Ah, yes. The classic: trauma. This is very common in Warriors fan-fictions, and I get a decent amount of comments on this topic. There are two very important rules when it comes to this, so here's what I always tell you guys:

It needs to be unique and have a purpose. That's it. It's all about being original and making the trauma meaningful. Also, like, do your research.

I'm going to use Emberstorm from my book, Ember, for an easy example. Her trauma itself isn't exactly unique or some great, original idea. What makes it unique is her response and how it affected her.

What happens a lot is not writing about how trauma or PTSD affects cats and people correctly. I will say, though, different people handle trauma in different ways, but it still affects them.

PTSD isn't all about flashbacks and nightmares of what exactly happened. It's triggers, depression, anxiety, appetite changes, poor concentration, reclusive behavior, disassociation, flashbacks, forgetting the trauma, and more.

Let's say that Butterflyface from SadClan (that name was the first that came to mind, so I decided to roll with it) witnessed her mother, Flapwing, perish in a fire.

She's barraged by flashbacks of the exact incident and nightmares of exactly what transpired, and she gets sad sometimes. Seems legit. Good start---but there's so much more.

Instead of Butterflyface falling asleep at night and reliving Flapwing's death, her dreams would be a bit more abstract. Neither cats nor people have perfect memory. Plus, when we dream, we typically dream about what we were thinking about prior to sleeping or events that transpired that day. With PTSD, a little trauma is sprinkled in to spice things up.

Let's say that Butterflyface went on a nice little hunting patrol that day. In her dream, she's hunting and having a good time---until a fire erupts. She can't escape; it's everywhere. Then, she sees Flapwing trying to lead her to safety. However, Flapwing falls into a random hole after catching on fire. But Butterflyface, distraught, still catches a chonky mouse.

You see what I'm saying? PTSD dreams usually aren't exactly what happened. I will admit that I made this mistake in Ember before reading a post about writing PTSD dreams.

Another thing is triggers.

Maybe in Butterflyface's case, she catches a faint whiff of smoke from a twoleg's campfire. She freezes up and hears Flapwing yowling in terror, then starts displaying acquired tics and runs back to camp.

Or, perhaps, it's a particularly hot day, and it feels like the heat of the fire that killed Butterflyface's mother, and she disassociates (feeling detached from reality or like nothing around you is real).

I believe in you, Butterflyface. You got this, girlfriend.

Okay, so I'm actually going to use Emberstorm as an example now. She's so affected by her trauma that she lives a completely dysfunctional life and cannot be a proper warrior. She is completely reclusive, slips into ruts where she won't eat, and hallucinates severely. Emberstorm also battles depression and anxiety, which stem from her PTSD.

Trauma isn't something that you just get over. It's not just flashbacks and nightmares. If your character has PTSD or a traumatic past, I recommend doing thorough research and maybe reading some stories of trauma survivors. And yes, animals can have PTSD, too.

Also, UNPROCESSED TRAUMA! Sometimes, as a coping mechanism, your brain literally blacks out the entire trauma---sometimes going as far as forgetting entire years of your life.

What's really fun with unprocessed trauma is it comes out of nowhere. You think you've lived a dandy life---but then, you wake up and remember something horrible.

Maybe Butterflyface thought that Flapwing dying was all. Yet, for some reason, she doesn't remember a single thing about her kithood. It's all blacked out, like she randomly popped into existence as an apprentice. However, her mind gradually starts to clear and bits and pieces come back to her. Playing mossball with Footkit...wait---she had a brother?! Butterflyface had no idea!

Then, it hits her---getting trapped underwater and nearly drowning repeatedly. It happened every day.

Okay, so, moving away from symptoms. How do you make trauma unique, and what do I mean by giving it purpose?

One way to make trauma unique is by coming up with an unusual source. Typically, you think of war veterans and abused people as being the ones with PTSD. However, trauma comes from all sorts of places.

Blobtail was lost for two days. Facefoot got green cough and nearly died. Whiskernose was "kidnapped" by twolegs and had a visit with the cutter. (That's what warriors call the vet...I think.) Those are all valid sources of trauma, though rather unconventional. Think out of the box!

Another way to make a unique past trauma is how it affects the character. Facefoot has psychosis and thinks that he is on a mission to cure their leader, Dirtstar, of a rare disease before it's too late. Whiskernose can't hold meals down---every time he eats, he throws up and feels like he's choking. Blobtail rarely sleeps.

Got it?

Another important thing with writing trauma is to only do it if there's a purpose. Don't write PTSD just for the sake of being trendy or interesting or whatever. If you're going to add a traumatic backstory, have a reason for it. Make it actively affect the plot and influence the character's choices.

In Ember, her trauma and resulting depression cause her to stumble upon an entirely new civilization (it's a long story). It leads to plot twists that affect her relationship with other characters.

Perhaps you want to give your character a troubled past, but not exactly a traumatic event. Where to start?

A great way to screw up your character without the PTSD is parental troubles. The parents weren't abusive, but they, you know, sucked.

Maybe they were sort of absent or emotionally unavailable. Or, they could have kept on having kits, thus ignoring your character. A great one is a rocky "marriage." They fight, argue, threaten to break up, maybe even cheat behind the other's back---all in front of poor Tailhead.

Parents aren't the only family members that can be boobs. Instead of a random snarky apprentice bully, Tailhead's sister, Nosetwitch, picked on him. Nothing extreme.

Ooh! What about a nasty breakup with their mate? Leafcrunch's mate, Earpelt, broke up with him. Again, not PTSD, but rough.

In short, do your research. Be meaningful. Be unique. You'll do great!

I'd also like to note that I'm not making light of PTSD. It's a severe and sometimes life-threatening disorder.

I just like talking about Butterflyface.