Hi guys,
I'm a creative writing student at university and I have CF. For my dissertation I've decided to attempt a novella about a number of cystic fibrosis sufferers, all of which have very contrasting ways of coping with thedisease and alternative attitudes towards reavealing symptoms and discussing it.
From the fiction I've read about characters with CF they all seems to fall into the bracket of being tragic characters used to gain sympathy from the reader as the struggle with the disease. While there is nothing wrong with this, I feel that having Cf myself I am in the position to construct some more positive characters with CF who really tell it how it is. For example, I'm sure that for every CF sufferer who falls under the cliche of "just wanting to be treated normal" there are those who love the attention and play on the stigma of having a life threatening disease to their advantage at every opportunity. Perhaps for a charcter who has used CF to define his whole personality a cure would be more of a nightmare than a dream? I know topics like this may be considered a taboo area and I am well aware that I can't write from the perspective of every CF sufferer so what I was hoping for was to start a discussion about how each of us cope with CF when we're meeting new people. Does anyone have examples of going to absurd lengths to hide their CF? Does anyone flaunt it? How do you find it affects your relationships with friends, your love life etc? Does anyone have a problem with me writing about this and if so why? Also, any anecdotes about funny, embarrassing, offensive encounters you've had due to CF would be a great help to me. I hope we can get a discussion going. My main aim is to write about CF more openly and honestly and to break some cliches of characters faced with life threatening illness.
Thanks for your help guys,
Marsh
I'm a creative writing student at university and I have CF. For my dissertation I've decided to attempt a novella about a number of cystic fibrosis sufferers, all of which have very contrasting ways of coping with thedisease and alternative attitudes towards reavealing symptoms and discussing it.
From the fiction I've read about characters with CF they all seems to fall into the bracket of being tragic characters used to gain sympathy from the reader as the struggle with the disease. While there is nothing wrong with this, I feel that having Cf myself I am in the position to construct some more positive characters with CF who really tell it how it is. For example, I'm sure that for every CF sufferer who falls under the cliche of "just wanting to be treated normal" there are those who love the attention and play on the stigma of having a life threatening disease to their advantage at every opportunity. Perhaps for a charcter who has used CF to define his whole personality a cure would be more of a nightmare than a dream? I know topics like this may be considered a taboo area and I am well aware that I can't write from the perspective of every CF sufferer so what I was hoping for was to start a discussion about how each of us cope with CF when we're meeting new people. Does anyone have examples of going to absurd lengths to hide their CF? Does anyone flaunt it? How do you find it affects your relationships with friends, your love life etc? Does anyone have a problem with me writing about this and if so why? Also, any anecdotes about funny, embarrassing, offensive encounters you've had due to CF would be a great help to me. I hope we can get a discussion going. My main aim is to write about CF more openly and honestly and to break some cliches of characters faced with life threatening illness.
Thanks for your help guys,
Marsh