I am currently writing a story about a girl who gets in a car crash only to wake up in a science lab hooked up to a machine. She is told her entire life as she knows it was an illusion created by the machine. She is told by other scientists that she was the maker of the machine and wanted to test it out on herself but it ended up wiping her memory. Throughout the story she will meet other people who each claim she is someone else. The main character will end up with 4 identities (before car crash, scientist, rebel leader, and orphan girl who disappeared from her village). The story is her journey to find out which identity is really hers as she tries to survive in a corrupt dystopian world. All four identities are the same girl and she doesn't flip between them like multiple personality disorder. That would make their character traits and personalities mostly the same but I also want each identify to be unique in its own way. Any ideas on how to make them blur together but still be slightly unique? Also any ideas on how to smoothly transition between them?
The first thing that I think of is the fact that our personalities and behaviors are heavily influenced by life experiences. As a result, each person will react differently to things around them as a result of what has happened to them before. Granted, if she has no memories at all, then I guess these identities will not affect her personality at all, so that makes me wonder why you would ever need to transition between them? Currently, it would be other people telling her she was one way or another, but that would not really impact the way she behaves. This is more of an issue relating to the characters who knew who she used to be (or rather who they thought she was, or want to convince her she was) rather than her character herself.
Speech patterns will be different, along with mannerisms that are unique to each persona. Though since you are using a complicated multi-identity of the same person from various points in time, will not be so simple to pull off. It seems based on the info provided, they could use some form of tech to correct and restore the person back to their original time identity. Considering they are not doing some 'garage science lab' type work, they will have at least another colleague who would certainly be aware of the others work and then set about finding a solution and get them back. If she was sciencing solo, then undoubtedly over time surrounded by other people she knows that know her and the slew of evidence of what she was doing at the time of the incident would be enough to have her figure out her present time identity, and realize that the others are just fragments of the past. Essentially from what I gather, is that you want to take the amnesia/memory wipe route, and replace it with memories that already exist? First contradiction I can find in your plan, is that if she wiped her memory in the experiment, how can she take on past personas? No memory, means no past exp. to create past self. Not sure how the rules of memory wiping work in the universe you have created, but it should be explained as to what memories are erased. Involuntary functions will still be there as they are not memories, but basic bodily functions built into the brain-stem. So perhaps instead of going full memory wipe, try having them scrambled like a bunch of different programs that do not function properly when meshed to any other programs. Though in either case of wipe or scramble, you had better have a good explanation on how to mess with the electromanetic/bio-chemical make up of the brain to such a degree that it re-wires itself tot allow the plot of your story to work.
You to both make marvelous points about how without memories she has no reason to switch between them at all. I never thought of it that way.
Thanks for your help! This helped a lot and completely changed how the characters are going behave and interact with each other.
