April 16th is World Voice Day which was established to remind us of the importance of voice and communication in every day living but also to highlight difficulties of not having a voice (whether figuratively or literally). In keeping with this theme, I thought I would rec Sam/Dean fics in which one or both of them are mute. Sam and Dean have such great non-verbal communication anyway but it's interesting to see how writers adapt this when it is their only way of communicating with each other. Enjoy!
Hit the Ground Crawling by jonny_vrm (elmo_loves_me) (one of my all-time faves) (bottom Dean)
Hush by IceQueenRia (both bottom) (inspired by a BtVS episode which was a fave of mine back in the day)
Between Yesterday and Tomorrow by
Fenix21 (InTheGreySpaces), InTheGreySpaces (both bottom) (this is part 8 of a 9 part series...at the very least you should read part 7 first which is pretty good in itself; I'd recommend the whole series which is about 100k words)
Safe at Harbor by Coragyps
Whisper To Me in The Dark by KassandraScarlett
Tongue-Tied by ADeedWithoutaName (bottom Sam)
Twin souls, twin hearts. by orphan_account
Facta non Verba by dimeliora (bottom Dean)
breaking vows and fixing brothers by orphan_account
i cut out my tongue because it called you by name by gaialux
My Wayward Brother by orphan_account
Universally Speaking by apodiopsys
In Spite of the Teeth by winsive (both bottom) (technically Dean isn't completely mute in this one but he really only says one word and to be honest I wasn't sure what other theme to fit it under; it's very long but it's a good one)
Wreathed In Fire by tifaching (I included this one because it takes place right after the house fire in Lawrence when Sam is a baby and Dean is 4)
ok but like. why are all mute characters these sweet innocent 'can do no wrong' beings. how about a mute character whos just a absolute fucking menace to society. thatd be cool i think
Disclaimers: while I have been learning ASL (American Sign Language, I am not yet fluent. Also, I am not deaf. Both of these things being said, I have been learning ASL for nearly a year and I’ve been doing independant research about the language itself and the Deaf community. What I’ve listed below are things that I have learned from my own personal experience signing, what I’ve learned in my ASL class, and what I’ve learned from my independant research.
1) When you write signed dialogue, use quotation marks and everything else you would use for any other type of dialogue. Yes, I know they didn’t do that in the Magnus Chase series, but many Deaf readers were made uncomfortable at the choice to depict sign language as not speech. Establish early on that the character signs and then use tags such as “xe signed,” or “hir motions were snappy with irritation.”
2) Without facial expressions, someone’s signs are going to be almost meaningless. All of the grammar is in the face, as are some descriptors. For example, if you can’t see a character’s face, and you’re only looking at their hands, the signs would be the same for the statement “Xe doesn’t have dogs.” and the question “Does xe have dogs?”
3) There is no such thing as fluent lipreading. The best lipreaders in the world can only understand about 70% of what’s being said, and factors such as darkness, the presence of mustaches, lack of context, and a bunch of other common things can easily lower that ability. If someone’s lipreading, they’re taking little pieces of what they can lipread, and stitching together context and other details to get a general picture of what’s going on, but there’s still always going to be holes.
4) If you’re writing a character who can’t hear, know the difference between deaf (lowercase d) and Deaf (uppercase D). The medical term for not being able to hear anything is deaf. People who use their deafness as part of their identity are referred to, and refer to themselves as Deaf. They are part of the Deaf community.
(more tips below cut)
5) Sign language is not universal. For example, ASL and BSL (British Sign Language) are two very different languages. If two Deaf characters who use different sign languages meet, they will not be able to understand eachother at first in the same way that someone who speaks only English and someone who speaks only Spanish will not be able to understand eachother at first. The characters may be able to form a sort of pidgen based off of both their sign languages to communicate, but it will be rudimentary and will take time. Also, if someone knows two differnt sign languages, then they are just as bilingual as someone who knows two spoken languages.
6) Sign languages are based on concept rather stringing words together, making context important. This means that if you take a random handshape out of context, it likely won’t have a single meaning. For example, in ASL the handshape for the letter F (made with the index finger and thumb in a circle and other fingers splayed - like the okay sign) is the exact same handshape as the number 9. If a character walks into a signed conversation, it will take them a little while to figure out what’s going on.
7) Sign languages are blunt - blunter than spoken languages. This is because they’re based on concept and because of that you have to get right to the point or you’ll confuse the hell out of whoever you’re talking to. Because of this, bluntness is not considered rude in the same way it is in English, for example.
8) Not all deaf people use sign language. Many do, but it’s not a requirement by any means. This means that if you’re writing a character who’s deaf and doesn’t use sign language, they might get a bit offended or uncomfortable if another character immediately assumes that they use sign language. Also, just because you establish a character as being deaf doesn’t mean you’ve automatically established that they use/will understand sign language, and vice versa.
I hope these tips are helpful. If I’ve gotten any of them wrong, please let me know, and also feel free to reblog and add more :)
random writing thing I'm trying to think through, maybe hoping to get advice/thoughts on:
I'm developing a new story, and the main characters are a married couple. I have one of them pretty much worked out, but the other one, Kyrie, I'm struggling with
basically...she can't speak. and there's no real plot reason why she has to be nonverbal/non-speaking, but you know how it is with characters, sometimes you just imagine them that way. and now every time I try to imagine her speaking it feels wrong haha
so what I'm trying to decide is: is she deaf too? (because I know those often go side-by-side.) what's the cause of her being nonverbal? I think she would communicate with her husband at least in some form of sign language, but I'm still figuring that out too.
any thoughts? brainstorming help? anyone who can give me any input on developing/writing a character who's disabled in this way?
Age: she was 3 1/2 years when Kyle found her originally, 5 when he finally took her in. Her birthday is technically in April but since she was so young when she lost her parents, she doesn’t know that so he made her birthday in October, when he found her.
Dislikes: sudden loud noises, being talked down to, people treating her like she’s stupid because she’s mute
Spouse: N/A (she’s too young at this point to have given her a spouse)
Kids: N/A
Career: right now, she’s just a little child but when she grows up, she’ll be a musician that plays 6 instruments (piano, cello, viola, bass guitar, saxophone and harp) and signs the lyrics to her songs... and she’ll also be a song interpreter for famous musicians as a side gig.
WIP: N/A (yet. I love her a lot so I’ll probably make one, knowing me xD) - she’s from my rp world.
Tags: Grace, Grace Joy, Grace Joy Eisenhower, about Grace
Taglist (fill out the poll in the description to be added to any of my taglists): magic-is-something-we-create, bathingindirtyteacups, amandahoyle, lordkingsmith, poore-choice-of-words, wildswrites
