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When your notes make a perfect cat

Everyone writes: “We’ve known each other for years!"

But we can do better than that—let's make things actually interesting.

Here are some quick tips for writing two characters with history (without saying, "we've known each for years"):

• They reach for the same object at the same time without looking

• One of them uses a nickname no one else is allowed to use

• They start arguing mid-conversation like the first half already happened

• They move closer when the other looks uncomfortable

• One of them says, “Don’t start,” before the other has said anything

• They know exactly which buttons to press (and press them immediately)

• They unconsciously drift toward each other in crowded spaces

• They anticipate each other’s reactions before they happen

• One quietly moves something (a drink, weapon, chair) because they know the other will reach for it

• Someone might say something, and the other immediately responds with: “You’re still doing that?”

• They suppress laughter at the same time over something no one else noticed

• One character still treats the other based on who they used to be

• A certain place, smell, or song causes them to exchange a look

• Their arguments sound rehearsed, like they’ve had them before

• They touch each other casually without asking (fixing clothing, nudging, taking something from their hand)

• They stand closer than strangers normally would

• They borrow items from each other

• They bring up something embarrassing from ten years ago

• They sit in silence together and it’s either very comfortable or extremely tense

• One of them automatically orders the other’s drink

• They interrupt each other and still somehow finish the same sentence

• One starts a story and the other finishes it automatically

• They argue about the details of shared memories

• They mention people or events without explaining them

• A simple phrase or nickname triggers an entire inside joke

• They notice tiny things about each other no one else would catch

Real history sounds like unfinished conversations, old habits, and arguments that never really ended. When you show shared history (instead of telling) your characters seem that much more alive and believable.

On a similar note: Not all shared history is comfortable. Sometimes shared history means unresolved tension or an old rivalry:

• They refer to something only as “that” or “before.”

• Someone says “You know why.” without explaining further

• Standing slightly farther apart than expected

• Fingers drumming or fidgeting when they’re forced to talk

• Avoiding eye contact for just a second too long.

• A small disagreement suddenly becomes heated.

• One character reacts sharply to something that shouldn’t matter anymore.

• A casual comment triggers silence or defensiveness.

• One character starts explaining themselves but trails off

• One character makes small, cutting remarks disguised as jokes

• They still know each other’s preferences or weaknesses

• They speak in fragments when the past comes up

• They fall into familiar conversations and then awkwardly break them

If you enjoy digging into character dynamics like this, my printable novel planner has detailed sections for relationships, character arcs, and story structure. It’s perfect for organizing a fanfic or mapping out an entire novel!

Here it is again. You might want to save it just in case an accident like that happens again

I read a while ago about how all wool even in like New Zealand and Scotland or whatever still has to be sent to China to be processed. now I don't know if that just means like cleaning and spinning it into thread or weaving it into cloth, or just cleaning. but I did remember sort of being shocked at oh shit. NO MORE TEXTILE MILLS. They have all of this raw wool but there's no more facilities local to actually process it. All of that got moved offshore and has never come back because it wasn't possible for people to turn a profit unless they were moving production somewhere where the standard of living was lower and there were enough skilled factory workers willing to do that work at what would not be considered a living wage in most supposedly first world nations.

I really really wish that people understood that once manufacturing and finishing goods moved offshore and once we started using factories in East Asia it was never going to come back to the United States because we had no interest in actually running factories and mills and mines and all of those industries that amassed wealth for millionaires in the early 20th century. What we have now are ghost towns, and foreign labor contracts, to keep Walmart's able to sell toasters for $5 each or whatever. That's reality. That's the reality we built and we don't have time travel. We can't go back and change our minds. We literally have to roll back the clock.

And in the 21st century all we've done is outsource more. in 1994, the airline that I worked for was able to get money from the governor to be headquartered in Columbia South Carolina specifically because we were going to build the reservation center there and provide jobs for hundreds of people. It was a small carrier with only I think four planes total, servicing a specific geographic quadrant of the United States.

Jobs like that reservation center? Are ceasing to exist. Customer service representatives are now in India or working from home as contractors (which is how companies save money by avoiding having to pay any kind of overhead, by offloading the cost of the overhead to the actual employees with no compensation. It's not as if they say okay here's the portion of your electricity bill and your cable bill that you are using to do your job 8 to 10 hours a day. Here's the stipend. here's how to get reimbursed for your expenses. there is no stipend. there is no expense account. They know what they can get and how little they can get it for and that's how we have billionaires today.

The only industries where people really talk about this stuff tends to be the automotive industry because when we think of manufacturing for some reason we think of Detroit and cars. but that's because America has chosen to be a car culture. That's the infrastructure that the country chose to invest in: highways. Sure there's a lot of freight that's shifted from one place to another by air or by rail or by sea. But the final deliveries involve trucks and cars. and the companies that manage the logistics and warehousing are very very slow to change once they have decided that they have finished evolving.

Not low cost high frequency rail systems, not robust public transportation systems. Not a competitive airline industry with multiple low cost airlines. now they block murders because the idea of Southwest Airlines competing with Delta on the same even playing field scares a lot of old white guys right down to their socks.

The only way this works is to go back to striving for a healthy middle and lower classes, normalise trade schools, abolishing tipped wages, and paying a living wage. FOR EVERYONE.

And even that America still relies on institutionalised slavery in the form of prison labour and the entire agricultural industry resting on the back of migrant workers.

It's going to require a level playing field that does not allow 1% to exist or an underclass to function.

No more billionaires, no more hoarding wealth, no more mergers and considarions, stronger and better enforced antitrust laws, capping executive salaries for the unspeakably wealthy, and all trades having strong unions to protect workers and ensuring a living wage all the way down to the very bottom of the ladder.

It means looking at all of the places where social programs continue to work and have abolished homelessness and poverty and applying them to more than just a tiny handful of small Scandinavian countries.

And as above have said it requires robust unions and regulators and investing in people instead of the 1% only caring about hoarding profits. It means making life safe for people and the environment and not continuing to treat everything like a resource to be exploited. We have to turn them into renewable resources.

We have to learn or relearn how to manufacture and finishing goods without destroying the planet and ourselves.