The Writings Of Shadow

This blog is where I'll post original pieces of work. Call me Shadow. 20 years old. Female. USA.

[writeworld-blog]

This Is a Towel: Character Questionnaires

Character Development Questions for Writers (113 questions; geared toward supernatural narratives)

30 Character Questions (30 questions; very basic)

The Mother of All Character Questionnaires (382 questions; extremely in-depth and geared toward tabletop role-players)

Character Questionnaire (50 questions; pretty generic)

Character Questionnaire One (18 questions; interesting questions)

Character Questionnaire Two (33 questions; pretty basic)

Character Survey Questions (29 questions; pretty basic)

Character Outlines (107 questions; Yeah Write is very thorough)

Adult Character Questionnaire (32 questions; pretty basic)

Child Character Questionnaire (40 questions; pretty basic but very useful)

Additional Questions for the Character Questionnaire (15 questions; useful appendage)

HUGE Character Sheet for Fiction Writers (extremely thorough)

Checklist for Character Development  (interesting checklist to go by while creating a character)

Character Profile Form (very thorough; submitted by self-fulfilling-prophet)

Character Traits Meme (great checklist of character traits from pichu4850)

Masterlist of Character Development Questions Inspired By Different Fandoms (benedicthelps)

Character Sheets and character creation (thatfrenchhelper)

Writing a Character: Questionnaire (firstwordsoftheprologue)

The Most Epic Character Chart Ever

Story Questionnaire

Got another one for us? Link us to it through our submit box!

-C

DON’T PANIC

[inky-duchess]

Fantasy Guide to Medicine: Cold and Flu

Nature is our pharmacy. Here are some herbs to clear colds and flus.

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor. Research must be done on these before use.

Garlic – This is an antiseptic and can be used as an antibiotic.

Onion – Onions can be used treat coughing. Chemicals in onion can treat respiratory issues.

Thyme – Thyme can be used to cure respiratory infections and coughing. It also relieves stomach issues.

Sage – Another antiseptic. This can be used for to treat the sinuses. (Cannot be used by pregnant/breastfeeding women)

Cayenne powder – Cayenne is used preventative measure for a cold or flu. It can lessen the duration of these illnesses.

Peppermint – Used for lowering fevers and treating upset digestion.

Chamomile – It calms the nerves, improves sleeping patterns, curing pink eye and reduces fever.

Lemon – Can be used to fight flus and colds as well as reducing phlegm.

Nettle Leaf – contains vitamins and minerals to hydrate the body and destroy certain toxins. It can be used as an immune booster and to prevent illnesses.

Elderberry – Elderberry supports the body’s immune system even during illness.

Yarrow- Used for colds and flus. It can shorten illness if used correctly. It can combat fevers by sweating the patient. This is suitable for sick children.

[shadow-writings]

Untitled

There once was a girl who tried to hide her heart from the world. She had been teased and picked on from an early age and found she couldn’t trust anyone. So she built up walls around her heart in an attempt to keep people at bay. At first the walls were subtle, merely rocks piled up around her but each time someone came and knocked the walls over, she would rebuild them slightly higher and stronger. Eventually there were many layers of walls that she would lower to allow people closer but very few actually made it to her heart. Obviously her mother was there and her animals however no one else came to share that space nestled so close to her heart.

Now a woman grown, she tried to find someone who would love and care for her. Very few even tried but they never made it very far. Most of the time they gave up after making it past a few layers.

One day she met a man who was kind and seemed to have potential. He was the first who had a genuine interest in her. When they met in person, he made it through many walls on the first day and as they continued to meet he made it through many more. At the rate he was going, she was no longer letting the walls down but he was busting through them, which had never been done before. The last time he met her, he managed to break through the final wall and had made it to where her heart was hidden away. This was the first time that someone from the outside had made it this far. However the man didn’t know just how rare this occasion was as well as what he had stumbled upon. He stayed there next to her heart until that fateful day when he told her that he had laid with someone else. His words were daggers that sliced through her defenseless heart, who had known no such pain. The words and his actions cut her heart so deeply that it fell apart. The man walked away not knowing the damage he had done and left the pieces to be picked up by her mom.

Between the woman and her mother, they were able to find all the pieces of that broken heart and tried to put it back together even if it was just a start. As her heart started to heal, the woman went to work building more new walls and repairing those that had crumbled. She was laboring on one of those walls when the man came back and walked straight back to where her heart was recovering with the stitches that kept it together. With one simple slash, he took out a row of the thread that held her together. This time the woman rushed to intercept him before he escaped. She found him and stopped him, she pointed to the blade that was dripping with blood that he held in his hand. He looked confused as though he had no idea of what he had done.

“I trusted you, I let you in, and shame on me if I ever make that mistake again,” the woman said with such a rage and sadness.

“I don’t know if I ever want to see you again for as long as these walls are not fully built, but when I do see you again these walls will be reinforced with every metal known to man. I trusted you too easily and I fell way too fast but how dare you not even think to ask if I was ever alright. However, I’m the fool left heartbroken and bleeding while you walk away not knowing the pain you caused me. And with that I’ll let you have your fun.”

The woman stood tall as the man walked past her but once he was gone she crumpled to the ground as the dark whispers started to form her shroud.

“He never cared for you.”

“It was all a simple game.”

“Anyone could have seen that he was playing you to get what he wanted, to get what he gained.”

I regret what I gave you cause in the end I only got a broken heart. You taught me a lot and for that I say thank you. I won’t let anyone hurt me again and I want to let you know that even though you hurt me, I still care. I may not always show it but my feelings are still there. I want to say that this is only goodbye for now but I’m not really sure, I might come back when my heart has healed. Just promise me you won’t forget me, that’s always been my biggest fear.

~ Love, Gabi

[cobblesnotwrites]

Hey folks, it’s me, Cobblesnotwrites! 

I’m back again after a super long break, and I’ve recently been wanting to get back into writing again. I miss writing in the Gotham fandom and I’ve been wanting to explore and write for a few more fandoms, too. 

I’m not sure if many will remember me, but it’s good to be back and I’d be happy to meet some new faces, too. 

@gorleska, @luciebell-writes I remember you guys, hope you’re doing well! 

Please drop this a like if you write any kind of reader insert fics, or general fanfics. Especially in the Gotham fandom! 

[shadow-writings]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapters: 2/? Fandom: Gotham (TV) Rating: Not Rated Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death Relationships: Jerome Valeska/Original Female Character(s), Jerome Valeska/Original Character(s) Characters: Jerome Valeska, Gabi Ramirez (OC), Jim Gordon, Harvey Bullock, Oswald Cobblepot, Bruce Wayne, Alfred Pennyworth, Zak Luna (OC), Daniel Luna (OC) Additional Tags: Friends to Lovers Summary:

Gabi Ramirez’s life has been anything but normal, so when the circus comes to Gotham it’s not surprising that things go ary and she meets a certain redhead.

[noshitloki]

IF YOU LOVE WRITING BUT DON’T HAVE THE INSPIRATION FOR A 10-PART BOOK SAGA YOU SHOULD TAKE A LOOK AT THIS SITE

IT’S INCREDIBLY HELPFUL AND CAN FOR INSTANCE GENERATE TOPICS AND FIRST LINES, CONTAINS LOADS OF EXERCISES AND YOU CAN FIND PLENTY OF WRITING TIPS.

[shadowstep-of-bast]

BLESS YOU I LOVE YOU OH MY GODS I’VE NEEDED THIS

[impishtubist]

WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE?

[conleches]

some fucking resources for all ur writing fuckin needs

body language masterlist

a translator that doesn’t eat ass like google translate does

a reverse dictionary for when ur brain freezes

550 words to say instead of fuckin said

638 character traits for when ur brain freezes again

some more body language help 

[maxkirin]

So, let me guess— you just started a new book, right? And you’re stumped. You have no idea how much an AK47 goes for nowadays. I get ya, cousin. Tough world we live in. A writer’s gotta know, but them NSA hounds are after ya 24/7. I know, cousin, I know. If there was only a way to find out all of this rather edgy information without getting yourself in trouble…

You’re in luck, cousin. I have just the thing for ya.

It’s called Havocscope. It’s got information and prices for all sorts of edgy information. Ever wondered how much cocaine costs by the gram, or how much a kidney sells for, or (worst of all) how much it costs to hire an assassin?

I got your back, cousin. Just head over to Havocscope.

((PS: In case you’re wondering, Havocscope is a database full of information regarding the criminal underworld. The information you will find there has been taken from newspapers and police reports. It’s perfectly legal, no need to worry about the NSA hounds, cousin ;p))

Want more writerly content? Follow maxkirin.tumblr.com!

[rifa]

HELLO

[samurots-deactivated20160616]

i just found this website that can randomly generate a continent for you!! this is great for fantasy writers

plus, you can look at it in 3d!

theres a lot of viewing options and other things! theres an option on-site to take a screenshot, so you don’t have to have a program for that!

you can view it here!

[somethingdnd]

Totally gonna use this for making my worlds

[hackmydungeon]

This is the future

[patientno7]

the suffering never ends

[sinksanksockie2]

This is the real process

[thewritingbeast-blog]

Resources for you!

Character Ideas:

Character creation masterpost

Character Alignment Chart

More character alignment descriptions

Muslim Character questions

Characters with magical powers

Building a new character advice

How to create a character for an online or tabletop RPG (also a good guide on creating characters in general)

Royalty/nobility TV Tropes page

Basic character profile

OC masterpost

Random character generators - (1), (2), (3), (4)

D&D Character Building Tool

Character Design Ideas:

How clothing affects a character’s personality

Character Design Inspiration blog

Concept art, fan art, cool art to be inspired by

Character design references and inspiration

Sources for POC character design ideas and models

Create your own character model using HeroForge

For horned characters

Body and hair types guide

Random outfit generator

Naming Help:

Amazing site with an endless amount of naming resources

General advice on avoiding naming appropriation

Hispanic Surnames

Gothic Victorian names

Huge master list for character things in general

Masterlist of names of all types - including but not limited to ancient/old world names, Celtic, African, Northern European, Southern and Central American Native names, Japanese, Chinese, Mongolian, Polynesian, and more

Another name masterlist

How to pick a character name guide

Yet another names masterlist

Creating Background/backstory:

Character Sheet/Development Sheet

Another character development list

In-depth character personality, motivations and traits sheet

320 talents and passions for characters

On writing likes and dislikes that aren’t frivolous

Why you should write non-human characters non-conforming to the gender binary

Stereotypes, tropes, and archetypes

Random backstory generator

Assassin and thief character tropes to avoid

Character Interactions and putting your character into your world/story:

Comparing character height/height references

Characters who are scientists and writing about them doing science

Describing what different voices sound like

Describing skin tones

Writing friendship interactions that are platonic

Why having one character knock their friend unconscious to prevent them from doing something is a bad idea

Advice on shipping OCs with canon characters and what to avoid doing

Sweet Polly Oliver and Sweet on Polly Oliver situations (think of Disney’s Mulan for an example)

How to write multiple viewpoints/juggling a main cast of more than 4 to 6 characters

How to make readers care about your morally gray hero/anti-hero

On platonic OC and canon character relationships

How to avoid Godmodding in RPs

When it’s cheap to kill off a character

Writing dialogue

Things you shouldn’t do to canon characters

Avoiding purple prose in writing and RPs

Slang resources

Dialogue tips

Websites to chart your story/plot/character relationships

Bonus art masterlist!

[brucewayneright]

BLESS EVERYONE IN THIS POST.

[pervyking]

I will always reblog this!

[unoutan]

YESSSSSS. GOOD SHIT. GOOD SHIT FOR CREATIVES <3

[writersrandomramblings]

Overlooked.

[wordsnstuff]

Useful Writing Resources

This is an extensive list of resources for every problem you could come across while writing/planning/editing your novel. Use it well;)

{ *** } Indicate a Highly Reccommended Resource

Planning/outlining Your Work

How To Outline ***

Zigzag Method : Creating Plots

How to Plot a Romance Novel 

Seven Great Sources of Conflict for Romances 

Let’s talk about brainstorming

Writing Something With Meaning ***

Past Or Present Tense? : How To Decide

Writing Your Work

How To Write A Fabulous Chapter #1 ***

How to Build a Romance Thread in Your Story 

The Big Book Of Writing Sex ***

6 Ways to Get Your Readers Shipping Like Crazy 

Romance Writing Tips ***

20 Tips for Writing Lovable Romance Novel Heroes

7 Ways To Speed Up Your Writing *** 

80+ Barriers to Love: A List of Ideas to Keep Romantic Tension High 

9 Romance Writing Mistakes to Avoid 

Removing the Creeps From Romance

19 Ways to Write Better Dialogue ***

50 Things Your Characters Can Do WHILE They Talk ***

How To Write Action And Fight Scenes

10 Steps To Write Arguments

9 Ways To Write Body Language

Writing Good Kissing Scenes

Writing Murders

Create And Control Tone ***

Tips for Writing Ghost Stories

Incorporating Flashbacks

12 Tips To Avoid Overwriting ***

Characters

Behind the Name

Top Baby Names

Looking for a name that means a certain thing? ***

7 Rules of Picking Names

Most Common Surnames ***

Minor Character Development

Writing Antagonists, Antiheroes and Villains

Characters With Enhanced Senses

5 Tips to Help You Introduce Characters

How Do You Describe a Character?

How To Write Child Characters

36 Core Values For Building Character

Questions To Answer When Creating Characters ***

4 Ways to Make Readers Instantly Loathe Your Character Descriptions

5 Ways to Keep Characters Consistent

Character Archetypes

25 Ways To Fuck With Your Characters

Building Platonic Relationships Between Female Characters

9 Simple and Powerful Ways to Write Body Language 

33 Ways To Write Stronger Characters

Conveying Character Emotion 

How to Make Readers Love an Unlikable Character…  

How to Create Powerful Character Combos

How To Describe A Character’s Voice ***

Describing Clothing And Appearance ***

Career Masterpost ***

Creating Your Character’s Personality ***

Character Flaws ***

Editing

DON’T EDIT>>> REWRITE THE WHOLE THING FIRST

Ultimate Guide To Editing Each Aspect Of Your Work ***

Why You Would Read Your Novel Out Loud ***

Grammar and Punctuation ***

How To Write A Captivating First Sentence

10 Things Your Opening Chapter Should Do: A Check-List for Self-Editing ***

Saving Your Story: Finding Where It Went Wrong

How To Condense Without Losing Anything

The Stages Of Editing

Dialogue/Description Balance

3 Proofreading Tips

The Short Story Form

Chapter & Novel Lengths

Anatomy Of A Novel : Chapters and Parts ***

How To Write Chapter After Chapter Until You Have A Book ***

Where Chapter #2 Should Start

Step By Step Guide To Editing Your Draft

Writing Tool: CTRL-F (How And Why You Should Use It) ***

How To Kill A Character

25 Steps To Edit The Unmerciful Suck Out Of Your Story

5 Ways To Make Your Novel Helplessly Addictive ***

Setting

{Setting} How To Describe Setting In Your Stories ***

20 Questions To Enhance Setting

How To Bring Your Setting To Life

Miscellaneous Resources You Can Use In Between

How to Write from a Guy’s POV 

The Emotional Wounds Thesaurus

Text To Speech Reader

Compare Character Heights 

A Visual Dictionary of Tops

Writers Helping Writers

7 Tricks To Imrove Your Writing Overnight

Work Out/ Word Count : Exercise Between Writing ***

Most Important Writing Tips ***

Let’s talk about diversity in novels

Letting Go Of Your Story

Keeping A Healthy Writing Schedule And Avoiding Procrastination ***

How To Create A Good Book Cover

Write or Die

Tip of my Tongue

Character Traits Form

Online Thesaurus

Writing Sketchy/Medical/Law

Coma: Types, Causes, etc

Tips for writing blood loss

Gunshot Wound Care

Examples of Hospital Forms

Common Legal Questions

The Writer’s Forensics Blog

Brain Injury Legal Guide

Types of Surgical Operations

Types of Mental Health Problems

A Day in the Life of a Mental Hospital Patient

Global Black Market Information ***

Crime Scene Science

Examining Mob Mentality

How Street Gangs Work

Writers’ Block Help/ Productivity

Story Plot Generator

@aveeragemusings ‘ Cure To Writers’ Block ***

50 Romance Plot Ideas

Reading Like A Writer ***

Defeat Writers’ Block

Writing In A Bad Mood ***

Writers Block

When You’ve Lost Motivation To Write A Novel ***

What To Do When The Words Won’t Flow ***

9 Ways To Be A More Productive Writer

“I Cannot Write A Good Sentence Today” (How To Get Over It) ***

Real Writing Advice ***

Info You Need To Know & Words You Didn’t Think Of

A Writer’s Thesaurus ***

Words To Describe… ***

Words & Phrases To Use In Your Sex Scenes ***

Colors (An Extensive List Of Colors)

List Of Kinks & Fetishes ***

List Of Elemental Abilities

inkarnate.com : World Creator And Map Maker For Your Imaginary Setting

Body Language Phrases

List Of Legendary Creatures

How To Write Magic

Hairstyle References

Hemingway : Writing Checker

Body Types: Words To Describe Bodies and How They Move Around

Poisonous Herbs and Plants ***

The Psychology of Color

The Meaning behind Rose color

Types of Swords

Color Symbolism

How a handgun works

How to Write a Eulogy

Types of Crying

Avoiding LGBTQ Stereotypes ***

Superstitions and More

The 12 Common Archetypes

Language of Flowers

12 Realistic Woman Body Shapes

Using Feedback And Reviews

Turning Negative Reviews Into Positive Ones ***

Proofreading Marks : Easy Symbols To Make Reviewing/Feedback Easier ***

Authonomy Teen Ink Figment Fiction Press ReviewFuse

These Are Trusted Critique Sites ;)

[writing-prompt-s]

For all the writers out there. Please reblog this!

[sheikofthesheikah]

Injury angst for writing dummies.

Hospitals and injury are always such a staple of angst fics, but 9 times out of 10 the author has clearly never been in an emergency situation and the scenes always come off as over-dramatized and completely unbelievable. So here’s a crash course on hospital life and emergencies for people who want authenticity. By someone who spends 85% of her time in a hospital. 

Emergency Departments/Ambulances.

Lights and sirens are usually reserved for the actively dying. Unless the person is receiving CPR, having a prolonged seizure or has an obstructed airway, the ambulance is not going to have lights and sirens blaring. I have, however, seen an ambulance throw their lights on just so they can get back to the station faster once. Fuckers made me late for work.

Defibrillators don’t do that. You know, that. People don’t go flying off the bed when they get shocked. But we do scream “CLEAR!!” before we shock the patient. Makes it fun.

A broken limb, surprisingly, is not a high priority for emergency personnel. Not unless said break is open and displaced enough that blood isn’t reaching a limb. And usually when it’s that bad, the person will have other injuries to go with it.

Visitors are not generally allowed to visit a patient who is unstable. Not even family. It’s far more likely that the family will be stuck outside settling in for a good long wait until they get the bad news or the marginally better news. Unless it’s a child. But if you’re writing dying children in your fics for the angst factor, I question you sir. 

Unstable means ‘not quite actively dying, but getting there’. A broken limb, again, is not unstable. Someone who came off their motorbike at 40mph and threw themselves across the bitumen is. 

CPR is rarely successful if someone needs it outside of hospital. And it is hard fucking work. Unless someone nearby is certified in advanced life support, someone who needs CPR is probably halfway down the golden tunnel moving towards the light. 

Emergency personnel ask questions. A lot of questions. So many fucking questions. They don’t just take their next victim and rush off behind the big white doors into the unknown with just a vague ‘WHAT HAPPENED? SHE HIT HER HEAD?? DON’T WORRY SIR!!!’ They’re going to get the sir and ask him so many questions about what happened that he’s going to go cross eyed. And then he’s going to have to repeat it to the doctor. And then the ICU consultant. And the police probably. 

In a trauma situation (aka multiple injuries (aka car accident, motorbike accident, falling off a cliff, falling off a horse, having a piano land on their head idfk you get the idea)) there are a lot of people involved. A lot. I can’t be fucked to go through them all, but there’s at least four doctors, the paramedics, five or six nurses, radiographers, surgeons, ICU consultants, students, and any other specialities that might be needed (midwives, neonatal transport, critical retrieval teams etc etc etc). There ain’t gonna be room to breathe almost when it comes to keeping someone alive.

Emergency departments are a life of their own so you should probably do a bit of research into what might happen to your character if they present there with some kind of illness or injury before you go ahead and scribble it down.

Wards

Nurses run them. No seriously. The patient will see the doctor for five minutes in their day. The nurse will do the rest. Unless the patient codes.

There is never a defibrillator just sitting nearby if a patient codes. 

And we don’t defibrillate every single code. 

If the code does need a defibrillator, they need CPR.

And ICU. 

They shouldn’t be on a ward. 

There are other people who work there too. Physiotherapists will always see patients who need rehab after breaking a limb. Usually legs, because they need to be shown how to use crutches properly.

Wards are separated depending on what the patient’s needs are. Hospitals aren’t separated into ICU, ER and Ward. It’s usually orthopaedic, cardiac, neuro, paediatric, maternity, neonatal ICU, gen surg, short stay surg, geriatric, palliative…figure out where your patient is gonna be. The care they get is different depending on where they are.

ICU.

A patient is only in ICU if they’re at risk of active dying. I swear to god if I see one more broken limb going into ICU in a fic to rank up the angst factor I’m gonna shit. It doesn’t happen. Stop being lazy. 

Tubed patients can be awake. True story. They can communicate too. Usually by writing, since having a dirty great tube down the windpipe tends to impede ones ability to talk. 

The nursing care is 1:1 on an intubated patient. Awake or not, the nurse is not gonna leave that room. No, not even to give your stricken lover a chance to say goodbye in private. There is no privacy. Honestly, that nurse has probably seen it all before anyway. 

ICU isn’t just reserved for intubated patients either. Major surgeries sometimes go here post-op to get intensive care before they’re stepped down. And by major I mean like, grandpa joe is getting his bladder removed because it’s full of cancer. 

Palliative patients and patients who are terminal will not go to ICU. Not unless they became terminally ill after hitting ICU. Usually those ones are unexpected deaths. Someone suffering from a long, slow, gradually life draining illness will probably go to a general ward for end of life care. They don’t need the kind of intensive care an ICU provides because…well..they’re not going to get it??

Operations.

No one gets rushed to theatre for a broken limb. Please stop. They can wait for several days before they get surgery on it. 

Honestly? No one gets ‘rushed’ to theatre at all. Not unless they are, again, actively dying, and surgery is needed to stop them from actively dying. 

Except emergency caesarians. Them babies will always get priority over old mate with the broken hip. A kid stuck in a birth canal and at risk of death by pelvis is a tad more urgent than a gall stone. And the midwives will run. I’ve never seen anyone run as fast as a midwife with a labouring woman on the bed heading to theatres for an emergency caesar.

Surgery doesn’t take as long as you think it does. Repairing a broken limb? Two hours, maybe three tops. Including time spent in recovery. Burst appendix? Half an hour on the table max, maybe an hour in recovery. Caesarian? Forty minutes or so. Major surgeries (organs like kidneys, liver and heart transplants, and major bowel surgeries) take longer. 

You’re never going to see the theatre nurses. Ever. They’re like their own little community of fabled myth who get to come to work in their sweatpants and only deal with unconscious people. It’s the ward nurse who does the pick up and drop offs. 

Anyway there’s probably way, way more that I’m forgetting to add but this is getting too long to keep writing shit. The moral of the story is do some research so you don’t look like an idiot when you’re writing your characters getting injured or having to be in hospital. It’s not Greys Anatomy in the real world and the angst isn’t going to be any more intense just because you’re writing shit like it is. 

Peace up.

[shittor]

Ya hear that, Buckley? Loss.jpeg ain’t realistic.

[sheikofthesheikah]

of all the additions and replies on this post so far this is by far my fave.

[bold-sartorial-statement]

Thumbs up for this from your friendly neighbourhood physician. (Also, I did mostly emergency care for a few years before switching to radiology. I got the adrenaline junking out of my body before settling down.)

[clucku]

One correction from someone who spent almost a decade working in an ambulance across two states: it is required by law to have your lights on if there is a patient in your rig. Now, this might be a state-by-state law IDK, but in both states I worked in, it was the case. You reserve sirens for Serious Shit because, guess what, they stress out the patient, so unless your patient is crashing in the back of your rig, you don’t run a continuous siren. You are, however, once again required by law to turn on the siren briefly while approaching and driving through stop signs or red lights. (You will also use your siren briefly to get idiots in front of you to move over when you’re stuck in traffic and have a patient whose condition can escalate.)

Also, unrelated to the lights and sirens issue, lemme add a detail about us asking a lot of questions. If you want verisimilitude in your story, remember SAMPLE:

Signs and symptoms

Allergies

Medications

Past illness/injury/disease

Last food, drink, and medication taken

Events leading up to the injury or illness

These are the questions EMTs are trained to ask every patient, though they rarely end up coming out in that order. Also, you can totally add a W to that, which is inevitably “Why did you wait so long to call us?” *sighs forever*

And for some more basic on-scene emergency care, remember CABC: C-spine, Airway, Breathing, Circulation. This time, actually in that order (except for cardiac arrest, in which case remember CAB: Compressions, Airway, Breathing). 

The long and short of CABC is: if the patient fell or was in a car accident or had any other potentially traumatic injury, start with stabilizing the C-spine (typically via cervical collar and head blocks and backboard), because if there is a fracture in the neck and you don’t manage it and end up severing the spinal cord that high up, your patient’s probably going to die, and if not, will probably be paralyzed from the neck down. 

Once C-spine is stable, make sure the patient’s airway is clear (this includes both foreign obstruction and the patient’s own tongue). Yes sometimes this actually involves sticking your finger in their throat to clear shit out, and yes it’s gross. It also means positioning an unconscious patient’s head in a certain way (assuming there is no chance of C-spine damage) to keep the airway open. EMTs also carry little plastic hook things called oropharyngeal airways in a bunch of sizes that keep the patient’s tongue from blocking their airway. And of course if needs be you can intubate, although this is not a skill EMTs have (paramedics do, though, and in some states there’s a certification called EMT-I [the I for intermediate] that also teaches that skill). If someone’s just come across an unconscious person and doesn’t have an airway to use, and you’re sure their C-spine is fine, you can roll them onto their left side and gently curl them; that’ll help keep the airway clear and also helps the heart pump blood a little more efficiently than if you’d rolled them onto their right side. 

Anyway, once the airway’s secure, you move on to making sure the patient is actually breathing. If they’re not, you do it for them with an ambu bag. If they are but are struggling, or aren’t struggling but may for any reason potentially go into shock or have compromised circulation (broken leg, high fever, etc.), you give them supplemental oxygen, typically through a nonrebreather mask, though the flow rate depends on their symptoms. 

Okay so once we’ve secured the patient’s C-spine, airway, and breathing, only then do we worry about circulation (unless the patient’s in cardiac arrest, remember, in which case we secure circulation first). Which in the case of trauma is generally first aid for serious open wounds and preventing or treating shock, and in the case of medical issues may be getting an ECG reading or administering medication or, if the patient does go into cardiac arrest, chest compressions and defibrillation.

Okay, that’s the end of the CABCs, but you’ll note that in the last para I said treating serious open wounds. Because a minor open wound is going to wait until after the next step after the CABCs, which is a full-body assessment wherein we meticulously assess a trauma patient using palpation from, basically, head to toe, looking for broken bones, soft tissue damage, internal bleeding, etc. Some of those things can be pretty serious, so before we treat a shallow cut, we check for, like, broken ribs that might puncture a lung.

So obviously not all of these things happen all the time. A patient presenting with an asthma attack needs neither a full-body assessment nor C-spine and circulation management. So we just jump straight to airway and breathing and forego the rest. (And then ask anyone with them our SAMPLE questions if the patient is too distressed to speak, because we still need those answers, but also if the patient is too distressed to speak you can bet we’re asking their companion in the back of a moving ambulance.)

Sometimes you spend a Long Fucking Time at a scene, either because the patient is resisting transport (this happens a lot, especially with the uninsured; we stick around and do everything we can to help them while simultaneously trying to encourage them to go to the ER anyway), or because the patient’s trapped in a smashed car and we’ve got to cut the door off and peel the roof back and get a cervical collar and a backboard on the patient while they’re still in the damn driver’s seat and lemme tell you that is a goddamn game of Jenga and can take half an hour, or because the patient isn’t critical but you want to minimize discomfort and damage so you take the time to meticulously package them while also getting all your questions answered on scene to make sure you haven’t missed anything, or because … well, you get the point. Sometimes shit just takes forever.

Other times, we do what’s called a scoop-and-go, typically with patients in critical conditions that can’t really be managed without surgery or medications we don’t carry. Like, patient bleeding out while giving birth? Not a whole lot we can do about that, so we get them in the rig as fast as fucking possible and race to the hospital while trying to get the most critical questions answered. These kinds of situations are very rare, though; it’s much more common to be on scene for 15 or 30 minutes than 5 minutes. 

OH AND, another thing. Listen. EMTs do not approach a scene that is not secured. If there’s an active shooter, or a hostage situation, or a raging fire, or a potential for something to explode (or for something that’s already exploded to collapse), or a flash flood, or a hazardous materials spill, or whatever else, we do not go in until the unstable situation has been resolved. It sucks waiting 100 yards away while a critical patient is maybe dying and you can’t get to them yet, but listen, the first thing they teach you is don’t make new patients. IOW, don’t become a victim yourself; you can’t help anyone if you get wounded in the crisis too, and in fact then you’ve just become an additional burden on the personnel remaining.

Okay, so, any questions?

[scriptmedic]

ALL OF THIS. With one exception to what @rachelhaimowitz added, which is: 

I’ve never heard of the lights-must-be-on rule. It’s gotta be one or a few specific states. Generally speaking, lights and sirens increase accident rates, and most states are actively trying to REDUCE their use, not increase them, but I don’t know where she lives, so that’s accurate in her part of the country (I’m assuming the US). But it’s inaccurate in most of the country. 

xoxo, Aunt Scripty

[caffeinewitchcraft]

So I love everything about this post and had to throw in my two cents!

So I work in a real crowded city and, luckily, I don’t need to go lights and sirens since I’m primarily non-emergency. But in the few times I’ve had to make that decision, I tend towards not using lights/sirens or at least not sirens.

Because once you turn those suckers on, drivers become unpredictable as fuck. They freeze, they slow, they swerve, at least one car is guaranteed to move to the left instead of the right.

I drive safer and get to a hospital faster when I go with the flow as much as possible and am able to predict what the cars around me will do.

Secondly, i used a scale called OPQRST which I use to quantify pain.

Onset (were you hit? Why pain?) Provocation (does it fade? Heighten?) Quality (dull or sharp?) Radiation (Where?Does it move?) Severity (pain scale) Time (how long has it been going on?)

If you ever want to heighten the drama and imply something is seriously wrong in your fic, try something like this:

EMT: so what happened? Where does it hurt? Bystander: X and X happened and got hit in the stomach really hard! Patient: ow! My right shoulder hurts! EMT: Fuck.

Referred pain is usually a sign of internal damage to an organ. In this case I’d be thinking there’s something bad with the liver, but I don’t really go further than the “fuck” before loading up and heading out.

[conleches]

some fucking resources for all ur writing fuckin needs

body language masterlist

a translator that doesn’t eat ass like google translate does

a reverse dictionary for when ur brain freezes

550 words to say instead of fuckin said

638 character traits for when ur brain freezes again

some more body language help 

[writing-prompt-s]

Hey amigos, are you still interested in a page-a-day prompt calendar or the Book of Prompts?

[eldritchteletubbie]

What is it? I mean, yes, but what is it?

[writing-prompt-s]

Honestly, I have no idea. If we do the Book of Prompts, do we want one prompt a page so there is room to write stories, or do we want a massive collection of prompts? Or something like Wreck This Journal but with prompts? 

[writing-prompt-s]

Yes! But are we going to buy a calendar for 2019 in April? Because this project definitely needs to be crowdfunded and it would take a few months to have everything ready

[bublp0pr]

maybe don’t make it a calendar. Just make it like a 365 prompts in 365 days Book of Prompts and you can either choose to do it daily or at your own pace if you prefer

[writing-prompt-s]

Genius! And then we combine it with the Prompt This Journal Idea! 

[freakingtacosamigo]

This is a cool idea! How exactly do you plan to combine the two concepts of Wreck This Journal and Writing Prompts?

[writing-prompt-s]

Imagine: Prompt + Tear out this page, and leave it in a public place, for example, a bus seat, for someone else to find!

[just-a-lost-witch]

I would totally buy one!

[writing-prompt-s]

I need your feedback, amigos!

https://pollmill.com/f/would-you-get-this-for-yourself-or-a-friend-7195xll

[writing-prompt-s]

When you leave a story, you should all sign it with your name or alias so people can find you! And maybe one of these pages is going to be worth millions. 

“Is this really an Amigo? Bansky”

[yaimenbones]

This is one of the greatest ideas I have ever fucking heard.

[shadow-writings]

I could totally see this as being useful for you @stormiesquall

[shadow-writings]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapters: 1/? Fandom: Gotham (TV) Rating: Not Rated Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death Relationships: Jerome Valeska/Original Female Character(s), Jerome Valeska/Original Character(s) Characters: Jerome Valeska, Gabi Ramirez (OC), Jim Gordon, Harvey Bullock, Oswald Cobblepot, Bruce Wayne, Alfred Pennyworth, Zak Luna (OC), Daniel Luna (OC) Additional Tags: Friends to Lovers Summary:

Gabi Ramirez’s life has been anything but normal, so when the circus comes to Gotham it’s not surprising that things go ary and she meets a certain redhead.

[theworstassassinever]

Writing Masterpost

Character Help

MBTI Personality Test

MBTI Personality Descriptions

123 Character Flaws

Character Trait Cheat Sheet

List of Personality Traits

Character Virtues And Vices

Underused Personalities

7 Rules For Picking Names

Character Names

Character Name Resources

Surnames Masterpost

Types of Voice

Showing Character Emotion

Writing Characters Of Colour

More On Writing Characters Of Colour

All Characters Talk The Same

Character Description

100 Character Development Questions

Character Development Questionnaire

30 Day Character Development Meme

Character Development Check List

Character Development Through Hobbies

List Of Character Secrets - Part 1 - Part 2

Mysterious Characters

Flat Characters

European Characters

Creating Believable Characters

Writing A Drunk Character

Writing Manipulative Characters

Writing Witty Characters

Writing Natural Born Leaders

Writing Rebellious Characters

Writing Indifferent Distance Characters

Writing Bitchy Characters

Writing Popular Characters

Writing Child Characters

Writing Villains

Villain Archetypes

Avoiding LGBTQ Stereotypes

Writing Homosexuals as a Heterosexual

Writing Males as a Female

Writing Convincing Male Characters

Writing Characters Of The Opposite Sex

Revealing A Characters Gender

The Roles Of Characters

Creating Fictional Characters From Scratch

Creating A Strong, Weak Character

Writing Characters Using Conflict And Backstory

Switching Up A ‘Too-Perfect’ Character

Help I Have A Mary-Sue!

Dialogue

Dialogue Tips

Realistic Dialogue

Flirty Dialogue

On Dialogue

General Help

Alternatives To Said

Avoiding Unfortunate Implications

Begin A Novel

Finishing Your Novel

Creating Conflict

Show Not Tell

Words For Emotions Based On Severity

Getting Out Of The Comfort Zone

A Guide To Writing Sci-Fi

Naming The Story

The Right Point Of View

Essential Story Ingredients

Writing Fantasy Masterpost

Five Rules For Thrillers

Pacing Action Scenes

Writing Races

Using Gender Neutral Pronouns

Dos and Don’t of Writing

General Writing Tips

Plotting

Outlining Your Novel

Creating A Compelling Plot

The Snowflake Method

Beginning and End, But No Middle!

Prompts and Ideas

Prompt Generator Lists

Creative Writing Prompts

Story Starting Sentences

Story Spinner

Story Kitchen

Writing Prompt Generator

Quick Story Generator

Dramatic Scenes

Plot Bank

Masterpost of Writing Execrises

Research

Survival Skills Masterpost

Mental Illness

Limits Of The Human Body

Stages of Decomposition

Body Language Cheat Sheet

Importance Of Body Language

Non Verbal Communication

Depression

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Anxiety

Schizophrenia

Borderline Personality Disorder

Degrees of Emotion

List Of Phobias - Part 1 (A - L) - Part 2 (M -  Z)

Psychology In Writing

Psychology Of Colour

Mob Mentality

How Street Gangs Work

Street Gang Dynamics

How To Pick A Lock

Death Scenes

Realistic Death Scenes

Fighting and Self Defence

Fighting Scenes

Problems With Fighting Scenes

Every Type of Fight Scene

Fantasy Battle Scenes

Body Language Of Flirting

Flirting 101

Kissing

Sex Scenes

Ballet Terms

Torture Guide (Trigger Warning)

Sibling Abuse (Trigger Warning)

Dream Sequences

Kleptomania

Psychiatric Hospital

Understanding issues, -isms and privilege

Revision

Cliché Finder

Reading What You’ve Wrote So Far

Synonyms For Common Words

Urban Legends On Grammar

Common Grammar Mistakes

Revising A Novel 

Setting

Average Weather Settings

Apocalypses

World Building 101

Bringing Settings To Life

Creating A Believable World

Mapping A Fictional World

Mapping Your World

Religion in Setting

Sounds to listen to whilst writing

Coffitivity

August Ambience

Rainy Mood

Forest Mood

SimplyNoise

SoundDrown

iSerenity

Nature Sound Player

myNoise

Tools

Tip Of Your Tounge

Write Or Die

Online Brainstorm

Family Tree Maker

Stay Focused

This took me a good few hours and a lot of effort to make and even though it was mainly for myself anyone can feel free to use it, for the note it is still under construction and I am undergoing fixes. So If anyone actually does use this other than myself and notices a broken link or something not quite right, could you please inform me about it? Thank you.