Need Help Writing Guilt-Inspired Madness

Hey, just wondering if anyone could give me any help or advice with this.

Basically I've got I character who has done something wrong, as in prision-time and possibly death row wrong, with potential to cause a massive political backlash.

I just need advice on how to handle showing them go mad from their own guilt and denial thereof. While I've written characters who have gone mad before, I've never written the actual going mad stage.

Self harm and destruction of their immediate environment?

edited 2nd Jun '11 12:42:14 PM by annebeeche

Are you trying to write the descent into madness from this character's point of view, or from that of another character? If the latter, you should definitely write a narrative of it from the character's point of view as well, even if you don't intend to use this in the work — it will help make it feel more real.

Beyond that, I can't really give specific advice since it will depend on what the act is and who the character is. You'd probably need to know the character really well to be able to pull off something like this.

What do you mean by madness? If you mean an Out, Damned Spot! sort of thing, that doesn't happen in real life (at least, not caused by guilt - it's more of a biological thing).

More likely would be some form of severe depression. Incidentally, severe enough depression can cause hallucinations and delusions, which are always themed after the person's mood (believing you're dead, hearing insulting voices, etc).

At the moment I'm thinking a sense of guilt coupled with her denying any responsibility over the incident, which leads to her making increasingly questionable decisions. Add in some paranoia too probably because like I said if it ever gets traced back to her she'll be in major trouble.

Anyway, thank you all for your responses, you've been very helpful.

Aren't these the opposite of each other, or do you mean she outwardly denies responsibility, but actually feels guilt?

I can see this going two ways. If she's avoiding responsibility, then she could try to justify her actions, and then move on to deluding herself about what actually happened and using Insane Troll Logic to fool herself into thinking that she's not at fault, or she did a good thing and everyone else is persecuting her. Maybe even think of herself as a martyr.

If she accepts the guilt, then suicidal depression could happen. She could delude herself but in the other direction, exaggerating events and using Insane Troll Logic to making her death seem necessary.

There's other ways this could happen, but those are the two I could think of.

edited 3rd Jun '11 9:16:21 AM by melloncollie