#Neutral/positive connotation?

[sapienthouse]

Me when i fucking knew it

[starthaw]

the opening song is called inertia, which feels a little funny to me especially bc inertia (in physics) refers to an object's ability to stay at rest or in continuous motion iff there is no additional force acting upon said object - newton's first law.

but the translated song lyrics (specifically the line "I'm feeling my inertia") refer to inertia as 感受我心中的那份执着 which translates to "I'm feeling that persistence in my heart" (执着 is more like persistence than perseverance imo)

so in this case, inertia is meant to be taken as the quality or state of being unwavering, unchanging. "I'm feeling my inertia" takes on an air of stubbornness, which transitions well into the next line: 固执地我相信 lit. "stubbornly, I will believe"

(crossposted from twt with corrections, inertia is such a wack title sorry I can only associate it with physics stuff)

[marbearmarigold]

Just dissolved into giggles because the radio was playing while I was eating spaghetti and Owner of a Lonely Heart came on

[dont-open-dead-inside-net]

Eepy!

[faggottonystark]

mood tracker is almost done THis shit a mess. i cant wait to finish it tho bcuz then im gonna make a trend list and see my stats. Spotify wrapped i was depressed 50 days out of the year

[3hks]

How to Write a Character with THAT *Sad Aura*

Have you ever stumbled upon a character, who, despite radiating wholesome, positive energy, also has a subtle undertone of sadness? It's kind of intriguing, isn't it? If you've ever wanted to write a perhaps more complex character or explore writing emotions, why not check this out?

What am I talking about?

Let's do a quick introduction as to what I mean. I've said this a couple times already, but to the reader, this character feels despondent even though they act nothing like it. This doesn't mean they have to act happy all the time (like my first example); they might act cold, or apathetic, but the point is they don't act visibly sad.

This faint melancholic mood provides a charming, or even nostalgic feel to the audience through ONE character! Isn't that kind of fun?

Eye Expressions

This character will not show sadness on their face--that contradicts the idea of "sad aura". But you know what they say, right? Eyes are the windows to the soul; they do not lie!

When trying to highlight some of this unhappiness, write about their eyes. Talk about how their eyes look oddly dim sometimes when they smile, or how they don't meet their friend's eyes when they laugh. These cues are simple but powerful.

Adverbs

You always have to be mindful of adverbs, but here especially, adverbs (and adjectives) unconsciously influence how your audience views the character.

For example, avoid saying too much of "smiled brightly" or "talked excitedly". If these are the adverbs you purposefully want to use to portray your character, then by all means! However, these adverbs add a happier connotation, which you must be aware of. If you want something more neutral (which I recommend for the most part), consider using lighter adverbs/adjectives, such as "smiled softly", or "offered lightly".

Reasons

A reason is normally needed for almost everything. Here, you want genuine reasons to back up why your character doesn't ask for help, thus forcing them to work through their unhappiness alone.

This could be because they think other people can't solve the problem, they don't want to bother others, they don't think their issue is a big deal, or they simply believe there's no solution.

Physical Hints

And if all this isn't enough, then drop some physical hints! Perhaps your character gets distracted often, tends to hesitate before speaking, deflects concerned comments with jokes, or has a hard time acknowledging reassurances, even when it's unrelated to their personal troubles. These habits suggest the idea your character has more than meets the eye.

Mood Changes

When people are upset, their mood tends to fluctuate. For most of us, we're typically upset for a short period, so we cycle through emotions such as anger, sadness, and even joy during these moments.

However, if your character is consistently sad, not just for a day or two, their mood might shift on different days. Maybe they're really tired one day, hardly speaking. Maybe the next, they are more frustrated, snapping at people or ignoring them. Maybe the day after that, they are overly energetic, bouncing everywhere and talking all the time, providing a bit of whiplash.

Purpose

Similar to having a reason for their reluctance of reaching out, you also want to ensure that they have a purpose for fighting. Why haven't they given up yet? This is especially crucial when considering the real world, where feeling upset leads to a lack of motivation.

So, what keeps them going, then? Do they want to fix their regrets? Do they want to change?

Backstory and Actions

To be honest, I wouldn't consider a backstory an absolute necessity, but I highly suggest creating one. Why? Because you can accurately identify the reason for your character's guilt, regret, and sorrows from the past with an actual backstory.

The events of your character's past always influence their future actions.

For example, if they were a part of a severe car accident in the past, perhaps they only feel comfortable when they are the driver in the future because that means they can control the car.

Conclusion

This character is not especially different from any other character, besides the fact that they are neither obvious nor overly secretive of their genuine feelings.

With that being said, focus on embodying their eye expressions, be careful about which adverbs and adjectives you choose to use--I recommend choosing ones with more neutral connotations for a sense of melancholy, explain why your character keeps their sadness to themselves and why they keep fighting despite it, show mood fluctuations, drop physical hints, such as actions and/or specific personality traits, and make sure to connect their past to their present!

Happy writing~

3hks ^^

[floral-atom-collective]

TONE TAG MASTER POST

/srs - serious or not joking

/nsrs - not serious

/j - joking or kidding

/hj - half joking

/ref - reference

/nf - not fake or not forced

/gen - genuine

/pos - positive

/neg - negative

/aff - affectionate

/vpos - very positive

/s or /sarc - sarcastic or sarcasm

/lh - light-hearted

/genq - genuine question

/nm - not mad

/p or /plat - platonic

/r or /rom - romantic

/neu - neutral

/lyr - lyrics

/nbh - nobody here

/ij - inside joke

/t - teasing or teasingly

/q - quote

/c - copypasta

/f - fake

/rh or /rt - rhetorical question

/sx or /x - sexual connotation

/nsx or /nx - non sexual connotation

/th - threat

/cb - clickbait

/ma - manifesting

/lu - a little upset

/nay - not at you

/ay - at you

/hyp - hyperbole

/ot - off topic

/apl - aplatonic

/quo - quote

/silly - silly!

/nav - not a vent

feel free to link this in posts as explanation if needed!

[girlspecimen]

discourse over “queer” is so tired and idgaf anymore but i despise when ppl are like “i don’t get why ppl are uncomfortable with it. it’s been reclaimed” like man people deciding it is now a reclaimed slur doesn’t erase memories i have of people using it on me as an insulting slur before the council of gays apparently decided it was no longer derogatory

[hikato-chan]

Sometimes I think about how weird Tumblr mutuals are. Just, how would we ever explain this type of relationship to someone who's never been on Tumblr?

We are a book club that doesn't talk. We don't know each other's names, or faces, or ages really but we sit in a room and we spend time quietly with each other. Sometimes someone speaks up to say something like "sometimes there are authors who write relationships so weirdly. It feels more like they're trying to convince us that yes, this is love, it doesn't matter what the boy does because that girl is in love so it's automatically fine. There's nothing wrong with anything as long as the author says it's love and that just makes a caricature out of the girl."

And then, without looking up we will agree or maybe debate and maybe next book club one speaks up to say "I told this to a friend of mine and she said that actually not only the girl is a caricature but if you look at it, so is the boy. Trapped in whatever standards the author deems necessary without any depth and no way to make it a dialogue to understand others because the girl has to accept him because she loves him so she can only echo him. They're both doomed from the beginning"

And then, a few minutes later someone says "man I wish I i a cat" and the others say "mood" or "same"

It is so unlike how we make friends in real life that even now I don't think my little book club comparison would hold up. It's not negative, we are simply mutuals.

[salemlunaa]

CIRCUMSTANCES ARE ON YOU

you must take responsibility to change them

I’m not gonna use the wording “your fault”, because you are never at fault. The word fault makes it sound like you did something wrong and you never do. It has negative connotations and nothing is negative about you. As God you never do anything wrong. I think the word to use is “responsibility”. You must take responsibility.

Because the thing is you are not human, you ARE GOD. Things do not happen to you they happen from/through you. Because of things in your subconscious. Nothing in reality is random, there is nothing outside of you, once you realise that you got yourself here, you will start to see how easy and natural it is to get yourself out and to where you want to be.

only you got yourself here only you can get yourself out.

See when it comes to circumstances you’ve got to do two things:

1. Understand that this was your creation

Example: let’s say you want to manifest your specific person, you’ve been doing affirmations, but all of a sudden you see you’ve been kicked out of their private insta. You must understand that this did not happen TO you, this happened FROM you.

You are not some NPC that gets pushed around by the events, twists and turns of the game, you are the game developer. There is nothing down to the last detail that you haven’t created, even the words you are reading now.

2. Refuse to see this from the eyes of your ego

Your ego is the one that assigns meaning to things, but everything just is, there is no such thing as big and small, hard and easy, bad and good, everything just is, it’s neutral. And when you understand that you will see that the 3D doesn’t happen TO you, it’s a feedback loop. In terms of the example, you wouldn’t see being kicked out of your sp’s insta as a set back happening to you, you would see this as input and feedback, because that’s all the 3D is. It’s the ego that spirals, put a negative or positive label on things.

“This is a situation I created, and why?” Look into your subconscious and find the answer as to why you created a situation where your specific person distanced themselves. And yes, you have the answer because you are the only one with answers as no one is outside of you. You have created everything here, this whole illusion, even the words you are reading right now.

Once you see that the 3D isn’t against you, it’s just this input and feedback game, you will honestly start to find circumstances laughable.

And once you see that you are the creator and that this is all your doing, you will be able to collapse time between you and your desires

Choose which game to play by inputting things that benefit you

Do not panic at the life that has been sculpted for you as it has been done BY you and only YOU can change it.

EVERYTHING JUST IS: BY YOU, FOR YOU, SERVING YOU

[authenticalt]

The AI generated ~Positivity Reminder~ work texts sure feel genuine (sarcasm)

[starrazors]

they have me a baton in cod and i am now an absolute fucking menace (it kills in 2 hits)

i like your funny words magic man

[angelsdean]

I really really love the language both Misha and Jensen have been using re: the "confession"

Like Misha repeatedly stating "homosexual declaration of love"

declaration: a formal or explicit statement or announcement. announcement. proclamation.

It's just, stating something, making it known.

Then there's Jensen correcting himself from saying "confession" to "testament"

Jensen: "he gave a confess- or he gave his - his testament"

testament: something that serves as a sign or evidence of a specified fact, event, or quality. a tangible proof or tribute. an expression of conviction. creed. attestation. related to testimony: a solemn declaration. an open acknowledgment.

These words are more neutral / positive statements than "confession." Cas's feelings just are, and he is declaring them proudly, attesting** to them. Speaking his truth. Whereas "confession" connotes shame.

confession:

a formal statement admitting that one is guilty of a crime.

an admission or acknowledgment that one has done something that one is ashamed or embarrassed about.

a formal admission of one's sins with repentance and desire of absolution

All of these imply that something about what is "confessed" is shameful, embarrassing, sinful. There's guilt associated with the "confessed" thing, and that's not what Cas felt in the moment of his True Happiness.

In that moment he felt proud, he felt elated to finally declare his feelings, and also in his speech to Dean, which imo is a big part of Cas's happiness, getting to tell Dean how he sees him, how many actually see him, as a being of love, as someone who is always trying and fighting for others. as someone who loves so fiercely and strongly that he taught Cas how to love in this way too. And none of those feelings are shameful, he's proud to tell Dean these things. He's happy to finally get to say them.

So I really like the language they're personally using when talking about this scene. It's really not a confession. Cas's love isn't some secret, shameful thing. In that moment all those feelings burn brightly, happily in him. In that moment he is making his solemn declaration to Dean about his feelings and all the things about Dean that he loves, openly acknowledging what has sat quietly between them for years, not hidden, not shameful, just unspoken.

**to show, say, or prove that something exists or is true

[patricia-taxxon]

I say this with neutral to positive connotation, the country that wins the moonbase race is gonna supercede the U.S as global hegemon in the next ten years

[textpostscymraeg]

whats like the default swearing/cussing setup in welsh? i know youve said before that 'bitch' doesnt translate with the same like connotations as in english, are there others for which that is true?

Ooooh, a fun question! So there are a few ways you can swear or cuss in Welsh, with the first being blasphemy (Duw = God; iesgob mawr = great bishop; uffarn dân = hellfire). Basically the exact same as using Jesus Christ, oh my God, etc!

Then there's borrowing English-language swear words, which is extremely common. Ffwc/ffyc/ffoc for fuck, coc for cock, cont for cunt, etc. I'll often say something like 'ffwc o foi' which technically means 'a fuck of a guy' but can be positive or negative depending on context (usually positive). We can also get very creative with these loanwords; I'm a big fan of adding the 'edig' suffix to them in order to turn them into adjectives! Ffwcedig = fuckful or fucked.

But we have plenty of our own rude words! These are some of the words that'd get me a good glare from my mother if I said them in front of her:

Hwran/hwren (little whore)

Cach/cachu (shit/to shit)

Gast (bitch)

Pisio (piss - this is technically a loanword but a French one!)

Tin (arse)

Rhech (fart)

Slebog (slut/slag)

Pidyn (penis)

So while we don't always have a direct translation for an English swear word, we can usually find a pretty good replacement that carries the same vibe!

Dickhead, twat = coc oen (lamb's cock)

Go fuck yourself = cer i grafu (go scratch yourself)

Chatting shit, bullshitting = malu cachu (grinding shit)

I genuinely think that 'bitches' is the only one that's tricky to translate, only because it can be used negatively ('they were bitches') or in a neutral way ('bitches be like'), which is why I'll sometimes use 'genod' (girls). If I think of any more, I'll edit this post!

[cripplecharacters]

Hello! Hi. Hope you guys are doing well. I wanted to ask about referring (pretty blatantly) to autistic characters before autism was a formal diagnosis. One of my characters is nonverbal and autistic and communicates primarily using a notepad (in the Victorian era). Her family (positively coded characters) doesn’t really care or like think negatively of her for being autistic, but they still recognize that she’s not neurotypical, however other characters who appear (not the villains necessarily but negatively coded characters) do care that she’s “abnormal”. Are there any words that really shouldn’t be used to describe her (I have been using ‘odd’ by both groups of characters) or that only one group should use (for example having the ‘mean’ characters use ‘abnormal’ but the ‘nice’ ones use ‘odd’) so I can clearly specify that she is autistic and that it’s not a big deal, while also making sure that the characters who think negatively are portrayed in a negative light (even though they’re not the main villains). While still, not offending anyone or accidentally referring to the character in a pejorative light.

Hi asker,

I'm including some extra context, not just for you the writer, about the Victorian era but also to anyone else reading this ask to learn a little more and maybe be able to apply information to their own characters as well.

The Victorian era is used to refer to the period roughly from 1820 to 1910 in the UK, and often the use of this word for the time is extended to the US as well. Sometimes people use it for other places in Europe, even though Queen Victoria herself only ruled the UK and from 1837 until 1901.

Your character might have been described as 'dumb' or 'mute,' at the time, since she does not speak; for both clarity and reason's sake I would avoid using 'dumb' and only use 'mute' instead. 'Dumb' is, these days, only used as an insult.

Other words people might use for her in the time to denote her as being 'strange' but not necessarily negative might have been (aside from 'strange' and 'odd' that you've already stated): peculiar, eccentric, or unusual. They might use 'queer' as well, as in behaving outside of the norm and not as in gay; that meaning was more by the 1920s.

'Weird' as in "off-puttingly strange" is a more modern word, but it started in the 1820s, so people could conceivably call her weird, especially if they mean to speak ill of her. 'Bizarre' might work, but earlier or in its usage it also had a connotation of unpredictability, too. These two would probably not be used by her family or those who think highly of her, but might be used by people who are fairly neutral on her.

A note on 'moron' and 'imbecile,' which were diagnoses in the early 19th century of intellectual disability but also applied to other people they didn't know how to categorize and could include autistic people: they are definitely used as insults now and were definitely used as insults then when they were diagnoses, but they wouldn't be used on your character because they were not used in that way until the 1910s and 1920s. 'Idiot' is an older word, but it usually was used to refer to people who had more severe intellectual disability; I don't think this would be used for your character much, nor would I recommend it. I don't think it would work to convey what you want the readers to get out of it. Not to mention, it's still very much an insult today.

Now, there's two people from a bit earlier in history who might have been diagnosed as autistic today: Henry Cavendish and Hugh Blair of Borgue. (Obviously we can't know for sure, they've been dead for 200+ years.)

Hugh Blair (wikipedia link) lived from 1708 to 1765. He was described as 'eccentric' and 'daft,' and his behaviors as 'unusual.' He was nicknamed "the daft lad of Borgue." He engaged in a lot of repetitive behaviors, seemed unaware of social norms, and had very strong interests. It's noted that despite being seen as strange, he was generally well-liked.

Henry Cavendish (wikipedia link) lived from 1731 to 1810, so a bit closer to the Victorian era. He was a scientist, a very wealthy man, and notably very shy. He was close basically only to his family, was very solitary, had trouble speaking to others and was noted as wearing old-fashioned clothes. Since he was so solitary, he had trouble publishing his findings, even though he put a lot of work into them. It seems people referred to him as 'solitary' and 'eccentric.'

Some people suggest Emily Dickinson (wikipedia link), who lived from 1830 to 1886, might have been autistic. I am less familiar with her than the above two, but am including her because she is directly in your time period so the way people in her lifetime described her can be relevant. She was very socially isolated, although she was also very affected by deaths around her during her life, and later often ill, which can also be reasons for isolation. She mostly communicated with others via letters in her adulthood. She was seen as an 'eccentric' by others.

I will note that all three of those people were wealthy, so their eccentricities were more tolerated by those around them. A poor person might not have been afforded that second thought.

Now that I've said... all that, I will add my final note:

I think more important than the words themselves is how other characters use the words to describe her.

"Elizabeth is such an odd woman, I should like to write to her and see what she thinks about this" is very different from "Elizabeth is such an odd woman, I can't stand to be around her when she's doing that!" So is "My cousin is a bit peculiar, she does not speak but she can understand you just fine; if you can be patient she will write out her answers" versus "My cousin is incredibly peculiar, she doesn't even speak for goodness's sake! Can you believe it? It's ridiculous."

The way your characters speak about her will not be entirely dependent on the specific words the use, but also in the way they describe her and refer to her. Especially in a time where many things are referred to with euphemisms or vague words (which 'odd' and 'strange' and 'peculiar' definitely are or can be), which the Victorian era absolutely was, both groups of characters can use the same words but their intent can come across due to what else they say about her.

Sorry this is super long, but I hope it helps!

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