How would you write a story which is 'PSYCHOLOGICAL'?
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Reisinling
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Half of what happens is only in POV persons head. Also, many twists. Also many emotions.
RepresentingCaution
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Take ketamine, obviously.
Motsu
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Yeah—it's like their reality is distorted, showing a hellish structuralized world full of despair and suffering, while in the end, it only exists inside the MC's mind—reflecting the MC's own mental health.
That actually reminds me of Yume Nikki, and Silent Hill.
No. No Ketamine for today.
Funnyface
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In my opinion the best way to have a 'psychological' story is an unreliable narrator, that way you have to understand the character's personality to understand the story. Another good option is magical realism where the story world itself reflects some kind of extreme emotional state like Yume Nikki. You could also have psychological battles like Death Note where characters smartly anticipate each other's emotions and thoughts, but the writer has to actually be smart or it will just feel random like BBC Sherlock.
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D
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write trauma and how the character copes with it in the aftermath.
the after effects of drug use and maybe hallucinations. someone recovering from the bloodshed of war and all the things they saw. someone trying to recover from something serious painful like violent relationships or a gritty grim survival doing all they can to get to this point they're living now. maybe some regrets they have with their past. ptsd. maybe like the rambling of a character's thoughts? a character that sounds and seems nice and perfect on the outside, but slowly deteriorating into sanity through a series of events or some causes.
the after effects of drug use and maybe hallucinations. someone recovering from the bloodshed of war and all the things they saw. someone trying to recover from something serious painful like violent relationships or a gritty grim survival doing all they can to get to this point they're living now. maybe some regrets they have with their past. ptsd. maybe like the rambling of a character's thoughts? a character that sounds and seems nice and perfect on the outside, but slowly deteriorating into sanity through a series of events or some causes.
BenJepheneT
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Caninstinct
Shiro believes he's been sent to the wrong school. Rormund Academy: home to only the best of the best. A school so exclusive even its name remains elusive to the public. An establishment where only the wealthiest, smartest, and most athletic students of the world reside. Shiro exhibits none of...
Like this ^
Mechaphobic
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I think the best method of crazy, is when you don't know it is happening. Fight club was a really good example of this. I think you also need to carefully consider just what you are going for. I look at insanity as a type of character development. It can add a ton of flavor to a character, if done right. You also need to establish rules, and a template for how it works.
Hadassah
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I tend to think the concept of "Psychological" often is translated as zany, hyper, or hyperviolent, but I prefer to identify psychological stories as those that are primarily tied to being very very grounded and very rational in a setting that is hostile and closed.
Psychological could mean all sorts of tones, but the readers should feel claustrophobically in tune with the narrator/main character. That means no swapping perspective, a very close POV, so a reader can't be certain of anything but the MC, and the main character should be not certain of everything. The world should bottom out when the assumptions of the MC are revealed to be a lie, which should lead to the inciting incident or the falling action of the story.
The reader and the MC being in sync when things change, which lends it that psychological aspect. It feels personal, because the story *makes* it personal for the readers.
This means there can't be any dramatic irony until a second read/watch, because the turn carries the action. Many mysteries do this, because even when the audience knows the twist, the twist is powerful, just by the weight of change for the main character.
The story is not Psychological because it 'gets crazy', the story is Psychological, because the audience and point of view character are sharing the psychological reaction to the plot.
Psychological could mean all sorts of tones, but the readers should feel claustrophobically in tune with the narrator/main character. That means no swapping perspective, a very close POV, so a reader can't be certain of anything but the MC, and the main character should be not certain of everything. The world should bottom out when the assumptions of the MC are revealed to be a lie, which should lead to the inciting incident or the falling action of the story.
The reader and the MC being in sync when things change, which lends it that psychological aspect. It feels personal, because the story *makes* it personal for the readers.
This means there can't be any dramatic irony until a second read/watch, because the turn carries the action. Many mysteries do this, because even when the audience knows the twist, the twist is powerful, just by the weight of change for the main character.
The story is not Psychological because it 'gets crazy', the story is Psychological, because the audience and point of view character are sharing the psychological reaction to the plot.