The Skellingcorner

[non-toxicdragonageconfessions]

Confession: Currently finishing yet another playthrough of Inquisition, and all of a sudden there’s a new room in the undergrounds of Skyhold! You know that huge room that gives you access to the library and the wine cellar? Well, now I have this massive dwarven-looking door and it’s a room full of gold. There’s also the hat you can find when you fall through the cracks of Skyhold. How did I get this room? What easter egg did I miss that lead to this?

You can get the vault by having 3 perks of Josephine’s, they’re Sterling Reputation, A Favor for a Favor and Elite Clientele.
-Mod Kirra

[word-nerds-united]

Resources For Writing Sketchy Topics

[wordsnstuff]

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
• Trauma

[dragonwinglet]

@unconventionalfangirl I’m too lazy to log out you wanna post this on the thing?

[werewritersiswear]

I did it. I think

[word-nerds-united]

[scriptautistic]

Writing Autistic Characters: 50 posts from scriptautistic

Happy Nanowrimo! In honour of national novel writing month 2017 we have put together this list of 50 of the most useful questions and answers from our blog this year. We hope you find them useful - happy writing!

-the scriptautistic mods

---

Meta

• Our masterpost list
• Finding an autistic sensitivity reader or beta-reader for your story
• How to research autism without falling for tropes
• How do I incorporate a character being autistic into the plot without making it be about them being autistic?
• Autism resources

Representation

• What sorts of characters would you like to see more of?
• What are common stereotypes about autistic characters?
• Do you have any advice to keep from infantilizing an autistic character?
• Is it ok to write ASD characters that are not loved and accepted straight away?
• Would it be bad if I make a non-human character autistic?
• How do y'all feel about a story about an autistic guy who grows to dislike his autism?

Comorbidities

• Similarities and differences between OCD and ASD
• What is the difference between down syndrome and autism?
• Encouraging abused children to stim again (effects of child abuse)
• Are autistic people more likely to get migraines?
• Tips for writing an autistic character in a psychiatric hospital?
• The effect of a mental breakdown on a character’s routines

Emotions and empathy

• What does hyperempathy feel like?
• What would a low-empathy character feel and do when trying to comfort someone?
• Showing love without saying “I love you”
• How would my character use facial expressions?

Sensory sensitivities

• What does understimulation feel like?
• How might a person with sensory sensitivities cope with living in an unpleasant environment?
• Can a character’s autistic traits change as they get older?
• How does it feel to have auditory processing disorder?
• Why would an autistic person might hit their head when overloaded?

Stimming

• How can I write stims?
• What does stimming feel like?
• What unobtrusive stims could my character use?
• Would a character stim differently depending on their emotions?
• What is the effect of repressing their stims?

Education

• Does autism give disadvantages for certain subjects at school?
• Is it realistic to send someone with autism to a special needs school?

Ableism

• Well-intentioned but rude neurotypical people
• Bad therapy
• Might a police officer consider an autistic person a threat if they were having a meltdown?

Communication

• What might cause my character to be temporarily nonverbal?
• What are some causes for an autistic person being nonverbal?
• Might my character use filler words like “um” and “er”?
• Could an autistic character pick up on sarcasm?
• Could you use signing to communicate with an autistic toddler?

Other

• Is it possible for a character’s family/friends to not suspect that the character is autistic until adulthood?
• A character’s friends asking them to stop infodumping
• How to write a sex scene with an autistic character
• What problems might my character have around keeping a pet?
• What could be some difficulties with being an autistic cop?
• Flying and being at the airport while autistic
  

Fun posts

• Stim toys in a post-apocalyptic setting
• Accommodations for an autistic crewmember on a space station
  
• What might an autistic society look like?

[word-nerds-united]

An important part of writing is creating characters, as 8/10 (stat I made up) they drive the story. It’s our job as writers to acknowledge people of all kinds. A perfect world with no mental disabilities is a fake world.

Make your world real. Include some unique, significant characters by using this reference page.

[sweetlittlevampire]

All that’s missing to complete my thesis is the conclusion, the bibligraphy, the index and the finishing touches to the layout, and I’ll be DONE! Perhaps I could even already print and bind this thing tomorrow afternoon if all goes well!

[sweetlittlevampire]

Also? I’m at about 6300 words. I need at least 7500.

There is light at the end of the tunnel!

…seriously though, I cannot wait until this thesis is done, printed, bound, handed in, defended, and graded.

And should I fail? Well, then at least I’ll kow what to do better next time.

[sweetlittlevampire]

So this is my first ever altar. It’s set upon an Ikea Lack table right next to my bed, and it’s mainly set up for Hecate. I didn’t follow any guidelines, I just put it together in a way that it felt right for me. Click the Read More for a more detailed description.

[writingwithcolor]

queerical asked:

so i'm constructing an alternate fantasy world and the main characters speak english becuz that is the language i speak altho it is called by a different name in the story. many parts of the story take place internationally and many characters are multilingual. i will be doing some conlang, but would it be acceptable to take other real world languages (spanish, japanese ect) called by different names? and if so what would be the best way to do this?

Renaming Existing Languages in Fantasy

Unless you’re Terry Pratchett I wouldn’t recommend just cloning real languages (natlangs) and renaming them.  Somehow I let him get away with just calling bad French “Quirmian” where I would’ve thrown anyone else at a wall.  Please see the 2nd part of the answer to this ask (East Asian-based Fantasy, Appropriation, and Fantasy Languages) for some tips on how you might create the general aesthetic “feel” of a natlang without simply ripping off the language itself.  

I recommend conlanging as opposed to copying natlangs wholesale for various reasons, but one big one is to avoid buying yourself heaps of trouble when it comes to marginalized or endangered languages.  How would you feel if you were an indigenous person whose ancestral language was taken away from you or pressured out of your family until they stopped using it, and then suddenly it shows up in someone’s story but the author’s renamed it and given it a fictional history and culture as if it sprang out of thin air?  I bet you’d feel massively disrespected.  Don’t put someone else in that position.

Using English (or whatever publication language) as the medium of your story is different because you say everyone is speaking “Fantasylandian” or whatever but you just assume there’s a translation convention in effect so readers can understand anything in your story.  It’s trickier when there’s other non-main-story languages involved.

~Mod Nikhil

[fandonetrash]

[marvellousbee]

[transgenderteensurvivalguide]

Lee says:

• The word “transgender” is an umbrella term that covers anyone who identifies as a gender they were not assigned at birth. 
• Both binary people and non-binary people are equally transgender.
  
• Being trans without dysphoria is possible.
• Gender expression ≠ gender identity, as shown on the genderbread person
  
• More info: Trans 101 for trans people or Ally resources
  

[fandonetrash]

[karyu-no-saiga]

https://www.artstation.com/bababaraba

[writingwithcolor]

thecrystalwolf asked:

Wip is a fantasy world with a "Viking/Celtic" vibe, traditional clans etc. Clans arn't one "Color", but a mix of all different skin types/features, divided instead by cultural skill set/differing way of lifestyle. Protagonist is a PoC as well as decent portion of the other characters. My question would be is this set up racist? Can PoC be included without including their real world culture/ not address racism issues because they don't exist within the wip society? Is this ambiguous brown trope?

PoC with European Culture 

People tend to assume representation doesn’t “count” unless the person in question displays overt markers of the culture in the geographic region associated with that skin tone.

This is false.

PoC vikings existed, or, at least, could plausibly exist. Vikings had fairly extensive trade with North Africa, and were pretty socially open from what we’ve been able to recover. So historically, you’re not incorrect that this situation is something that very well could have happened.

But beyond that, the concept that skin tones relate to what culture people should display helps perpetuate xenophobia.

PoC can hold any culture they want, even if they don’t “look the part.” Yes, the traditional mould of a Viking is white— but so what? Why do they have to be white? Why does anyone from Europe have to be white? 

Rome was a multicultural empire and brought people from all reaches of Africa and Asia Minor to Europe, and they stayed; these people formed communities that are just as European as white people. Immigration happened (such as Japanese people who came to Spain in the 1600s, who hold the last name Japón as markers they were descendants of original immigrants). Migration happened. Some of these cultures stayed independent, while others blended in. Curry, for example, is one of the most popular foods in the UK.

Ambiguously Brown comes from primarily not having any distinctly identifying features that make a person a specific ethnicity. So if somebody is described in a way you can tell they would be considered Arab, or Black, or Indigenous, it’s not ambiguously brown (in my opinion— others are allowed to disagree).

Now, if you wanted to be sure to avoid it, have some of them with scraps of tradition that come from immigration various generations ago. It doesn’t have to be overt, but little markers would show “this people is multicultural and has a lot of immigration.”

At the same time, it’s not necessary. It just shows that immigration happens. There’s no consensus on whether or not this is preferred. And it doesn’t have to be every character with a certain skin tone. Showing individual nuances is purely about immigration.

But in terms of general principle, not everyone from Europe can be or even should be white. It’s a multicultural place and has been since the dawn of time; no sense in shying away from that.

~ Mod Lesya