My MC is a journalist who aspires to write a novel, but for this he needs to go through a mental breakdown where he will find that noone is going to help him achieve his goal. he himself has to put the effort to make it happen. i have the complete structure ready. I need some help to find the symbolism which is going to show his mental breakdown, like a prop/object or an action. I am completely lost.
@Shadowfax Yeah the whole story is actually based around it. And this realization of MC's immaturity which leads to the breakdown but i need something very strong to express it.
Would need to know more about the MC and his backstory to know the life he lived up to this point. He is a journalist, and that is taking away his time to write... So what happens is each time he sits down to write, he is called in for a hot story or otherwise tasked. He really tries to write but cannot. He is frustrated, starts to drink, loses his job as a journalist, loses his money and his family because of it. He is now alone, with nothing left to do but to write, and so he does.
I don't understand why he needs a mental breakdown to write a novel. Plenty of journalist write novels. And I would think a mental breakdown from one writing career probably wouldn't push you right into another.
What do you mean by he needs a symbol? Do you mean one object or possession in his life that he looses or one that gets broken as he descends into a mental breakdown?
You know, my initial reaction was to agree with you, but then I thought about it in a different context : I used to work at The Humane Society - lots of euthanasia, animal abuse, horrible things. I burnt out. I freaked out. It had been years of this every day and at some point I couldn't deal with it anymore and then I continued for a few more months. By the time I quit I was a mental and emotional wreck. I hated the world, and couldn't stomach the thought of seeing one more abused animal. So you know what I did? Know what my next job was? I worked for a Vet as a vet tech, where I could still be around what I loved, still do what I loved, but instead with animals whose owners loved them. So maybe it's like that? He still loves the words, is drawn to them, but needs to create something different - something that doesn't hurt as much (or at least hurts different)?
I can vouch for that. I used to write for a lesser known and very dull car magazine as a staffer, but I hated being in an office environment. The politics, the meetings and "catch ups" with my line manager who had more fake concern than a politician talking about poverty. Oh yeah, and being put on a conference call when I off work with an illness. It was the first time I'd made money from writing (hooray), but it was also the worst experience of my life. I didn't have a nervous break down, but I had something very close to one. You know what? I can't stay away from writing. Even after that. So I'm getting back into writing, this time to tackle a novel. I think writing is a physical need for most of us. There's something inside you that is screaming to be expressed.
