CAN BE NSFW.
An RP/writing blog that I have on the side. Mostly Mass Effect, but will probably have some other things here too.
Don't be afraid to shoot me a message with a question or a prompt. I'm ready for anything.
There are multiple forms of amnesia. Here are the names and basic definitions of each type.
Anterograde Amnesia: This type of amnesia happens when the brain suffers a traumatic injury involving the hippocampus or mammillary bodies. This type of amnesia renders the patient incapable of recollecting memories that are created after the onset of amnesia. In other words, new memories are not transferred to the patient’s long-term memory. This type of amnesia is also called ‘short-term’ or memory loss.
Retrograde Amnesia: This type of amnesia happens after a disease or injury to the brain that involves the hippocampus and the median temporal lobes. This type of amnesia renders the patient incapable of recollecting events that happened before the onset of amnesia. Assuming the patient is an average age of 25, early childhood memories (such as five years or younger) are generally considered 'safe’, and effected memories increase leading up to the onset of the disease. This type of amnesia is also called 'long-term’ memory loss.
Transient Global Amnesia: This is rare, temporary loss of most all memory. It usually comes with no warning, and can happen to anyone, healthy or not. It is most common in older men. The cause for this type of amnesia has remained a controversial topic. These causes include emotional stress, transient ischemic attack, or “mini-stroke”, strenuous physical exertion,, and a basilar artery migraine, which is a migraine caused by a disturbance to the brainstem. Headaches, dizziness, and nausea often accompany TGA. This type of memory loss usually lasts only a day, but can be quite scary for the individual who experiences it.
Dissociative Amnesia:Is a serious and rare type of memory loss that involves the patient’s personal information. There are different types of dissociative amnesia.
Generalized amnesia involves the patient’s entire life’s memories.
Localized amnesia involves memories of a specific traumatic event
Selective amnesia is when the patient can only remember certain parts of a specific time period.
Systematized amnesia is when a person cannot remember a specific topic of information.
Infantile Amnesia: This is also a rare form of memory loss that involves the inability to remember events from their early childhood. The agreed upon cause is that certain areas of the brain that deal with memory storage are not fully formed by the time people come to the age of retaining memories.
Hysterical (or Fugue) Amnesia: This type of the disease is very rare and does not occur very often. Patients with this type of memory loss are unable to remember their past or even their identity. They see themselves, and they see a stranger. It’s usually triggered by a sudden, shocking event that the brain cannot process. In most cases, the patient’s memory slowly comes back within a few days of the onset.
Other types of amnesia include: Posthypnotic amnesia, which is the inability to remember events during hypnosis. Source amnesia, which is the ability to remember a certain topic of information, but are unable to recall where their learned it. Blackout amnesia, which is the inability to remember events that occurred while intoxicated. Lastly, Prosopmnesia, which is the inability to remember faces (this type of amnesia can be congenital or be acquired).
The most common types of amnesia are Retrograde and Anterograde, as they affect the hippocampus directly. (The hippocampus is involved in short-term and long-term memory).
In most cases, people gain back most or all of the memories lost in any kind of amnesia, but it is possible for memories to be seemingly lost forever.
Now that you know a bit more about amnesia, let’s get on with the writing advice, shall we?
Writing amnesia is harder than it looks. It may seem easy at first, but writing believable amnesia can be a very daunting task requiring careful research and considerable skill. Amnesia is a very common concept in fiction writing, so much so that many readers (and writers) consider using amnesia as a major plot point lazy and trite writing. They may have a point there; poorly-executed amnesia can be boring or cliched if proper respect to the subject is not shown.
Try to avoid being cliche. The bump-on-the-head cause of amnesia is quite overdone, and can be even worse when the miraculous cure for this amnesia is merely another bump on the head. Be different. Be original. Take the topic of amnesia and cover the rare, uncommon forms. Do the research to create a believable situation for your characters.
Respect the causes as well as the condition. Amnesia can be caused by post-traumatic stress (PTSD), physical brain damage, or other mental disorders. People actually have amnesia. It is not a made-up thing. Be sensitive to the people who live with this condition and respect them by doing your research.
Make sure to work on the plot before jumping in. Amnesia can be a tricky subject to handle. Does the character get amnesia later on, or does the story start with them wondering who and where they are? Does the character ever recover? How? When? Why? Answer every question you can think of regarding the character’s amnesia before you start writing to make sure you have your bases covered for research and plot creation.
Don’t just cover what the character remembers. What the character doesn’t know is equally as interesting and just as important to the plot. Treat these two pieces — what a character knows and what he or she doesn’t know — as two separate entities and address them accordingly as you create your plot and develop your character.
Have a point. Is it the protagonist or the antagonist or some minor character that has amnesia? Is the main plot point of the story? If not, why does the character in question have it and how does it further the plot? If it doesn’t at least somewhat advance the plot, then it might not be necessary to the overall story and we advise removing it.
Create plot outside of the amnesia. People suffering from amnesia are not defined by their condition any more than people suffering from cancer or schizophrenia are defined by their conditions. A plot based solely on amnesia is a deficient plot. Create subplots that exist outside of the amnesia. These subplots actually make the amnesia more realistic because they create a more realistic situation for your characters. To repeat: there is life outside of any neurological or physical condition (aside from death, which is normally rather permanent and does not include life). Plot accordingly.
If you take nothing else away from this, remember that amnesia comes in many forms and can be a debilitating condition, but it in no way defines a character. Do your research!
On that note, here’s some further reading:
The Human Memory (awesome website)
Amnesia in Writing
Is amnesia cliche? (forum discussion)
Amnesia. (forum discussion)
Kathryn Shay: Writing About Amnesia
If My Character Has Amnesia, How Do they Get ID? Can They Get a Job?
WHUMPTOBER is a month-long, prompt-based creation CHALLENGE (think: Inktober, but whumpier). There are four prompts for each day of the month, giving 124 for you to play with! There is also a list of 18 alternative prompts that can be subbed in for any day to give participants as much creative freedom as possible.
All prompts are meant to serve as inspiration without being taken literally (e.g. you don’t have to include the exact wording of prompts into your work). Feel free to run rampant on interpretation. For example, if the prompt is “flame", you could create something with reference to a candle/campfire, your character could have suffered a burn, or the flame could be a reference to an ‘old flame’ - an old relationship. It’s truly down to you!
You can produce work in any media you choose, including but not limited to: writing, visual artwork, photo/video/audio edits, paper crafts and elaborate recommendation lists (not just a list of links). You can participate as much or as little as you want (i.e. you don’t have to do ALL the prompts if you don’t want to) and prompts can be used in any order. They are also free to use even after the event ends.
Please make sure to read the Event Info and FAQ carefully, as most of your questions will be answered there already. For everything else, you are welcome to come to our ask box or ask questions in our Discord server here.
Information on how to TAG is here.
This year’s AO3 Collection can be found here.
This year’s playlist can be found here.
The ‘Anatomy of a Whumptober Prompt’ post can be found here.
And our 'Resources for Writing Sensitive Topics’ post is here.
We’re very excited to see the community come together for yet another year of Whumptober! Go ham with the prompts, and support your fellow creators - we wish you all the best of luck, but most importantly: HAVE FUN!
Happy whumping,
Mods Vanne, Yenn, Kitty and Surro
Text versions of the prompts, including a google doc format, are posted below the cut!
A Google Doc of the prompts can be found here for easy copy-and-pasting!
Whumptober 2025 Prompt List
No. 1: “Please don’t cry”
Lamb to Slaughter | Ceremony | Beg for Forgiveness
No. 2: “You’ve got a lot of nerve to dredge up all my fears.”
Prophecy | Sewer | Taking Accountability
No. 3: “I look in people’s windows, transfixed by rose golden glows.”
Isolation | Candlelight | Found Family
No. 4: “Don’t be scared, I’ve done this before.”
Non-Human Whumper | Iron Rod | Loss of Powers
No. 5: “My panic’s at the ceiling, but I’m face down on the carpet.”
Quivering | Dream Journal | Phobia
No. 6: “No grave can hold my body down.”
Caught in a Net | Medical Restraints | Pinned to the Wall
No. 7: “Tell me that you’re okay, and I’m fine.”
Trapped with the Enemy | Elevator | Pushed Beyond Breaking Point
No. 8: “Oh horror, oh horror, what did you see?”
Self-Inflicted Injury | Held at Gunpoint | Dissociation
No. 9: “We’ll make it alright to come undone.”
Touch | Flashbacks | Scalding
No. 10: “There’s nothing you can ever say, nothing you can ever do.”
Without Consent | Secrets | Lips Sewn Shut
No. 11: “Can you get through all the pain inside you?”
Hidden Injury | Laceration | Forced Reveal
No. 12: “It’ll be for nothing.”
Cardiac Arrest | Sacred Place | Withholding Medical Treatment
No. 13: “How dull is it to pause, to make an end, to rust unburnished.”
Never Enough | Insignia | Forced Retirement
No. 14: “In the end, it’s worthwhile.”
Ignoring an Illness | Body Bag | Wounded Caretaker
No. 15: “You can take a break, if you just tell me that it hurts.”
Failed Rescue Attempt | Body Part in the Mail | Live-Streamed Torture
No. 16: “I’ve had the rug pulled beneath my feet.”
Repressed Trauma | Permanent Marker | Disorientation
No. 17: “Tell me there’s a hope for me.”
Internal Bleeding | Coma | Redemption
No. 18: “As the world caves in.”
Dystopia | Ruins | Environmental Whump
No. 19: “You’re on your own, lost in the wild.”
Dehumanisation | Living Weapon | On Patrol
here's over 10.2K prompts of all sorts you can use for your writing ideas!
happy writing!
**no need to credit the list if it helps you with writing. but reblogging/sharing it with your writer friends is definitely appreciated!
** because of the massive size of the list, it will crash horribly. idk if it's any bettter on the sheets forms, but i wanted to include it just in case its easier.
5 Tiny Writing Tips That Aren’t Talked About Enough (but work for me)
These are some lowkey underrated tips I’ve seen floating around writing communities — the kind that don’t get flashy attention but seriously changed how I write.
1. Put “he/she/they” at the start of the sentence less often.
Try switching up your sentence rhythm. Instead of
“She walked to the window,”
try
“The window creaked open under her touch.”
Keeps it fresh and stops the paragraph from sounding like a checklist.
2. Don’t describe everything — describe what matters.
Instead of listing every detail in a room, pick 2–3 objects that say something.
“A half-drunk mug of tea and a knife on the table”
sets a way stronger tone than
“There was a wooden table, two chairs, and a shelf.”
3. Use beats instead of dialogue tags sometimes.
Instead of:
"I'm fine," she said.
Try:
"I'm fine." She wiped her hands on her skirt.
It helps shows emotion, and movement.
4. Write your first draft like no one will ever read it.
No pressure. No perfection. Just vibes. The point of draft one is to exist. Let it be messy and weird — future you will thank you for at least something to edit.
5. When stuck, ask: “What’s the most fun thing that could happen next?”
Not logical. Not realistic. FUN. It doesn’t have to stay — but chasing excitement can blast through writer’s block and give you ideas you actually want to write.
What’s a tip that unexpectedly helped with your writing? Let me know!! 🍒
hi, do you have any advice for writing a story about struggling against a lack of agency without, well, completely revoking agency from my protagonist?
i’ve been thinking a lot about theme and i’ve decided that a major turning point is going to be when my protagonist stops caring about what everyone else thinks she should do and makes that decision for herself… but i worry that everything up to that point will just be frustrating to read.
So here's the thing about agency - I think a lot of people get it wrong, in part because we can all agree on when a book lacks agency, but nobody seems to be able to boil it down to one specific thing. I tried googling it, because, like, why not, and got ten slight but also important different definitions on the front page.
What is agency in fiction?
Let's go with the very bare bones: agency in fiction is when a character makes decisions. Usually, we extend this definition in a few different ways:
The character is making a decision based on their wants and needs. You character may have to face down a dragon to save the village in what seems like a situation that presents more choice, but it is a decision they have to want to make based on their own convictions and beliefs.
The character is making a decision that has stakes. Deciding what they'll eat for breakfast is not really meaningful. Trying to decide to eat their pet chicken or face starvation, on the other hand, is truly a choice to consider. It will leave a lasting impact on the character and affect their future options.
The character is making a decision that affects the plot. Picking up that lightsaber or getting in that starship. Using the force instead of a guidance system or returning the dragon's pearl when keeping it could mean ultimate power. All of these decisions will change your story and move it forward. Deciding to get Starbucks will not (even if a major plot point happens because of it - your character did not choose to step into that plot point, they chose to get a grande mocha).
What does it mean to lack of agency?
When a story is lacking agency, usually we can hammer down the culprit to a few key things:
The character is dragged through a story and not actively participating. Things happen around the character, things happen to the character, but nothing fundamentally changes for the character. They do not make a choice based on a want or need for change. They remain static and learn nothing.
The character does not face any true choices. This is when there seems to be very high stake choices (fight or die! sink or swim), but... your character remains unaffected by them. They might be angry or scared or even indifferent, but none of those emotions spark any action based on what they want to do. They're just moving forward without thought.
The character's decisions don't affect the plot or themselves in any way. Sometimes making a decision does not mean a happy ending, but any decision made by your character that changes the outcome of what comes next is one of agency. If your character has to chose between picking up the knife to fight the monster or hiding in the closet but the outcome is the same either way and it doesn't effect their future choices, they don't have any agency in the plot.
Now, usually it's just fine to start out without your character having total (or any) agency. Planets explode, aliens invade, situations beyond their control will launch your character from their normal world where decisions don't matter much to high stake choices. Once they are in a position where their choices are based on their wants/needs and will determine where they'll end up, they have agency.
So let's go back to your story. Your character has wants and needs (to fit into the group) and is presumably making decisions to obtain those wants/needs (by doing what the group wants them to do). Based on our above definitions, I wouldn't call this character one that lacks agency - trying to fit in with what others want and think is a common and relatable experience. The key here is where you want your character to end up and how they get there.
Build it up. Your character wants to fit in, but they also (secretly) don't approve of what the group is doing. They may choose not to act, but that non-action has an emotional impact on them. (And therefore will linger through the plot.)
Introduce situations that show your character's future goal. They don't want that pumpkin spice latte - they order a mocha instead. While on the surface this seems like nothing, these small acts of self-interest versus group decisions embolden them to be themselves.
Make things morally sticky. The group has decided to pick on the new girl, but your character has been raised to know that's wrong. Do they struggle with it even as she goes along? Does it haunt her at night, do they try to talk about it with a neutral party? Even if your character isn't acting yet, they are still indicating that they have their own wants and needs, and are starting to listen to them.
Make sure the character's choices impact the plot. Eventually your character will stand up for themselves, but meanwhile them deciding to help carry the new girl's books instead of smoking with the group will lead to a self-realization conversation. The decision to confide in their dad instead of pretending everything is okay will open up another avenue to be themselves.
This rise in tension between the character and their group will lead to their satisfying decision to stand up for themselves - but only if you make sure to show that these decisions lead to eventual change. A true lack of agency is if the character has what should be an important conversation one night and wakes up the next morning and never thinks about or acts on that conversation again. And while Haruki Murakami might get away with that by doing the fantastical equivalent of jangling car keys in your face while being weird and creepy about teenaged boobs, I think you can do a lot better without having to try that hard.
As a Dungeon Master I nearly scrolled past this before my brain kicked my own ass and reminded me that I have tried looking up 'Blue Gemstones' at LEAST a dozen times in the last six months and never found anything this helpful.
Last two shifts I worked, I had an octogenarian patient with dementia that was hard of hearing and had been in the hospital for over a week. This is basically the perfect combination of conditions to cause delirium, a sudden onset mental change common in hospital settings. Seriously, it's REALLY common in hospitals. And working with this patient made clear to me how little people outside healthcare know about delirium. Considering delirium is super distressing, very common, associated with worse outcomes, and easily avoidable, I thought I'd lay some info out so you can recognize it when it happens.
Delirium is a temporary but serious state of "altered mental status." That means something is wrong with a patient's energy level and/or their understanding of the situation (for nursing students: this is any new deviation from A/Ox4). It is particularly common in elderly patients and patients who have a sensory deficit (difficulties hearing, seeing, or touching). Delirium can be caused by a lot of different factors, usually acting in combination--infection, new medication, interrupted routine, disruption of the day-night cycle, lack of sleep, pain, nausea, constipation, urinary retention, lack of interaction, immobility, isolation, and more.
Some signs of delirium are:
being extremely tired. This is beyond drowsiness, this is to the point where it is difficult to get a response. They aren't talking, they aren't following instructions like "squeeze my hands," it seems like you just cannot wake them up.
being extremely active. This is the patient that is climbing out of bed, that can't get settled, that's pulling off their clothes and anything touching them.
hallucinations
extreme anxiety
not making sense when they talk
being unmoored in time--think someone who cannot keep of when events happened and in what order. This is the patient who says they've been alone for hours when you were in their room ten minutes ago, or who cannot remember what the date is, or who doesn't know how long they've been in the hospital, or are very surprised when you tell them that it's three in the morning.
sudden onset of symptoms--dementia develops slowly. Delirium can develop in hours.
a cycle of improving and worsening symptoms. You'll hear this referred to as waxing and waning confusion. If at 10:00 someone is anxious, hallucinating, and trying to rip out their IV, but at 12:00 they are behaving like they normally do, you should be thinking delirium.
awareness that something is wrong. Delirious people often know something is wrong, which is different than other types of confusion. They know they aren't thinking right, they know that time is passing strangely, and when their symptoms improve, they can talk to you about what they experienced.
having been in the ICU. Seriously, something like 80% of ICU patients will have some level of delirium. The ICU is a machine that turns dying people into delirious ones. Obviously, delirium is an improvement in that case, but it can really affect recovery.
The treatment is straightforward but not always easy: sleep at night, be active and mobile as possible during the day, avoid medications that can cause confusion (dude there's SOOOOOOOO many), wear your usual hearing or vision aids, have a good bowel regiment, reduce unnecessary stimuli, remove unnecessary wires and gadgets (does your patient really need oxygen? do they really need ongoing pulse ox or constant telemetry?), and engage with other human beings.
If you know someone in the hospital, you can help by visiting or calling them during the day. Help ground them in the present by talking about current events in your life or what they've been doing or by working on a joint activity together like cards, puzzles, knitting, coloring, painting nails, etc. Encourage them to be active like getting up out of bed for meals or doing their physical therapy exercises with you. Help them with hygiene like helping them wash their face, brush their teeth, and comb their hair. Bring in stuff from home like pictures, blankets, stuffed animals, and personal toiletries. You want to help give them a foothold in the here and now.
You can also be an advocate for them to medical staff. We don't know what the patient is like when they aren't sick. I'm a float pool nurse; I will almost never have the same patient two nights in a row. It is hard for me to assess if someone is different from how they normally are, especially if they already have an underlying condition like dementia. Like I mentioned above, the patient that has prompted this little PSA had dementia at baseline. Her daughter was like, "This is not her normal, my mother is normally very active, she's engaged, she's forgetful but she loves talking, she doesn't pick at her clothes like this, none of this is her normal." That's super useful for me to know.
Delirium can resolve quickly or linger for days, maybe weeks. It IS temporary. However, it can destabilize a vulnerable patient and contribute to worse outcomes. It also sucks. Like, it's really unpleasant for everyone involved.
But like I said, the treatment is really simple. For the patient I had, during the day the doctor discontinued her IV medication because it was associated with higher rates of confusion, and nurse got her up to the chair for meals, and PT took her on a walk in the hallway. She also got bowel meds for constipation, plus fluids and movement. Which hey. Worked great. Was super not constipated by the time I took over. I toileted her, gave her some tylenol, and then did my absolute best to not wake her for the entire night. This meant skipping midnight vital signs (I have a whole rant about midnight vital signs btw) and rescheduling her morning lab draw for after breakfast. It also meant kindly but firmly telling her exhausted and hysterical daughter to get the hell out of the hospital and go home to get sleep herself. If she was worried about her mom, she could call anytime during the night and I'd tell her what was happening, but what her mom needed most right now was peace, quiet, and no one fussing over her.
(edit: "this "get out of here" is actually often the opposite of what we'd like family to do btw. It is very, very useful to have family members in the room at night since that's when the confusion tends to be worst.)
For my new nurses and nursing students out there, I know it is really hard to do less with patients when you're concerned about them, but deferring tasks that aren't time-sensitive or medically indicated to protect sleep is appropriate and defensible clinical judgment. Try to time all interventions for when the patient is awake. If a patient has a medication you must wake them up for at midnight, don't wake them up at 9:30 pm just so they can take their lipitor. If a patient is supposed to be repositioned throughout the night, see if your patient has delirium prevention orders in place so you can skip an instance of turning them. Put a sign on the door to contact the direct care nurse before going inside.
My patient slept nine solid hours, and in the morning when she woke, I felt like I was actually meeting her for the first time. Literally night and day from how I'd gotten her at start of shift. The daughter was so relieved, the patient felt much better, and I went home feeling very satisfied and also a little smug. Those twelve hours are the delirium experience in a nutshell.
Impulsiveness : Acts on instinct without careful planning.
Perfectionism : Sets unrealistically high standards, leading to self-criticism.
Indecisiveness : Struggles to commit to decisions or choose a path.
Arrogance : Overestimates one’s abilities and dismisses others.
Pessimism : Habitually expects negative outcomes in most situations.
Cynicism : Distrusts the motives and sincerity of others.
Overconfidence : Places excessive faith in one’s skills, often underestimating risks.
Stubbornness : Resists change and refuses to adapt to new ideas.
Jealousy : Feels envious of others' success or possessions.
Insecurity : Experiences frequent self-doubt and a lack of confidence.
Procrastination : Tends to delay tasks, often leading to missed opportunities.
Passivity : Avoids taking initiative and relies on others to act.
Aggressiveness : Responds with hostility or force rather than reason.
Selfishness : Prioritizes personal gain over the welfare of others.
Fragility : Is overly sensitive to criticism and easily discouraged.
Egotism : Constantly focuses on oneself and one’s own importance.
Defensiveness : Quickly rejects or rationalizes away critique or new information.
Manipulativeness : Exploits others to fulfill personal needs or desires.
Recklessness : Shows a careless disregard for potential risks or consequences.
Resentfulness : Holds lingering bitterness and grudges over perceived wrongs.
Distractibility : Finds it hard to maintain focus amid competing interests.
Impatience : Lacks the willingness to wait, often spoiling opportunities to learn.
Perfunctory : Performs actions in a mechanical, uninspired manner.
Self-Doubt : Consistently questions personal abilities and decisions.
Arbitraryness : Makes decisions based on whim rather than reason or evidence.
Rigidity : Is inflexible and unwilling to consider alternative viewpoints.
Gullibility : Trusts too easily, often leading to being misled or deceived.
Obsession : Becomes excessively fixated on particular ideas or details.
Aloofness : Maintains emotional distance, appearing detached or indifferent.
Intolerance : Refuses to accept differing perspectives or lifestyles.
Writing Advice for Brainstorming
Mix genres and time periods: Experiment by combining elements from different eras or genres to create unique settings and narratives.
Use "what if" scenarios: Pose unexpected questions (e.g., What if time travel operated on emotions rather than mechanics?) to spark novel ideas.
Draw from diverse mediums: Engage with art, music, or even scientific papers to inspire unexpected plot twists.
Embrace absurdity: Let illogical or surreal ideas guide you; sometimes the wildest thoughts lead to compelling stories.
Reverse clichés: Identify common tropes in your favorite genres and deliberately invert them to create fresh perspectives.
Incorporate personal anomalies: Transform your idiosyncrasies and personal struggles into rich, multi-dimensional characters.
Use mind-mapping: Visually plot your ideas in a freeform way to uncover hidden connections between disparate elements.
okay hey real question: what are good ways to describe fat characters?
I see a lot of 'have more fat characters' and I'm Here For It but as someone who is skinny and in a world where most existing literature makes characters fat only as a joke or an indication of some variety of moral badness, I'm not really sure how to describe them in a way that's not objectifying or insulting. like, I've grown up on poetic descriptions of thin characters ('long slim fingers' and 'willow figure' etc etc) but I haven't read flattering descriptions of fat characters and I don't know where to start. I've seen a lot of 'how to describe poc' or 'how to describe disabled characters' or whatever and I've seen art ref posts for drawing fat characters, but no posts about how to write them well. so. open call for advice or for examples you've found and like??
Howdy! Fat short white woman here. I've got some hopefully helpful thoughts on this which I will share a little later (I've got a few things to do first sadly).
In the meantime, OP (or anyone else) if you have specific questions about what it feels like for me to be in a fat body or what I personally do and don't worry / think about... I'm more than happy to answer.
In the meantime - I know you said you've seen ref posts for drawing fat characters...but here's one I like (in case you haven't come across it) that is nicely wordy: https://www.tumblr.com/bacchicly/677854396964634625?source=share
1. What kind of person is your OC in a crisis? Are they calm and collected? Do they panic? Or are they chronically the cause?
2. Is your OC a loner or a social butterfly? Are they satisfied with how they come across to other people?
3. What is your OC's financial status? Are they just scraping by, making enough to live comfortably, or wealthy? Has there ever been a drastic change in their status? If so, what happened?
4. Does your OC have a failed friendship or relationship they still think about? What happened? Is it an unresolved regret or is there a chance for reconciliation?
5. Does your OC have a signature weapon and/or attack? How long did they train to master it?
6. Does your OC know magic? Were they born with magical ability or did they train to acquire it? What is their favorite type of magic? Least favorite?
7. Does your OC like their natural hair color or do they dye it? What styles do they prefer?
8. What was your OC's most embarrassing moment? Does it still bother them or are they able to shrug it off?
9. Is your OC laid back or do they thrive on drama? What role do they play in their group of friends/associates?
10. Is your OC sentimental or pragmatic? Do they keep mementos or only what they need to survive? Have they always been this way or did something happen to make them change?
11. What does your OC believe in? God(s)? Monsters? Love? The power of unbreakable bonds of friendship to overcome any obstacle? The ability of money to open any door? Or are they indifferent?
12. Is your OC cynical or optimistic? Who or what shaped their outlook on life?
13. How important are romantic relationships to your OC? Do they prefer casual sex, short flings, or long term relationships? Do they want to get married or are they content with what they have? Or do they have no interest in romance whatsoever?
14. How important is friendship to your OC? Do they prefer to have one or two close friends or a large group of casual friends? Or do they prefer their own company over that of others?
15. What places hold significant meaning or memories for your OC? Do they have a positive or negative association with those places?
16. How does your OC make money? Do they have a respectible profession or work a series of odd jobs? Are they a criminal? Or do they get creative in the pursuit of coin?
17. Does your OC have an enemy? What happened between them? Is it mutual or one-sided? Is it petty or serious? Is one party seeking revenge? Does one person want the other dead or are they content to hate them from afar?
18. Has your OC ever had a prophecy made about them? Was it a big deal or did they ignore it? Was it straightforward or cryptic? Did it ever come to pass or did they circumvent it?
19. Has your OC ever had an experience with the paranormal or the divine? What happened? Was it a one time encounter or is it a normal part of their life? Did they find it terrifying or thrilling?
20. Has your OC ever done something terrible and lied about it? Did they run away or blame someone else for it? How long did they maintain the lie and did the truth ever come out?
i was scrolling your “life is in your home too” tag, which I love btw, and saw a post about how you learned to be a good dom from experienced expert doms by reading how they dom and some of their best scenes, do you think you could point me in the direction of some resources for me to study that too? thanks in advance, if not, thanks anyway!
(post referenced is here - link 1)
first of all tysm for this ask (+ your incredibly kind follow-up), it was a delight to receive + i’ve been wanting an excuse to talk about a lot of this for a while so i very much appreciate the interest!
as always please keep in mind that i am Just Some Fem, nothing is universal including when it comes to D/s & i can only speak to what works for me. i try to focus on starting points rather than specifics but ultimately my advice will always be limited by what i needed to hear & wasn’t told, which may not be what’s helpful for a different person. with that being said, here’s some suggestions!
i’ve posted a previous reading list (link 2) with relevant recs; particularly the practicality + sex writing sections have the kind of thing you’re looking for. specifically, The New Topping Book (2003) is a solid starting point; i definitely have my issues with it (haven’t read it recently enough to recall many specifics but i have the sense of general pervasive racism & ableism) but it did a good job at making me think & i appreciate the supportive tone they were going for
another book added to my tbr since then is Coming to Power (link 3), released by SAMOIS in 1983
other authors whose sex writing has been influential in my life: Sandra Cisneros, Natalie Diaz, Joan Nestle, Judy Grahn
the fic At The End of His Rope by Letterblade (link 4) is genuinely some of my favorite sex writing of all time & accomplishes the incredibly impressive feat of representing a broad array of dom styles & changes over time in the same piece
my “impurity culture” tag (link 5) houses the building blocks of my sexual ethic
i’ve found many of those foundations by poking around the incredible bodies of work original & archived @newsmutproject @woman-loving @gatheringbones
for me, studying sex is the same as studying poetry – reading for craft is a different process than for pleasure (not that there isn’t a great deal of pleasure to be found in such practice, especially for sadists – perhaps that’s why as a child i never resonated with Billy Collins’ “Introduction to Poetry,” like i love tying poems to chairs & beating them idk what to tell you). so, keeping in mind that these are suggestions not requirements, here’s how i read for + work on craft:
there is no such thing as too much journaling. this can take whatever form you prefer – voice memo, discord message to yourself, the noble notes app, your own personal sexy red string corkboard, a vast & stunning array of other approaches i can’t even begin to imagine. i personally have an elaborate web of spreadsheets & google docs lmao. what matters is developing a collection of ideas you want to play with + a practice of continually reflecting on past experiences.
pay attention to structure, not just content. find a scene you think is disjointed and pick at the seams, brainstorm better transitions. then find a scene that flows so smoothly it carries you with it and figure out what makes it work.
rewrite a scene you’re drawn to or affected by to suit your own preferences. i first did this when i couldn’t shake “Interlude 3” (link 6) from my head after reading The New Topping Book; you can read my variation on the theme here (link 7) if you’re interested.
write or think through a scene fantasy you have from negotiation to aftercare. obviously it’s very difficult if not impossible to fully script a scene in advance; the purpose isn’t planning something you’ll later do but rather getting used to coming up with ideas to get from one disparate moment / act to the next.
revisit a scene you’ve read, written, thought about, etc and list the physical & mental acts that are required / expected of the sub (eg, kneeling for 10 minutes; making eye contact; counting to 30, etc). then rework the scene for a sub who has the same interests & goals who cannot do 20% (or 50%, or any) of these acts.
revisit a previous scene and list the places where you think a sub might safeword & why. then rework it with the sub safewording somewhere that isn’t any of these places.
i also recommend keeping in mind that like… for me, reading about ethical sex can often be a very distressing process for the same reason that it’s liberating: because it proves that things i’ve experienced are not the way sex has to be. i’ll tell this story in its fullness one day but the first time i read S/HE by Minnie Bruce Pratt i literally had a flashback to events i’d repressed for years, it was devastating, i’m so grateful for it. hell, in the process of compiling resources for this post i cried twice editing this quote (link 8) because between reading that book the first time & now someone did “respond with scorn or ridicule” when i safeworded. so i would really encourage folks to approach this kind of work with as much grace & comfort for yourself as you can muster or borrow – if it’s really fucking hard, you’re not alone in that, & it’s okay to take your time + pace yourself + seek support.
your + others’ interest is definitely motivating me to actually write posts i’ve been tossing around for months so thank you again & feel free to keep an eye out for more shut-in sex tips in my new “tomorrow sexting will be good again” tag. would love to hear your thoughts on any of this post / these or other books / whatever really lol. wishing you all the best & i hope today is kind to you! 💓
Ohh, so I was looking at my storage and found these! I originally shared them on twitter before yeeting the platform. Anyway, feel free to use! Art memes for your oc :D
There are stories that only you are qualified to tell best: that only you are able to tell. You are uniquely positioned in spacetime to do this job because of your life detail, your upbringing, your reading, your thinking. No one else can tell your stories just the way you do, no matter how good a writer they might be.
And inside you somewhere are characters desperate for your attention; desperate for your intention and your work to breathe life into them. They need your voice raised to tell their stories. No one else can do it. You are their only hope.
Waste no more time worrying about whether your take on their stories will be good enough. You have more important things to be thinking about. So go get on with it. :)
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