blood into ink

While scanning through a lot of magic posts on tumblr, I’ve seen a lot of tags misusing suffixes. In particular “-mancy” gets used as a general term for magic works, I guess because it just sounds mystical in nature. As someone deeply in love with facts and the English language, such misappropriations van be a little off putting. With one simple search, it would be immediately and obviously revealed that -mancy specifically refers to forms of divination; i.e. cartomancy, the use of cards in divination.

The obvious exception is of course, ‘necromancy’. The term actual literally means ‘conferring with the dead as a mean to divine answers’, but modern media has bastardized the word into encompassing a strange hodgepodge of dark arts involving corspes. This is wholey inaccurate, and probably is the single reason for that abuse of -mancy. However, the fact that we study eclectic wisdom not typically included in modern academia, is no excuse to abandon higher study practices and formal education. And so, I present a brief list of suffixes and how they can and are applied to magic.

-Mancy: A form of divination.

(CRYSTALLOMANCY: Divination by crystal gazing.)

-Graphy: Writing or feild of study.

(TASSEOGRAPHY: Study of tea leaves)

-Tion: Action of.

(INCANTATION: Act of chanting.)

-Ology: Study of.

(NUMEROLOGY: Study of numbers.)

-Ism: Practice or system of.

(MYSTICISM: Practising mystic arts.)

-Ry: Occupation of.

(PALMISTRY: Work of reading palms.)

-Ic: Having characteristics of.

-Scopy/Scope: Examination of.

(HOROSCOPE: Examination of a time.)

-Sis: Action, state, condition, or process of.

(TELEKINESIS: Process of long distance psychic interaction.)

-Magy: A form of magic.

The suffix -Magy would be a much more logical end to a custom word describing a practice of magic, and far better than the overused -mancy. For instance, magic with technology would become ‘technomagy’. Magic involving thoughtforns would become ‘tulpamagy’. It’s a slight change in spelling and pronunciation, but a huge shift in meaning.

As someone who writes fics with action sequences and the use of guns, I thought maybe it would be helpful to pass some things on. Even though I’ve done lots of research and talked with family members (I live in WI which is a big hunting state and we have lots of guns), I still catch myself making mistakes with specific terms and their usage. Reading more James Bond fics lately, I catch others making mistakes also. So here is a little guide to help writers. 

A ‘clip’ is something that stores multiple rounds of ammunition. It is not what you would insert into a handgun to load it. Clips make loading into a magazine easier because they simply store the rounds. It helps with organization. 

A magazine is what feeds the ammunition into the barrel. Magazines vary in capacity. They, unlike clips, are spring-loaded, which helps the ammunition move in the gun. So, when you want a character to reload, they would use a pre-loaded magazine, NOT a clip. 

A silencer is really a suppressor. ‘Silencer’ is a word that’s used in media to refer to a suppressor that doesn’t exist in real life. Guns that are suppressed will still be loud and have a sound. This is because compressed air will still leak out of the end of the barrel, you can’t silence a bullet moving extremely fast through the air, and you can’t silence the mechanical parts on a gun. There will be a noise, but it just won’t be as loud or more importantly, alert people in a nearby area that a gun was just fired. SO suppressor is a much more accurate term technically speaking. 

There are different kinds of suppressors. One important kind suppresses the muzzle flash. It’s likely a sniper would use this more than they would want to use a sound suppressor, as the muzzle flash more easily enables you to be spotted when you don’t want to be. These are simply referred to as flash suppressors. 

After a handgun runs out of ammunition, the slide will lock back into place and you will know that it is out. There is no ‘click’ signifying an empty weapon that is so dramatized in movies and tv. A more likely scenario that would prevent a gun from firing would be a jam. Or programming the gun to recognize certain palm prints. 

A great place for writers, in particular fanfic writers, who want information on guns is imfdb. You can find out what guns are used in movies and shows, and what guns characters use. You can also just search for guns. 

If you want to get really specific, check out YouTube. There are users who will post reviews of guns on there, which can be really helpful if you want to see how a particular gun looks or how to shoot it. 

Firstly, let me explain the “kick” of a gun. A “kick” is the feeling of the round leaving the barrel of the gun.  Every gun has one, the impact of the “kick” depends on the caliber, make and type of gun.

Another way to describe a kick is the feeling of the gun exploding in your hand.  Of course, the gun doesn’t literally explode, but it is a great burst of power that only lasts a second.

For example: A .45 mm hand gun with have a bigger “kick” than a .22 mm hand gun.  If someone is a first time shooter and does not know what to expect, they would most likely drop the gun after firing it once due to the shock of the force being released in their hands.

Sniper Rifles are incredibly accurate and mainly used for long distance hits.  They are also ridiculously heavy, as most rifles are, therefore, be prepared for a gigantic “kick”.

Sniper Rifles are special because they are so powerful (they need to be in order to have the same impact a .45mm would 10 feet away compared to the shell half a mile away), thus a stand is required to use it.

No matter what you will always need a firm holding to place the rifle (besides your grip) in order to prevent the gun from falling over after it is discharged and injury to your person. There are ridiculously powerful guns.

General rule of thumb is that you place the butt of the rifle next to your shoulder, just below your clavicle.  I’m not very good at describing this position, so I suggest looking it up.  DO NOT place it anywhere in the armpit area, dislocation is likely to occur.  Depending on how prepare you are and the type of rifle being used (excluding snipers), bruising might occur.

You will be standing if you use a normal rifle, so make sure you are steady and prepared for the “kick” that follows after.

If you are using a sniper rifle, you will be on the ground or leaning against something.  Some people have special rests for their snipers specifically to fire the gun from any spot.  Point is: do not stand alone while firing this.  You will get hurt.

Other helpful tips:

Earplugs or Ear Protectors are your friends.

Safety glasses are also your friend to avoid shells from flying into your face.

Keep the safety on until you are ready to fire the gun.

If you are NOT currently firing the gun, whether it is loaded or unloaded, and it is in your hand, ALWAYS hold it with two hands and point it at the ground at your feet. DO NOT get distracted.

NEVER joke around with someone by pointing the gun at them.  EVEN IF YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY POSITIVE THAT THE GUN IS TOTALLY UNLOADED, MAGAZINE OUT OF PLACE, DO NOT RISK IT.  It is not funny.  Even if the gun is on safety, do NOT do it.  You could accidently switch off the safety or the gun could misfire despite the safety.

Lastly TWO HANDS.  One on the side near the trigger and the other underneath.  This is not the movies, do not attempt to fire a gun with one hand.  Not only will your aim be incredibly off if you are inexperienced but you will also endanger yourself as well as others if you lose control of it.

The caliber of a round is usually measured in either millimeters or in hundredths of an inch. One “unit” of caliber, I guess, is one one-hundredth of an inch. For example, a 45-caliber round has a .45 inch diameter (which is why it’s called a .45).  DO NOT CONFUSE THIS WITH MILLIMETERS. .45 mm is NOT 45-caliber.

Common cartridges measured in millimeters with their respective calibers:

Rifles:

5.56mm = ~.223 caliber

7.62mm = ~.300 caliber

12.7mm = ~.500 caliber

Handguns:

5.64mm = .22 caliber*

9mm* = .354 caliber

10.16mm = .40 caliber*

11.43mm = .45 caliber*

(*the measurement you’re more likely to see for each cartridge.)

In the case of rifles, cartridges meant for civilian use are usually designated as .223, .300, .308, etc. Designations such as 5.56mm, 7.62mm, etc. are usually indicative of military-grade ammunition. This is not always true, but usually that’s how it is.

Military-grade bullets are held to higher standards and typically cause more stress on the internal mechanism, and the guns they’re meant for are built to handle that. They can also handle civilian ammunition. It doesn’t work the other way around, however. Do not attempt to use military-grade ammunition in a civilian-model firearm that hasn’t been modified to handle it.

A few different kinds of cartridges:

- Full metal jacket, which gives increased penetration capabilities but doesn’t do much in the ways of expansion. Risky to use in situations with a lot of innocents around, as often they can over-penetrate and go on to hurt someone behind the target.

- Hollow-points, which expand like crazy when they hit something, causing massive internal damage to their target. Outlawed in warfare under the Hague Convention of 1899, but can be used by civilians.

- Soft-points, which serve as a happy medium between the penetration capabilities of full metal jacket rounds and the expansion of hollow-point rounds.

- Shot, usually rat-shot or snake-shot, which can be fit in bullets and used to kill small vermin at close range without doing a whole lot of damage to the surrounding area.

Medicine

A Study In Physical Injury

Comas

Medical Facts And Tips For Your Writing Needs

Broken Bones

Burns

Unconsciousness & Head Trauma

Blood Loss

Stab Wounds

Pain & Shock

All About Mechanical Injuries (Injuries Caused By Violence)

Writing Specific Characters

Portraying a kleptomaniac.

Playing a character with cancer.

How to portray a power driven character.

Playing the manipulative character.

Portraying a character with borderline personality disorder.

Playing a character with Orthorexia Nervosa.

Writing a character who lost someone important.

Playing the bullies.

Portraying the drug dealer.

Playing a rebellious character.

How to portray a sociopath.

How to write characters with PTSD.

Playing characters with memory loss.

Playing a pyromaniac.

How to write a mute character.

How to write a character with an OCD.

How to play a stoner.

Playing a character with an eating disorder.

Portraying a character who is anti-social.

Portraying a character who is depressed.

How to portray someone with dyslexia.

How to portray a character with bipolar disorder.

Portraying a character with severe depression.

How to play a serial killer.

Writing insane characters.

Playing a character under the influence of marijuana.

Tips on writing a drug addict.

How to write a character with HPD.

Writing a character with Nymphomania.

Writing a character with schizophrenia.

Writing a character with Dissociative Identity Disorder.

Writing a character with depression.

Writing a character who suffers from night terrors.

Writing a character with paranoid personality disorder.

How to play a victim of rape.

How to play a mentally ill/insane character.

Writing a character who self-harms.

Writing a character who is high on amphetamines.

How to play the stalker.

How to portray a character high on cocaine.

Playing a character with ADHD.

How to play a sexual assault victim.

Writing a compulsive gambler.

Playing a character who is faking a disorder.

Playing a prisoner.

Portraying an emotionally detached character.

How to play a character with social anxiety.

Portraying a character who is high.

Portraying characters who have secrets.

Portraying a recovering alcoholic.

Portraying a sex addict.

How to play someone creepy.

Portraying sexually/emotionally abused characters.

Playing a character under the influence of drugs.

Playing a character who struggles with Bulimia.

Illegal Activity

Examining Mob Mentality

How Street Gangs Work

Domestic Abuse

Torture

Assault

Murder

Terrorism

Internet Fraud

Cyberwarfare

Computer Viruses

Corporate Crime

Political Corruption

Drug Trafficking

Human Trafficking

Sex Trafficking

Illegal Immigration

Contemporary Slavery 

Black Market Prices & Profits

AK-47 prices on the black market

Bribes

Computer Hackers and Online Fraud

Contract Killing

Exotic Animals

Fake Diplomas

Fake ID Cards, Passports and Other Identity Documents

Human Smuggling Fees

Human Traffickers Prices

Kidney and Organ Trafficking Prices

Prostitution Prices

Cocaine Prices

Ecstasy Pills Prices

Heroin Prices

Marijuana Prices

Meth Prices

Earnings From Illegal Jobs

Countries In Order Of Largest To Smallest Risk

Forensics

arson

Asphyxia

Blood Analysis

Book Review

Cause & Manner of Death

Chemistry/Physics

Computers/Cell Phones/Electronics

Cool & Odd-Mostly Odd

Corpse Identification

Corpse Location

Crime and Science Radio

crime lab

Crime Scene

Cults and Religions

DNA

Document Examination

Fingerprints/Patterned Evidence

Firearms Analysis

Forensic Anthropology

Forensic Art

Forensic Dentistry

Forensic History

Forensic Psychiatry

General Forensics

Guest Blogger

High Tech Forensics

Interesting Cases

Interesting Places

Interviews

Medical History

Medical Issues

Misc

Multiple Murderers

On This Day

Poisons & Drugs

Police Procedure

Q&A

serial killers

Space Program

Stupid Criminals

Theft

Time of Death

Toxicology

The Characters and the Fiction

Tips for writing about pirates

10 Tips for writing pirate fiction

Types of pirates 1

Types of Pirates 2

Not Even Pirates Spoke Pirate

6 Absurd Pirate Myths Everyone Believes

Ten Facts About Pirates

Life

What did pirates drink? 

Pirate Life

Oh to be a Pirate

Real life pirates

Real-life pirates of the caribbean

Ten Facts About Anne Bonny and Mary Read

Historical Female Pirates

Women Pirates, Female Pirates in Story

History of Black Pirates

Raids, Not Race, Were What Mattered to Black Pirates

Wikipedia’s List of Pirates

Historic Periods

The Golden Age of Piracy

1680-1730: Pirates and Anglo-American Piracy in the Atlantic

1700-1725 The Golden Age of Piracy

Big Cities during the Golden Age

The Ships

Category: Pirate Ships

6 Famous Pirate Ships

Ship Parts (possibly flawed but very long list)

Ship Parts

Definitions of Caribbean-used Ships

Positions and Duties on Board of a Pirate Ship

Weapons and Fighting

History of Pirate Weapons

Pirate Weapons

Sword Fight and Pirates

Writing Sword Fight Scenes 101

For Writers: How to Write Sword-Fight Scenes

Books

Villains of All Nations

The Pirate Primer: Mastering the Language of Swashbucklers and Rogues

Popular Pirate Fiction Books

Websites

x The Way of The Pirates

x Historic Naval Fiction

x The Pirate King

x Swashbuckler

x Pirates & Privateers

Oh hey bc I’m sick and I don’t see this around a lot, let’s talk boarding school AUs! Because yeah, college AUs are good start, but there’s a few fun details that make boarding schools stand out:

First of all, everything you read in fanfic about situational gayness is true. I’m serious. When you’re set up to live, work, and play at school (and usually with strict controls preventing you from leaving campus) you start to seek affection wherever you can find it. One of the reasons I didn’t realize I was bi for years was how completely normal it was for people to cuddle regardless of gender or sexual preference. Packs of completely straight-identified dudes and even dating het couples would curl up and do homework on the regular. Imagine how confusing it would be for your OTP if they first met bc they were cuddling in a puppy pile along with tons of other potential partners.

Not all boarding schools are for the rich. Some are reform schools. Some are organized around a specific topic, like science or the arts. Some exist simply because students are spread out too far to commute back and forth. My school was sponsored by the government, so the most I had to do was pay for supplies and a train ticket up there once a quarter. (Yes, just like Hogwarts.)

The true enemy is the staff. Not that bullying doesn’t still exist, but when you live together 24/7, a funny thing happens. You might not always like each other, but you quickly start to realize you have a common enemy - the adults in charge of this zoo. And when you have a common enemy, it’s easier to get along. 99% of our teenage spite was redirected from each other to the security guards who prevented us from innocently taking each other’s clothes off in the bushes, which meant we didn’t beat the shit out of each other so much.

Related, everyone becomes an exhibitionist. Similar to the confusing lines around being gay/straight/whatever, when you’re trapped at school you have no place to go to get it on. So when people do become involved, they either have to find a super secret hiding place (like a jammed elevator) or get used to banging next to three or four other couples at the one makeout spot with low visibility. (Which may change weekly, given the aforementioned staff. I remember one time watching a lazy security guard mount a giant headlight assembly on a pole, stand back, and sweep the high beam back and forth over a hillside. Half-naked couples scattered like rabbits.)

You will probably almost kill yourselves once a semester, but it will be okay as long as no one notices. Unless you’re at one of the mythical rich kid schools where idk, everyone has their own helicopter, you pretty much have to invent your own fun. My school had restrictions around tvs and video games because blah blah “being healthy”, so we also spent a lot of time outside trying to figure out what the fuck to do. Protip to staff: this is actually way less healthy than video games and computers, because bored teens can and will fucking destroy themselves by accident. Example: one trend we came up with was human versions of all board games, not just chess. This sounds kind of adorable and innocent, until the incident where we attempted Human Jenga. Protip to everyone else: DO NOT PLAY HUMAN JENGA. Even if you’re being very careful about stacking people, eventually the sheer weight of the stack will start to smother the people down below even if you thought their chest was clear. And if they can’t breathe, they can’t let you know they are dying. We almost lost the bottom row over that. (No staff ever found out.)

Prank wars are real, and they get out of hand. Again, when well-meaning adults force you to make your own fun: fun is prone to escalate. Food fights become whole dorm events; nerds get revenge by fucking with goddamn everyone. One time some friends and I got access to a guy’s computer, put a back door in it, took control of his machine remotely and convinced him he’d created an emergent AI. Another time I got line of sight to a window in a rival dorm and took down their computer every time someone started a paper. In retrospect these are all extremely dick moves but uh I was not always aligned good in high school.

My roommate had a boyfriend who learned how to climb gutter pipes for illicit visits at night

Also we played Assassins a lot on campus which required both stealth and intense paranoid

Another time I was sneaking to my girlfriend’s room after lights-out. My dorm counselor (different one from previous story) was still awake and her office was still wide open. She was sitting in a chair watching TV. Did I mention the chair was facing the door? So, I recalled all the stories about no sudden movements blend into the background etc. I creeped by pretty as you please without her even noticing that I was there. 

 A friend of mine became the equivalent of a mob boss. She had people who owed/did favors for her and she monopolized the ramen and soda industry within the dorms. 

Other games we played included full-sized versions of kid’s games – like little kid’s games. Think red rover and shit. Red rover is that one where you form two lines with everyone holding hands, and then each line takes turns calling somebody out and daring them to break the opposition’s hold. Fun fact: this game has a very different outcome when you are sixteen and not six. We had kids barreling into the other line so hard people got benched with injuries; sometimes you’d have that one stubborn bastard charging forward while dragging like four other guys along. Similarly, crack the whip is a really bad fucking idea when you are near-adult sized. And doing it on a downhill. Everyone joins hands in a line and then spins around really fucking fast, like those fire bars in Mario. Unlike the fire bars in Mario, humans are subjected to real life physics, which can and will cause the person on the end to become goddamn airborne. 

You can get a job, but they’re not going to pay you. Again with the ‘boarding school: not just for rich kids!’ – our school required everyone to work a certain number of hours per week, which counted toward room and board. When you weren’t in class, you might be cleaning the cafeteria or inventorying equipment or any other task that didn’t involve hardcore chemicals. Receiving your task was a lot like The Giver - you had a bit of choice, but mostly you had to rely on fate.

You can take ‘weird kid’ to a whole new level. Yeah, you don’t have money and the staff prevented you from escaping, but in some ways you had a hell of a lot of freedom. When you don’t have parents or any kind of reasonable adult to stop you, there is no reason you can’t wear your Star Trek cosplay to school every. single. day. Or your Victorian frilly nightgown. Or dare someone to flush a grapefruit down a toilet. One time some dudes got into a macho pissing contest over (of all things) who was better at fixing a toilet – so they got a goddamn grapefruit and flushed the whole shebang to see who could plunge it. Unsurprisingly, the answer was ‘no one’. The entire toilet had to be ripped out of the floor to fix their bizarre scheme.

Even the cool kids hang out at the grocery store. Seriously. We were fairly isolated (despite being near a city), so without transportation the most rebellious thing to do was…cut class and hang out at the grocery store?  In retrospect this was really dumb, especially when you can’t get jobs or money. Points to my roommate tho, who one time snuck out in the middle of class, went to buy a baguette of bread, shoved the whole thing down his big coat sleeve, and returned to class to eat it out of his wrist. Professor didn’t notice for goddamn twenty minutes.

Falling Asleep Series: Music of the Second World War (listen) 

kiss me once and kiss me twice and kiss me once again 

The How to Brooklyn Series - Resources and meta for writing pre-war and modern stories set in Brooklyn

Steve’s Shitty Rear Tenement 

Is having your front door opening to a vacant? lot? a normal thing? because there’s not much street going on during the “end of the line” scene. 

Pt 1 - The Basics of New York City, or What the Hell Are Boroughs?

Yes, there were docks. (Sigh.)

Pt 2 - For the lov’a Pete, Put the Subway in Your Stories

 A story set in New York City that doesn’t even reference the subway might as well be set in middle America.

Pt 2.1 - The New York City Subway is Fucking Gross

Seriously though, can you imagine how those cushions smelled?

Pt 2.2 - The Brooklyn Trolley System

This one doesn’t even hit my historical boner, it hits my I’d love to be able to travel between Queens and Brooklyn without three train changes and two pack mules boner. 

Pt 3 - The Ubiquitous Tenement Apartment 

Although we associated the word tenement with shitty slum life, back in the day this just what people called apartments. 

Pt 4 - What’s the Deal with the Brooklyn Dodgers?

All right, so we all know how no recently frozen Steve Rogers is complete without shocked references to How Expensive Things Are, What the Fuck Is This Banana, and The Dodgers Moved to Los Angeles?!    

So the first thing you gotta understand first is that baseball was invented in Brooklyn.

Pt 5 - Steve & Bucky’s Jobs before The War

Almost definitely not working down at the docks, sorry.

Pt 6 - What did they do for Fun, Other than Dancing?

Hah, I’m a terrible person; my first instinct is to say, they got drunk.  Am I projecting?  Maybe.  Drinking’s a competitive sport here.  Anyway, I really like this question, this is a good question.  So, are we talking what they did as kids, or what they did as grownups?  Let’s do both!  I like both.

Pt 7 - Modern AU Headcanons (Steve, Bucky, Sam)

There’s not one way to experience this borough or city, and if I ever claim there’s a right way to “Brooklyn” then please punch me in the face immediately. So what I want to do instead is give you some options!  Let’s base them off of fandom tropes, shall we?

Misc. Posts & Meta

What I do with All this Damn Research: My AO3.

The Brooklyn Accent

Getting to the World Stark Fair by Subway

Mr Rogers Gayborhood/99% Docks

Steve Rogers & Modern Art

The Saga of Cute Twink Bucky

Is it realistic for Bucky to have been a Sergeant? 

Bucky Barnes Makes Weird Faces

Further Resources

How Expensive Was That? by @a-social-construct​

Brooklyn Historical Resources by @a-social-construct​

1940s Census Data by @a-social-construct (individual data)

1940s Census Data by @a-social-construct (by neighborhood)

NYC Historical Subway Maps

1940s New York

Tenement Photos - 1930-1939

New York Transformed - NYCHA Photos 1939-1967

1940s LIFE Magazine Archive

World War II Writing Resources

Historical Newspapers via @fidelioscabinet​

Follow for more, or track my tags: Historical New York, The City So Nice They Named It Twice, How to Brooklyn.  This post will be updated periodically with additional meta, commentary, and resources.  HTB posts will be general topics only to save my sanity, but I’m happy to answer more specific questions privately or in a less sprawling format.  If you’d like me to reply to an ask privately, please say so.

Word Counter - Not only does it count the number of words you’ve written, it tells you which words are used most often and how many times they appear.

Tip Of My Tongue - Have you ever had a word on the tip of your tongue, but you just can’t figure out what it is? This site searches words by letters, length, definition, and more to alleviate that.

Readability Score - This calculates a multitude of text statistics, including character, syllable, word, and sentence count, characters and syllables per word, words per sentence, and average grade level.

Writer’s Block (Desktop Application) - This free application for your computer will block out everything on your computer until you meet a certain word count or spend a certain amount of time writing.

Cliche Finder - It does what the name says.

Write Rhymes - It’ll find rhymes for words as you write.

Verbix - This site conjugates verbs, because English is a weird language.

Graviax - This grammar checker is much more comprehensive than Microsoft Word, again, because English is a weird language.

It’s been over a month since Derek had told Stiles he was coming back to Beacon Hills.

Unless you’re doing the old-timey Omniscient Narrator thing, almost all scenes will have an implied viewpoint character.

The word count you devote to describing things implies where the viewpoint character’s focus of attention is.

It really doesn’t take much. The exact thresholds are going to depend on what you’re describing and how verbose your writing is overall, of course, but in general:

If you spend three words describing something, your viewpoint character took notice.

If you spend five words describing something, your viewpoint character did a double take.

If you spend seven words describing something, your viewpoint character stopped and stared.

I have seen a writer lavish three very long paragraphs on a lamp.

A lamp we never saw again. One that had no plot importance whatsoever. Not even a magic lamp. Just a lamp. 

I straight-up wanted to murder said writer.

If you’re going to spend a paragraph describing ANYTHING, save it for 1) something that is super important to the plot, and 2) “establishing shots” where you present the reader with a setting, where including shit-tons of details is necessary for conveying the overall atmosphere.

This is the important part. The part that I struggle with - Showing vs Telling.

Example taken from my Learning to Stand story because I worked my arse off for this fight scene.

Telling: 

The darkspawn attacked with a vengeance. Fenris dodged spells and swords as he attacked again and again. He was being overrun and the ogre bearing down on him was a true threat. He heard Anders scream his name. He threw himself at Fenris and Fenris sailed through the air before slamming into a rock.  

Note how you’re outside the story. You’re WATCHING this happen. You see tidbits but you’re not engaged. (This is where the too much description comes into play - you start to describe everything instead of what’s important to your character or plot. This is from Fenris’ point of view. What would Fenris notice? What would he hear? Smell? What’s IMPORTANT to him at this moment?”)

This is Showing:

Time slowed. He heard the twang of Bianca, the whomp of fireballs, his breath heaving, the whistle of his blade; he felt the jarring feeling of meeting bone and gristle, heard the wet squelch as he pulled free to attack again…and again…and again…

Fenris heard rocks shatter. Dust sprayed out in an arc and an ogre charged through the second fissure to the accompanied boom of rocks shearing away and dissolving into pebbles that clattered with pinpoint clarity. The beast swung its head and saw Fenris’ brands.  He saw it pick up a boulder and charge him. He heard Anders’ scream his name.

Note the visceral descriptions. The little points that Fenris would notice in a fight - the heat of fire, the wet of blood and gore…that moment when time slows down and you see everything in minute detail. This pulls the readers into the story. It immerses them and keeps them focused on the action, your character, and the plot you are unfolding. This is what you want as a writer. The Hook…you want to dig it into your reader and reel them into your story (Like a fish…yes…)

This is hard to do. I admit it. IT’S SO DAMN HARD. Because SHOWING is hard and it takes time. It makes you, the writer, stop to think about your character. It makes you weave a story through their eyes - the eyes your reader will see through. So think - what would your character notice? That lamp burning away on the nightstand or that their bed is rumpled when it should be made? Do they notice the crowd? Why? Are they being jostled? Is it hot? Are the kids laughing and playing? Is there traffic to dodge when they cross a street? The color of every car at the stop sign isn’t important except for the red corvette that makes a brief stop - noticed out of the corner of your protagonist’s eye a moment before the car speeds up, nearly clipping their ankle - a puff of hot air that ruffles their skirt as they leap back in terror - heart pounding and sweat blooming on their hands. 

Absent-minded - Preoccupied to the extent of being unaware of one’s immediate surroundings. Abstracted, daydreaming, inattentive, oblivious, forgetful.

Abusive - Characterized by improper infliction of physical or psychological maltreatment towards another.

Addict - One who is addicted to a compulsive activity. Examples: gambling, drugs, sex.

Aimless - Devoid of direction or purpose.

Alcoholic - A person who drinks alcoholic substances habitually and to excess.

Anxious - Full of mental distress or uneasiness because of fear of danger or misfortune; greatly worried; solicitous.

Arrogant - Having or displaying a sense of overbearing self-worth or self-importance. Inclined to social exclusiveness and who rebuff the advances of people considered inferior. Snobbish.

Audacious - Recklessly bold in defiance of convention, propriety, law, or the like; insolent; braze, disobedient.

Bad Habit - A revolting personal habit. Examples: picks nose, spits tobacco, drools, bad body odour.

Bigmouth - A loud-mouthed or gossipy person.

Bigot - One who is strongly partial to one’s own group, religion, race, or politics and is intolerant of those who differ.

Blunt - Characterized by directness in manner or speech; without subtlety or evasion. Frank, callous, insensitive, brusque.

Bold - In a bad sense, too forward; taking undue liberties; over assuming or confident; lacking proper modesty or restraint; rude; impudent. Abrupt, brazen, cheeky, brassy, audacious.

Callous - They are hardened to emotions, rarely showing any form of it in expression. Unfeeling. Cold.

Childish - Marked by or indicating a lack of maturity; puerile.

Complex - An exaggerated or obsessive concern or fear. (List specific complex.)

Cruel - Mean to anyone or anything, without care or regard to consequences and feelings.

Cursed - A person who has befallen a prayer for evil or misfortune, placed under a spell, or borne into an evil circumstance, and suffers for it. Damned.

Dependent - Unable to exist, sustain oneself, or act appropriately or normally without the assistance or direction of another.

Deranged - Mentally decayed. Insane. Crazy. Mad. Psychotic.

Dishonest – Given to or using fraud, cheating; deceitful, deceptive, crooked, underhanded.

Disloyal - Lacking loyalty. Unfaithful, perfidious, traitorous, treasonable

Disorder - An ailment that affects the function of mind or body. (List the disorders name if they have one.) See the Mental Disorder List.

Disturbed - Showing some or a few signs or symptoms of mental or emotional illness. Confused, disordered, neurotic, troubled.

Dubious - Fraught with uncertainty or doubt. Undecided, doubtful, unsure.

Dyslexic - Affected by dyslexia, a learning disorder marked by impairment of the ability to recognize and comprehend written words.

Egotistical - Characteristic of those having an inflated idea of their own importance. Boastful, pompous.

Envious - Showing extreme cupidity; painfully desirous of another’s advantages; covetous, jealous.

Erratic - Deviating from the customary course in conduct or opinion; eccentric: erratic behaviour. Eccentric, bizarre, outlandish, strange.

Fanatical - Fanatic outlook or behaviour especially as exhibited by excessive enthusiasm, unreasoning zeal, or wild and extravagant notions on some subject.

Fickle – Erratic, changeable, unstable - especially with regard to affections or attachments; capricious.

Fierce - Marked by extreme intensity of emotions or convictions; inclined to react violently; fervid.

Finicky - Excessively particular or fastidious; difficult to please; fussy. Too much concerned with detail. Meticulous, fastidious, choosy, critical, picky, prissy, pernickety.

Fixated - In psychoanalytic theory, a strong attachment to a person or thing, especially such an attachment formed in childhood or infancy and manifested in immature or neurotic behaviour that persists throughout life. Fetish, quirk, obsession, infatuation.

Flirt -To make playfully romantic or sexual overtures; behaviour intended to arouse sexual interest. Minx. Tease.

Gluttonous - Given to excess in consumption of especially food or drink. Voracious, ravenous, wolfish, piggish, insatiable.

Gruff - Brusque or stern in manner or appearance. Crusty, rough, surly.

Gullible - Will believe any information given, regardless of how valid or truthful it is, easily deceived or duped.

Hard - A person who is difficult to deal with, manage, control, overcome, or understand. Hard emotions, hard hearted.

Hedonistic - Pursuit of or devotion to pleasure, especially to the pleasures of the senses.

Hoity-toity- Given to flights of fancy; capricious; frivolous. Prone to giddy behaviour, flighty.

Humourless - The inability to find humour in things, and most certainly in themselves.

Hypocritical - One who is always contradicting their own beliefs, actions or sayings. A person who professes beliefs and opinions for others that he does not hold. Being a hypocrite.

Idealist - One whose conduct is influenced by ideals that often conflict with practical considerations. One who is unrealistic and impractical, guided more by ideals than by practical considerations.

Idiotic - Marked by a lack of intelligence or care; foolish or careless.

Ignorant - Lacking knowledge or information as to a particular subject or fact. Showing or arising from a lack of education or knowledge.

Illiterate - Unable to read and write.

Immature - Emotionally undeveloped; juvenile; childish.

Impatient - Unable to wait patiently or tolerate delay; restless. Unable to endure irritation or opposition; intolerant.

Impious - Lacking piety and reverence for a god/gods and their followers.

Impish - Naughtily or annoyingly playful.

Incompetent - Unable to execute tasks, no matter how the size or difficulty.

Indecisive - Characterized by lack of decision and firmness, especially under pressure.

Indifferent - The trait of lacking enthusiasm for or interest in things generally, remaining calm and seeming not to care; a casual lack of concern. Having or showing little or no interest in anything; languid; spiritless.

Infamy - Having an extremely bad reputation, public reproach, or strong condemnation as the result of a shameful, criminal, or outrageous act that affects how others view them.

Intolerant - Unwilling to tolerate difference of opinion and narrow-minded about cherished opinions.

Judgemental - Inclined to make and form judgements, especially moral or personal ones, based on one’s own opinions or impressions towards others/practices/groups/religions based on appearance, reputation, occupation, etc.

Klutz - Clumsy. Blunderer.

Lazy - Resistant to work or exertion; disposed to idleness.

Lewd - Inclined to, characterized by, or inciting to lust or lechery; lascivious. Obscene or indecent, as language or songs; salacious.

Liar - Compulsively and purposefully tells false truths more often than not. A person who has lied or who lies repeatedly.

Lustful - Driven by lust; preoccupied with or exhibiting lustful desires.

Masochist - The deriving of sexual gratification, or the tendency to derive sexual gratification, from being physically or emotionally abused. A willingness or tendency to subject oneself to unpleasant or trying experiences.

Meddlesome - Intrusive in a meddling or offensive manner, given to meddling; interfering.

Meek - Evidencing little spirit or courage; overly submissive or compliant; humble in spirit or manner; suggesting retiring mildness or even cowed submissiveness.

Megalomaniac - A psycho pathological condition characterized by delusional fantasies of wealth, power, or omnipotence.

Naïve - Lacking worldly experience and understanding, simple and guileless; showing or characterized by a lack of sophistication and critical judgement.

Nervous - Easily agitated or distressed; high-strung or jumpy.

Non-violent - Abstaining from the use of violence.

Nosey - Given to prying into the affairs of others; snoopy. Offensively curious or inquisitive.

Obsessive - An unhealthy and compulsive preoccupation with something or someone.

Oppressor - A person of authority who subjects others to undue pressures, to keep down by severe and unjust use of force or authority.

Overambitious - Having a strong excessive desire for success or achievement.

Overconfident - Excessively confident; presumptuous.

Overemotional - Excessively or abnormally emotional. Sensitive about themselves and others, more so than the average person.

Overprotective - To protect too much; coddle.

Overzealous - Marked by excessive enthusiasm for and intense devotion to a cause or idea.

Pacifist - Opposition to war or violence as a means of resolving disputes. (Can double as a merit in certain cases)

Paranoid - Exhibiting or characterized by extreme and irrational fear or distrust of others.

Peevish - Expressing fretfulness and discontent, or unjustifiable dissatisfaction. Cantankerous, cross, ill-tempered, testy, captious, discontented, crotchety, cranky, ornery.

Perfectionist - A propensity for being displeased with anything that is not perfect or does not meet extremely high standards.

Pessimist - A tendency to stress the negative or unfavourable or to take the gloomiest possible view.

Pest - One that pesters or annoys, with or without realizing it. Nuisance. Annoying. Nag.

Phobic – They have a severe form of fear when it comes to this one thing. Examples: Dark, Spiders, Cats

Practical - Level-headed, efficient, and unspeculative. No-nonsense.

Predictable - Easily seen through and assessable, where almost anyone can predict reactions and actions of said person by having met or known them even for a short time.

Proud - Filled with or showing excessive self-esteem and will often shirk help from others for the sake of pride.

Rebellious - Defying or resisting some established authority, government, or tradition; insubordinate; inclined to rebel.

Reckless - Heedless. Headstrong. Foolhardy. Unthinking boldness, wild carelessness and disregard for consequences.

Remorseless - Without remorse; merciless; pitiless; relentless.

Rigorous - Rigidly accurate; allowing no deviation from a standard; demanding strict attention to rules and procedures.

Sadist - The deriving of sexual gratification or the tendency to derive sexual gratification from inflicting pain or emotional abuse on others. Deriving of pleasure, or the tendency to derive pleasure, from cruelty.

Sadomasochist - Both sadist and masochist combined.

Sarcastic - A subtle form of mockery in which an intended meaning is conveyed obliquely.

Sceptic - One who instinctively or habitually doubts, questions, or disagrees with assertions or generally accepted conclusions.

Seducer - To lead others astray, as from duty, rectitude, or the like; corrupt. To attempt to lead or draw someone away, as from principles, faith, or allegiance.

Selfish - Concerned chiefly or only with oneself.

Self-Martyr - One who purposely makes a great show of suffering in order to arouse sympathy from others, as a form of manipulation, and always for a selfish cause or reason.

Self-righteous - Piously sure of one’s own righteousness; moralistic. Exhibiting pious self-assurance. Holier-than-thou, sanctimonious.

Senile - Showing a decline or deterioration of physical strength or mental functioning, esp. short-term memory and alertness, as a result of old age or disease.

Shallow - Lacking depth of intellect or knowledge; concerned only with what is obvious.

Smart Ass - Thinks they know it all, and in some ways they may, but they can be greatly annoying and difficult to deal with at times, especially in arguments.

Soft-hearted - Having softness or tenderness of heart that can lead them into trouble; susceptible of pity or other kindly affection. They cannot resist helping someone they see in trouble, suffering or in need, and often don’t think of the repercussions or situation before doing so.

Solemn - Deeply earnest, serious, and sober.

Spineless - Lacking courage. Cowardly, wimp, lily-livered, gutless.

Spiteful - Showing malicious ill will and a desire to hurt; motivated by spite; vindictive person who will look for occasions for resentment. Vengeful.

Spoiled - Treated with excessive indulgence and pampering from earliest childhood, and has no notion of hard work, self-care or money management; coddled, pampered. Having the character or disposition harmed by pampering or over-solicitous attention.

Squeamish - Excessively fastidious and easily disgusted.

Stubborn - Unreasonably, often perversely unyielding; bull-headed. Firmly resolved or determined; resolute.

Superstitious - An irrational belief arising from ignorance or fear from an irrational belief that an object, action, or circumstance not logically related to a course of events influences its outcome.

Tactless - Lacking or showing a lack of what is fitting and considerate in dealing with others.

Temperamental - Moody, irritable, or sensitive. Excitable, volatile, emotional.

Theatrical - Having a flair for over dramatizing situations, doing things in a ‘big way’ and love to be ‘centre stage’.

Timid -Tends to be shy and/or quiet, shrinking away from offering opinions or from strangers and newcomers, fearing confrontations and violence.

Tongue-tied - Speechless or confused in expression, as from shyness, embarrassment, or astonishment.

Troublemaker - Someone who deliberately stirs up trouble, intentionally or unintentionally.

Unlucky - Marked by or causing misfortune; ill-fated. Destined for misfortune; doomed.

Unpredictable - Difficult to foretell or foresee, their actions are so chaotic it’s impossible to know what they are going to do next.

Untrustworthy - Not worthy of trust or belief. Backstabber.

Vain - Holding or characterized by an unduly high opinion of their physical appearance. Lovers of themselves. Conceited, egotistic, narcissistic.

Weak-willed - Lacking willpower, strength of will to carry out one’s decisions, wishes, or plans. Easily swayed.

Withdrawn - Not friendly or Sociable. Aloof.

Your slow-motion montage backed by a Gregorian choir can be done with a few technques that all involve repetition.

First is epizeuxis, the repeating of a word for emphasis.

Example:

Falling. Falling. Falling. There was nothing to keep Marie from plunging into the rolling river below. She could only hope for a miracle now, that she would come out alive somehow despite a twenty-foot drop into five-foot-deep water.

Then there’s anaphora, where you write a number of phrases with the same words at the beginning.

There were still mages out there living in terror of shining steel armor emblazoned with the Sword of Mercy.

There were still mages out there being forced by desperation into the clutches of demons.

There were mages out there being threatened with Tranquility as punishment for their disobedience, and the threats were being made good upon.

Mages who had attempted to flee, but knew nothing of the outside world and were forced to return to their prison out of need for sustenance and shelter.

Mages who only desired to find the families they were torn from.

Mages who only wanted to see the sun.

Characters with extraordinary senses come up a lot. Maybe your character is of supernatural or alien origin, or maybe they were just born with a genetic quirk. Maybe they have a sensory disorder that only makes their hearing seem extraordinary. There are lots of reasons why a character might have extraordinary senses and a lot of different ways those senses might be put to use, but here are some of the drawbacks you might consider when writing a character who has a super sniffer, excellent eyesight, or high-quality hearing!

Sight: If your character has super sight, chances are that they can see farther and more clearly than anybody else, which is pretty cool except that the human eye can still only really focus on one thing at a time…so your character might want to be careful not to get distracted when they’re, say, crossing the street. If they’re watching a burglary occur a thousand yards away, they might not notice the car that just whipped around the corner behind them. Other super-drawbacks might include heightened sensitivity to light, color, or movement - and you have to remember that nobody can see three-hundred-sixty degrees at all times, so your character is probably going to have a blind spot (unless they’re an owl). Also, they may frequently look like they’re staring off into space when they’re really just watching something very intently.

Hearing: Have you ever been standing in a crowd of people who are all talking at the same time? Now imagine if you had super hearing! It can be hard to pick out individual pieces of information or even follow a single conversation when you can hear everyone in a six-block radius…and it’s not just conversations. You can also hear every car, every pet moving around, every jingle of a key, the air moving through the vents, and so on and so forth. This is another one of those abilities that may make it look like your character is just really easily distracted - it’s not that they don’t want to pay attention to their friends, it’s just that they’re playing “name that tune” with a radio four blocks to the southeast!

Smell: Think about your shower routine, whatever it might be. How many scented products do you layer on your skin? Soap, shampoo, conditioner, lotion, deoderant, maybe perfume or cologne, shaving cream or aftershave - the list goes on and on. If you had a super nose, you might be able to smell every single layer a person was wearing, and that kind of assault on the nose could be eye-wateringly overwhelming. Consider your reaction to someone wearing strong perfume! There are a lot of other types of smells in the world too, from cut grass and shoe polish to rotting garbage…and a lot of bodily functions have smells too: passing gas, excrement, or urine, menstruation, or sweating, for example. Your character might even be able to smell disease. This type of character might have to wear a mask or a scarf over their face to dull their super-sense, which might give them an odd appearance, but just imagine how much weirder it would look to be standing on a street corner sniffing at the air when all anyone else can smell is car fumes.

Taste: What’s the strongest flavor you’ve ever tasted? Maybe it was something fishy, or spicy, or sour. Everyone’s answer is bound to be different, but imagine if every single thing you ever ate or drank tasted that strong. Eventually you might get kind of tired of it and start preparing food that is more bland, right? Alternately, imagine if nothing ever just tasted like itself to you: you’re eating a french fry, but instead of tasting “french fry” you’re tasting potato, salt, oil, the metal of the fryer, the latex in the gloves used to scoop them into the paper tray, the paper tray itself…that would be pretty overwhelming! The major drawback to super taste is that your character might have trouble eating out or eating in front of other people. When you taste a lemon, your face puckers up…just think of how much more sour it would taste with a super tongue!

Touch: Did you know that every day you suffer a million tiny hurts and your brain just ignores them so that you can keep on functioning normally? If you had an enhanced nervous system, that might not be the case. Think about the number of tiny things we ignore every day: actions like walking, scratching, accidentally biting your tongue, or blinking could hurt pretty bad if you were super sensitive to touch! People with super touch might have a hard time getting comfortable all the time, and they might have to deal with not liking the feeling of clothes, being annoyed with air moving over their skin, or being extra-sensitive to physical contact. If a hug felt to me like someone was trying to break my ribs, I’d avoid them too!

So what are some things to keep in mind when writing about characters with extraordinary senses, other than drawbacks? Here are some things to consider:

Set limits. Your character shouldn’t be able to see past the curve of the earth - that’s just silly! Likewise, if they can hear something happening through the entire planet, you may want to rethink. Consider things like range and clarity when you’re setting limits on super senses: how far away can they see things and how clearly can they see them, for example. When it comes to touch, this is a little more tricky, and you might want to think more about the direct effects of pressure on the character: how much pressure does it take before it hurts?

Enhanced senses require enhanced brainpower. I don’t mean that they raise your character’s IQ level, but consider how much effort it takes to sort through and process sensory information. If your character’s brain can’t handle it, they might be in a constant state of sensory overload.

Speaking of sensory overload, that might happen to your character sometimes anyway! Everyone faces extreme situations in their lives where their brains just can’t keep up with the workload, and the threshold for that point is probably lower for people with super senses. If you’ve got a character with super hearing and four people are trying to talk to them at once, they might experience sensory overload and have to go recover for a while, so do your research into sensory overload and what to do to help them.

Finally, their super sense is going to impact how they experience and relate to other people. Maybe your character doesn’t remember a person’s name or face but they’ll never forget her voice. Maybe they just can’t even be in the house with Great-Aunt Helen because she always wears the same musty old perfume and it gives your character a headache. Maybe your character appears to be constantly zoning out when really they’re just looking closely at peoples’ jewelry. How your character perceives others, and how others view your character, is going to be impacted by their ability - count on it.

If you’re writing about a character with super senses, I hope that this has been helpful and maybe even inspiring to you, and I’d love to hear your thoughts too! Thanks for reading, and good luck!

(Updated whenever a new flower is used) - just use the “search” button or search through my tags by changing the url; I always tag my flowers / if it’s a flower of a specific color, eg: rose (pink), then search “pink rose” (or you can just look up the “rose” and see all the suggestions tagged with “rose”)

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Bad Emotions (pain, grief, apology…)

star of Bethlehem :   atonement for crime, reconciliation,  guilt and fear

lobelia : malevolent thoughts

snapdragon : deceit and concealment of identity , elegance

geranium : stupidity and folly

bluebell : humility

lily (orange) : hatred, intense abhorrence

columbine (red) : anxiety

hyacinth (purple) :forgiveness, repent

marigold : pain and grief

peony : shame and bashfulness

TULIP

tulip (white) : one-sided love

tulip (yellow) : hopeless love

CARNATION

carnation (yellow) : disdain, disappointment, rejection

carnation (striped) : Refusal, rejection ; sorry I can’t be with you, wish I could be with you

rue : regret and sorrow, lamentation

mallow : consumed by love and life, frazzled

ROSE

rose (dark red) : mourning

rose (yellow) : apologies, a broken heart, intense emotion, jealousy

rose (black) : death, mourning, rebirth

anemone : forsaken, fading hope

primrose (evening) : inconsistency

morning glory : love in vain

mint : suspicion, lack of trust

chrysanthemum (yellow) : slighted love 

petunia : resentment, anger

begonia : future misfortunes, dark distracting thoughts, fear

rhododendron : beware

acacia : concealed love

monkshood : the enemy is near, danger

fungus : stupidity, solitude, loneliness, resilience, disgust

weeping willow : love forsaken, lost of love

tuberose : risky pleasures, unsafe love

dead leaves : sadness, sorrow, hopelessness in life

coriander : lust

cactus flower : lust; maternal love

daffodil : uncertainty, unrequited love, new beginnings; love me back 

zephyr : illness, sickness, sincerity

Good Emotions (love, happiness, remembrance..)

iris : your friendship is precious, thank you for being a friend   

cosmos : peaceful bliss

gardenia : purity, sweetness, secret love

snowdrop : hope, consolation

poppy (yellow) : victory

zinnia (mixed) : in memory of an absent friend

columbine (purple) : driven to win

baby’s breath : innocence, pure at heart

azalea : take care of yourself for me, temperance, gentle passion

lily (white) : it’s heavenly to be with you; purity and majesty

lilac (purple) : the first emotion of love

rosemary : recollection of once-forgotten memories; remembrance

dandelion : coquetry and gentle flirtation, young love

sunflower : pure, lofty thoughts. confidence

hollyhock : ambition and drive

ROSE

rose (coral/orange) : desire, yearning, passion

rose (blue) : improbable odds, mystery, love at first sight

rose (light pink) : passion, youth, energy, desire

rose (lavender) : love at first sight 

rose (red) : ardent passion, relentless desire, true love

violet (white) : let’s take a chance 

camellia (pink) : longing for you in the future 

CARNATION

carnation (mauve) : dreaming of fantasy 

carnation (red) : my heart aches for you

pansy : thoughtfulness and caring

hydrangea : heartfelt gratitude and thankfulness

fern : magic, confidence, fascination

apple blossom : promise

daisy (white) : new beginnings, true love, purity, innocence, trust and secrecy

lily-of-the-valley : sweetness, return to happiness, you make my life complete

aster : patience, love of variety, elegance and daintiness

sweet pea : goodbye, departure, blissful pleasure, thank you for a good time

ivy : fidelity and loyalty, faith

forget me not : true love, undying certainty

bachelor’s button : celibacy, purity, single blessedness,hope in love, delicacy

statice : sympathy, success, remembrance

calla lily (white) : purity, innocence, magnificence and beauty

honeysuckle : bonds of love and friendship

birds of paradise : joy through challenges, faithfulness in relationships, gratitude, freedom, yearning to travel

lavender : healing, purity, devotion, royalty, feminine beauty

stephanotis : good luck in life and love

euphorbia : purification and protection

salvia : i am thinking of you, togetherness, hope

cactus flower : lust; maternal love

stargazer lily : i miss you, i wish you were here, i really do love you

ORCHID

orchid (green) : nature, longevity, health, healing

orchid (white) : humility, grace, beauty, innocence

narcissus : self-love, self-admiration

chrysanthemum (white) : loyal and devoted love, truth

Here’s some considerations for the tiny little details that can add a lot to a character. Figuring out these mannerisms can do a lot for conveying character traits through their normal actions rather than just their thoughts, dialogue, etc.

How’s their posture? There are more options than just sitting up straight or slouching a lot. What’s their most comfortable sitting position? Do they have a consistent posture or does it change depending on situation / present company? 

How’s their etiquette? Do they hold the door for people behind them? How do they handle handshakes and other kinds of typical contact? Does their language change or become more formal when speaking to strangers? To their elders? To their superiors? 

In a crowded space, do they get out of people’s way, or do people get out of THEIR way? 

How do they point something out? Pointing their finger? Nodding their head? A flippant wave of the hand?

What are their comfort gestures or self-touch gestures? Common comfort gestures include rubbing the back of the neck or gripping their own arms. Can they suppress these gestures or do they do them often?

Also consider the character’s common reactions to common emotions. Do they whoop when they’re excited? Do they tremble when angry? 

What parts of the body are the most expressive? Do they shuffle and stomp their feet a lot when agitated or excited? Are they a hand talker? Do they have an impressive range of motion with their eyebrows?

How do they sound? Do their car keys jingle as they walk? Do they drag their feet? Do their heels clack resoundingly on hard floors? Do they breathe loudly? Do they fidget in ways that make a lot of noise?

How do they handle eye contact?

Any behaviors they reserve for moments when they’re alone? (Or possibly among family/friends that don’t care?) Do they pick their nose? Do they bite their toenails? Do they sniff their armpits? Or do they not care if people see behavior like this?

Apart from comfort gestures, what else do they do to comfort themselves in trying times? What’s their go-to self care? What’s their comfort food? Where’s their safe space?