eternally avoiding eye contact by staring at walls @alexalcamo - Tumblr Blog

Watched this with the wife today.

It was a cute film complete with all the pangs that come from a high school love story. You can't help but Cheer the main couple on, even when circumstances stand in the way.

The side characters were all fun in their own way, and the story was so sweet.

#what I watched today

telsonknife

Some bubbline I had drawn these days!

Thank you Fiona and Cake gives me more bubbline power!🙏

huffylemon

ovur

Now give the donkey a drink of pure wine..... to wash down the figs..!

mrspider-deactivated20221213

do you think mormonism approves of harem anime

mrspider-deactivated20221213

all that i have learned from three angry anons is that i (formerly) had mormon followers

amygdalae

no MCU moment could ever hold a candle to the scene in the incredibles where Bob is at the computer terminal and in the background music the horn section is putting their entire pussy into it as he finds out with dawning horror how many of his old friends Syndrome killed

hard-times-paramore

I agree but did you have to say it like that

yes

what a week huh?

NEVER FORGET

If anyone’s feeling a little tense at the moment, and can’t quite put their finger on why, here’s a reminder of how last November started and why this might be the case. o_o

oldblood

collection

amynchan

Hey, all! Amy here and feel free to skip this, but I noticed a huge thing going around with fanfiction writers and fanfiction readers. Kinda throwing arrows at one another over mistakes and how they should be addressed.

Okay, first off: stop. Ew. It’s gross. Y’all are big boys and girls and y’all can act like it. You don’t need to attack each other at the knees behind the safety of your screens.

Secondly: there are points on both sides. People who write have a right to be proud of their work and can choose not to accept criticism. On the other hand, people who read and absorb the work have the right as well to point out mistakes they noticed if it’s meant to be helpful.

So how can people interact civilly when it comes to fanfiction and it’s accompanying critiques? By following a few internet rules, plain and simple. No, I’m not gonna tell you to forgive and forget or just roll over and let the other person have their way. That’s not what you do IRL and that’s not what you do online either. Instead, both persons have a series of rules to follow in order to try and make the most of their experience.

FOR THE WRITERS:

I start with you because you’re the ones who have poured your heart and soul into this baby. And I get it, I do. When you spend hours and hours slaving over your baby, going over the idea thousands of times in your head, trying to get the idea on paper, and trying to make it look good, then oh heck to the yes it’s your baby and you’re gonna defend it to the death. I expect that and that’s okay. What’s not okay is when it interferes with your ability to check in with the situation and see if they actually meant harm, so here are a few rules I’ve started to use over my years of fanfiction writing:

Read the entire comment for content. This is a bitter pill to take, especially if they sound condescending or snarky. I’ve run into a few of them, and they’re never pleasant to deal with, but some of them have good ideas. Try to filter out the junk of the comment and get to the meat of it all. (I’ll get to what to do if there’s no meat later)

Take a break from the comment when you get angry. And chances are that if it’s an unsolicited comment, you’re going to get angry. This is your baby and you’ve worked hard on it. If the crtiquer isn’t at least taking that into account, you may even get furious. Get up and walk away. They do not deserve your wrath.

Decide for yourself if they have a point. Most critiquers tend to leave their comments because they’re trying to help in their own (somewhat obnoxious) way. If they’ve got a point, thank them, but also try to express if the critique was delivered well. If it was, tell them so they can help more people. If not, tell them so they can work on it. IF THEY DO NOT HAVE ANY POINT AT ALL AND ARE JUST BEING RUDE, get rid of it. They’re not worth your time.

Respond or toss. This is up to you. If they had content that was actually useful, then they were being helpful like they were trying to be. If they had content and it wasn’t useful, it’s up to you what to do. If they had zero content in their critique or it wasn’t relevant at all, skip it. They’re not worth your time.

I actually formed these rules after an encounter with a critiquer who was completely neutral in tone, blurted my mistakes for the world to see, and essentially made me feel like the absolute worst writer in the world. They weren’t harsh, but their critique did hurt me, especially because I’d still just been starting out.

The first thing that happened was I got angry. I was livid, furious. Like, how dare they? Couldn’t they just sit back and enjoy the story? I spent a good week or so avoiding my fanfiction account just because I was so pissed off. I ended up talking to my mom and she asked me if they had any points. I think she was going for “if they don’t, then they’re not worth your time”, but they did. After that, I went back and tried to see it from their point of view.

Didn’t mean I suddenly wasn’t mad at them. I was mad, but I also realized that they, in their own roundabout and hurtful (to me, who reads inflection into typed words and winces at every loud noise and criticism) way, were trying to help me.

I worked on it, and I don’t think they ever commented on my stuff again, but the people who already loved my stuff? The people who said that my stuff was ‘cute’ or ‘genius’? They loved it all the more! The critiquer may not have stuck around, but those who did benefited.

(It really took me a long time to stop being angry at them. Now I just kind of take a lesson from them. As a fanfiction writer, and as a critiquer myself.)

FOR THE CRITIQUER:

I’m saying this as someone who has pretty high standards for what I read. I look into formatting, tenses, plot, characterization, spelling, and even comma usage! These little things do actually bug me, and sometimes enough to the point of wanting to comment, but I’ve been on the other side of it and remember the frustration and the anger that can come from a wrongly worded comment, so there are a few rules that I’ve formulated in order to be the best critiquer I can be and help as many people as possible get as amazing as they can as a writer!

Note: These rules are for critiquers who actually do want to help writers get better and improve the overall quality of internet written works. If you’re here because of some superiority complex, these rules may be difficult for you to follow. I, however, encourage you to do your best and perhaps one day you’ll be a good critiquer. *^_^*

Find a way to figure out if the author even wants your critique. One way to do this is to respectfully ask them. Always open with a positive. Something like “Hey, I liked ___ about your story, but I noticed something was a bit off. Can I give you a constructive critique?” Typically, an author would be happy to know you cared about their opinion, so this will go either one of two ways. They will either (A) allow the critique and actually listen to what you have to say or (B) politely decline the offer. This means they have made up their mind and you are to let it go. The back button is a wonderful friend at this point.

Follow the sandwich format. This is a tried and true method for getting people to actually listen. If you start in with the critique, the author will feel attacked and immediately get defensive. Instead of wondering if you’ve got any point, they will find ways to contradict you and argue. Instead, open with something you liked about the story. There was a reason you read it all to the end, wasn’t there? Mention that first (AND BE HONEST! NO ONE LIKES SOMEONE WHO GIVES OUT FALSE COMPLIMENTS), and then get to the critique, or ‘meat’, of your critique. When that’s done, exit with a thank-you for being willing to listen to your comments. It takes a lot for a creator to listen to someone point out the flaws in their baby, even if they’re trying to learn. Remember that you want this to be a positive interaction, not a demolition derby.

No insults or other derogatory comments. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, the writer is trying their best. Insulting them makes them less willing to hear you out, much less accept your comments and get better.

No elevating yourself over them. It’s a no-brainer. You’re not there to school them, you’re there to help them. Helping requires a serving mind, which puts their needs before your ego.

Do not hound the author. If they listen but don’t take your comments, you’re not allowed to harass them. Most likely, they don’t see a point in your comment and have elected to ignore it. And that’s fine. The point is that you managed to bring it to their attention once. Maybe they’ll come back to it later, maybe not. Either way, once your critique is given, it’s done. Unless they come to you asking about it, your job is to pack up and vamoose, or simply to sit back and enjoy watching the rest of the story unfold.

Make sure your comments are objective. Like, if there’s a comma problem, tell them about it. If there’s verb tenses being messed up, inform them politely. If person A didn’t get with person B, then you’re not critiquing. That’s a matter of opinion and doesn’t belong in the critiquing category.

Be respectful. They’re going on a limb and listening to you, and it’s the author’s choice whether or not to continue the correspondence. You don’t have to ‘kiss up to them’ or ‘serve them’, but you have to make sure you’re not being a jerk and that all your comments are warranted.

I know there are a lot of rules, but critiquing is hard, especially with how a lot of people view them. But you, the critiquer, ARE NOT EVIL. You’re not the bad guy. You’re not messed up. You’re not ‘sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong’. You’re human and you’re trying to be helpful. These are just tips and tricks on how to go about it the right way and maximize your helpfulness.

FOR EVERYONE!!

The last thing I’ll say is that not everyone will follow these rules. They will think they’re stupid or pandering or all-around dumb. Some people who claim to critique will continue to slander our good name by acting like holier-than-thou snits. Some people who write will continue to get outrageously angry for persons daring to say something went wrong.

Here’s how to deal with them:

Leave the computer. Or the website, just for a bit. Enjoy the sunshine, take a walk, talk with your best friend, eat some ice cream, go play. See if it just blows over. They don’t get to take away your happiness because they’re angry.

Delete the hate. When you’re good and happy, you can delete the hate mail, or maybe grab a friend to laugh at it. But don’t respond to hate with anger. As my good friend Warlord Okeer said, you shall inflict “the greatest insult an enemy can suffer. To be ignored.”

If they chase you down in anger, block them. This is okay to do. For fanfiction writers: if they continue to pester you with their comments after you say ‘no thanks’, block their tails. For fanfiction critiquers: if they got angry over a critique you gave, provided that they said okay and provided that you followed the rules of critiquing, you’re allowed to block them. You did it right. Don’t even stress.

And then there are the times where we forget to follow the rules and insult someone on accident. It happens. If you realize you’re in the wrong, it’s just one rule.

Apologize. No, you don’t have to grovel for forgiveness, but understand that your actions may have hurt someone else and react accordingly. If they won’t take it, at least make the promise to yourself to be better in the future.

And that’s it. I know it seems like a lot to swallow, but it all boils down to making sure your words are respectful, kind, and true.

Tl;dr: MAKE SURE YOUR WORDS ARE RESPECTFUL, KIND, AND TRUE!!

amynchan

HOW!

TO!

CRITIQUE!

AND!

WHAT!

IT!

SHOULD!

DO!

FOR!

CREATORS!!!

#reference #writing

macgyvermedical

Writing Pain: Pt 1- What it is and How it Works

After slogging through all my Whump Challenge posts, I thought you all deserved something nice. So here is the first of a 2-part series on pain. Enjoy!

Basics:

Pain is an unpleasant physical and emotional sensation caused by actual or perceived tissue damage. Under normal circumstances, pain indicates some kind of tissue damage. This damage can be from an injury, an infection, or a disease like arthritis. Very simply, when tissue is damaged, cells release certain chemicals. When the concentrations of these chemicals get high enough, nerve endings send a signal to the brain, which is interpreted as pain. Painkillers work by either blocking the formation of the chemicals, blocking how they interact with the nerve endings, or by blocking the transmission of the nerve impulses to the brain.

Pain Scale (intensity):

In healthcare settings, pain can be measured on a scale of 0-10. On this scale, 0 means no pain, and 10 means either the worst pain the patient has ever felt, or the worst pain the patient can imagine. Quantifying this for fiction purposes isn’t always easy, but think about it like this:

Pain score of 1: “Pain Threshold.” Where pain first begins to be felt. Barely noticeable and very easily ignored. Character likely would not express discomfort and may change positions, but not much more.

Pain score of 2: Character may voice discomfort, but may still not do anything about it.

Pain score of 3: “Pain Tolerance.” Pain becomes difficult to ignore and character finally begins to seek some form of relief.

Pain score of 4-5: Pain becomes nearly impossible to ignore completely, pain symptoms of tense muscles and a change in respiratory pattern develops. Irritability, nausea, and a change in vitals likely.

Pain score of 6-7: Pain is debilitating. Difficulty concentrating occurs, fine movements like writing are significantly impaired. Muscles are tense and hands are balled into fists.

Pain score of 8-9: Sleep is impossible, and pain is completely debilitating. Very difficult to read, think, speak or focus on anything that isn’t the pain. Change in vitals very pronounced.

Pain score of 10: Unconsciousness immanent. Worst pain character has ever felt. Incapable of thought, movement, or speech.

Pain is a very subjective, individual experience. One person’s 2 might be another person’s 6. Notice up there where it says “pain threshold” and “pain tolerance”? Pain threshold is basically how bad the pain needs to be to be felt at all. It’s the “1” on the pain scale. Pain tolerance is where the pain needs to be for the person to want to do something about it. It’s usually about a “3” on the pain scale.

Pain tolerance is different for everyone, and changes based on life experience (are they used to dealing with pain?), fatigue (being tired or chronically sleep-deprived may make pain feel worse), and emotional situation (being scared or sad may make pain feel worse). People’s perception of, and need of treatment for, the same pain may change day-to-day, or as they gather more experience.

Pain on this scale is also self-reported. People may exaggerate or minimize pain when reporting it depending on life experience (some people may be used to only getting treatment if they rate their pain at 10/10, and so routinely exaggerate in order to be taken seriously), culture (some cultures highly value stoicism, and may under-report pain so as not to appear weak), or religion (some religious groups view pain as penance, and so may under-report pain to avoid treatment). This is something to think about when building a character.

Describing Pain (quality):

Pain, while a universal concept, is not a universal feeling. Pain quality is what the patient reports the pain as “feeling like.” Different manifestations of pain can mean different things (see the list below for examples). Depending on the location or the reason for the pain, it can feel different. Here are some ways pain can be described/experienced (examples of related injury/illness in parentheses):

Achy (body aches from illness)

Crampy (gastrointestinal illness, menstrual cramps, heat cramps)

Crushing (heart attack, sometimes asthma attack)

Dull (injury to internal organs, bruises)

Piercing (pain from a surgical incision, some pain from loss of blood flow (ischemia))

Pounding (headache)

Sharp (pain from a surgical incision)

Sore (overuse, muscle injury)

Tender (bruises, soft tissue injury, musculoskeletal injury)

Tight (swelling (skin feels tight), asthma (air passages feel tight))

Throbbing (localized infection, soft tissue injury, swelling)

Any one of these and many others can manifest at any intensity.

Non-Verbal Signs of Pain and Pain Signature (newly added to post):

Writing for a character who doesn’t like to admit to being in pain? Rest assured, you still have something to write about. Non-verbal signs of pain obviously become very difficult to hide as pain increases, but even small amounts of pain may result in non-verbal expression of pain. Non-verbal signs of pain could be great for tipping other characters or audience off to pain.

Non-verbal signs of pain include:

Facial grimacing (especially the little crinkle between the eyebrows)

Increase in respiratory rate, heart rate, and blood pressure

Decrease in blood oxygen saturation (from breath holding)

Guarding of painful area

Decrease in physical activity and energy level

Loss of interest in surroundings

Difficulty keeping attention on task, may miss information

Restlessness

Constant shifting in position

Change in appetite

Repetitive movements, such as crinkling paper, wrapping fabric around hands, rubbing feet against bed

A “pain signature” is a person’s unique but consistent combination of the above signs. Even people who try to hide their pain often display a pain signature, though they may attempt to write it off (decrease in energy can sometimes be compensated for and change in appetite and restlessness can be caused by a lot of different things). If you know your character will be in pain, it might be a good idea to include their pain signature as part of character planning.

R E F E R E N C E S

Craven, R. F., & Hirnle, C. J. (2009). Fundamentals of nursing: Human health and function. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

Lippincott, W. &. (2013). Brunner and suddarth’s textbook of medical -surgical nursing 12th ed. nursing diagnosis, .. Place of publication not identified: Wolters Kluwer Health.

Stay Tuned for Pt 2: How to Get Rid of It

#writing #reference

djdangerlove

“You’re Not a Good Writer.”

I once received a DM comprised of just that sentence. Nothing else. No constructive criticism or any reason as to why this person clearly agreed with my own view of myself.

For someone who has never told anyone in their real life that they write anything, reading something like this from an anonymous user only solidified in my mind the fact that this person was right.

I’m not a good writer.

After an embarrassing amount of minutes passed, in which I thought about deleting every story I ever posted, I decided to delete the message instead. Unfortunately, that didn’t mean I could delete the feelings it caused or change the fact that I’m not a good writer.

Two weeks went by and I didn’t write anything, let alone post. Then I received a comment on a story I had posted three years prior, one I’d written after a death in our family. The comment read, “Thank you for sharing this heartfelt story. I really needed this. I just lost my mom and this really got me today.”

I stopped thinking about being a good writer after that. I thought instead, “what if I had deleted my stories and that one person three years later hadn’t read it that day?”

Here’s what I realized: no one is a good writer.

Good means to be approved of, but stories aren’t created from approval. They’re built from life experiences, feelings, and emotions Therefore, the impact of anyone’s story isn’t good or bad. It’s a million other things.

Heartfelt.

Sad.

Funny.

Inspiring.

Romantic.

So to all the story writers out there, hold your head up, write what is in your heart, and never doubt that there isn’t at least one person out there that needs to read your story.

So, no.

We’re not good writers, but why would we want to be?