To lie or not to lie. How Pages of Tomorrow approaches portraying a psych ward

[p]As some of you may already know, Pages of Tomorrow aims to portray mental illness and psychiatric care as accurately as possible. The ward where the story takes place is the beating heart of the plot – it dictates what the characters can or cannot do, what they are like, and even how they think. Here's a little deep dive where I explain my process for portraying it the way I do.[/p][p][/p][p]Any artist, upon choosing to show something that exists in real life in their work, has to answer a simple, but difficult question. How much do I lie? Whether it's because they are unable to show reality as it is or reluctant to do so (for various reasons), artists – and that includes writers – often rely on the audience's lack of knowledge to push something that just isn't factual. And it's a good thing they do – art isn't about imitating reality in all possible aspects. Pages of Tomorrow lies, too. But at the same time, it tells the truth exactly as much as possible without sacrificing certain parts of the experience.[/p][p][/p][p]Ultimately, Pages of Tomorrow aims to deliver an accurate experience of what it's like being in a psych ward (specifically one for juveniles), and many parts of how it does that are taken directly from real-life scenarios. Life itself often writes the best fiction. Although research was necessary, and it certainly taught me a lot, the way I portray the psych ward will always be most influenced by the way I experienced the psych ward. But even then, selecting the memories I share is also a way of fictionalizing, and when a serious topic is fictionalized, care is needed.[/p][p][/p][p]The thing I'm most cautious about is the balance between demonizing and romanticizing this form of psychiatric care, both of which are a bad way of talking about it. On the one hand, the experience is indeed traumatizing for many, but on the other, psych wards and hospitals (or "asylums") have been demonized to hell and back through stories and portrayals coming from people who didn't know much about them.[/p][p][/p][p]I sincerely hope – and I'm pretty confident the hope is not foolish – that Pages of Tomorrow can portray the psych ward in a way that both acknowledges the trauma of the experience and doesn't discourage from seeking help when it is needed.[/p][p][/p][p]If you haven't wishlisted Pages of Tomorrow yet, I invite you to do so. It is a psychological visual novel I'm making set in a juvenile psych ward, with supernatural mystery sprinkled on top. Wishlist to be the first one to know when the demo drops! [/p]