thatanxiouswriter

[thatanxiouswriter]

What if klance wedding rings

[thatanxiouswriter]

Reasons Why Keith is a Dog Person

I think Keith loves both cats and dogs (all animals really), but initially, I thought he was more of a cat person. But then I really thought about it and I think Keith favoring dogs makes a lot of sense!

Keith has lived a life of abadonment by family, foster parents, friends, etc where he was given up on. People pointed out his flaws and judged him and made him feel unlovable or that love was conditional.

Most dogs by nature usually are completely opposite! They forgive you easily, love you no matter what, want to protect and be with you, they don't judge you, are super loyal, they're energetic, etc. I think dogs give Keith exactly what he wanted his whole life<3

[thatanxiouswriter]

How to Write a Character With OCD [PT. 1]

✎ As someone with OCD

Know What OCD Is

OCD is a disorder with obsessions and compulsions that significantly impact a person's life. It is a disorder characterized by a cycle of:

Obsessions

Anxiety

Compulsions

Temporary relief

Repeat

Obsessions are unwanted, intrusive thoughts, images, urges that a person with OCD suffers from. Every person may get intrusive thoughts, but people with OCD get them more and suffer anxiety from them, whereas a person without can usually brush it off. Obsessions are unwanted; the word obsessed is used because it's a thought that is hard to get rid of that's hyperfocused on.

Compulsions are repetitive actions, physical or mental, that a person with OCD feels compelled to perform to relinquish anxiety from obsessions temporarily. Compulsions are not good and cause distress in one's life.

OCD involves intrusive, unwanted thoughts that cause anxiety and discomfort that then create the urge to do compulsions (mental or physical). Remember to pay attention to their mental thoughts and not just physical compulsions-- people have mental ones too and/or "Pure O" OCD.

When you represent a disorder in a character, people with and without that disorder read about it. How you portray it impacts the people who have it and how the people without OCD see it.

Get to Know Different Themes

There are multiple forms of OCD. There is no singular "OCD thought". They vary from individuals. There are themes that feel more comfortable to talk about and one's that feel harder to talk about; they all matter.

Here are a few examples of OCD themes: • Harm OCD • Contamination OCD • Checking OCD • Scrupolosity OCD • Pedophile OCD • Existential OCD • Magical thinking OCD • Perfectionist OCD

All of these themes involve intrusive thoughts about things that cause them anxiety, go against their morals, create guilt, or feel distressing. Every person gets intrusive thoughts, but people with OCD feel more distressed from theirs.

Avoid Stereotypes

Typically, people write about contamination OCD, symmetry OCD, or perfectionism OCD. However, when they write about those themes, they focus more on the compulsions and not the anxiety or obsessions part. The obsessions and anxiety are one of the MOST important parts to concentrate on since they're what lead to the compulsion. You need to learn how to portray those.

Also, think about writing a character with a different OCD theme than what you typically see in media. People tend to think OCD is related to "cleaning" because other themes of OCD aren't represented or talked about. A lot of people with OCD are tired of seeing people write characters that are based on stereotypes.

Yes, you can abolutely write about a character with contamination, symmetry, and/or perfectionism OCD, but you need to do it right! Be aware that if you do it wrong, you're ultimately feeding into the stereotypes and causing harm. It'd also be great if your character mentions other forms of OCD or if they had a theme in the past you wouldn't usually hear in media (optional, but helpful!)

Don't gloss over the uncomfortable parts of OCD. If you can only write about what's comfortable, then you shouldn't write a character with OCD at all. Some intrusive thoughts are taboo, some people get gronial responses, some people can't shower or sleep, some people wash their hands so much they bleed, some people engage in compulsions that hurt themselves, or are "annoying" to others.

Common Myths and Misconceptions

❌ People with OCD like being clean and it's a preference. ✅ Some people with OCD have contamination OCD and it causes them significant distress to have to feel "clean" all the time. They don't enjoy it and it's stressful.

❌ OCD is a label anyone can call themselves-- my family members say it all the time. ✅OCD is thrown around a lot and people with actual OCD rarely say, "I am so OCD" and the actual disorder has lost it's meaning due to people without OCD using it. It is a disorder that affects a person's quality of life and their ability to function.

❌ OCD is just wanting things to be lined up all the time and perfect. There's nothing mentally going on. ✅People only see the compulsions a person with OCD has and don't see their internal thoughts. A lot of people with OCD are ashamed to talk about their obsessions or intrusive thoughts, so they don't and people only see is their physical actions.

❌ People with harm OCD or sexually taboo OCD are disgusting and want to hurt others. ✅People with harm OCD or sexually taboo OCD don't agree, like, or want their intrusive thoughts. They are the least likely out of anyone to ever do something that goes agaist their morals. Intrusive thoughts are not wanted; they are distressing, upsetting, and they don't agree or want them. They are not disgusting or monsters.

Find Resources

Reading blogs about people with OCD, watching YouTube videos, and/or talking to someone with OCD can dramatically help you flesh out your character! Keep in mind to try and get insight from someone who has a similiar form of OCD as your character, though, any insight can be helpful!

I recommend "OCD and Anxiety" on YouTube! If you want to watch movies or read books about characters with OCD, I highly recommend looking on Tumblr or Reddit on an OCD tag to see what actual people with OCD say. OCD is misrepresented a lot, so hearing the communities insight insures you watch something well-written or you learn what people with OCD dislike in the media that represents them!

End Note

I've never written a "How to Write" guide before! Please tell me if anything needs clarification, if the tags need to be changed, or if I wrote anything wrong. I myself have OCD, but I could have definitely made a mistake writing this!

If you have any questions or requests on this OCD character series, comment and I can add it to the next note! If you have any questions or need clarfication, don't be afraid to ask at all; I won't judge you and any question is a great question that I'd love to hear!

If you have accidently been misinformed, stereotyped your character, or believed any of these myths, do NOT beat yourself up! You're learning and if you're here to educate yourself, and that's amazing! It's hard to find accurate information about OCD, so I don't blame you if you misunderstood it. Take a deep breath, learn, and grow! You're doing great!

[thatanxiouswriter]

<3

Writing Deaf Characters | Speech is Speech

Before I get going, I’m 75% deaf, as some of you know, semi-reliant on hearing aids and lip reading. My first languages were Makaton sign and then BSL. I now use spoken English.

There are a lot of issues I find with how deaf people are represented in books, when represented at all. I would love to see more deaf and hard of hearing characters in the books I read- without having to read books specifically about deaf/HoH people- but when I find them, they’re grossly undercharacterized or stereotyped. Authors write them in a way that sets signing language characters apart from speaking characters as if they are inferior, and this makes my blood boil.

Some technicalties

I’ll keep this brief.

You may have heard that “deaf” is a slur and you should use “hearing impaired”. Don’t. I’ve never met a deaf or hard of hearing person who believed that. Use deaf for people who are deaf, and Hard of Hearing (HoH) for people who lack hearing. These can be interchangeable depending on the person. This is why sensitivity readers are a useful part of the beta process.

Sign language is incredibly varied. It developes in the same way as spoken language. Fun fact: in BSL there are at least half a dozen ways to say bullshit, my favourite of which is laying your arms across one another with one hand making a bull’s head sign and the other hand going flat, like a cowpat. It’s beautifully crude, and the face makes the exclamation mark. Wonderful.

There are different sign languages. Knowing more than one would make a character multi or bi-lingual, even if they are non-speaking.

Makaton is basic sign language used by children, and it mirrors the very simple language used by toddlers.

Yes, we swear and talk shit about people around us in sign language sometimes, and no, it isn’t disrespectful to have signing characters do this. Just remember that we also say nice things, and random things, and talk about fandoms and TV shows and what we’re having for dinner, too.

Each signed language is different from another. ASL and BSL? Nothing alike. Just google the two different signs for horse.

Remember that sign language is a language, equal to the spoken word

Therefore, treat it as such. Use quotation speech marks and dialogue tags. You only need to explicitly state that this character uses signed language once, and then let your modifiers and description do the rest.  It isn’t a form of “sub-speech" or “making hand actions”- sign language is a language all on its own: it has its own grammar rules, syntactical structures, punctuation, patterns, idioms and colloquialisms. For example, “what is your name?” becomes “Your name what?” with the facial expression forming punctuation in the same way that spoken English uses alterations of prosodic tone (inflections). There is even pidgin sign; a language phenomenon usually associated with spoken language.

In the same way that you would describe a spoken-English character’s tone of voice, you would describe a signed-English speaker’s facial expressions and the way that they sign- keeping in mind that these things are our language’s equivalent of verbal inflection.

So please, none of that use of “special speech marks” or italicised speech for sign. If your viewpoint character doesn’t understand signed speech, then you take the same approach that would be used for any other language they don’t understand, like French or Thai. E.g “He said something in rapid sign language, face wrinkling in obvious disgust.” is a good way of conveying this. The proof that you’ve done this well is in whether or not you can switch “sign language” for French or something else, and it would read the same.

Don’t be afraid to describe how things are said, either. Sign language is such a beautiful and expressive way of talking, and to see a writer do it justice would be truly fabulous. Putting this into practise:

“Oh, I love maths!” She said, fingers sharp and wide with sarcasm. She raised her eyebrows.

“I’m sorry.” He replied and made his face small, but could not keep the grin forming. She was starting to laugh, too.

This is part one of two, for the sake of readability and keeping the information simple as I can. Part two- writing the deaf characters themselves- is coming up over the weekend. See you then and best luck with your writing until that point :D

This is part of my weekly advice theme. Each week I look at what you’ve asked me to help with, and write a post or series of posts for it. Next week: settings and character development (including heroes, anti-heroes, villains, and every other kind of character).

[thatanxiouswriter]

Writing Platform Question?

Hey guys! I see a lot of artists get a community and traction for their drawings on Instagram, Tumblr, Tik Tok, etc, but it feels a lot harder to get traction and a following for writing. Are there any sites, apps, or anywhere else to go to post about my OC oneshots (long and short), small writing prompts, novel progress and just build a community with my OCs?

I'd love to have a community :)

Any advice would be grately appreciated!

Are there any Tumblr tags I could follow and join?

[thatanxiouswriter]

krolia and tex's love story is tragic [spoilers]

i'm actually crying right now, it makes me so sad

she crashed onto earth, tex found her and said he'd help her. they both knew being together would most likely be temporary, but they started to fall in love.

they fall in love, have keith, both absolutely fall in love with their baby and would do anything for him.

tex gets hurt, krolia realizes she needs to leave to keep them safe and gives keith a kiss on the cheek goodbye.

she left to protect the two people she loved the most only for one to die when her child was young; the other joined the battle she left to protect him from. i can't imagine making the hardest choice to leave your baby to prevent him from going into a war, only to meet him both as soilders in the war you swore you'd protect him from.

i actually can't imagine the grief and guilt she felt for leaving keith and tex and for her little family to fall apart when she was hoping that one day she'd come back to them and they could all be together.

they were so in love and deserved to be together; they deserved their little family

[thatanxiouswriter]

kaltenecker detail

I just finished watching the space mall episode again and saw at the end credits, the line producers name is "benjamin kaltenecker"

I haven't seen anyone acknowedge this cute little easter egg and felt it was relevant to mention they saw their line producer and thought "wouldn't it be cool if you had a cow named after you they got free with every purchase? haha"

[thatanxiouswriter]

chronic pain hurt/comfort prompts

༊*·˚ as someone with chronic pain

• buying them a self-care bag of ibuprofen, compression socks, scalp massager, and icy hot

• non-pained partner driving late at night to pick up pain meds because chronic pain partner tearfully called and said they ran out and want to be held

• reading a book on how to give massages to give their partner a full body massage during a flare

• non-pained partner wears a fanny-pack all the time to carry little things that help with their partners pain, pained partner thinks it's sweet and endearing

• doing the chores around the house or apartment during a flare-up because their partner is having a hard time leaving bed

[thatanxiouswriter]

period hurt/comfort prompts

: ̗̀➛ trans inclusive

• helping their partner through a condition that makes periods worse (endometriosis, PCOS, fibroids, etc)

• partner on their period feels embarrassed about their period and wearing pads, so cispartner wears a pad too (touching but also really funny)

• they get their partner a bunch of red themed snacks and food and watch gory horror movies as a period ritual so their partner has something to look forward to

• their partner struggles with self-hygiene during periods and they give them a shower and/or bath and help clean their room

• they bleed through on their partners bed and cry but their partner shushes them and helps clean up, then changes the sheets and cuddles them

[thatanxiouswriter]

deaf x hearing couple prompts

𐙚 wholesome

• hearing person gets led stars on their deaf partner's ceiling that writes out 'i love you' and flicks them on when they want to remind their deaf partner

• deaf partner teaches hearing partner petnames and their sign name and hearing person feels special every time they use it

• deaf partner helps hearing partner practice fingerspelling by fingerspelling compliments

• hearing partner loves their deaf partner's deaf accent even though the deaf person is shy about it (varies deaf person to deaf person on their comfortability and when they lost their hearing)

• hearing partner mixes up signs by accident and makes deaf partner laugh, like month vs condom, caring vs sex, shy vs whore are common mix-ups

[thatanxiouswriter]

mermaid x human prompts for mermay!!

to satisfy all your mermay-ey needs!

• autistic human has a special interest in rocks, mer brings them rare rocks that are usually expensive or impossible to hide

• mer has long hair that gets in their way and human braids their hair for them

• mers show love and court by offering seashells that are special to them. gives clueless human the sea shell who accepts it everytime and mer thinks they're madly inlove and always brings them trinkets

• mers make little sounds that are oceanic to express their love, human partner tries to mimick them back to express their love and mer is very excited

• human has fear of water from when they were little, mer helps them feel comfortable with swimming and water

[thatanxiouswriter]

vampire x werewolf prompts

cute and fluffy!!

• werewolf is really affectionate and loves phyical touch, whereas vampire isn't used to it and gets flustered everytime werewolf hugs or kisses them

• werewolf hunts and brings dead birds to vampire to show affection and to prove they're a good mate, vampire awkwardly laughs and pick up said dead bird with two fingers and says, "that's so sweet of you..."

• vampire wants a ring they saw in a jewelry store but it's made out of silver, so they're sad but werewolf comissions a silver look-a-like with that exact design and then vampire admires it and thinks of werewolf anytime they wear it

• vampire likes werewolf's blood the most, not even sexually, it just tastes the best and it's their favorite snack; werewolf is super happy to be the best

• vampire is sad they don't show up in pictures but werewolf is an artist and does portraits of them to show vampire exactly how beautiful they are

[thatanxiouswriter]

autistic partner prompts

from an autistic person :)

• They think their partner is a cool, mysterious badboy and have never gone in their room, only to find out that it's decked out in a bunch of their special interest (that's really cute)

• They pack safe foods for their partner that has food sensory issues and/or aversion when they go out to dinner or family gatherings

• They leave for a business or family trip and their partner feels off without them in their routine and everything feels weird

• They think their partner is super quiet, but in reality, they're dying to talk about their special interest and when they finally ask, their partner can't stop talking and they look at them with adoring eyes

• They like speaking in dramatics and saying hyperboles only for their partner to be really confused and have it fly over their head which leads to really funny and endearing situations