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Hello fellow writers! My name is Tom and I am here to deliver you this guide on how to write the disease Hanahaki. A quick overview of Hanahaki if you’ve clicked on this without the slightest idea on what it actually is: it is a fictional disease (saying this as I once mentioned Hanahaki to my friend and she looked very disturbed, lol) where the patient hacks and coughs up flowers as a result of unrequited love.This guide is supposed to help construct ideas, give prompts, give adjectives, adverbs and verbs and also different portrayals of Hanahaki (for example, I have made a version of Hanahaki where it makes slightly more sense and is more gory, which was difficult as I’m not the best at biology, lol)
Masterlist (press ctrl + f, then search the word)PromptsWordsDetailed Version of the DiseaseAlternate EndingsSymbolism
Prompts (please credit me if you use these)A is scared to tell B their feelings because of a Shakespearean forbidden love plot* or a homophobic background/timezone (looking at you, byler shippers) and therefore is forced to stay silent, only for the Hanahaki to increase in severity whilst B is in the same situation or doesn’t even realise their feelings because of social ‘norms’.
*I’d recommend not using the Shakespearean forbidden love plot to a T, as if you’ve read Romeo and Juliet, you’ll probably know how creepy Romeo was (not to mention Juliet was 13). Some alterations could be used, of course :)
A develops Hanahaki disease after B, their spouse, dies.A and B used to be friends, maybe even more than friends (with benefits, secret relationship, drunken fuckbuddies, etc). A would’ve thought they’d have gotten over it by now, but their Hanahaki has been slowly developing, to the point where they can’t ignore it anymoreFor a more lighthearted-ish take, maybe in a universe where Hanahaki is only life-threatening to people with HIV/AIDS, A is a frequent visitor to a florist shop that B runs (if you want, to tie into the florist x tattoo parlour, you could have A as a tattoo artist). A has gotten themselves caught up with B by just the small talk they have and A eventually figures out they have Hanahaki disease, whilst B is still oblivious to A’s attraction towards them and A has to constantly hide the fact they’re hacking up flowers in B’s flower store, whilst B just thinks their flowers are wilting.In a world where Hanahaki is commonplace (as it probably would be, most would be dead at age thirteen lmao) there’s a dating site for people infected with Hanahaki - this could go to a fluffy scenario, with two people building each other back up to full health, or a more angsty one where one can’t get over their Hanahaki-inducing love interest while the other gets a double dose of Hanahaki because they now have two unrequited loves, OR where they both can’t get over their original love interests, but decide to pair up anyway, where they both know the other only ever thinks of only their original love interest (credit here, don’t credit me if you use this).Two people used to be friends and both caught feelings for each other, until they one day had a massive fight and hadn’t talked to one another since, however, love is stronger than hate, and so the Hanahaki keeps growing and growing until they are forced make up and confront their feelings towards one another.
How to get more prompts
My number one suggestion would be to read fanfiction. Make sure to skip past any fics of series’ you’re planning to watch or read/currently watching or reading, encase there happens to be a spoiler, so I’d recommend just reading fics from fandoms you’re in, have been in, ones you are not planning to be in (I personally am not an anime fan, I’ve just never really liked it, so whenever I’m stuck for ideas, I’ll search something on MHA or something and then alter it slightly) as well as original works and RPF, as there won’t be any spoilers.Now another idea, and yes, this may sound a bit odd, but trust me when I say this, when searching up ‘Hanahaki’ onto YouTube, you can find a lot of Gacha Life videos to give you plot ideas. This is mainly for if you don’t fancy reading a 100,000 word fic on ao3 for a fandom you’re not even in, and would rather just watch a 8-30 minute video on YouTube (I doubt many of you would do this, but please refrain from hating on these creators for making a love story that perhaps has a bad thing with consent or a bad plot in general, as most of the creators are children). I’d also recommend searching ‘GLMM’ along with Hanahaki as to not get just small little snippets with music overlayed. WordsThese include verbs, nouns and adjectives for to use in your fic, be prepared for a bunch of ‘throw up’ synonyms.
Cough/Cough up
Dizzy
Dry-heave
Expel*
Fuzzy
Gag
Hack (to get rid)
Heave
Hurl
Light-headed
Mucus, phlegm + sputum*
Nausea
Puke
Regurgitate*
Retch
Sick
Spew*
Spit*
Splutter
Stagger
Sweat
Swelter
Unsteady
Vomit
*Expel is quite a formal text-book-y word, so don’t use this too much*Mucus, phlegm and sputum are words for a discharge that comes from your respiratory system, as Hanahaki is typically shown in the patient's lungs, this could be used*Regurgitate, same as expel, is also formal, so use this sparingly*Spew is an informal word for vomiting, so I’d use this sparingly*Spit as a verb would make more sense to be used once the victim finishes throwing up and where there’s still blood, drool, vomit or petals in their mouth
Detailed Version of the Disease
If you’re hoping to get a hyper realistic version of Hanahaki, sorry, you’re not going to get that, I don’t think many people could write a realistic portrayal of a disease that kills you with flowers, and I’m not exactly an expert in biology, so this version is going to have a lot of mess-ups and a lot of “huh?”s, but your readers don’t need to know all the ins and outs of Hanahaki.From around two weeks to half a year, the victim wouldn’t notice they have it, and think they just have a cold with a dry cough, whereas in reality it is the beginning of the flowers growing inside their lungs. However, after a few days to a week of Hanahaki spreading around the lungs, the patient would start to gain oral thrush (white coating or patches in mouth, colour could be interchangeable, you could also add tiny thorns if you’re feeling experimental) which will cause the victim feeling pain whilst eating. Upon wiping off the white patches it’d leave red spots and start to bleed.Once the stalks continue to grow in the patient’s lungs, they irritate them, causing the patient to cough more regularly, occasionally accompanied by petals (this would probably be the time to consult a doctor, lol). These roots will continue growing, blooming into full buds after 48 hours. When the heads spread out, more space for airflow is taken up in the lungs, and therefore makes it harder to breathe.Hanahaki could be a type of fungi rather than a type of flower in this hypothetical universe, and because of this, it could survive without sunlight and start to grow into the digestive system, more directly, the stomach, which leads to dehydration and increasing hunger.The Hanahaki’s severity could increase with the white patches mentioned earlier spreading around the body from the mouth into the bloodstream (from the bleeding areas when wiping off the thrush) and therefore circulating around the body, and being able to grow into the skin itself from the capillaries. Perhaps, if you want to go really gross with your fic, the Hanahaki could grow out of the skin, rupturing it. Occasionally, this could also go a different root, where the flower head can’t break through the skin and causes swelling, blood clots and internal bleeding.This disease would probably fuck with your braincells too. As the Hanahaki moves around the body and the infection worsens, the brain would be focussed on the love interest more often, disrupting hormones. The brain would probably be fried at this point, and with the more and more thoughts of the love interest, the heart would pump faster, causing the blood to circle around the body faster, which causes the Hanahaki to now spread faster as well… yeah… a vicious cycle.Because the patient’s brain is now high off of a fungus, the pain from the chest, stomach, throat and some areas of the skin would go numb, this includes hunger. There’d be a sudden extreme weight loss as the Hanahaki would be sucking up all of the patient’s nutrients from the stomach for it to continue to survive.Yeah, I’m pretty glad Hanahaki isn’t real, too.
Alternate Endings
Character A/the patient could die from Hanahaki, they could have their feelings reciprocated, causing the Hanahaki to die down, or they could get the surgery where their romantic love for the love interest disappears forever*.*I used to think the amount of characters in fics that didn’t choose this ending was kind of dumb, but I don’t think I’ve ever been in love, so I can’t really say much lol. Also please note, if you’re writing the Hanahaki using my version (see above) and the patient has been affected with Hanahaki for quite sometime (especially if they’re at the brain-altering stage) this would definitely be difficult for the patient and would have to have about five-hundred people convincing them or people physically strapping them down for the surgery. Post-op, the Hanahaki could be slowing, but there could perhaps be more surgeries to remove the wilting flowers, to patch up organs, skin, etc.
Symbolism
What kind of fanfiction would have flowers be a main plot and not have some sort of underlying subtext? For example, I read an amazing fanfiction about obsessive and unhealthy love where, in chapter thirteen, a photograph of the protagonist’s love interest had a collection of marigolds and begonias behind them.Although marigolds are typically symbols of happiness and joy, they are also symbols of death, grief and jealousy (I think this could be because of Shakespeare, but don’t quote me on that) whilst begonias are used as symbols for caution and to be aware (the author mentioned this on a note of theirs, I promise I’m not looking into things too deeply lol)I’m pretty sure that author got their ideas off of the Symbolism Wiki on Fandom which I’d recommend using for flowers, but I’d also suggest to double check on meanings, as literally anyone can edit those articles for malicious intentions (not sure why, to be fair) and can just happen to be mistaken. You could do a little bit of research on flowers you find aesthetically pleasing and then later figure out the meanings behind them, and choose which fits your characters/plot best. Some flowers the victim could be coughing up include:
Buttercups - innocence (but childishness and immaturity is attached to this, too)
Chrysanthemum - life (and weirdly death too?)
Dahlia - diversity, kindness, grace
Hydrangea - boastfulness, gratefulness
Iris - faith, wisdom, good luck (bit ironic)
Orchid - luxury, beauty
Petunia - anger, resentment
Sunflower - loyalty
Yellow Carnations - disappointment, rejection
And of course, cherry blossoms. I’d personally take this if you don’t really want to study flowers (fair enough, I myself found all this information by just typing up ‘flower types’ and searching their meanings, lol) as this is the most common, and I’m pretty sure the original Hanahaki flower. The meaning of cherry blossoms are life, death, time and beauty, which I personally think fits Hanahaki perfectly, it is kind of beautiful, even in a morbid sort of way.You could have your character have multiple flowers, their flowers change because of scenarios during the time they’re infected, the spread of the disease, etc. I read a fanfiction a few years ago (not linking it this time, as I genuinely can’t remember it) where the protagonist would cough up roses, with the petals getting darker and darker, where they threw up a fully intact black rose (symbolising death) when they finally kicked the bucket.