conveying multiple personalities to the reader

[elysium]

so far my idea is writing it as, if there's any better suggestions for this i'd like to hear it.

Everyone knows me ...
Simply as me
...And me aswell
Yet me too...
...And don't you all dare forget about me!!!
Well how can I even forget about you, you always remind me even...

In the real world this would be obvious as a change of tone in the voice (normal, playfull, scared, agressive).
I am a rather big fan of the VTM universe and many moons ago my interest went to, surprize surprize, Malkavian.
Stepping more away from the VTM universe i've fallen in love with the idea of a murderous vampire that monologues over her victims with different personalities fighting & arguing eachother, and maybe agree at times aswell.

Since I rarely make it a secret that i'm a huge fan of Clive Barker, I thought it would be suitable to start off every journal entry with a transformed snipped suitable to the character (A bit like Barker does in Abarat)

So far I have Funiculi, Funicula changed in a rather unsettling yet suitable way.

Corpses, Corpses, Hanging upside down
Corpses, Corpses, Bleeding all the time
The blood flows down
The blood drips down
The blood is flowing all the time
Hang them upside down, then take them down and make a pie

 

[Luxuria]

Hello,

I wouldn't do the different alters with different type formats. It is better to make each alter it's own real personality with likes and dislikes. For example, I wrote a character named Ravenna in the It Began in a Tavern roleplay with DID. Here is here character sheet:

Post in thread 'It Began in a Tavern - Character Index'

May 18, 2025

Ravenna
Updated: 1/3/2025

Character Cheatsheet - Here!
Character Submitted by @Gravy
Accepted by other players: 12/27/2024

Name: Ravenna

Sex: Female

Social Class: Lab Rat

Age in human years (must be 18): 22

Character Research Information: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/heal...entity-disorder-multiple-personality-disorder

Real vs. Fake: Dissociative Identity Disorder on TikTok

Living with DID | HealthyPlace

A brief description of appearance: (no pictures, please.): Ravenna is about 5 feet 5 inches...

• Luxuria

Also, here is a scene where Ravenna switches personalities/alters:

Post in thread 'It Began in a Tavern (Official) (Part 1)'

May 18, 2025

Post #27 written by Gravy/Luxuria
​

Don’t do that, Alisso thought to himself as he put another log on the kitchen fire. The soup long gone and in its place, a roaring fire to warm up Katara. Let me do it. No need to get your hands dirty, Dusca. You need to be there for Katara- no matter what.

Alisso had been lingering near the steps leading down to the first floor when he heard Dusca talking to Olive while Bossman dealt with the two government officials. Then, the tavern flooded and the two had fled. But Alisso was grateful they had. By the time he and Bossman got...

• Luxuria

• 

If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I just think doing different typefonts would not make the story easier to read.

 

[Homer Potvin]

I'm sure there's many stories out there you can reference that have done this. I don't know any of them, but I'm sure they exist. I think the real difficulty would be delineating the POVs from each other on the environmental level because they would have to be presented to the reader simultaneously but neither can know what the other does. Definitely cool if you can pull it off, though. Concurrent narrators presenting information that the reader needs to parse opens many opportunities.

 

[Naomasa298]

Yeah, don't do it using text formatting. It looks terrible when written down and makes it difficult to read. Do it using the narrative, making the different personalities clear in the text.

 

[vandor76]

Multiple personalities are separate characters. Treat them accordingly.