[dankmemesreasonforliving]

[lets-get-fictional]

So, I like to give each of my character a habit that makes them "unique". The problem is that I can think of only a few like biting their lip/nail or licking their lips for example. Are there any others that I could include? Habits in general would be very nice. Thank you!!

Hey, love!  Thanks for sending us your question :)  All the mods have brainstormed a bit to help provide you with some good examples…

Habits for Your Characters

People have at least two kinds of habits: those which they experience every day, especially when deep in thought; and those which they experience when anxious or upset.  We’ve split our list into these two categories for you! 

Absentminded Habits

Rocking on heels

Whistling/humming

Tapping foot; bouncing leg

Tapping finger

Licking/biting lip/cheek

Popping joints

Clicking nails

Tucking and untucking hair/clothes

Shifting positions

Bobbing head

Unfocusing eyes

Repeating hand gestures

Playing with jewelry

Fidgeting with a nearby object

Playing with a phone case

Chewing/sucking utensils, cups

Using fidget toys

Clicking pens

Hand-signing words

Juggling/bouncing objects

Playing with ears/bellybutton/cartilage

Tensing/untensing muscles

Anxious Habits

Tracing scars/birthmarks

Biting nails

Grinding teeth

Picking scabs

Sucking/biting finger

Playing with/chewing on hair

Ripping paper/napkins

Ripping/pulling out hair

Pulling out eyebrows

Rubbing/scratching skin

I also wanted to note that these habits can be a form of stimming, which means self-stimulation.  Stimming is the repetition of movements such as those listed above; it’s a common comfort mechanism for people with autism, OCD, ADHD, and other neurodivergencies.  Literary representation in these areas is very lacking, so if you’re interested in expanding on this, I’ve included some links to get you started.

As always, our followers (and anyone who comes across this post) are encouraged to reblog/reply with more examples – especially those unique to you or the people in your lives!  We can all only work from our experience, so asking about other people, or simply observing the humans around you, can improve your characters drastically.

Thanks again for your question <3  Let us know if you need any more help!

– The Mods

If you need advice on general writing or fanfiction, you should maybe ask us!

[tswiftsedits]

Taylor Swift performs on stage during her reputation Stadium Tour at Croke Park on June 16, 2018 in Dublin, Ireland. (Photo by Gareth Cattermole/TAS18/Getty Images)

[teenagecrush]

[prettypaulyprincess]

isn’t it? isn’t it? isn’t it?

[anagnori-deactivated20201123]

The nine types of people you meet when you come out as asexual

1. The unbeliever

“You’re just a late bloomer.”

“You’ll grow out of it.”

“You’re just saying that because you can’t get laid.”

“No way, you’re a man, men aren’t like that.”

“You’re just playing hard to get.”

“You just want attention.”

“You’re just trying to seem special/different/trendy.”

“No way, you’ve had sex before, you’re not asexual.”

“You must be faking it because natural selection wouldn’t allow asexuality to persist.”

2. The unwanted sympathizer

“I feel sorry for you.”

“Wow, that sucks.”

“You don’t know what you’re missing.”

“I can’t imagine a life without sex!”

“Your life must be so empty/lonely/pointless.”

“Aww, but I’m sure you’ll find someone who wants to date you!”

“You just haven’t met the right person yet.”

3. The intrusive questioner

“Do you masturbate?”

“What do your genitals look like?”

“Don’t you ever get horny?”

“What happens when you have a sex dream?”

“Is it because of your religion?”

“Do you have something wrong with your genitals?”

“Did somebody hurt you?”

“Were you sexually abused or something?”

“Did you get raped?”

4. The asshole questioner

“Do you reproduce by budding?”

“Do you still think [opposite sex] have cooties?”

“So are you in love with yourself?”

“Are you attracted to animals?”

“But everybody likes sex, what’s wrong with you?”

5. The unnecessary therapist

“Have you tried having your hormones checked?”

“You’re just afraid to get close to people.”

“You’re in denial about being gay.”

“You’re not asexual, you’re just shy/frigid/repressed.”

“You must be a psychopath.”

“You probably have [insert mental disorder here].”

“You should seek therapy.”

“Have you tried Viagra?”

“Do you think you’re not worthy of being loved?”

“But what if you change your mind some day?”

“You should keep an open mind in case you meet somebody special.”

“You’re afraid of sex/intimacy/falling in love.”

“If you don’t like sex then you must not have been doing it right.”

“How can you know you don’t want it if you’ve never tried it?”

6. The progressive who gets upset without having a clue what you’re talking about

“Stop slut-shaming people!”

“You’re being homophobic.”

“You’re appropriating the struggles of REAL queer people.”

“Since when have you ever been oppressed for NOT having sex?”

“That’s not a real sexual orientation.”

“What, do you think you’re better than me for not having sex?”

“You’re repressed, you need to be sexually liberated.”

7. The conservative who gets upset without having a clue what you’re talking about

“All women are like that.”

“You’re being selfish by not getting married.”

“If you don’t procreate, your life is pointless.”

“Not having sex is unnatural.”

“You’re sinning against God.”

“You have a duty to your parents/ancestors to give them grandchildren.”

8. The creep

“You just need to get laid.”

“I can change your mind.”

“I’m Robin Thicke.”

“Someone should just force you to have sex so you’ll realize you like it.”

9. The actually decent person

“You’re asexual? Okay, cool. Have you seen my keys, by the way?”

[jeanqrey]

Gal Gadot comforts young Wonder Woman fan at Comic Con 2017

[bileshroom]

tfw u wanna talk to someone but u feel like ur annoying them or ur boring and you just 

[theanthonypero]

[describingcolours]

You know what? Fuck it. I’m sick of sitting passively by, listening to people ask “how do you know if you’ve never tried?” and tell me that no-one cares while you sit there with a shit-eating grin and say “this is a great debate we should do this more often”. A debate? My sexuality is a debate?! Fuck you. Telling me that I bring up great points when I’m giving you facts and you ask stupid fucking questions that I hear all the time is not a debate. It’s a chore.

And how DARE you? How dare you say to me that I need to be fixed, that I can be cured if only I could “find the right somebody”. “How do you know if you’ve never tried?” you ask me as though I haven’t tried. You assume I haven’t?

I destroyed great friendships because I tried to convince myself I had a crush on them. I tore myself apart in so many ways because I tried to tell myself that there was someone out there just for me. My life has been a living hell because I TRIED. Every goddamn fucking day, I’ve tried. And then you ask why I’m angry??

Fuck you. Of course I’m angry!! I’ve been sold this idea of love and romance and sex being the be all and end all of the universe every goddamn day of my life. Every single fucking thing I’ve watched, read, listened to - about him or about her. About how True Love saves the day. How they only live happily ever after when they’re married and riding off into the sunset staring longingly into each other’s eyes. And then I’m forced to endure sex scenes and romances that are so out of place that it jars me out of the narrative so utterly and completely while everyone else applauds and nods and agrees “Yes, they are so in love”. Then they point at a background character who hasn’t even got a goDDAMN FUCKING NAME and tell me “Look! There’s your representation! Be happy!!!” all the while writing fanfiction about that character passionately fucking another character because #OTP #loveislove

FUCK. YOU. Of course I’m going to be absolutely fucking livid! You give me representation and then take it away all in the same breath! I watch as characters who are asexual are cured of their medical condition and suddenly they are not asexual anymore! I watch as characters that have never expressed any interest in romance - who have been around 60, 70, over 100 fucking years!!! - are paired off in heterosexual relationships (as though there aren’t enough of them around). Characters who are made canonically asexual and then a couple of years later, a new writer doesn’t agree with that and rewrites the entire canon so the audience can relate to them more (as though they weren’t a fan favourite already). Characters who are made the butt of jokes, characters who are placed in the same bracket as incest, characters who we are very clearly meant to hate.

And if the canon doesn’t fuck them over, the fandom sure fucking does.

Pages and pages and pages of fanart and fanfiction all dedicated to shipping my representation with other characters, while I’m shoved aside and told “it doesn’t matter. It’s not a big deal, there’s no need to yell”.

No need to yell? And yet you’ll start entire so-called ‘fandom wars’ over Shiro/Keith and Keith/Lance? You’ll yell and get angry and start a riot when gay characters are made straight and I’m not allowed to do the same for asexual characters? How DARE you.

How very fucking dare you?

I am made to endure and put up with all this shit and then - on top of all of that - then you have the audacity to tell us we are not welcome in your safe spaces, that we don’t exist, that we’re seeking attention (because bringing attention to a sexuality is such a bad thing, right?). I have to sit and listen to you as you describe us as aliens - as emotionless, unfeeling robots. You tell us we are as far removed from human as you can get. I have been told that I’m not right, I’m broken, I’ll never be understood and nor should I be. I spent years telling myself those very same things before I even came across the word asexual, piling on depression and anxiety and loneliness. I don’t need someone who doesn’t even take the time to try to understand to tell me that I must have a medical condition or that I was sexually abused as a child or that I just need to “give it a chance”. I don’t need people telling me that “it sucks” that I’m aroace, that I’m “not normal”, or asking me what I’ll do when I’m old and have no-one to look after me. I don’t need it. I don’t.

I’m already told all this in a hundred thousand different ways every day when I walk outside and see a billboard featuring another ‘sex sells’ advert. Every day, when I watch TV and see yet another out of place romance. Every day, when I walk into a shop and a love song is playing over the speakers.

Fuck you.

“How do you know if you’ve never tried?” How do YOU know?

I’ve had people ask me “isn’t it lonely?” They ask me how I’ll ever feel fulfilled if I never experience love and when I point at my friends, they laugh and say “no, I mean romantically” as if the way I love isn’t valid. Why is romance so much more fulfilling than platonic? “It just is,” they’ll reply as though that explains everything. It doesn’t.

They tell me how love is so amazing and great and then in the next sentence moan about their significant other or cry about how heartbroken, how depressed they are because their boyfriend/girlfriend broke up with them. “I’ll never love anyone ever again, I guess that makes me asexual” they say as they chat up their next partner and I grit my teeth and smile and nod because I’ll never understand so how can I judge?

So fuck you. I’m not going to just sit here and let you tell me that my representation doesn’t matter. Not when it took me 17 years to finally find asexuality. Not when it took others far longer. And definitely not when some go their whole life feeling broken or force themselves to do things they don’t want to just to try to fit in. We exist whether you understand us or not and we need our representation too.

[oletwotoessal]

Why Aro/Ace awareness is important to me

I’m ten years old and my parents tell me I can’t invite my best friend to my party because he’s a boy.

I’m eleven years old and whenever we play truth or dare I get asked if I have a crush on anyone and my answer is always the same

I’m twelve years old and the phrasing of the question has changed from “do you have a crush” to “who do you have a crush”. I always pick dare.

I’m thirteen years old and the sexual jokes people make around me make me uncomfortable, not because of the nature of the joke, but because of the intentions behind it.

I’m fourteen years old and I refuse to play truth or dare. The dares I’m given always seem to involve other people in more intimate ways than the dares everyone else gets. I’ve also realised how fucked up it is that I would rather lick a door than endure being called a liar or a prude when my answer is “I don’t have a crush.”

I’m fifteen years old and an old childhood friend has asked me out. I feel guilty to the point of illness when I turn them down. My friends think this is hilarious.

I’m sixteen years old and I’m so afraid of showing anyone any kind of affection, physical or otherwise, for fear they may take it the wrong way, or make fun of me because I don’t. There are two people in the world I am willing to touch, and one is a family member.

I’m seventeen years old and I’ve just learned about the existence of aromanticism. My previous encounters with people identifying as asexual (all one of them) never mentioned anything about not experiencing romantic attraction, so the term seems more fitting when in conjunction with this new term.

I’m eighteen years old and the old friend who asked me out is messaging me again, making sexual jokes and implications. He asks me if I’m straight, and when I say I’m asexual/aromantic, he claims he respects that, yet continues his unwanted advances. I make the decision to not talk to him again.

I’m nineteen years old and my sister informs me that my mother is insisting behind my back that eventually I will “Find someone, and that humans always pair up in the end because of biology.” The implications behind this hurt.

I see people on here saying that “Pride” is about people expressing their sexuality, and accepting part of who they are, but I also see the same people saying that Asexuality doesn’t need pride, because they’re not discriminated against for ~*~not having sex.~*~  And I don’t know about EVERYONE, but from my experience, even unintentionally, people would treat me differently. Jokes would be made at me because I was uncomfortable. 

Comments, instructions, pointed glances, any kind of interaction people could have, they would go out of their way to make some sort of sexual implication or suggestion, and it made me uncomfortable. What they said or did might not have BOTHERED me, but the reasons behind why they would do it. It made me feel like I was being singled out for being different. I felt broken. Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. etc. still ask me when I’m getting a boyfriend and they don’t seem willing to take “I’m not interested in that sort of thing” as an acceptable answer. My parents seem to gauge the success of my brothers on their girlfriends (which is shitty) and by extension make me feel like I’m failing (which is even shittier)

Only recently have I actually been able to open up to people. So much of my life has been me avoiding any sort of physical or emotional interactions with other people because I was petrified it would be taken the wrong way. Something as simple as a hug would be enough to make me freeze up.

Since I started identifying as aro/ace, I’ve been more comfortable making friends, more comfortable interacting with people, I actually hug like FIVE DIFFERENT PEOPLE NOW.

Anyway this ended up rambly but like. It’s just been really important to me?

[theanthonypero]

It is really unfortunate to live in a world where we can't be accepted for the predefined societal acceptions of orientations. This has led to the point that I was threatened with violence from a Facebook friend because I am #asexual. I never knew people would actually do that because of someone being different than they are. I made this video to talk about my experience and to also talk about how I have lost friends or people will distance themselves from me because I am ace #aromantic. So you can stop being ignorant and arrogrant I suggest you check out AVEN- Asexual Visibility and Education Network for more information on what it means to be asexual and aromantic. 

[theanthonypero]

Why are Asexuals so weird? I answer that question in this video. If you would like to see more - subscribe to my YouTube channel -  bit.ly/APYoutube

[peterparker]

View this post on Instagram

WATCH THIS

[periru3]

I just went from having 0 feelings either negative or positive about Taylor Lautner and after watching this and with no other knowledge of him as a person I fully believe that he is a gift to humanity if for nothing other than this single contribution.

[thatsthat24]

I… I want Taylor Lautner… to be friends with me.

[theanthonypero]

I want to be best friends with him.

[communismkills]

Yet another obviously fake hate crime right from the start. It was so clearly fake that even LA Pride pulled their automatically generated article about it.

For those who don’t remember, this is the case:

[cisnowflake]

The more they do this the more they delegitimize the claims of actual victims.

[cone-of-venting]

That blood does look kinda fake.  Plus no way he could still be up and about like that if he was injured and bleeding to that intensity.

[ninja-pyro]

via facebook post I saw

[yog-froggoth]

what a good little cuck

[judgingeternity]

This little bitch just makes it harder for people with legitimate grievances to be taken seriously, and he either did it for attention or for money. There’s really no other excuse for making this shit up, and neither are acceptable ones. Oh wait…I forgot about “I WAS JUST TRYING TO START A DISCUSSSSSSIOOOOONNNNN!!!!”

[alaija]

I have no respect for false reports and hoaxes.

It’s gotten to the point where I expect to see any of these issues disproven soon after they appear, because the only ones I tend to see anything of are hoaxes.

[bgdavey]

Note to the world - falsify claiming to be the victim of an assault (hate-motivated or otherwise) is an awful thing to do. It devalues the ligitimate voices of real victims. It devalues your honour. It devalues the whole human race.

[burgundybirb]

For fucks sake I thought this was real and it terrified me

[communismkills]

Nope. Definitely wasn’t. The guy is actually a professional makeup artist who works in movies.

[theanthonypero]

In 1996, Trump threatened to sue a club for not allowing blacks and Jewish into the club, Trump succeeded in his endeavor. At the same time the Clinton's belonged to an all white club. One of the first people Trump contacted before running for president was Herman Cain, who said he is not a racist along with Allen West, Ben Carson and many others. Trump also employs more women than men and pays the women more on average than he does the men. Don't believe the propaganda the news stations spew.

[countercontempt-deactivated2018]

Daily reminder that the anti-Trump movement has to be subsidized and is in no way grassroots.

Follow the moolah.

[official-liberty-prime-deactiva]

I should show up with an “I’m With Her” t-shirt and contribute nothing

[nomosshere]

Trump is creating jobs even before he gets in the White House!

[libertarian--princess-deactivat]

I got a fucking email from one of my college professors asking me to come to an anti-Trump rally

[bort-the-champion-of-bears-deac]

I’ll be anti trump for 1500 a week

[lnnocentbystander]

I’ll be anti trump for $1200 a week. Let the free market win