Keen² lover

Imaging thinking actual human writers are Not Real because they use... professional writing in their works.

Imagine thinking millions of people who have been using em dash way before AI becomes a thing are all robots.

(for that painfully slow-burn energy. they’re in denial, we are screaming.)

✧ Overexplaining why they’re doing something kind. “I only brought you coffee because I was already there. It doesn’t mean anything.”

✧ Making playlists, but never sending them.

✧ Remembering oddly specific things, like how you take your ramen or your opinion on grape-flavored candy.

✧ Looking at your mouth mid-conversation. Catching themselves. Looking away.

✧ Offering to carry something small and stupid, like a charger or chapstick, because it’s one more way to be close.

✧ Giving a compliment but following it up with a weird joke, like their brain short-circuited.

✧ Fixing your sleeve. Avoiding eye contact while doing it.

✧ Defending you in front of others but teasing you when you’re alone.

✧ Staring a little too long when they think you’re not looking.

(But desperately needs the answer to) Because these are the thoughts they won’t say out loud, but they shape everything they do.

If I stopped trying, would anyone notice?

Do they actually like me, or do I just make their life easier?

Am I hard to love?

What would they say about me if I left the room?

Would they stay if they saw the real me?

What if I’m only good at pretending to be good?

Was it actually love, or just obligation?

What happens if I fail again? What’s left of me then?

How long until they get tired of me?

What if I deserve the things I’m afraid of?

Am I healing or just hiding better?

Why do I feel more myself when I’m alone?

Do I want to be forgiven or just forget?

What if I never become the person they believe I am?

Am I still angry, or just numb?

Why can’t I let go of them, even after everything?

If they hurt me, and I stayed, did I hurt myself more?

Am I building a future, or just distracting myself from the past?

Is this what I want, or just what I’ve been told to want?

1. “Who wrote this masterpiece?! It was ME?!”

(Without Making Them Walking Tragedies)

╰ Start with the scar, not the stabbing. Everyone talks about what happened to your character (The Big Trauma) but honestly? It’s the aftermath that matters. Show me the limp, not the bullet wound. Show me the way they flinch at kindness or double-check locks three times. The wound shapes them more than the event ever did.

╰ Don't make them "Sad All The Time" People with deep hurts aren’t just dramatic sob machines. They make bad jokes. They find weird hobbies. They have good days and then get wrecked by a song in a grocery store. Layers, my friend. Pain is complex and it sure as hell isn’t aesthetic.

╰ Let them almost heal and then backslide. Real healing isn’t linear. One good conversation doesn’t erase ten years of bottled-up grief. Your character might think they’re over it, and then one tiny thing, a smell, a phrase, a look, knocks them right back into the hole. Make them earn their healing. Make us ache for them.

╰ Give them armor and show the cracks. Maybe it’s sarcasm. Maybe it’s perfectionism. Maybe it’s taking care of everyone else so no one notices they're broken. Whatever mask they wear, show us the hairline fractures. Let us catch the moments where they almost drop the act.

╰ Don’t turn their trauma into their only personality trait. Yes, they’ve been through hell. But they also love spicy chips and bad reality TV. They have dumb crushes and secret dreams. A tragic backstory isn’t a substitute for a full human being. Let them be more than the worst thing that ever happened to them.

╰ Let their wound warp their decisions. People protect their wounds. Even badly. Especially badly. They might sabotage good relationships. Or push away help. Or cling too tightly. Make their past live in their choices, not just their flashbacks.

╰ Don’t make the world validate them for existing. Not everyone is going to understand your wounded character. Some people will misunderstand them. Blame them. Get frustrated. And honestly? That’s real. Let your character find their people, after facing the ones who don’t get it. It’s so much sweeter that way.

╰ Wounds can make them kinder—or crueler. Pain changes people. Some become protectors. Some become destroyers. Some do both, depending on the day. Let your character’s hurt make them complicated. Unpredictable. Human.