#writing tics

Tics can divided into few categories: simple/complex and motor/vocal.

Motor tics are movements. Examples: blinking, shoulder shrugging, making faces or gestures, etc.

Vocal tics are sounds. Examples: meowing, barking, saying words or sentences, whistling, etc.

sometimes it can be hard to differentiate between them. I have a tic in which i click my tongue. It is a movement, but there is also a sound to it. I'm not sure whether it's the movement or the sound that makes the pre-tic tension go away.

Complex tics involve a lot of different muscles. They can appear as something done intentionally, but they are never intentional. Examples: saying words or frazes, making gestures, jumping, grimacing, etc

Simple tics are quick, and, well, simple. Examples: winking of an eye, tensing of a specific muscle, sniffing, simple "woo", or a similar sound, etc

Different types of tics can feel very different. They may alleviate the pre-tic tension in different ways. For example i need to hear the whistle in order for the tension to disappear, but I don't need to hear my meowing for the tension to go away.

I may not even notice some of my simple motor tics. but sometimes there is a big cumulation of them and it's awful. Some of the more complex ones feel like i'm being controlled by some alien life force or sth. And some of my complex tics are chill, and idc. It really depends on the day, on what I'm doing and what my tics are at the moment.

Hi! To be honest I’d say if you want to write a character with Tourette’s, first read books with good representation of Tourette’s such as “I swear” (by John Davidson, who himself has Tourette syndrome).

Research as much into Tourette’s as you can, this is really important because no one person with Tourette’s is the same.

As well as this, ensure that you include the parts of Tourette’s that aren’t just tics, such as pain and the societal stigma that us folks with Tourette’s experience. I think things to include in your research (this is not an exhaustive list, because there is a WHOLE lot more stuff as well that I won’t put here): Tic suppression and the discomfort it can cause (and how it can be necessary especially for POC in public for safety!), how Tourette’s looks with and without coprolalia (socially inappropriate tics such as swearing), the pain that comes with Tourette’s, and co-occurring conditions such as autism, ADHD, OCD etc.

Some good places to start are the Tourette’s action website and the Tourette’s association of America website!

little thing to add, unless your writing is SPECIFICALLY about the Tourette’s, it doesn’t need to be the main centre of every scene. A character can simply have Tourette’s and it needn’t be the whole focus of the book. Also you don’t have to describe every tic a character has. I also find that writing Tourette’s from the character’s perspective makes it more realistic. For example when I tic, I don’t always notice myself doing it if it’s a simple tic. Or I might notice the pain that can come from certain tics more than the tic themself. Or even how embarrassing it feels in public!

I just began reading a new McDanno (Jan 2025) story. Straight away, I got Déjà vu. I used “find” and found there are 18 instances of “for the first time” in 28,682 words. Is that a lot? If it were garlic 🧄, I’d say one can’t have enough. And there are 3 more chapters still unposted, as it’s a WiP. Thus far, there are 59 comments and 51 kudos on this story. I’m willing to bet no one has mentioned this tic 🪲 to the writer. Is that really a kindness?

I’m mentioning it here, not to pick on this particular writer (because professional writers have tics, too!)—but to highlight yet another great reason for fanfic writers to get a beta reader. Make it a New Year’s Resolution! 🥳

Do any of you writers of tumblr have certain things they end up habitually doing in basically everything they write. When we talk about “tics” we usually mean words we overuse or something, but this can happen with plot things as well. It’s a stretchy definition of the word “tic’ but a real phenomenon  

for example: i feel like my tic is giving my characters unplanned injuries that I later either forget about or struggle to incorporate well into the story. My characters keep coming out of fight scenes with wounds and injuries I didn’t plan for them to get and that would realistically take a while to heal and all of a sudden I have to account for the next few weeks of in-story time 

I broke my MC’s nose in the first chapter of my current WIP (i wasn’t planning on doing this, it just seemed right at the time) and now I really am struggling to like. keep track of this fact throughout the story because he definitely hasn’t had time for it to heal but I haven’t mentioned it once in the last few chapters. gahhh

It’s a little better than my last WIP when my MC got her arm cut open in a fight and i forgot about it within a chapter and she never got like, any treatment for it or anything even though it should really have slowed her down. 

It’s like, I want them realistically battered so whatever feels natural happens, but eventually it’s like “how are you still alive and moving about.” They get holes and holes and holes punched in them. A person has only got so much blood in them yo

Hiro Ryusei: [Glaring at Junichi and Aquilla] Because he had done something to my father that cannot be forgiven.

Daichi Kurusu: [Confused] Huh?

Hiro Ryusei: [Smirking] I’ll tell you when you’re older.