tellmewhatyouc

[tellmewhatyouc]

Reblog so everyone can hear what they need.

[tellmewhatyouc]

ok writeblr i have a question and it does not matter if you answer re fanfic or original work:

do you nerds know what themes you intend to tackle in longer works before you start, or are the themes a fun little surprise you don't uncover until the nth draft?

#uhhhh #usually stuff just shows up tbh #i just wanna tell a story and then it accidentally has a deeper meaning

[tellmewhatyouc]

Writing Intellectually Disabled Characters

[large text: writing intellectually disabled characters]

Something that very rarely comes up in disability media representation are intellectually disabled characters. There is very little positive representation in media in general (and basically none in media meant specifically for adults or in YA). I hope this post can maybe help someone interested in writing disabled characters understand the topic better and create something nice. This is just a collection of thoughts of only one person with mild ID (me) and I don’t claim to speak for the whole community as its just my view. This post is meant to explain how some parts of ID work and make people aware of what ID is.

This post is absolutely not meant for self diagnosis (I promise you would realize before seeing a Tumblr post about it. it’s a major disorder that gets most people thrown into special education).

Before: What is (and isn’t) intellectual disability?

ID is a single, life-long neurodevelopment condition that affects IQ and causes problems with reasoning, problem‑solving, remembering and planning things, abstract thinking and learning. There is often delay or absence of development milestones like walking (and other kinds of movement), language and self care skills (eating, going to the bathroom, washing, getting dressed etc). Different people will struggle with different things to different degrees. I am, for example, still fully unable to do certain movements and had a lot of delay in self-care, but I had significantly less language-related delay than most of people with ID I know. Usually the more severe a person’s ID is the more delay they will have.

Intellectual disability is one single condition and it doesn’t make sense to call it “intellectual disabilities” (plural) or “an intellectual disability”. It would be like saying “they have a Down Syndrome” or “he has autisms”. The correct way would be “she has intellectual disability” or “ze is intellectually disabled”.

Around 1-3% of people in the world have intellectual disability and most have mild ID (as opposed to moderate, severe, or profound). It can exist on its own without any identifiable condition or it can be a part of syndrome. There is over a thousand (ranging from very common to extremely rare) conditions that can cause ID but the most common are Down Syndrome, Fragile X Syndrome, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, Autism, Edwards Syndrome, DiGeorge Syndrome and microcephaly. Not every condition always causes ID and you can have one of the above conditions without having ID as long as it’s not necessary diagnostic criteria to be met. For example around 30% of autistic people have ID, meaning that the rest 70% doesn’t. It just means that it’s comorbid often enough to be counted as a major cause but still, autistic ≠ intellectually disabled most of the time.

A lot of things that cause intellectual disability also come with facial differences, epilepsy, mobility-related disabilities, sensory disabilities, and limb differences. A lot, but not all, intellectually disabled people go to special education schools.

Intellectual disability isn’t the same as brain damage. Brain damage can occur at any point of a person’s life while ID always starts in or before childhood.

“Can My Character Be [Blank]?”

[large text: “Can my character be [blank]?”]

The difficulty with writing characters with intellectual disability is that unlike some other things you can give your character, ID will very directly impacts how your character thinks and behaves - you can’t make the whole character and then just slap the ID label on them.

Intellectually disabled people are extremely diverse in terms of personality, ability, verbality, mobility… And you need to consider those things early because deciding that your character is nonverbal and unable to use AAC might be an issue if you’re already in the middle of writing a dialogue scene.

For broader context, a person with ID might be fully verbal - though they would still probably struggle with grammar, what some words mean, or with general understanding of spoken/written language to some degree. Or they could also be non-verbal. While some non-verbal ID people use AAC, it’s not something that works for everyone and some people rely on completely language-less communication only. There is also the middle ground of people who are able to speak, but only in short sentences, or in a way that’s not fully understandable to people who don’t know them. Some might speak in second or third person.

Depending on the severity of your character’s disability they will need help with different tasks. For example, I’m mildly affected and only need help with “complex” tasks like shopping or taxes or appointments, but someone who is profoundly affected will probably need 24/7 care. It’s not infantilization to have your character receive the help that they need. Disabled people who get help with bathing or eating aren’t “being treated like children”, they just have higher support needs than me or you. In the same vein, your character isn’t “mentally two years old” or “essentially a toddler”, they are a twenty-, or sixteen-, or fourty five-year old who has intellectual disability. Mental age isn’t real. Intellectually disabled people can drink, have sex, smoke, swear, and a bunch of other things. A thirty year old disabled person is an adult, not a child!

An important thing is that a person with ID has generally bad understanding of cause-and-effect and might not make connections between things that people without ID just instinctively understand. For example, someone could see that their coat is in a different place than they left it, but wouldn’t be able to deduce that then it means that someone else moved it or it wouldn’t even occur to them as a thing that was caused by something. I think every (or at least most) ID person struggles with this to some extent. The more severe someone’s disability is the less they will be able to connect usually (for example someone with profound ID might not be able to understand the connection between the light switch and the light turning off and on).

People with mild intellectual disability have the least severe problems in functioning and some are able to live independently, have a job, have kids, stuff like that.

What Tropes Should You Avoid?

[large text: what tropes should you avoid?]

The comic relief/punching bag;

The predator/stalker;

The “you could change this character into a sick dog and there wouldn’t be much difference”;

…and a lot more but these are the most prevalent in my experience.

Most ID characters are either grossly villainized (more often if they have also physical disabilities or facial differences) or extremely dehumanized or ridiculed, or all of the above. It’s rarely actually *mentioned* for a character to be intellectually disabled, but negative “representation” usually is very clear that this who they’re attempting to portray. The portrayal of a whole group of people as primarily either violent predators, pitiful tragedies or nothing more than a joke is damaging and you probably shouldn’t do that. It’s been done too many times already.

When those tropes aren’t used the ID character is still usually at the very most a side character to the main (usually abled) character. They don’t have hobbies, favorite foods, movies or music they like, love interests, friends or pets of their own and are very lucky if the author bothered to give them a last name. Of course it’s not a requirement to have all of these but when there is *no* characterization in majority of disabled characters, it shows. They also usually die in some tragic way, often sacrificing themselves for the main character or just disappear in some off-the-screen circumstances. Either way, they aren’t really characters, they’re more like cardboard cutouts of what a character should be - the audience has no way to care for them because the author has put no care into making the character interesting or likable at all. Usually their whole and only personality and character trait is that they have intellectual disability and it’s often based on what the author thinks ID is without actually doing any research.

What Terms to Use and Not Use

[large text: What Terms to Use and Not Use]

Words like: “intellectually disabled” or “with/have intellectual disability” are terms used by people with ID and generally OK to use from how much I know. I believe more people use the latter (person first language) for themselves but i know people who use both. I use the first more often but I don’t mind the second. Some people have strong preference with one over the other and that needs to be respected.

Terms like:

“cursed with intellectual disability”

“mentally [R-slur]”

“moron”

“idiot”

“feeble-minded”

“imbecile”

is considered at least derogatory by most people and I don’t recommend using it in your writing. The last 5 terms directly come from outdated medical terminology specifically regarding ID and aren’t just “rude”, they’re ableist and historically connected to eugenics. To me personally they’re highly offensive and I wouldn’t want to read something that referred to its character with ID with those terms.

(Note: there are, in real life, people with ID that refer to themselves with the above… but this is still just a writing guide. Unless you belong to the group i just mentioned I would advise against writing that, especially if this post is your entire research so far.)

Things I Want to See More of in Characters with Intellectual Disability

[large text: Things I Want to See More of in Characters with Intellectual Disability]

[format borrowed from WWC]

I want to see more characters with intellectual disability that…

aren’t only white boys.

are LGBT+.

are adults.

are allowed to be angry without being demonized, and sad without being infantilized.

are not described as “mentally X years old”.

are respected by others.

aren’t “secretly smart” or “emotionally smart”.

are able to live independently with some help.

aren’t able to live independently at all and aren’t mocked for that.

are in romantic relationships or have crushes (interabled… or not!).

are non-verbal or semi-verbal.

use mobility aids and/or AAC.

have hobbies they enjoy.

have caregivers.

have disabilities related to their ID.

have disabilities completely unrelated to their ID.

have friends and family who like and support them.

go on cool adventures.

are in different genres: fantasy, romComs, action, slice of life… all of them.

have their own storylines.

aren’t treated as disposable.

don’t die or disappear at the first possible opportunity.

…and I want to see stories that have multiple intellectually disabled characters.

I hope that this list will give someone inspiration to go and make their first OC with intellectual disability ! This is just a basic overview to motivate writers to do their own research rather than a “all-knowing post explaining everything regarding ID”. I definitely don’t know everything especially about the parts of ID that I just don’t experience (or not as much as others). This is only meant to be an introduction for people who don’t really know what ID is or where to even start.

Talk to people with intellectual disability (you can send ask here but there are also a lot of other people on Tumblr who have ID and I know at least some have previously answered asks as well if you want someone else’s opinion!), watch/read interviews with people who have ID (to start - link1, link2, both have captions) and try to rethink what you think about intellectual disability. Because it’s really not that rare like a lot of people seem to think. Please listen to us when we speak.

Good luck writing and thank you for reading :-) (smile emoji)

mod Sasza

#reference #disability

[tellmewhatyouc]

A modern One Piece Au but Luffy has ehlers danlos syndrome.

He loves to get in fights despite it always ending up with him needing half a pill bottle of Tylenol, five servings of meat, a 4 hour nap, and a joint pushed back in place by Chopper.

Every gang knows him as that ‘stretchy, rubber guy’ because Luffy will purposely stretch his skin out to scare people even though it bruises later.

All of his finishing fighting moves leave him with a dislocated shoulder that Zoro knows how to put back in place after Luffy walked him through it one time with the worst instructions ever.

“Just push it back, quick! I can’t move my arm, c’mon!”

#🙏🙏🙏 #eds luffy my beloved

[tellmewhatyouc]

april update ✨

back in a writing groove for now, i had some unused subscription time on 4thewords that i'd forgotten about and battling drawings of monsters rlly helped tbh

things i am still working on:

rei zine fic

additional zine fic

nukani exchange fic

other things i am working on:

i have 4 fics drafted for hurt/comfort bingo, which opens for posting next month

also sending out many bingo cards for that

another round of seasons of drabbles, i wrote for a new fandom 👀 reveals are coming up soon!

i drafted my unsent letters exchange fic, i just have to edit it

i'm staring down another pain management one shot that needs to be edited to make plot sense with the rest of the series

planning an exchange that will open in late May

just opened signups for fic telephone over at @nuflashfic!

#updates

[tellmewhatyouc]

NU: Flash Fic Telephone

Let's write a fic together! Each writer will write a snippet between 100-1500 words long, and the last few sentences of their work will be sent to the next writer to continue on. The theme for this round is Eiden's Birthday!

Sign up for 'Light Territory' (main story-typical content), 'Dark Territory' (minimal content restrictions), or both! We welcome seasoned fic writers, writing newbies, and everything in between.

Guidelines & Signup

#events

[tellmewhatyouc]

communicating with the i was a teenage exocolonist fandom exclusively through my own fic comments bc i feel like i need at least 6 more runs of this game before i can stop being afraid of spoilers

#i'm on run 4 btw #iwatex

[tellmewhatyouc]

Fans' attitudes toward AI-generated works

Irina Cisternino, a PhD candidate of Stony Brooke University, is writing their research on topics related to technology, art and fandom. You can participate by filling out a survey and additionally, signing up for an interview. The survey is expected to last until at least the end of April, those, who signed up for the interview, will be contacted later. You need to be at least 18 years old to participate in either, be able to understand and speak English and identify as a fan.

After the completion of the research, it will be accessible as the dissertation of the researcher. If you have further questions, you can contact Irina Cisternino at [email protected] or Lu-Ann Kozlowsky at [email protected].

[tellmewhatyouc]

the second fic i wrote for the "let me introduce you to my fandom" exchange! i was assigned to experience a new fandom and write about it.

Fandom: I Was a Teenage Exocolonist Characters: Rex/Sol Rating: T Words: 1k Warnings: canon-typical implied sexual content

read on AO3

#i was a teenage exocolonist #rex iwatex #sol iwatex #my writing

[tellmewhatyouc]

here's 1 of 2 fics i wrote for the "let me introduce you to my fandom" exchange! i was assigned to experience a new fandom and write about it.

Fandom: I Was a Teenage Exocolonist Characters: Cal & Sol Rating: G Words: 300 Warnings: early-game spoilers; mourning

read on ao3 or below 👇

The first time you see Cal after the funeral, he doesn’t speak.

You don’t mind. You’re relieved to have a moment of silence after everything that’s happened, members of the colony crying and consoling each other, unable to discuss anything but the recent tragedy.

It’s not like you want people to move on, to forget her altogether… but it hurts.

By now, you’ve mostly cried yourself out. It seems Cal hasn’t, but that’s okay. You sit with him until dinnertime.

The second time you see Cal, he has a basket of flowers. You haven’t seen anything like them before, and you’re not sure where he got them, but you don’t ask. You just sit beside him and watch him work— weaving the flowers into each other, making a chain of sorts.

After a few minutes, he finally has something to say.

“My mom told me people on Earth used to bury their dead,” he says. “Not broken down in the soil. Their whole bodies. They’d put them in fancy boxes and bury them underground.”

You furrow your brow; you’d never heard about that before. You ask if they ever ran out of space on Earth.

“I’m not sure,” Cal answers. “It does seem kinda impractical. But… they’d mark the spot with something. Like a plaque, or a rock with their name engraved in it. To remember them by.”

It’s an interesting thought, although you don’t think you could ever forget Tammy.

“I wanted to… make a place for her. In the garden.” Cal finally looks at you, and though his voice is steady, you can see his eyes welling up. “I thought I could decorate it. If you wanna help.”

You smile at the thought. Even if no one else knows the significance, it’ll be special to you and Cal. That’s what matters.

You ask if he can show you how to weave those flowers together.

#i was a teenage exocolonist #cal iwatex #sol iwatex #my writing

[tellmewhatyouc]

After seeing the NU: Carnival group draw promoted on Twitter, and all the lovely works that have come out of it, I thought about a type of event I've been wanting to run for a while now: fanfic telephone!

Nothing's set in stone yet, but I'd like to see how many people might be interested. Let me know your thoughts in this Google form ✨

Edit: A couple people have mentioned frantic fanfic and while you get what I'm going for, I want to organize something that anyone can participate in without having to be online at a specific time, so I won't be using it for this particular event. Thanks for the suggestions though!

#let's cause chaos 2gether #events

[tellmewhatyouc]

for the fic line guessing game!

For the past couple miles, something hadn’t felt quite right.

i adore how you write your opening & ending lines btw <33

ahhh thank you! ❤️❤️

honestly i am. drawing a blank. my first thought was when i was involved in bandom i wrote a couple road trip fics, but those are on a different account 😂 my second thought is quincy & zaro driving an ambulance because i've started a couple things that way, but i don't know Which. but NOW i'm thinking about walking and i'm thinking it's the genloss fic where they're walking in the snow. what the fuck was the name of that LAST MOMENTS OF PURE RECALL?

i checked and it is not so I DON'T KNOW KSHDD

#ask #here for posterity fkshfj

[tellmewhatyouc]

"Ainosuke’s lap was a comfortable, familiar place." for the fic guessing game!

okay it feels like a pet play thing and my first instinct was heart-shaped dog tag but i can't remember,,, where they are in that fic, if they're in a bed or it's more general NO I THINK THEY'RE ON A COUCH, heart-shaped dog tag final answer

EDIT: OKAY I WAS RIGHT 💪 second guessed myself for a bit there but gkdhfj

#thanks for asking 😂 didn't think i'd have it #ask

[tellmewhatyouc]

Fic Line Guessing Game

A -- go to my AO3/FF.net/Wattpad and pick out a line or three from one of my stories. Must be a full line, please -- no sentence fragments or speech tags or other such nonsense. B -- I will respond with which story of mine I think it's from. C -- A drabble (type-thing) to anyone who stumps me.

#wanna do this again even tho i'm bad at it

[tellmewhatyouc]

Our newest annual event! Step outside your comfort zone and try something new.

Level Up! is joining Sweetheart and the 5k as a repeating annual event open to everyone 14 and up. It's focused on creative skills and challenges you to pick one to sharpen.

Like our other events, Level Up is open to creators from all fandoms, all ships, and people who make original works!

No restrictions on content or what you can make

Optional posting in April and May

Cross-posting with other events is fine as long as they don't mind

Get started any time!

event info | sign-up form | see what others are doing

#events

[tellmewhatyouc]

#i think it works on sideblogs #feel free to get that badge

[tellmewhatyouc]

EDEN and Adakiri for the ship bingo? 🤔 Also sending Tadaai right back at you haha

i haven't thought too much abt adakiri but i love seeing your stuff and i do think there's a lot of fun potential 👀 one of them having a little crush on the other would be fun i think, regardless of who it is, and i think they could have a good time fooling around together if they managed to communicate enough to get there

also i feel like ai, if eventually deciding to become a parent, would really want a Biological Child and if they did manage to become friends she could help him with that 😌

to me, tadaai is ride or die for each other. i pretty much always prefer it with additional partners in the mix, a lot of the time just involved with ai but i also love them as a nice little quad with reki & langa, sometimes joe & cherry too. which is to say they're a fraction of my ot4/6

i have also added my own square in the middle to truly capture the Vibes of how i define their relationship

i also somehow didn't register EDEN in all caps at the beginning but i have a lot of feelings about them too

i like them as pretty much anything other than a monogamous romantic relationship, i love platonic eden with ai as a father figure of sorts, fuck buddies eden, eden as part of a wider cast polycule (aforementioned ot6). also darker takes are fun to explore, like ai being actually as scary and creepy as some fans make him out to be, taking advantage of langa etc etc

but mostly i just like him as Father Figure and maybe also they do kinky stuff together <3

#thanks for the ask! #ask