Entanglementverse

Hyphens ( - ) are the shortest and are used to: ‣ link elements in a compound word: dog-owner ‣ separate some affixes from the rest of the word: pre-election ‣ (sometimes) take the place of the en dash indicating range: pages 24-66 ‣ indicate stuttering or abrupt interruption: M-m-micheal? ‣ spell out a word letter for letter: I said we are c-l-o-s-e-d.

En Dashes ( – ) are shorter than em dashes. They indicate a range and could usually be replaced with "from" and "to": ✓ I lived in New York 2015–2020. ⭤ I lived in New York from 2015 to 2020. But: ✗ I lived in New York from 2015–2020.

Em Dashes ( — ) are longest. They are used: ‣ to call attention to the content they separate from the rest of the sentence and emphasize it ‣ in place of commas and parentheses: When he finally apologized—after four weeks of silence—she was no longer interested in hearing him out. ‣ in place of a colon, especially to summarize, explain, or expand upon the preceding clause in a dramatic manner: After months of deliberation, the jurors reached a unanimous verdict—guilty. ‣ to summarize or note the common link in a list: Sweet, sour, salty, bitter—all tastes the cook loved to experiment with. ‣ to set off or introduce defining phrases and lists: The shop's selection of three flavors—strawberry, mint, and chocolate—was never enough variety. ‣ to indicate a new direction: I agree with you, but James—he felt otherwise. ‣ to indicate hesitation: Well, I think—Yeah, I guess it is concerning.

immediately notices a million different ways i could make it better.

starts editing it frantically whilst praying no one else has read it yet.

(apparently the post-fic adrenaline supercharges my ability to write.

Note this is how to utilize them in your story and not going into the physical details how how to write every type of injury, because that second one would both stretch my medical knowledge and be way too expansive for a tumblr post.

1) Research

Knowing about the malady you are afflicting your character with is important. In the most optimal case this involves talking to an actual medical professional who is well-versed on that type of injury. However, since not all of us have doctors at our beck and call, a few articles from decent sources can suffice. Typically you're going to want these pieces of info:

symptoms (description fodder)

mechanism (how could this injury be sustained?)

level of impairment (know how and to what level the injury would reasonably impair someone. This info might need more digging around than the others)

healing time (know how long it takes to heal from this injury)

treatment (potentially including symptom management)

Having this knowledge will help ground your story in at least a touch of realism. Make sure your symptoms match the injury, make sure the mechanism of the injury is sufficient and just overall makes sense for the injury, don't have someone with a broken leg strolling around like nothing happened, don't have the healing time unexplainably short or long, don't treat shock by trying to cool them off, etc.

A quick note, if you are doing a fantasy/not-real injury or illness you don't get to necessarily skip this step. In fact, imo, it can become even harder since you have to fill in these details yourself. Remember, internal consistency is key.

2) Attach Relevance

You want the injury to matter to the plot or character development. Does the broken leg prevent a character from joining a big battle? Does the flu present an extra challenge to going to their daughter's dance recital? Does being weak or out of the action aggravate their hero complex or self worth issues prompting growth or self-reflection? Does a captive's injuries complicate a rescue mission? Does having their dominant arm injured force a usually brunt force reliant powerhouse to be more creative in their strategies? Does the overpowered character have to rely on their friends/allies more because of a certain injury?

Use the injury to show the level of a character's commitment or mental toughness, use it as an obstacle they have to work around, use it to up the stakes, use it to force them to be vulnerable or else show how unwilling they are to being vulnerable, use it to thwart the main team's perfect plan, use it to push a situation into even more dire straits, use it as an alternative to character death, etc etc. These are just a few ideas, there are numerous different ways you can use different injuries/illnesses in stories. Really think about how it could affect or reveal things about the plot, characters, and relationships.

Who was suppose to draw female audiences in:

What actually did:

not sure if it’s “new” but in the past couple days, my friends and I have each been receiving about dozens of this exact message with the exact same script from various random blogs.

but instead of empty blogs that are very obviously bots, these blogs all have profile pictures and reblogs on their blogs like any other normal blogs. although if you scroll down far enough, most of them are very recently created, with the first ever reblogs from their blogs being from less than a week ago — which makes me think they’re newly created blogs with reblogs and profile pictures, so that they’re not very obviously bots anymore. but they all use the same script.

obviously I did not contact them, and I have all of them blocked and reported. because I know if I did contact them, they would try and convince me that my blog was somehow “compromised” one way or another, and then they’d say I’d have to contact this random guy on discord (instead of tumblr support) and then I’d have to change the email I associated my blog with to their new email that they gave me. then boom. the second my blog was registered with their email, they had control of everything, and chances were that I’d never be able to get my blog back. or worse, they had access to my personal information too. it’s all the same scam tactics.

do NOT fall for them. do NOT contact any shady, random person on discord or any other platform. the ONLY way you contact support when you have an issue with your blog is directly through tumblr support. not a random guy on discord.

I’m not disclosing their url because even though I’m 90% sure it’s a bot, I don’t want to accidentally send people to harass an innocent person in case of the blog having originally belonged to an innocent person before they were hacked. because when these scammers/bots hack someone’s blog, they use the blog to further scam other people, since the blog was originally a legit blog, it won’t look “empty and obviously a bot”.

I LIKE it

someone else might LIKE it

it is FUN to do

I get those THOUGHTS out of my head

it's fun to look BACK on

have I mentioned it's FUN?

it's CATHARTIC

it's nice to see what I CAN DO

Author makes a good point