The Collective Unconscious

Stakes - What would happen if the protagonist failed? Would it really be such a bad thing if it happened?

Thematic relevance - Do the events of the story speak to a greater emotional or moral message? Is the conflict resolved in a way that befits the theme?

Urgency - How much time does the protagonist have to complete their goal? Are there multiple factors complicating the situation?

Drive - What motivates the protagonist? Are they an active player in the story, or are they repeatedly getting pushed around by external forces? Could you swap them out for a different character with no impact on the plot? On the flip side, do the other characters have sensible motivations of their own?

When writer's set out to world-build, language has a huge role in creating new cultures and lending a sense of realism to your efforts. A world and people just feel more real when language is involved. As the old Irish proverb says "tír gan teanga, tír gan anam”. A country without a language, is a country without a soul. So how can we create one?

Do Your Homework

First things off, you should start by studying languages. Nobody is asking you to get fluent but it's important to understand the basic mechanics of language. You will start to see certain tricks to language, how verbs are conjugated and how gender effects certain words. It will be easier to make up your own when you know these tricks. By immersing yourself in an array of different languages (I recommend finding ones close to how you want your language to sound), you can gain the tools necessary for creating a believable language.

Keep it Simple

Nobody expects you to pull a Tolkien or channel the powers of David J. Peterson (hail bisa vala). You're not writing a dictionary of your con-lang. You will probably use only a handful of words in your story. Don't over complicate things. A reader will not be fluent in your con-lang and if they have to continually search for the meaning of words they will likely loose patience.

Start Small

When you're learning a language, you always start with the basics. You do the exact same when writing one. Start with introductions, the names of simple objects, simple verbs (to be, to do, to have for example) and most importantly your pronouns (you will use these more than any other word, which is why I always start with them). Simple everyday phrases should always be taken care of first. Build your foundation and work your way up, this is a marathon not a race.

Music to the Ears

If your creating a new language, you're more than likely doing it phonetically. Sound is important to language and especially a con-lang because you want to trick your reader into thinking of a real language when reading the words on the page. I suggest sitting down and actually speak your words aloud, get the feel of them on the tongue to work out the spelling. Spellings shouldn't be too complicated, as I said before the readers aren't fluent and you want to make it easier for them to try it out themselves.

Also when you're creating the con-lang, it's important to figure out how it sounds to an unsuspecting ear. If a character is walking down a street and hears a conversation in a strange language, they will likely describe to the reader what it sounds like. It might be guttural or soft, it might be bursque or flowery. It's always interesting to compare how different languages flow in the ear.

Writing in Your Language

Now that you've written your language and created some words, you will want to incoperate them into your story. The way most writers do this is by italicising them. As a reader, I generally prefer authors not to go too overboard with their con-lang. Swathes of con-lang words might intrigue a reader but it can leave them confused as well. It is better to feed con-lang to your readers bit by bit. In most published works writer's tend to use words here and there but there are few whole sentences. For example in A Game Of Thrones by George RR Martin, has actually only a handful of short sentences in Dothraki despite the language being prevalent throughout the book. Daenerys Targaryen pronounces that "Khalakka dothrae mr’anha!"/"A prince rides inside me!" and it's one of the only sentence we actually see in actual Dothraki.

There's also nothing stopping you from just saying a language has been spoken. If you're not comfortable writing out the words, then don't make yourself. A simple dialogue tag can do the trick just fine.

Know your Words

ALT

I was inspired by @jezifster’s recent question about non-gendered royal titles, and I put together this graphic to serve as a jumping off point for people writing monarchies in SFF !

Tl:dr: design a cane based on comfortability and the disability of the character

First things first, you need to know why you’re character needs a cane. Do they have chronic pain? Unhealed injury? Muscle or joint issues? Do they have poor blood circulation which makes them dizzy? Do they need the cane all the time or does their disability fluctuate? Do they use a wheelchair or a walker sometimes?

There’s a lot you should know about a characters ability/disability in order to find what type of mobility aid they should be using.

There are a bunch of different kinds of canes/crutches. The 4 on the left are crutches. The difference between canes and crutches are, crutches are meant to keep weight off your legs as much as possible, and generally you use a crutch on each arm. Canes are used for stability and you usually only use one. Folding canes are great for people who only use their cane sometimes

Great! You’ve picked either a cane or crutches for your character. I’m done right? WRONG. Cane handles.

This is probably the most important part of canes because if you have the wrong handle your wrist will die.

I gently kiss all the canes on the left, they are all very good for grip and wrist, although the middle left is designed for left or right hand so you cannot switch hands with it.

The ones on the right are also pretty good, they wouldn’t be my first choice but they are still great. The top one is also very good as it has a wristband so you can’t drop it as easily. (Trust me when I say I DROP MY CANE SO MUCH)

Sigh. The middle cane handles… the bottom one I have never actually seen but it looks like it would kill my wrist. The top one is uncomfortable for long period uses, but it is good for if you’re a shepherd. And the pimp cane… the knob cane… it’s awful. Just no. It’s hard to grip, it is unstable it’s bad it’s awful I throw it into a fire. Please don’t give your character, they don’t deserve that pain

Now you know the basic ergonomic things, there are different shafts for canes and crutches

You can really get creative with this type of thing, just as long as it looks stable enough.

Here are some good examples of pretty canes that are ergonomic and good to use! (featuring victor arcane who i adore)

Add some cute details to the cane if you want! You can add stickers, colours, grip support. And while I love the concept of cane swords those are very unstable, if you want a cane weapon you can make it lead weighted, put knives in it. A poison vile in the shaft. Be creative.

Just some of these components are important to consider with a disabled character. There’s a lot more to consider with wheelchairs and walkers which I don’t have the experience with.

As a disabled person who uses a cane for a variety of reasons, there’s a few other things that I need to talk about.

1. Cane height. It needs to be a the right height otherwise you are going to do really bad things to your hips, knees, elbows, shoulders, and back. If your character wears shoes of varying heights, think high heels or platforms vs flats or bare feet, you’ll want an adjustable cane. (Or multiple canes, or both). Here’s a decent article by the Cleveland Clinic about this and this WikiHow article is fantastic. But seriously, if your character is really tall/really short it’s going to be tougher for them to find a viable cane.

2. Wear and tear. This is particularly noticeable around the handle and base of the cane. If your cane has a rubber foot, it’s going to wear down… much like the heel of a well loved shoe. And it’s going to wear down in such a way that will show you what part of the cane you’re putting on the ground first. You can end up with a very sloped bottom, which is why it’s important to either replace the food or in the case of canes where you can’t do this (wooden ones without a foot). BTW this is what I mean when I say a foot. 

It’s a rubber thing that adds traction, stability, and grip that is held on to the base of the cane via suction. It comes off with some jiggling and most canes can fit into a standard replacement (Thank the gods for standardization here).

The handle is also going to see a lot of wear and tear, particularly those with the funky foam on them. Most human sweat is slightly acidic and no matter what, everyone gets sweaty palms. And moisture can eat away at that foam. Again, there’s replacements for it. Along with replacements for any wrist loops (which like OP said, those things are great because you will drop your cane… a lot).

Dropping your cane is going to give it personality, nicks and dings and other things. It generally won’t damage the cane too badly… although if you have a wooden cane/handle you may want to check it for splintering.

Additionally many wooden canes need care in the form of rubbing down with oils to keep them from becoming too brittle. I’ve seen wooden canes split up the stem of the cane because of this. It was sad.

3. Style/Bling. At a certain point, when you use a cane enough you start to pimp it out. Some people do nifty wrist handles, others will have handles that have fluttery things on it like a kids bike, others still will have blingy cane designs… I’ve got two

This is my fancy cane:

And this is my everyday cane:

I happen to prefer wooden handles to plastic ones (it’s a sensory thing and wood handles being dropped better without becoming rough like plastic).

I’m currently keeping my eyes open for a space themed cane because… space…(Or sharks, because sharks).

The one place where people who use a cane for stability/walking assistance will not do (unless they want some serious pain) is get those carved handles or ones with anything that is spiky. Those hurt and cause blisters/bruises.

— wip intro:

TWISTED STITCHES

by @motelbf

AUDIENCE: NA GENRE: horror/thriller THEMES: navigating mental illness without support, repression of trauma (particularly religious trauma), unreliable narrator mc, lgbtq+ & poc representation, no romantic subplot, trope subversion, search for identity, fear TW: dissociation, repressed trauma, hallucinations, intentional sleep deprivation, death, blood, murder, unreality, nightmares & night terrors, sleep paralysis, religious trauma POV: 3rd person limited STATUS: planning SUMMARY:

A college student named Oliver is forced to withdraw from university because of his progressively deteriorating mental health. He moves back to his parents’ house only to find that his childhood imaginary friend, Stitches, is still there. After a troubling series of events around town, Oliver begins to suspect that Stitches may be to blame.

TAGLIST:

I don't want to publish my work to be famous.

I want to publish my work to find a weird little group of cult-fans who loves my characters as much as I do and I spiritually adopt them.

Which OC is the first to come to mind when you see this picture of a fucking lighter shaped like a strawberry?

[ID:A lighter, shaped like a strawberry/end ID]

Fragrantica: perfume enthusiast site that has a long list of scents. v helpful when you’re writing your guilty pleasure abo fics

Just One Cookbook: recipe site that centers on Japanese cuisine. Lots of different recipes to browse, plenty of inspiration so you’re not just “ramen and sushi” 

This comparing heights page: gives you a visual on height differences between characters

A page on the colors of bruises+healing stages: well just that. there you go. describe your bruises properly

McCormick Science Institute: yes this is a real thing. the site shows off research on spices and gives the history on them. be historically accurate or just indulge in mindless fascination. boost your restaurant au with it

Canine Body Language

Cocktail Flow: a site with a variety of cocktails that’s pretty easy to navigate and offers photos of the drinks. You can sort by themes, strengths, type and base. My only real annoyance with this site is that the drinks are sometimes sorted into ~masculine~ and ~feminine~ but ehhhh. It’s great otherwise.

Types of High Heels: A page describing twenty five different types of high heels. It gives a description and pictures. Shake it up from just “stilettos and kitten heels”

Random Job Generator: Exactly as it says. The site offer more generators like characters, plots, or town names.

Glossary of Hosiery Terms: Figure out what is what on a pair of stockings.

Men’s Dress Shoe Guide: A quick guide describing the eight most common types of men’s dress shoes. Pics included.

There are several occasions where it would be more convenient if certain characters weren’t in the picture, but sometimes these characters can be really difficult to exclude without killing them or cutting them from the story completely. Here is a short list of ideas that you can use/use to inspire you into not killing your characters!

Teens/Young Adults - Long Term

Send them away to boarding school or college.

Let them get married and elope.

Give them a trip overseas. There are school-affiliated trips or they could go backpacking.

Their parents get divorced and they choose to follow the parent that is moving far, far away, at least for now.

Teens/Young Adults - Short Term

Send them away to camp for a week or two.

Give them a trip to their nation’s capital.

Let them try to run away, and turn right back around when they cross state lines.

Their parents are out of town and they go stay with a relative.

They go to another state to visit family.

They’re hospitalized for a few days (high fever, appendectomy, etc.)

Adults - Long Term

Let them chase their dreams to wherever they want to go. Maybe their dreams fail and they come back, maybe they choose to stay.

Have them move to a new city.

Send them away to take care of a loved one who is ill.

Give them a job that requires them to stay out of the city/state/country for an extended period of time.

Adults - Short Term

Make them go away on a work trip (conference, training, etc.)

Give them a family holiday (a reunion, a wedding, etc.).

Put them in the hospital for a few days for the above reasons, or a scare.

Send them away for a bachelor/bachelorette party.

Particularly when writing people with a marginalized identity that you don't hold, it can be hard to tell what is an issue if you're not familiar with it. Research should be your main reference point, but sometimes you need to go with your instincts.

Here is a very non-exhaustive list of things that should flag to you that you need to take another look at it and do some more research:

Is a person/culture/group presented as "backwards", irrational, un-modern, or uniformly aggressive?

Am I using coded language (e.g. thug, slut, slow) to describe a character?

Am I associating sexual habits or preferences with a certain race, religion, gender, or class?

Am I dismissing or making light of devestating historical events that appear or are referenced in the story?

Am I prioritizing the rehabilitation of individuals or groups who commited violence, particularly at the expense of those who experienced that violence?

Are my characters, particularly my marginalized characters, embodying stereotypes with no other characteristics?

Do my marginalized characters exist simply so I can say I have included marginalized characters?

Am I applying every marginalization to one character so that I don't have to "deal with it" in other characters?

Do marginalizations, particularly disabilities, only appear when convenient?