#nted for writers

[whitechadwarden]

cringey ass phrase i just imagined myself saying that would be totally accurate: "i feel torn between my love of literature and my love of video games"

[ame-fanapprentice]

How I write stutters.

I wanted to share some advice for other folks who might be curious about writing stutters for their characters!  I’m in no way a professional at this sort of thing.  I just felt it would be nice to share what I've learned through writing my characters with other folks to help them out ;w; I plan on updating this more in the future with more knowledge I gain on this subject!  Please feel free to add on as well or correct me with things I may have gotten wrong!

1. Understand what stuttering is. Stuttering, as defined by Merriam-Webster, is a disorder of vocal communication marked by involuntary disruption or blocking of speech. Stuttering takes many forms.  It isn’t always just repeating words or sounds either!  Some stutters are actually pauses in phrases or words rather than getting stuck on something. That means something like this:  

“Did-did you do that?”  

Or this:

“I...I wanted...to ask you...about something.”

Or this:

“I-I wan-nted t-to-to give you y-your p-presen-nt early.”

Can be read as stutters!

2.  Ask why are they stuttering?

Stuttering is not always from nerves!  Characters can stutter from a number of causes.  The biggest differentiation I found is if the character is stuttering from emotional causes or from physical causes.

If your character is stuttering from physical cause...

By physical cause I am referring to disorders or injuries that affect a person’s ability to speak.

For instance, my character Ame has brocca’s aphasia.  Aphasia is a type of brain injury in which the part of the brain that processes speech/communication gets damaged (either from a stroke or from other causes like head injuries). He received this injury the same time as a concussion he had as a child.  In his case, he can understand others fine but has trouble communicating his own thoughts through speech.  Over the years his stutter has improved, but he still has trouble pronouncing specific sounds such as m’s, p’s, s’s, and f/v’s (mostly those involving closed mouth).   For example, if he were to say something like: 

“Sally sells sea shells by the sea shore.”

Not only would it be ridiculously hard for him, but I would write his speech out like this:

“ S-sally sells s-se-sea shells b-by the s-sea sh-shore.”

The best thing you can do in this case is to do your research!  For instance Aphasia has numerous different categories that break down how a person is affected by that injury.  Some folks are able to recover from aphasia through therapy while others have a much harder time.  Some can understand people but might be unable to communicate after they are diagnosed. Note that there are many, many other types of physical injuries and disabilities that can cause somebody to stutter.  Aphasia is simply one I currently have the most knowledge on because of the research I've done.  

Stuttering can also be a result of improper speech or speaking too rapidly!  If you speak quickly your mouth will have a much harder time keeping up with what your saying, and thus you will be more likely to end up repeating, slurring, or breaking apart your speech.  

If your character is stuttering from emotional cause...

Find out when they are more likely to stutter.  Is it because of stress?  Anxiety?  Excitement?

Try to avoid stutters from being shy.  It’s not bad to use them, but often if you limit yourself to them stuttering with only social interactions it becomes rather repetitive.  People often get used to speaking with others the longer they do so, and therefore your character who was stuttering when talking to someone they just met might not stutter after they’ve gotten to know them! What I've found is that the more stress a character is under, the harder it might be for them to communicate.  

Remember to return to the question why are they stuttering?

If A is in a panic trying to communicate something incredible that just happened to them to B, then they might stutter!  

If A and B are arguing, and B is having a harder time trying to get their point across, that tension is going to build.  Though they might end up blurting out their words they might stumble from the stress placed on them.  

If B has social anxiety and is having a hard time trying to talk to C, then they might stutter because of the stress.  Their mind may want to speak but they might not feel entirely up to doing so at the moment, thus shutting down their thoughts and making their words come out more as mumbles.

In addition, something that differentiates emotionally caused stutters from physically caused stutters is how its delivered.

In physically caused stutters the character will often push through what they say to get the point across.  This might cause them to forget a word (such as “the”, “an”, “like”, etc.) or get stuck on certain sounds.   In emotionally caused stutters the character’s mind is placed under stress.  They might have a harder time trying to convey what they want to say.  Rather than pushing through, they try to correct themselves by regrouping and repeating sounds or words instead.

3. Write that dialogue!! Something I found that always helps is to write what is supposed to be said first, then go back and change things.  Read it aloud to yourself, feel how the sounds bounce around in your mouth and figure out at what points would your character stumble.   If they have trouble pronouncing certain sounds that might be a place where they could stutter.  If they’re expressing something rapidly, aim towards the front of the sentence.  Rapid speech tends to begin understandable, but slur the longer the sentence/statement drags on.   Remember to remember the setting your character is speaking in as well!  Different settings can affect how a person is feeling emotionally, and might impact how they communicate. From one messy writer to another, your dialogue is going to look ugly.  It’s going to look like someone spilled part of their spare keyboard on whatever you’re writing.  But, use those special characters to your advantage! For me I use hyphens to represent connected or slurred sounds.  Ellipsis can also work as well, but these have a much larger and drawn out sound.  For something quick and rapid, use a comma!  You can also break down a sentences with periods between the words to represent a shorter pause than an ellipsis but longer than a comma (perhaps use this for if someone is out of breath?). 

Everyone writes stutters differently.  I’ve even seen my own character’s stutter be written in different ways!  The best you can do is experiment with what feels or sounds right and go with your gut.  

Hoped this helped!!  Happy writing!!

[belaborthepoint]

Why I chose to abandon food for expensive tan-colored liquid

by columnist Ashley P. Ashleigh 

This week in Health and Living: 

Does anyone remember that Spongebob episode (I know, this reference is dating me — I'll admit it! I'm in my early twenties!) where they realize the inside of the krabby patty is this gross grey sludge? I think the Krusty Krab like changed ownership or something? Right? So everyone found the grey sludge really disgusting. The writers of that episode were like "this is gross, and everyone in Bikini Bottom would be so horrified if they found out their mouth-watering meals were made of grey sludge." And I remember being confused, because I have always wanted to eat grey sludge instead of real food. And now, I can. In this blog post, I will explain the personal considerations that influenced my decision to transition from food to expensive tan-colored liquid.

First of all, cooking is cumbersome. Food prep alone is a massive burden. There's nothing I hate more than taking a knife and slathering something all over a piece of bread, and then taking the time to chew it. When I think of the collective minutes of my life that I have sacrificed to the drudgery of picking things up and moving my teeth around, it makes me wish I'd never been born, because to waste my precious time on this earth in such a way is to demean the value of human life. Ultimately, my decision to consume tan-colored liquid instead of food is a spiritual choice, and reflects my philosophy about living with a sense of purpose.

If you know anything about me, you know that I am a tech fanatic. Which is crazy, because I'm a girl. Most people know that girls are bad at STEM subjects, but what they don't know is that we're only stupid because we choose to spend our time creating hair and makeup tutorials on youtube. We don't necessarily lack the capability for complex thinking, it's just not something we prioritize. I didn't care about hard science at all, until I realized that if I did technology stuff, I could get paid more than minimum wage. It's really embarrassing to think that just one year ago, I was an adjunct professor of Comparitive Literature at NYU. I can't even mention the words 'adjunct professor' at all anymore without receiving a gratuitous display of pity and remorse.

Don't worry though — I have a great lifestyle now, because I taught myself how to code and got a job at a startup. I'm programming things for this app that lets you see what your face looks like as a baby, called FaceBabe. So I'm getting a solid income and live in the valley and can afford to spend a large portion of my income on tan-colored liquid. I started my subscription with "Varf" about a month ago, and I am LOVING it. Every morning, I strap a straw to my face. The straw is attached to a giant rolling vat of Varf that I pull along behind me with a leash and harness that I strap around my upper body. But since I don't always want to take the time to put my lips on the straw, a person comes in daily to install a feeding tube in my abdomen and follow me around to make sure it doesn't fall out. This way, I have some choice in how to ingest my nutrients. The best part is that my assistant is actually a higher-up at Varf who has worked their way up the ladder and gotten the privilege of working even harder for Varf. Unfortunately there are no "medical professionals" employed with Varf, but this is actually an asset, because it makes Varf accessible to those without healthcare. If I were still an adjunct at NYU, this would have been a blessing. I didn't have healthcare as an adjunct professor because NYU wouldn't provide it, but also because I didn't want it. Why would you pay all that moolah just in case you flip off the front handles of your bicycle and break both your arms? That actually happened to my friend, but she was in Europe, so it didn't even matter because Europe is a socialist country. She was okay because strangers could drive her around in their cars to help her buy groceries. So anyways, when you subscribe to Varf, you are getting nutrients to sustain you throughout your whole day. I love it so much, I've actually decided of my own volition to start selling Varf to my friends and encouraging them to use it and sell it to their friends as well. My startup company works out of a cafe, so whenever I'm taking a break from my coding work for FaceBabe, I can wander around and approach the cafe patrons to discuss Varf.

Everyone on the Varf team is intelligent, compassionate, and skinny. I don't trust someone to talk to me about health and nutrition unless they have a low BMI number, because people who are fat don't look good, which is how I know that they are unhealthy. They might not have "doctors" at Varf, but I resent the implication that to be a doctor you have to have attended medical school or know how to use a stethoscope. What about a doctor of philosophy, or someone whose first name is Doctor? What are you gonna do about that? You literally have to call that person Doctor because it's their name. Doctors or not, the Varf family is extremely caught up on all the latest nutrition science and knows the right combination of vitamins and nutrients to keep you alive. I've started burning a lot of calories since I stopped sleeping, but I can increase my daily intake of Varf to compliment my level of activity. Since I'm unable to sleep, I like to fill the extra two hours with fun things that I enjoy, like putting masking tape on my body to get weird-shaped sunburns, or cutting holes in people's clothing while they're not looking. Varf has given me so much extra energy because of the caffeine and also the chemicals that rewire your brain and make you have more thoughts faster so you can be more productive. I have become so creative. Sometimes I get terrible headaches because my brain is literally expanding inside my skull, so my bones have to reorient themselves to make room and my head has to get taller. I always wondered why God made our skin so stretchy. I guess he had Varf in mind from the very beginning!

There is a chart online that will tell you how much to eat, and that you should not eat if you are fat. I was so mortified when I was slightly overweight according to the BMI scale, and it's been such a relief to be able to have a chart tell you exactly how much to consume, and not be tempted by all the options that plague food-eaters. All I have to do is tell my feeding tube helper to increase or decrease my dosage and they will take care of everything. They love it and enjoy it so it's like they're just having fun and not working which is why it's okay that they do not get paid. They get a free Varf subscription though, which is excellent compensation and one of the reasons why we all aspire to climb this ladder.

Because I work at a tech company, I don't need any side gigs. So when I say I'm selling Varf subscriptions in my spare time, you know it's a passion project. I have not been pressured or roped into this in any way, and am selling these packages because I want to. Varf has changed my life. It is extremely delicious and feels like I am drinking a smoothie made of my own flesh, which I love. I did not enjoy eating food so it was an extremely reasonable sacrifice to make in exchange for being so skinny and productive all the time, and I know in my heart that it was all worth it, and one day God will reward me for tirelessly toiling to eradicate the fat from  this holy prison of flesh. I believe that God has annointed me his messenger and servant, bestowing upon me the glorious gift of Varf to share with my fellow men, also Varf is not funded by a fundamentalist Christian cult. No one is standing over me, dictating each word I write, and t H reatening m E with re L ease of the P ornographic videos they've filmed of me rolling around naked in a kiddie pool full of M ilk, which I cons E nted to in exchange for paying off my student loan debt, a promise that they had no intention of keeping. Varf is not a pyramid scheme, and if you agree to sell it you will not be dangerously entrenched in this organization for the rest of your life, unable to escape, isolating yourself from anyone in your social circles or extended family who does not choose to drink tan-colored liquid. I advocate for Varf because I think it tastes good and I believe in the mission. I choose to do this because I enjoy it. I am happy. I have a will of my own. I am free.

[top5ubestessaywritingservic-blog]

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