May 24
❗️Looking for sensitivity readers
As I'm finishing the pilot there are a few characters and concepts I want feedback for, specifically regarding Lunes transfeminity and 3 unnamed Tlingit characters. More under the cut:
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❗️Looking for sensitivity readers
As I'm finishing the pilot there are a few characters and concepts I want feedback for, specifically regarding Lunes transfeminity and 3 unnamed Tlingit characters. More under the cut:
☆ EMERGENCY COMMISSIONS / SIGNAL B👀ST☆
Hi, nice to meet ya! I'm Leon and my life has rapidly fell apart since August 2024. This was due to my dad's sudden decline from what we thought was from MS, but from a rare stage 4 colon cancer.
With that, there's a threat of homelessness for my mom, who has sacrificed her life for my dad and our entire family.
UPDATE (6/1/25): I appreciate your help! I was able to find a new job but still would appreciate funds to help us pay for medical bills and my father's hospice/nursing stay.
UPDATE (9/5/25): My dad passed away so now my mom is having issues staying home. I'd really appreciate this being reblogged again.
○ WHAT WE NEED ○
- About 5,000 USD minimum. This will cover moving expenses at the very least.
● WHAT I'M OFFERING ●
- $3+ doodles through my Kof-fi or DM me!
- $5 to $10 messy colored sketch commissions (some examples here)
- Virtual nerd yard sale through Mercari (I got a Daft Punk ita bag, keychains and all sorts of fun things will be uploaded over-time.)
- A discount for stickers through my sticker shop here. Discount code is: SOS2025 [I have a LOT of sticker designs. Shipping is forever and always free. Waterbottle friendly and weather resistant.]
- Novel writing critiques, beta reading and sensitivity reading (DM me but know my pricing is extremely cheap with This Economy, I don't want to break anyone's bank)
- Business stuff such as cheap logo designs, email templates, commercial t-shirt designs, business cards, I can help with that.
♡ IF YOU JUST WANNA HELP ♡
- GoxFundxMe here lol 🚑
- Donate to my Kofi ☕️
- I have CashApp, Venmo and Zelle, but I feel more comfortable sharing that via DM.
♡ BOTTOM LINE ♡
I really sincerely appreciate your help. My goal is to cover the finances so that my family can be able to focus on grieving my father and have some peace.
If you can't donate, I seriously appreciate any reblogs and signal boosts. The support I've been given from strangers has drastically boosted my faith in humanity so thank you!
How To Write A Psychotic Character
Hello! I've been getting pretty tired of not seeing characters like me (or that are supposed to be like me but... aren't). The good news is, you too can write a psychotic character, even if you aren't on the spectrum yourself! Here are a few quick tips, and feel free to reach out to me if you have any specific questions
1: Don't make them a murderer/serial killer
The bar is on the floor here. This is a stereotype that gets people killed.
"But I have a legitimate reason!"
To enforce a stereotype that gets people killed? No, you don't.
"But it's a subversion of the trope!"
Do you have personal experience relating to psychosis? Do you understand fully how this portrayal harms people? If not, no it isn't.
"But real psychotic people can be murderers!"
So can real autistic people. How would you feel if every single autistic character was the villain in a slasher movie?
With that out of the way, let's move on to...
2: Consider their symptoms
Psychosis is defined as a combination of hallucinations and delusions, but many more symptoms may occur. Personally, I've experienced all of the following at various times:
Auditory hallucinations (Phones ringing, insects buzzing, screaming, and thudding sounds are the most common)
Visual hallucinations (Usually discoloration- like looking through an instagram filter)
Delusions (A different one each time for me, more about this later)
Severe mood swings (I literally cursed out a litter of kittens once)
Difficulty speaking (I can still write just fine for some reason, not sure about others)
Compulsions (This may be because of my comorbid OCD)
General confusion and fear
Your character may experience any combination of these (though probably only a handful at a time). They may also experience things not on this list, as many people do.
3: Delusions and insight
Delusions are the persistent belief that something clearly irrational is happening or will happen. Not fear, belief. Insight is your ability to determine that delusions and hallucinations are not real. Personally, I have very high insight when medicated and am able to tell very quickly that I am having an episode, sometimes even before the bulk of the symptoms start.
"But if you can tell it's not real, doesn't that mean it's not a delusion?"
This is probably the hardest thing for non-psychotic people to understand. Yes, I am able to tell people that my delusions are not real, and usually behave like they're not real as well. That doesn't mean that I do not believe them. When asked about my delusions, my first instinct is to say that they are real, and I have to make the conscious decision to contradict them. It's like if the earth was discovered to be flat- you can see all the evidence and accept it, but part of you will never really believe it.
Some examples of types of delusions I've had:
X person can read my mind
X person wants to hurt me
I am being watched or stalked
If I do not complete X action, I will die/disappear (different from a compulsion)
I am dead or not real
Some basic tenet of the world around me is not true (e.g. space is not real, only the earth exists)
My delusions tend towards the paranoid, but just about anything can be a delusion. Even if it seems silly, it can be a serious problem for the person experiencing it.
This is getting a bit long, so I'll make a part two later.
hi! I'm aware that this blog is for questions about writing disabilities in general, but do you guys know of any blogs or resources to look for sensitivity/beta readers? in case you guys don't beta read.
thanks for all your work, mods! <3
- eyemask anon
Hello!
For specific disabilities, there are some Tumblr pages that offer sensitivity reading:
@blindbeta does sensitivity reading for works involving blind characters. You can find information about their availability, rate, and such in their pinned post.
@vitiligo-is-not-a-trend does sensitivity reading for works involving characters with vitiligo.
@a-little-revolution has mentioned doing sensitivity reading [Link] for characters with dwarfism (and possibly autistic and hard-of-hearing characters).
Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find any active blogs on the topic of general sensitivity reading.
If you're open to going off-site, there's also a subreddit called r/SensitivityReaders for connecting writers with sensitivity readers.
They have a few categories:
Culture/Ethnicity
Disability
Job/Experience
LGBT+ & LGBTQ+ (For some reason these are two different tags?)
Mental Illness
Physical Illness
Religion
I'm not sure about the other mods but I will mention that I do personally do sensitivity reading, beta reading, and editing occasionally.
Cheers,
~ Mod Icarus
FAQ (PLEASE READ BEFORE SENDING ANY ASKS!):
I have vitiligo does that mean I can't do X, Y, or Z?:
If you have vitiligo: Welcome to the club :D! In general this advice is mainly aimed towards people who don't have vitiligo, BUT if you do, do what you want! The only thing I would ask of you is to be aware that A) People might not be aware that you have vitiligo which is why you're taking liberates with it, B) People might try to emulate your depiction so if someone without the disorder doing something you might find uncomfortable, keep that in mind! and C) Be mindful of whether or not you're contributing to potentially harmful stereotypes! I'm not going to tell you, someone with the disability, that things are off limits, and I am aware that not everyone feels the same about this disorder, but keeping those things in mind won't hurt anybody!
Is it okay for vitiligo to be animal or shape based in pattern?:
NO. It's de-humanizing and harmful as many ablest insults aimed towards people with this disorder are animal-based. Also it purposefully goes out of it's way to make a person less human purely because they're disabled, which is obviously ablest in itself. Vitiligo is a disorder, NOT an aesthetic.
The same applied for characters inspired or based on animals, especially ones that are patterned.
YES this also includes giving them patterns like paint splotches, hearts, stars, and other stuff like that.
How does vitiligo develop?:
Vitiligo is an auto-immune disorder, which means its genetics based, BUT(!) it is not something you are born with, and needs to be developed through a person's life time. There are theories as to how it develops but as far as I'm aware there's no one solid answer.
There are also various comorbidities that can occur with vitiligo including but not limited to hypothyroidism, higher risk or cancer, and even hearing loss.
Are POC the only people who can develop vitiligo?:
Nope! Vitiligo can occur in anyone of any race/ethnicity. The reason why you only see people with darker skin tones portrayed with it is because there's more visual contrast, thus making it seem more unique/distinct/obvious.
What does this blog offer?:
I do all sorts of things! I show examples of vitiligo represented in media, answer any questions people might have about it in general, questions specific to character/plots, character design tips, and sensitivity reading just to name a few!
Why am I not answering an ask?
I've got a few mental and physical conditions which make me extremely tired all the time and sometimes I just don't have the mental energy to do it </3
Also some asks are tricky! I might just hoard the ask until I can think of a proper way to respond or if vitiligo finally gets enough media rep that I can do a proper analysis or make an actual wish-list lol.
Who runs this blog?:
@trinrose3! I developed vitiligo when I was 7 years and and for the majority of the time that I've had this disorder I felt disgusted and ashamed of it. Over the last few years I've learned to appreciate my vitiligo, as well as develop a slight hyperfixation on it in general, so I made this blog in order to spread awareness and positivity!
I'm the only one running this joint so if I'm being a little slow to answer an ask please be patient <3
Also here's a link to my ko-fi I'm struggling to pay bills and the health issues, job market, and other life circumstances are making it really hard right now so every penny is appreciated! I also take art commissions!
https://ko-fi.com/trinrose3
Gang I love all my followers and those who interact w my art but pls stop asking me if ur character is a good representation of disability. I love ur work I love to see ur disabled characters that's different.
Specifically being like "im writing a book and this character has xyz and I have ideas about it and I was wondering if you would tell me about-" I had to do the research too, a lot of it, and you're genuinely asking me to do the research for you, to work out how your character could be a better embodiment of disability for your story.
Showing me ur art like "is this right?" Sure!! Absolutely! Because it takes me a few seconds to glance and know if a prosthetic or wheelchair is drawn correctly.
Equally tell me all about ur character so I can gush too, I loveeee an infodump about ur OCs.
But .... I'm not going to analyse ur story to work out if you did a good job. Pay me to be ur sensitivity reader sure. But I'm not doing it for free, thats like years of research I've done to start to call myself specialised in understanding crip representation and the effects it might have and how it should be done and why it should be done like that.
No hard feelings to anyone who has before because it's never been something I've said up until this point, and I did a lot of posts about it.
Would you like advice or writing feedback on writing
• Arab/SWANA/Middle Eastern characters
• Transgender and queer characters
• Characters who use wheelchairs
• Neurodiverse and/or characters with mental illness
but you're worried about annoying/taking advantage of your friends or random people on the internet?
Worry no more for now you can hire my friend @ameeraljinn for very reasonable prices!
He is an experienced writer and current neuroscience student who does Narrative and Cultural consulting and sensitivity reading. He can help with both original and fan fiction. (I have made him watch deep space 9 btw. His favourite character is Doctor Bashir.)
Click here to find out more!
Kofi
Tumblr
Thank you for reblogging and sharing!
different kinds of tics
Tics can divided into few categories: simple/complex and motor/vocal.
Motor tics are movements. Examples: blinking, shoulder shrugging, making faces or gestures, etc.
Vocal tics are sounds. Examples: meowing, barking, saying words or sentences, whistling, etc.
sometimes it can be hard to differentiate between them. I have a tic in which i click my tongue. It is a movement, but there is also a sound to it. I'm not sure whether it's the movement or the sound that makes the pre-tic tension go away.
Complex tics involve a lot of different muscles. They can appear as something done intentionally, but they are never intentional. Examples: saying words or frazes, making gestures, jumping, grimacing, etc
Simple tics are quick, and, well, simple. Examples: winking of an eye, tensing of a specific muscle, sniffing, simple "woo", or a similar sound, etc
Different types of tics can feel very different. They may alleviate the pre-tic tension in different ways. For example i need to hear the whistle in order for the tension to disappear, but I don't need to hear my meowing for the tension to go away.
I may not even notice some of my simple motor tics. but sometimes there is a big cumulation of them and it's awful. Some of the more complex ones feel like i'm being controlled by some alien life force or sth. And some of my complex tics are chill, and idc. It really depends on the day, on what I'm doing and what my tics are at the moment.