine wanting to spend time setting up such a character and then trying to hide it from the reader, so I've never tried it. But it sure seems like it would be difficult.)
Show us the character's thoughts. The rest will follow.
Posted by EricJamesStone (Member # 1681) on :
I agree with rickfisher. If you write from the character's POV, the loss of his memory will be obvious.
You might try reading Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Identity to see how he handled the passages from Jason Bourne's POV.
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
I concur. The internal thoughts and perceptions of a POV character reveal both mental capacity and limitations. Perhaps not in clinical detail...but since the condition of your character is the result of a magic spell, clinical criteria would not apply in any case.
Posted by Eric Sherman (Member # 2007) on :
Yes, the Bourne Idendtity came to mind for me too. I was pleasntly suprised by that book. Best 30 cents I ever spent at a garage sale.
