Hanahaki Disease: A Writers Guide

Choose the Right Plant

The definition of ‘Hanahaki Disease’ is ‘An illness, born from one sided love, that causes flowers to grown in a patient’s lungs. The disease can only be cured by surgery, or if the love is returned by the crush. If the flowers aren’t removed, they will suffocate the patient and eventually prove fatal’.

So obviously, the story will need to involve a plant that will grow in the host. Typically, Hanahaki plants are flowers. But if you’re feeling really creative, you could probably use another type of plant. We’ll get to that later.
Let’s start with flowers.

—
Some important factors to consider when choosing a Hanahaki flower:

*The type of love
*The patient’s personality
*The patient’s design
*What kind of story you’re going for

The types of love:

For a deep, passionate crush, I’d suggest something like a rose, an amyrillis, an orchid, or something of that type.
For a childish, ‘young love’ type crush, try daisies, dandelions (flower and puff!!), marigolds, etc.  
If you want a cute, happy, fluffy relationship, you could do daisies, lilies, morning glories,violets, poppies, stuff like that
For sadder or violent crushes, roses, poppies, larger/thornier/both , more painful flowers.

Personalities are complicated. I’ll just list some comment personality traits and hope for the best—

Stoic: Roses, poppies, oRCHIDSSSSSS, goldenrod, foxglove, pansies, crocus, etc
Giggly: Lillies, daisies, morning glories, violets, daffodils
Shy: Lillies, poppies, morning glories, moonflowers, foxglove, violets
Outgoing: Dasies, sunflowers, poppies, goldenrod

Like I said, personalities are huge, an I can’t describe all of the traits, but pick a flower that you feel fits them.

Their design is also important, simply because the flowers and design much correlate, simply for the aesthetic. Especially the colour. Hanahaki flowers may stand out, or they may blend in. But they should have a colour that is pleasant with the character’s colour scheme.

Finally, the type of story.
Typically, lighter, usually happier Hanahaki stories will feature smaller and easy to pass flowers. However, violent stories may have large and prickly plants such as roses.

—
“What about other plants?”
While Hanahaki is traditionally a floral infection of the respiratory system, from a crush, creativity is always fun. It doesn’t need to be a flower. I’ve done tree Hanahaki before, and I’m planning on other types of it.
It can be more than one person too. Perhaps your family doesn’t love a patient, or they’re having trouble deciding between two possible future S/Os. The possibilities are endless!!
—
There’s my first chapter! Feel free to ask me any questions regarding the Hanahaki Disease!! I may post a FAQ chapter if I get enough, so any asks are appreciated! I love you all!!