n.t.e.

Award-winning essayist. Writer of 10 speculative novels, is now tired of writing all for themself & is trying to get published. Here you’ll find snippets of my queer stories, craft advice, and aesthetics that inspire me. Writing / Craft / Aesthetic

[wintersoldierfell]

you've heard of death of the author, now get ready for death of the audience: where instead of basing your reaction on a thousand uninformed opinions online, you actually read the text and engage with it

[wintersoldierfell]

girl help there's people on this post who can't actually read my text

[i-will-write]

how i sleep knowing i write shitty fiction but at least don’t use chatgpt

[mcromwell]

I must not feel shame. Shame is the art-killer. Shame is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my shame. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. Where the shame has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

[thecollectibles]

Rooms by Umishima Senbon

[thecollectibles]

Rooms by Umishima Senbon

[1five1two]

'Queen of the Night'. Marjorie Miller. 1931.

[filmnoirsbian]

Thinking back to the first story I ever started writing down (I was 7 or 8) about a group of stray cats who, every full moon, took the form of human kids. They actually were human kids, who had been killed (all at different times/by different people). Their bodies were each dumped by the side of the road where a cat had been hit by a car previously, and their souls landed in the cats' bodies. Eventually they all found each other and decided that every full moon, when they shifted, they'd try to solve each other's murders one by one. It was going to be a series, with each book focusing on a different kid's murder mystery. I told my mom about it once, briefly, and she said "Those cat books (warrior cats) are making you creepy."

[filmnoirsbian]

Just finished writing this manuscript, the first story I ever started. 23 years in the making. Never give up, even if your mom calls you creepy 🖤

[scriptmedic]

Medical Specialties: AKA Not All Fictional Doctors Are Surgeons

Ahoy, keyboard pirates!! The Mysterious Stranger, AKA Brittany (author of our beloved Guide to Medical School and official Friend of the Blog™ ) has come back, like a thief in the night, to give a run-down on the different medical specialties. For anyone not intimately familiar with the structure of medicine, this post is invaluable. I’ve re-read it like four times just this morning.

Thank you again, young Brittany-padawan. Take it away!

Hey folks!  Your friendly neighborhood medical student here.  Aunt Scripty was nice enough to post my spiel on medical school, and given the awesome response, I’m doing a follow-up to explain the different specialties and their capabilities.

First of all, before we get started, I’ll refer you to this awesome cartoon to get a brief glimpse of the personalities you run into in each:

http://theunderweardrawer.blogspot.com/2011/03/12-medical-specialty-stereotypes-2011.html 

Are they stereotypes?  Yes.  Your doctor character doesn’t have to follow the personalities you see there at all.  But a lot of doctors who go into those specialties have those traits; it makes sense if you remember that medical students rotate through, or at least see, most of these specialties, and we gravitate towards the specialty where we see similar personalities to our own.  Sort of creates a self-fulfilling prophecy.  Without further ado, these are the major specialties:

Internal Medicine:

Internists are the work horses of the hospital; if you get admitted for something relatively common, like pneumonia or heart failure, odds are the internist will take care of you. (Aunt Scripty’s Note: for an insight into the world of an internist, see A Day in the Life of Pocket-Anon) Heck, even if what you have isn’t common, and they’re calling in specialists to help, it’s often an internist who basically oversees the whole thing, while the specialist drops in to alter this or that detail.  Occasionally, you will see an internist who decides to work in clinics instead, but that job tends to fall to your…

Family Practitioner:

The classic ‘town doctor’ is a family practitioner.  They work in clinics mostly (some do work in hospital like an internist, though, or go to the hospital if one of their patients has to be admitted), and see every kind of patient, including kids and ob/gyn visits if the town is small/their practice is comprehensive enough.  These are the doctors who form the closest relationships with their patients—seeing them for years, delivering their babies, taking care of the rest of the family—and tend to treat either chronic conditions (high blood pressure, diabetes, that kind of thing) or not-too-serious acute issues like mild infection or muscle sprains.  There are some who are also trained for basic surgeries such as appendectomies and C-sections, but those are becoming increasingly rare.  Still, if I had to choose a doctor for the zombie apocalypse, one of those old-school surgery-trained family docs would be among my top choices.

Pediatrics:  Take care of children, from the newborn babies up to the 17 years and 11 month kids.  Can work in either hospitals or clinics and, like family practitioners, often form the longest/closest relationships with their patients.  I try not to go into too much of the personalities of practitioners here, but I will say that pediatricians have among the lowest salaries, but the highest job satisfaction; whether that’s the kind of people the specialty attracts, the patients, or just the fact that even big bad bureaucracies tend to be a little better when there’s a sick kid on the line, I’m not sure.  My guess is a healthy combination of the three.

(Aunt Scripty’s Addition: Neonatologists are a subset of pediatricians, who primarily look after newborns, especially premies, and typically work in NICUs. The distinction isn’t actually splitting hairs; humans have exited the womb weighing as little as 1lb (500g), and neonatologists are the ones keeping them going.)

Surgeon:

Surgery is easy on the one hand—everyone knows they’re the ones who operate on patients—but it’s also difficult because there are so many subspecialties.  Your general surgeon is mostly in charge of basic surgeries, which almost all seem to involve the gut or skin—gallbladders, complex abscess drainage, appendectomies, small bowel obstruction, etc.  I should point out: if your character’s specialty is not ‘surgeon’ (or a few others I’ve listed), and they have to do an emergency surgery for story purposes, they are going to be WAY in over their head.  Which can be a good plot point, and it is possible your doctor can pull it off if there’s a life-or-death situation happening, but it’s going to scare the bejeebers out of them.

Major subspecialties:

—Orthopedics.  Bones and joints and muscles.  Think of them like Thor: they think they can solve all problems with a mighty hammer blow.

—Plastics.  The closest I’ve seen medicine come to art; I’ve seen patients who have just had half their face taken off to remove a cancer, and then plastics comes along and gives them a teeny tiny scar instead.  Basically, if it’s anything to do with making a patient look better, it’s in their scope.

—Trauma.  There’s sometimes confusion between a trauma surgeon and an ER doctor.  Both are trained to help stabilize/evaluate a trauma patient, perform basic procedures, and decide if they need surgery.  If a full-blown surgery is needed, though, the trauma surgeon has to take over and head to the operating room.  The parts in Doctor Strange where the ER doctor’s assisting in/performing operations as a routine thing?  No.  Not in her wheelhouse.

Ob/Gyn:

Basically, anything that deals with the female anatomy is in their scope of practice—Pap smears, STD exams, pregnancy, C-sections, fertility issues, and a lot more.  They’re one of the few specialties that really mixes both surgical and medical work; most others pick one or the other and stick to it religiously, but ob/gyn can flip between surgery (c-section, removing the uterus, tying tubes, and so on) and non-surgical work, so long as it pertains to the same anatomical system.

Emergency Medicine: The most badass of all specialties, which only the exceptionally intelligent, charming, and good-looking can aspire to.*  No, in all seriousness, this is kind of the ‘jack of all trades’ specialty—if someone’s having a crisis that involves any specialty (psychiatric, ob/gyn, infectious, neurologic, etc.)—they come to the ER, and the doctors have to be able to treat them.  Their job basically involves the most exciting fifteen minutes out of any specialty.  That said, I should point out that a good half (at least) of what ER doctors see is not really an ‘emergency.’ (Aunt Scripty’s Note: This is actually closer to 90+%. There’s a developing subspecialty of ER/ICU combinations for docs who want to JUST deal with CRITICALLY ILL PEOPLE until they go upstairs.)  It’s either something that’s serious, but can be managed outpatient with the right medications and follow-up, or it’s simply not serious at all (often because a patient can’t tell the difference; PSA that if you’re not sure if it’s serious or not, please do come and have us check it out!)

*Note that this description may be biased by the author’s experience. (Aunt Scripty’s note: don’t worry, paramedics are all like this too. The plural of anecdotes is data, right?)

Intensive Care: (Note: this section in Aunt Scripty’s addition.) Intensive care is where hospitals store the really, really sick patients. Intensivists are sort of a combination of internal medicine, emergency medicine, and anesthesiology. They’re very, very good with tweaking esoteric machines, but they’re also very, very good at talking about dying–because a lot of their patients will  die, and they do a lot of resuscitating, intubating, and other “emergency” and anesthetic procedures. There are various different ICUs out there: medical, cardiothoracic, pediatric, neonatal, coronary, neuro, neurosurgical, etc.

Neurology:  Treat any disorders of the brain, spine, or peripheral nervous system.  These doctors can work in clinics, treating patients with chronic neurological disorders, or in the hospital, treating more severe/acute problems (mostly strokes, but also including other problems like MS, spinal cord issues, etc.).

Psychiatry: Ok, just to be clear here, psychiatry =/= neurology.  Those are very different things, even though there are sometimes occasions when people will incorrectly send a psych patient to a neurologist or vice versa.  Psychiatrists treat things like depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, and so on—diseases that primarily affect behavior, and where we can’t quite see what the cause and pathology are.  Like a neurologist, though, psychiatrists can either work with hospital patients or in a clinic, or in a nice mix of the two.

Lightning Round:

Hematology/Oncology: Treat blood disorders and cancer.  Note: broken up into surgical and non-surgical groups.

Dermatology: Treat skin disorders

PM&R: (Aunt Scripty’s Note: Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation; I had to look it up.) Help patients with physical rehab and recovery-oriented problems (wound care, chronic spinal cord damage, that kind of thing).

Anesthesiology: Manage anesthesia during surgery; responsible for monitoring/managing surgical patients’ vital signs and keeping them under during the procedure.  Can also be involved in pain management.

Radiology: Interpret imaging of patients (X-rays, CT scans, MRIs, etc.)

Cardiology: Treat the heart

Pulmonology: Treat the lungs

Nephrology: Treat the kidneys

Gastroenterology: Treat the digestive system

Infectious disease: please tell me this is obvious

Urology: Treat urinary tract issues and male reproductive system

Endocrinologist: Treat hormone disorders

Immunologist: Treat immune disorders

Rheumatologist: Treat autoimmune disorders

Pathologists: Interpret tissue samples for disease/disorders.  Usually that’s cells, but also includes autopsies; if you’re doing a crime/mystery story, a forensic pathologist is your best choice for a doctor.

Side Notes:

—This isn’t an exhaustive list, just the most common ones I can think of off the top of my head.  If anyone wants more details on a specialty or thinks something’s missing, let me know!

—So, the age old question: in a post-apocalyptic setting, what kind of doctor do I want?  (Ok, ok, no one asks this question but me.  Whatever.)  Still, in answer: I’d most want an old school family medicine doctor with experience in global health.  Second choice would be an emergency medicine doctor, and if I couldn’t have global health, I’d at least ask for a military background.  A nurse practitioner with EM experience would also be pretty awesome.  Why?  Versatility.  These practitioners treat all patients, with all diseases.  The family medicine doc is better with chronic complaints (asthma, and a. fib won’t disappear with the apocalypse) and may have surgical experience, while the EM doc will be better with acute issues like heart attack, trauma, or infection, but they’ll both be able to cross over.  But the kicker for me is global health.  That means the doctor’s been trained to work in a resource limited setting, and so instead of panicking that they can’t get a lab result or imaging, they’ll be able to figure out a workaround.

—I’ve left out a lot of the surgical subspecialties (neurosurgery, hand surgery, etc.) for space.  Just know that there are a lot, and google for a list if you need a specific one.  Same for pediatrics; you can pretty much add ‘pediatric’ in front of anything in the lightning round—pediatric cardiologist, for instance—and it’s its own specialty. 

—Gender dynamics: there are now an equal number of men and women entering medical school, and have been for the past few years.  That said, the genders often go into different specialties: women are more common in ob/gyn and pediatrics, while men are more common in surgery (particularly orthopedics), urology, and to a lesser extent, ER.  Other specialties tend to be more even, but the older a physician is, the more likely they are to be male, simply because fewer women entered medicine as little as a decade ago.  That also means more men in leadership positions, still.

So that’s it for this post! Thanks again to Brittany, who will surely make an excellent EM doc some day.

xoxo, Aunt Scripty

The Script Medic is supported by generous donations on Patreon. Have you considered donating?

[luna-azzurra]

Tips for Writing Injuries

✧ Broken ribs suck. You don’t just “walk it off.” Breathing hurts. Laughing hurts. Existing hurts. Characters with rib injuries won’t be doing heroic sprints.

✧ Concussions aren’t instant naps. Dazed vision, nausea, dizziness, maybe even personality changes, but they’re not going to collapse neatly like in the movies.

✧ Blood loss is sneaky. It’s not just about dramatic pools of blood. It’s dizziness, confusion, and the body getting cold as circulation tanks.

✧ Adrenaline lies. Someone can take a serious injury and not feel it until the fight’s over. That “I didn’t realize I was bleeding until later” trope? Very real.

✧ Twisted ankles are brutal. One bad step and suddenly running is off the table. Even walking hurts like hell. Perfect way to ground a chase scene.

✧ Burns linger. Even small burns hurt more than most people expect. Blisters, infection risk, constant pain, it’s not just a cool scar later.

✧ Dislocated shoulders = useless arm. Characters can’t keep swinging a sword or firing a gun. They’re basically fighting one-armed until it’s fixed.

✧ Shock is a thing. Pale skin, trembling, rapid heartbeat, and eventually disorientation. A character might not even realize how bad their wound is.

✧ Stitches aren’t magic. Getting sewn up is painful and recovery takes time. They’re not instantly battle-ready after a needle and thread.

✧ Scars tell stories. Some fade, some don’t. Some stay sensitive forever. Don’t forget the aftermath when the wound becomes part of the character.

[fangirlmenace]

Don't forget the aftermath when the wound becomes part of the character

@mer-acle

[enchantedbook]

'The Appearance of a Spectre ' by Serafino Macchiati, (1860-1916)

[nondelphic]

october is for character development. november is for consequences.

[brotheralyosha]

[dogcopter]

[silkypicrew]

speechless. the pose. the expression. this should be a painting.

[c---crow]

i'm no good at painting sorry. i have excessive line work instead

[weaselle]

these are like... the parenthesis that remain around the empty sentence of the dinosaurs

the misunderstood but still cold-blooded devil, and the beautiful but alien and uncanny angel, timeless players in a deadly game as old as life itself

[greatatuintheworldturtle]

WHAT PART OF "THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF ONES BIRTH ARE IRRELEVANT, IT IT WHAT YOU DO WITH THE GIFT OF LIFE THAT MATTERS" DIDN'T Y'ALL UNDERSTAND!!!?

[enchantedbook]

Enter (Romain de Tirtoff) Cover for Harper's Bazar, 1918.

[enchantedbook]

'The Nixie in the Goldfish Pond ' by Franz Hein, 1927.

[whatifwriter]

the cover but again in lesbian pride flag colors - which is better? read it here

[whatifwriter]

TOXIC LESBIANS COLONIZE THE MOON, ANYONE?

[thewriteadviceforwriters]

the ADHD writer's guide to actually finishing a draft (no, seriously) 📝

okay, tumblr, writers... we need to TALK about how to actually finish a damn draft when your executive functioning decided to pack its bags and leave for a permanent vacation in the bahamas.

i'm not here to give you that basic "just set a timer!" advice that makes me want to throw my laptop into the sun. we all know those productivity hacks that work for neurotypicals make us want to scream into the void. (been there, screamed that.)

so here's the ACTUAL guide from someone who's written three novels while her brain was actively trying to sabotage her the entire time.

FIRST: accept that linear writing is a capitalist construct designed to torture us.

i'm serious. whoever decided writers should start at chapter 1 and proceed neatly to THE END clearly didn't have dopamine playing hide-and-seek in their prefrontal cortex.

write whatever scene has your brain chemicals SINGING today. that climactic fight scene that's six chapters away? the tender moment between your characters that happens in the middle? WRITE IT NOW while your brain is actually interested. i have finished entire novels by writing them in chunks and stitching them together like the beautiful frankenstein's monster they are.

SECOND: the 10-minute lie (that actually works???)

tell yourself you're only going to write for 10 minutes. that's it. no pressure. your adhd brain can handle anything for 10 minutes, right? the secret is that once you start, momentum becomes your best friend. sometimes you'll actually stop at 10 minutes (congrats, you still wrote something!) but often you'll look up and realize it's been two hours and you've written 2,000 words. and yes i've seen this a lot, like everywhere, where they tell you "set a timer for 5, and by the time you realize it's 2 hours" i've seen this many times before, and it actually works. at first i thought it didn't but boy, i was wrong.

THIRD: use your hyperfixation powers for good, not evil.

we all know that adhd comes with the superpower of becoming obsessed with random things for unpredictable amounts of time. WEAPONIZE THIS. create artificial urgency around your project. tell people about your deadline. make elaborate aesthetic pinterest boards. create a spotify playlist that you only listen to while writing this specific project. trick your brain into making your WIP the shiny new hyperfixation.

FOURTH: body-doubling saved my writing career and it can save yours too.

find another writer friend (or any friend who needs to do focused work) and sit together - virtually or physically - while you both work. something about having another human witnessing your work process bypasses the executive dysfunction. i swear it's actual magic. discord writing sprints, zoom sessions with cameras off but mics on - whatever works.

FIFTH: embrace the chaos of your natural writing cycle.

some days you'll write 5,000 words in a frenzy at 3am. other days you'll stare at the document for an hour and write "the." BOTH ARE VALID WRITING DAYS. the only consistency we need is returning to the document, not some arbitrary daily word count.

SIXTH: create external accountability that doesn't make you want to die.

deadlines from publishers? great. deadlines you set for yourself? your brain laughs and says "or what?" find the sweet spot - maybe it's a writing buddy you check in with, maybe it's a public progress tracker, maybe it's promising your sister you'll take her to dinner when you finish a chapter.

SEVENTH: the frankendraft approach.

your first draft DOES NOT need to be good, coherent, or even make sense. it just needs to exist. leave yourself notes like [FIGURE OUT HOW SHE GETS FROM THE CASTLE TO THE BEACH LATER] and keep moving. your adhd brain will thank you for not getting stuck in research rabbit holes for six hours.

EIGHTH: find your optimal writing environment through shameless trial and error.

maybe you need complete silence. maybe you need to be in a coffee shop with specific ambient noise. maybe you need to write standing up. maybe you need to dictate your novel while pacing around your apartment. there is no wrong way to get the words out.

i personally write best when i'm slightly uncomfortable (weird, i know) so i often end up writing while sitting on my kitchen floor with my laptop balanced on a chair. whatever works, bestie. a finished messy draft is infinitely more valuable than the perfect novel still trapped in your head. your adhd brain is simultaneously your greatest challenge and your greatest asset as a writer. the connections you make, the unique perspectives, the creativity - all of that comes from the same place as the struggles.

you've got this. now go write something, even if it's just for 10 minutes. i believe in you. ✨ -rin t.

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