I don't know much about schizophrenia or prostitutes. She's going to be a minor character in the story I'm writing because the protagonist ends up knocking on the wrong door. It's kind of comical but totally relevant to the plot-- I swear Help me out!
It depends on what you want her schizophrenia to be about. Schizophrenia can deal with a lot of things, things she believes that aren't really there. They are delusional if its a specific belief, like they can fly or something. For example, she could believe she is pretty when she's ugly! Kidding aside, it can be anything you want. Auditory, visual, sensory, spiritual belief...you name it. Schizophrenia has always been of interest to me. Obviously, in your case, it needs to be sexual in nature. So, maybe have her believe that during sex, she hears and sees the person she is with as her deceased husband. As I said, completely up to you. It can make for some very interesting situations. Be creative, and specific!
Haha, thanks that helps!! Now I just can't really think of a type of schizophrenia that would be evident through a conversation the protagonist has with her at her door..Hmm
From the ever-reliable Wikipedia: If the conversation is at the door, and your schizophrenic character gets stressed by it, perhaps she could start mixing the words in sentences. If you want to add a humorous element, though you'd have to be mindful of people having strong feelings on this topic, you could perhaps have the mixed up sentences structured like Yoda's! "Where's Emma?" "Back soon, she will be." "How soon?" "Know when, I don't." Well, you're not much help." "You, f**k, a$$hole."
One thing I'd like to call out (sounds like you've done some research, so you're probably already aware, but just for the sake of completeness): please don't confuse schizophrenia with multiple personality disorder. I'd hate to see a good story ruined by that kind of basic (and all too common) mistake.
There are a lot of things that can be done with this. It all really depends on what kind of MAIN character you have, I think. If your main character is adventurous, curious, easy-going, and can spare a few paragraphs to enter the schizo prostitute's world, then let the prostitue drag him/her in by her own hallucinations. She can be super paranoid, drawing the other into her house with "proof" that people are coming after her, that she has to put sexual advances on the main character because someone's watching her full time and they're trying to take her job away from her (stuff like that....you can also think along lines of somebody tweaking out of their mind, if you've been around that. I've had experience with both, and they're REALLY pretty similar). If your main character is in a hurry, make the prostitute's hallucinations more specifically located to the main character. She gets angry at the main character for thinking he/she said something that they didn't. Keeps hinting that he/she has bugs in their hair. Says they don't want to take a shower when the main character asks for the person they're really looking for. That way, you don't have to work so hard to get the main character out of the house (seeing as you'd be going along with a more meek, introverted, aloof character). A few ideas, but that's definitely a good combination for a minor appearance character (wouldn't recommend it for a main character, so you did well with your options). Hope it helps and good luck!
The schizophrenics I have known were paranoid delusional. They all spoke matter of factly about very bizarre things. One lady always told me how the government stole her daughters faces. That's how she said it. "Stole their faces." When I aske what they meant, she said, "They stole their faces," as if the phrase was so clear I was stupid for asking for clarification. I asked, did they literally remove their faces, remove the flesh? It was so hard to get straight answers from her about it. That is another thing in common. When it comes to asking them to clarify what they mean, they seem to have a hard time with it. Also, their toughts shift quickly in a conversation, from one thing to another thing. There is a relation between the shift, but it is often a word rather than a natural shift. Here is an example. "Hey, I was at the store, right. Anyway, the store clerk looked weird. Yanno? Just weird, like, I donno. Weird like Quintin Taratinos character in Dusk Till Dawn. Yeah, like a killer. Killers are weird. I wonder why they kill. Do they all kill for the same reason? Maybe it has to do with their diet. Diet is important. We need to eat right because it can affect everything about us, even our thoughts." I've also known some prostatutes and strippers. They seem to have a similar way about them. They are confident, don't really care about what others think, or at least appear not to. They are slutty. They treat and talk about sex like others might talk about cooking. They have colorful language. They are willing to use sex to get what they want, etc. Mix that with the above thought process, and wow. "What, you want a blow job? Is that why you're here? Fifty dollars. Well, you are cute, so maybe cheaper. Your shoes look cheap, so yeah, cheaper. Did you buy those at payless? I shop at payless sometimes ..."
