If you’re writing something that involves an aspect of life that you have not experienced, you obviously have to do research on it. You have to find other examples of it in order to accurately incorporate it into your story realistically.
But don’t just look at professional write ups. Don’t stop at wikepedia or webMD. Look up first person accounts.
I wrote a fic once where a character has frequent seizures. Naturally, I was all over the wikipedia page for seizures, the related pages, other medical websites, etc.
But I also looked at Yahoo asks where people where asking more obscure questions, sometimes asked by people who were experiencing seizures, sometimes answered by people who have had seizures.
I looked to YouTube. Found a few individual videos of people detailing how their seizures usually played out. So found a few channels that were mostly dedicated to displaying the daily habits of someone who was epileptic.
I looked at blogs and articles written by people who have had seizures regularly for as long as they can remember. But I also read the frantic posts from people who were newly diagnosed or had only had one and were worried about another.
When I wrote that fic, I got a comment from someone saying that I had touched upon aspects of movement disorders that they had never seen portrayed in media and that they had found representation in my art that they just never had before. And I think it’s because of the details. The little things.
The wiki page for seizures tells you the technicalities of it all, the terminology. It tells you what can cause them and what the symptoms are. It tells you how to deal with them, how to prevent them.
But it doesn’t tell you how some people with seizures are wary of holding sharp objects or hot liquids. It doesn’t tell you how epileptics feel when they’ve just found out that they’re prone to fits. It doesn’t tell you how their friends and family react to the news.
This applies to any and all writing. And any and all subjects. Disabilities. Sexualities. Ethnicities. Cultures. Professions. Hobbies. Traumas. If you haven’t experienced something first hand, talk to people that have. Listen to people that have. Don’t stop at the scholarly sources. They don’t always have all that you need.
I … LOVE reading the replies and tags for this post! I’m happy that, out of all my posts, this is the one that’s blown up so quickly.
I love the people who are a part of a minority, that are gushing about their favorite fics or books that seem to have done this and offer proper representation.
I love the people who are bringing up the toxic mindset that is very popular on tumblr, the “you can’t write about it if you haven’t lived it” ideology that makes writers feel guilty for providing representation.
I especially love the people who are mentioning how they should start doing this. I love the people who are probably young or inexperienced writers that are seeing this and thinking of doing this for the first time. I love that there are people who read this and then think to better their writing because of it.
“Nondisabled people using amenities originally designed for disabled people does nothing but improve our lives”
I feel like it shouldn’t be a hard one to figure out, but apparently it is:
If an resource designed to cater to disability is limited, then don’t use it if you’re not disabled - like the limited number of disabled parking spaces or disabled toilets; if you use one, then someone who needs that resource won’t have access.
But if a resource is not limited, then more use will encourage more production. So use it! Buy it! Gluten free food became cheaper and more widely available after it became a fad diet, and now it’s easier for coeliacs to buy the food they need. Stim toys like fidget cubes became widely available and common use when they became a fad.
The less niche something is and the more commonly used something is, the easier it will become to obtain.
This is the exact reasoning behind most “weird” infomercial stuff! The people they are originally for aren’t a big enough audience to make the product inexpensive. Producers market it (with varying degrees of success) to the average person in order to increase interest and decrease production costs.
Examples:
Snuggies were originally designed for people in wheel chairs.
Those stands you can put socks on so you don’t have to bend down to put your socks on were meant for the elderly and people with back problems.
The hinged food slicers are for people who can’t grip a knife.
Extend-o grabbers are for little people, people in wheelchairs, and people who can’t lift their arms.
Also, weighted blankets, specifically, have a LOT more uses than just how those with Autism use them. Weighted blankets help with arthritis, sleep problems, and a bunch of other things “normal” people face.
Ask yourself this. Do you sleep better in the winter when you typically sleep with heavier blankets and thicker clothes? You would likely benefit from a weighted cooling blanket in the summer. The weight helps the body de-stress and relax because we are physically designed to view pressure like that (aka a HUG) as good and comforting.
some of you people NEED to be fucking reminded that loving minorities will always be more important than hating bigots
BLM goes before ACAB ALWAYS. loving black people is more important than “pissing off bigots.” loving jewish people is more important than “making nazis angry.” dont just fight against oppressors, start fighting for minorities. fighting against the oppressor is important, but start doing it for the right reason.
In fairy tales and fantasy, two types of people go in towers: princesses and wizards.
Princesses are placed there against their will or with the intention of ‘keeping them safe.’
This is very different from wizards, who seek out towers to hone their sorcery in solitude.
I would like a story where a princess is placed in an abandoned tower that used to belong to a wizard, and so she spends long years learning the craft of wizardry from the scraps left behind and becomes the most powerful magic wielder the world has seen in centuries, busts out of the tower and wreaks glorious, bloody vengeance on the fools that imprisoned her.
That would be my kind of story.
When
Princess Talia was fourteen, her eldest sister was placed in a tower.
Princess
Adina was eighteen by then, and so of a marriageable age. She had grown quite
beautiful, though she was more willful than winsome, and she did not care for
the notion of the tower very much at all. Their mother did her best to persuade
her on the subject. After all, the queen herself had been eighteen when her own
parents had sent her to live in that very same tower, to be safely tucked away
until her husband could be chosen, and then ride out to claim her. A tradition
going back ages and ages.
I surround myself with wasted potential and broken pieces, hoping that I can be appreciated for all the progress I’ve made, but I just end up used and low; bitter and angry, and struggling to sustain.
I worked so hard for the amazing life and talents I possess, and it all feels like a waste of time; because none of it helps me get to where I’m trying to be. I come up short of those who have and want less. Of strangers with ill intent and low morals.
I’m just bleeding out into goblets for your nourishment. Letting myself be abused and depleted, desperately struggling for the love and affection of people who don’t know how to do it.
emotional self-harm exists and is fucking horrible
going back to an ex you KNOW will hurt you? consuming media you KNOW that triggers you? isolating yourself when you KNOW you need help? that’s a form of self-harm and needs to be acknowledged first to get help.
to be clear; this isn’t a callout. this is recognizing that emotional self-harm is a form of harm.
take this as a gentle reminder that your pain is real, that you are heard, and, most of all, to reach out for help.
I’m done asking when the pain gonna stop All these first impressions got me too afraid to talk So i’ma say just what i thought There is no expression on the face of god And please don’t lay me in your box Coffins make me lazy and in hell i wanna spark Don’t wanna wake up in the dark There is no expression on the face of god
