Resources For Describing Characters

books with nonbinary and/or "they/them" characters

this is mostly directed at @the-closet-case but i hope it can help other people too!

books with they/them narrators

- "I Wish You All The Best", Mason Deaver

- "River Of Teeth", Sarah Gailey (there's multiple narrators in this one, one of them uses they/them)

- "Can't Take That Away", Steven Salvatore (main character switches between he/she/they.)

- "No Man of Woman Born", Ana Mardoll. (This one is a short story collection which includes a he/she/they genderfluid person, a xe/xem person, and multiple other trans folks. also, an aro character and a bi one!)

books with major characters who use they/them, exclusively or not

- "Spellhacker", MK England (the love interest is nonbinary and uses they/them)

- "The Heartbreak Bakery", A.R. Capetta (the love interest uses he/they pronouns; the narrator uses no pronouns.)

- Also, bonus: not as major but "A Dark and Hollow Star" by Ashley Shuttleworth has a genderfluid side character who uses they/them.

books with nonbinary characters that don't use they/them

- "Meet Cute Diary", Emery Lee. The love interest uses ey/em pronouns (or maybe e/em, i can't quite remember)

- "Good Omens", Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett. Crowley and Aziriphale both use he/him but are referred to as having no gender.

~

I'll add more later, I'm really tired right now and am having difficulty recalling books to add.

#231: Is It Really That Bad?

Resistance, as Steven Pressfield describes it, is the bane of my existence. For some reason, my brain keeps looking for ways to distract itself from the task at hand. This happens even when I know what’s the most important task to finish. Sometimes, it happens even when I know that there’s no avoiding it. That I will have to do said task sooner or later.

As it turns out, many writers struggle with the same thing. It’s a weird, irrational phenomenon that probably has something to do with the fact that our stone-age ancestors spent a lot less time contemplating the human condition and focused on getting something to eat.

A thousand years spans about 30 generations on average. If you do the math, you’re only about 150 people away from your stone-age grandparents that lived on the savannah in 3000 B.C.

Although the symptom is the same, many different things can trigger resistance. The most common include self-doubt, fear, ego, laziness, indecisiveness.

Instead of getting to work, your brain comes up with an elaborate theory to justify why it’s not the right time yet. Recently, I’ve been avoiding this one task. I didn’t know how long it would take. In my mind, potentially weeks of work. And because of that, I always justified postponing it again and again for years.

Over time, the thing grew into almost mythical proportions. I developed this narrative in my mind that it would be too difficult and time-consuming.

This Friday, I had a bit of time in the evening. I finally decided to get this thing started. Two hours later, I finished it. I couldn’t believe it. The whole thing was done.

I’d spent hours agonising about the task over the past year — all of them a complete waste of time. If I got over the initial resistance and sorted it out right away, I could’ve saved myself a lot of time and anxiety.

Sometimes, the narratives we create about ourselves and about what we want to achieve are the problem. When you start working on the thing, you might find that it’s nowhere near as bad as you thought it would be.

Particularly when it comes to writing stories, there’s no downside to starting before you feel ready. Dive right in! Worst case, you’ll have to start over. You can always fix things later.

About the Author

Hi, I’m Radek 👋. I’m a writer, software engineer and the founder of Writing Analytics — an editor and writing tracker designed to help you beat writer’s block and create a sustainable writing routine.

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Past Editions

#230: Working Backwards, January 2022

#229: Luck for Writers, January 2022

#228: Following Through, January 2022

#227: Dealing with Change as a Writer, January 2022

#226: 12 Most Popular Writing Quotes of 2021, December 2021

#225: What Fears Hold You Back as a Writer?, December 2021

color palettes make my brain go brr :>

all these names came from my lovely friends and followers! they sent me the names, and i made palettes based on them! y’all can send me requests with the palettes (sorry if it takes me a while to do them my brain is soup) or reblog and use them yourself!

if you make art with my palettes please tag me! i really want to see it!

i am putting that in slightly bigger text so that people will see it and hopefully listen, i need the free dopamine

I made these as a way to compile all the geographical vocabulary that I thought was useful and interesting for writers. Some descriptors share categories, and some are simplified, but for the most part everything is in its proper place. Not all the words are as useable as others, and some might take tricky wording to pull off, but I hope these prove useful to all you writers out there!

(save the images to zoom in on the pics)

How to write Panic and Anxiety Attacks

TW: Mention of mental illness, anxiety and panic attacks.

I have had several anxiety and panic attacks. I know how terrible they are. Hopefully, this may be helpful

Difference

(Credit to the owner of the image)

One of the major differences between anxiety and panic attacks is that anxiety attacks are caused due to the disease called anxiety while panic attacks are sudden and may happen to a person who has never ever had anxiety.

Keywords: -Panic attacks: Sudden -Anxiety attacks: Prolonged and Gradual (easier to control)

Symptoms/Feeling

->Normal/Mild

Pain in chest

Breathing difficulty

Shaky Limbs

Mild Dizziness

Slight nausea

Need to go to the toilet

Hot flushes

->Severe

Severe nausea

Vomiting

Acidity

Fainting

Dark spots in vision

Extreme trembling

Suicidal Ideation

Dialogues you can use (mostly for panic)

"I can't breathe!"

"This is not normal! NOT NORMAL"

"I AM GOING TO DIE"

"I don't know what's happening!"

"My chest hurts"

"I feel like I am going to puke."

"I don't want to die."

"YOU ARE TELLING ME TO BREATHE? WOW! I WOULD HAVE DONE THAT IF I WERE ABLE TO "

"Help me."

Response/Comfort

"You are doing amazing!"

"I am so proud of you!"

"Breathe for me, please"

"You are okay, you are safe"

"You can get through this."

"Concentrate on your breathing "

"I want you to look at me and forget everything else"

"Focus on my voice."

Remember that oftentimes a person having a panic attack does not like to be touched, so it's best to ask for consent first

"Can I hold your hand?"

"Is it okay if I envelop my arms around you?"

"Are you comfortable? "

"I am going to put my hand around your ears, is that okay?"

Control

The most common grounding technique for anxiety/panic attacks is the 54321 method. In this, you identify…

5 things you can see

4 things you can feel

3 things you can hear

2 things you can smell

1 thing you can taste

Hope this was helpful

Hand Painted Fedoras

Christina Valencia on Etsy

Galaxy Night Bat Wings Mug 🦇🖤

Moss Graffiti: A How To Guide

s’more bear macaroon by douglas x

Creative & DIY