to add to this “humans are weird” thing did you know that humans are the only species on earth with the ability to throw things with any significant degree of accuracy and force (apes can throw with about the force of a human ten year old, but cant lock their wrists well enough for accuracy)
and we just never really think about it bc its so easy and simple to us that pretty much all of our sports are based around the concept of throwing things accurately
so what if the concept of projectile weapons takes most species FOREVER to get the hang of, or even come up with in the first place. a human goes onto a ship and throws some trash into the nearest reclaimer, shouts “kobe!” and all the other aliens on board absolutely LOSE THEIR MINDS
going through my microsoft word archives is great fun because i always find the wildest shit in there and by “the wildest shit” i mean the time i tried to rewrite the entire bible from scratch at the age of eleven and a half
“And so Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden of Eden, and Eve turned to Adam and said, ‘Nice going, loser.‘”
iconic
whilst you were listening to avril lavigne, i learned the way of the Lord
1. Read media by people in the group. Fiction, nonfiction, blog posts – anything from “how my day went today” to 300-page epic adventure novels to history pamphlets. (By people in the group, not just about them. This is important.)
2. Google “How not to write a [the group] character” because the odds are that at least a few people in the group have written blog entries rattling off all their least favorite tropes representing their demographic. I’ve seen lesbians writing about how not to write lesbians, Asians talking about offensively-written Asians, etc. Refraining from writing the overused, negative, one-dimensional tropes listed in posts like this is probably a good start.
I want to emphasize this in relation to writing disabled characters. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read works – from fanfiction to famous literary works – where it is strikingly obvious that the author has never actually read about or talked to someone with this disability about their experience.
And I understand. Before I became disabled, I too thought that all I needed to know in order to write a disabled character were the facts about the disability. The symptoms, the causes, the treatments, how it impacts the body, etc. I thought that all I needed to know was what doctors have written about it.
But there’s so much more to being disabled than just your impairment. It impacts you socially, financially, emotionally… every single aspect of your life. So, if you want to write about a character with a disability, please please PLEASE read stuff people with that disability or at least a similar disability have written about it. And look into communities on tumblr. Most disabilities have at least a small tumblr community where people talk about their experiences. Also get involved in the ableism community, because unless you are disabled or are reading what disabled people are saying about it you aren’t noticing 90% of the ableism in your life that your character would likely notice.
This is a good addition to my post. So many disabilities have clichéd narratives that fiction learns to repeat from other fiction, not from the experiences of people with that disability.
I’m often surprised by how many people feel the need to argue with me about whether or not bisexual, polyamorous, or nonbinary people ::really:: exist. I exist whether or not you believe it.
people seem to think that safe spaces and the like are a product of like, “I never want to see or hear anything I disagree with ever and anyone who intrudes on this is EVIL” when in reality it’s more like “can I get 5 seconds in a place where I know people don’t hate me fundamentally as a human being and I can chill”
Solutions Without Problems 