B. L. Radley

Author. Editor. Purveyor of strange new worlds. Xe/it, adult, disabled. Rep'd by Leah Pierre @Ladderbird. This creative project blog will occasionally be nsfw. I block all bigots.

[digitalkiddo]

If you're writing anything involving cons, scams, heists, or morally questionable characters who are very good at lying, here are some free resources I've been using for research. Saving you the "why is this in my search history" anxiety.

1. The FBI's Famous Cases & Criminals archive (fbi.gov/history/famous-cases) has detailed breakdowns of real fraud cases, Ponzi schemes, and confidence operations. The language they use is clinical and precise, which is perfect for getting the procedural details right.

2. The FTC Consumer Sentinel Network publishes annual reports on the most common fraud tactics in the US. Great for understanding how modern scams actually work and what makes people fall for them.

3. The Smithsonian's American Art Museum has a free digital collection of forgery case studies. If your character forges documents or art, this is gold.

4. Court Listener (courtlistener.com) is a free legal database where you can read actual court transcripts from fraud trials. Want to know how a real con artist talks under oath? This is where you find out.

5. The Internet Archive's collection of old newspaper crime sections. Search for "confidence man" or "swindle" in papers from the 1920s through 1960s and you'll find incredible real stories that would feel too dramatic for fiction.

Bonus: The Psychology of Fraud section on the Association for Psychological Science website has accessible articles about why people trust, how deception works cognitively, and what makes someone a convincing liar. Essential reading if you want your con artist characters to feel psychologically real.

Reblog to save for later. Your WIP will thank you.

[twig-the-escaped-cephalopod]

i am Thinkimg . about the Character. and listening to a Song. i a m sure this will not have repercussions

[vamplire]

vampirism as a metaphor for queerness. hunger as a metaphor for repressed desire. immortality as an expression of profound loneliness.

[irresistible-revolution]

normalize creators replying to fanon shippers with “that’s great that you’re inspired to write your own version of things. keep doing that! but please respect our version of our story.”

normalize fans being reminded that boundaries between fandom and creators exist for a reason.

normalize fans recognizing their own creative potential without seeking canon validation

normalize the idea that fandom is a hobby, not an identity to threaten and fight and harass people over

normalize a healthy understanding of the boundaries between fiction and reality

normalize just chilling the fuck out lmao

[jeza-red]

This is a good post, but it stil misses the point by a tiiiiiiny margin.

The proper response of the creative person shouldn't be "please respect my story/vision" it should be "please respect me and my position as the paid professional in this relationship."

New fans don't know this - and I entirely blame the immediacy of communication of socmedia - but creators of media tended to keep the fans at arm's length because of a very real legal risk that listening to the headcanons, etc could result in.

The best solution, unfortunately, is for the creators to raise up some barriers between them and the fans.

[kayvsworld]

most tragic thing about wanting to see more stuff of your oc is that the c is o and YOU have to make the stuff. devastating. why can’t art of my beautiful baby just appear in my hands. just materialize under my pillow, like from the tooth fairy

[xiaq]

One of the best things about being a writer is thinking of something small you can add to your work that’s just. Devastating. Like you’re sitting there going. Oh. That would be diabolical. People would get really riled up about that. Exquisite. Let’s do it.

[ilynpilled]

actually how many significant female characters fitting this archetype can u think of? and i mean their arc and role being actually substantial

[belladonnafeli]

Women don’t really get these arcs as much as men, but it does remind me of this quote.

[rainintheevening]

Okay, we got a new one, boys.

[fleshengine]

Close enough welcome back Chekov's gun.

[comma-souptra]

Prev you can’t bury this in your own tags

[justbreakonme]

I also like the idea of showing something as a problem before it’s shown as a strength. Almost every character trait has two sides, and by showing the “bad” side first, it sets things up to not only make sense, but to also be very satisfying.

[blradley]

thank you to my buddy for the lovely writing day xxx I actually feel like I've made progress!

[longsightmyth]

Me, turning an interrogation lamp onto an author's face: what did you say this place was

Author, squinting: a marsh

Me, somehow turning up the intensity of the lamp: Then answer me this: WHY DOES IT HAVE TREES

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

Author, tearfully: b-because of a century or more of mis-management and agricultural drainage resulting in successional creep to willow carr

[heymerle]

Bald cypress would like a word. (It's a tree that lives in swamps in the southern US.)

[longsightmyth]

Yes. A swamp. Not a marsh. They are different things. That is the point.

- signed someone who has lived in the southern us her whole life whose mother's phd in biology and constant work on wetlands has greatly informed said life

[blradley]

CAT SHAMING.

Guess who finally came home from the cattery and immediately got in the dog's bed

[pinnedwings]

one of the most difficult things about deciding you want to write a fictional doctor (of the non-who variety) is writing actual medical scenes. we all know that medical dramas are notoriously cliched, and i for one fully understand how unimportant factual accuracy can be to the emotional importance of a scene. sometimes you don’t have to get it write for your story to work. i have a disclaimer on my blog that i myself am just a layman, but i like to at least know what i’m writing about! in the interest of being as accurate as i can, i would like to spread that love around. here’s a list of medical fiction/fantasy writing resources i’ve found!

surgeonsblog

article i found this from^ (w/even more resources)

redwoods medical edge

^article where i found that

this article is short/basic/doesn’t link anywhere else, but i found it very helpful anyway

supposed to be good but to me, seemed difficult to navigate. (dp lyle)

this on the otherhand, is the jackpot (novelmalpractice)

tumblr blog centered around this topic

this is more about the common pitfalls/anachronisms of medical fiction but still helpful

writing medical scenes: useful links by paul anthony shortt

the last one im going to include is an article by a doctor about common mistakes in popular medical shows, i liked this one

tagging who liked the interest check on this @hesjustcarter @prodigiumamare @frankengeeks

[djbodyhorror]

things to say during a firm handshake with another man:

your hands are so warm and tender

I love you

you remind me of my late wife

your eyes are beautiful yet filled with pain

its just been so long since someone touched me

[blradley]

“You are jealous as a wife.” “Don’t insult Mrs Larch so,” Cassidy replied. Nina was a fine woman, who abided by that most ancient law of peaceful matrimony: to turn the same blind eye to her husband’s indiscretions as he turned to her own.

I look forward to introducing Nina Larch to you all! Love a separated couple in the pre-mainstream-divorce era, who still greatly respect and care for each other, but have... irreconcilable differences, shall we say.

[blradley]

have a little world-building for Anatomy of a Songbird (my medical fantasy set in 1700s London)

Content warnings: period-typical racial slur against Romani people & travellers; general Anglocentricism and 'Enlightenment' attitudes. And, of course, obnoxious overuse of the run-on sentence.

‘The Fleshwitch,’ one Doctor Errinwright of the Glasgow Institute had written, in a letter published in the second edition of that city’s Medical Journal, ‘is the greatest threat to this nation, bar perhaps the French.

‘A doctor perfects his art through experience and rigorous anatomical study. His is the realm of empirical science. He quantifies; he catalogues; he seeks the humblest truths of The Lord’s creation, not for his own edification, but so that he might walk in the path of the Lamb and reach out his hand to the leper. But no blasphemous proclamation makes the doctor, that his hand itself is what heals!

'Our Empire stands at a crossroads: on one side reason and logic; on the other, shamanistic ritual. I implore the learnèd subscribers of this periodical – nay, every person to walk Great Britain’s shores! – to consider whether they would consign their daughter’s care to a doctor or to a backwoods peddler of hedge-magic, no more scholarly than the gypsy who reads your palm in Covent Garden.’

Forty years had passed since Errinwright penned this persecution, and ten since the right of licensed Fleshwitches to practice was codified in law (and, presumably, since Errinwright spun so fast in his grave that he cored through to China). Nine years and eleven months, since Larch stood before that panel of grim-faced, moustachioed men in the Royal College chambers on Warwick Lane, and gained his accreditation.

Yet as he strode up the echoing, oak-wood staircase towards the great octagonal operating theatre, very little seemed to have changed.

[transman-badass]

The problem with having an awesome villain OC is finding the right story to put them in. Especially if they could fit into multiple genres.

[polarity-disturbed]

big fan of when a character metaphorically sweeps something under the rug, but you can feel them flinch every time they walk over it and feel the crumbs beneath their feet