World Building exercise

A Guide to Making Up Diseases (as Explained by a Biologist)

So listen up y’all, nothing drives me crazier as both a writer and a scientist than seeing alien diseases that make no fuckin’ sense in a human body. 

If you’re talking about alien diseases in a non-human character, you can ignore all this.

But as far as alien diseases in humans go, please remember:

DISEASE SYMPTOMS ARE AN IMMUNE RESPONSE.

Fever? A response to help your immune cells function faster and more efficiently to destroy invaders.

Sore/scratchy throat? An immune response. Diseases that latch onto the epithelium of the throat (the common cold, the flu) replicate there, and your body is like “uh no fuckin’ thanks” and starts to slough off those cells in order to stop the replication of new virus in its tracks. So when it feels like your throat is dying? guess what it literally is. And the white spots you see with more severe bacterial infections are pus accumulation, which is basically dead white blood cells, and the pus is a nice and disgusting way of getting that shit outta here.

(No one really knows why soreness and malaise happens, but some scientists guess that it’s a byproduct of immune response, and others suspect that it’s your body’s way of telling you to take it easy)

headache? usually sinus pressure (or dehydration, which isn’t an immune response but causes headaches by reducing blood volume and causing a general ruckus in your body, can be an unfortunate side effect of a fever) caused by mucous which is an immune response to flush that nasty viral shit outta your face.

Rashes? an inflammatory response. Your lymphocytes see a thing they don’t like and they’re like “hEY NOW” and release a bunch of chemicals that tell the cells that are supposed to kill it to come do that. Those chemicals cause inflammation, which causes redness, heat, and swelling. They itch because histamine is a bitch.

fatigue? your body is doing a lot–give it a break!

here is a fact:

during the Spanish 1918 Plague, a very strange age group succumbed to the illness. The very young and very old were fine, but people who were seemingly healthy and in the prime of life (young adults) did not survive. This is because that virus triggered an immune response called a cytokine storm, which basically killed everything in sight and caused horrific symptoms like tissue death, vasodilation and bleeding–basically a MASSIVE inflammatory response that lead to organ damage and death. Those with the strongest immune systems took the worst beating by their own immune responses, while those with weaker immune systems were fine.

So when you’re thinking of an alien disease, think through the immune response.

Where does this virus attack? Look up viruses that also attack there and understand what the immune system would do about it. 

Understand symptoms that usually travel together–joint pain and fever, for example.

So please, please: no purple and green spotted diseases. No diseases that cause glamorous fainting spells and nothing else. No mystical eye-color/hair-color changing diseases. If you want these things to happen, use magic or some shit or alien physiology, but when it’s humans, it doesn’t make any fuckin’ sense. 

This has been a rant and I apologize for that. 

Super soft intimacy

cradling the face, looking into their eyes

pressing foreheads against each other

sighing into the other's mouth

kisses all over the face

calling each other petnames they wouldn't use in public

hugging the other from behind

sliding hands under their clothes

softly stroking their warm skin

ruffling the other's hair

murmuring sweet things into their ears

stroking the other's finger while holding hands

nuzzling into their neck

massaging their feet

napping together

having the other's head on their lap

staring into each other's eyes

pressing soft kisses on their shoulders

smiling into the kiss

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this is it. this is the funniest scooby doo clip

Take this with you

I cant stop laughing at this

Further Notes on Writing Signed Language

So I had a good think about this, based off of what I have written lately. As I go further into my novel, do even more research into different types of sign, and start on the arc that is written solely from the POV of my deaf character, I’ve begun to realize some other differences between signed and spoken dialogue.

For one thing, punctuation doesn’t apply in the same way. There is punctuation in sign language, but as I’ve talked about before, it is mostly facial; therefore, you describe it as a part of the dialogue tags. So then, what do about the commas, colons and semi-colons? In this case, the n-dash is your friend! The aforementioned punctuation marks indicate changes in tone, alterations of pace and pauses. Therefore, they can be replaced with an  n-dash, like so

“You and I – I don’t think we can continue.”

And fingerspelled words would be written as single letters, hyphenated into a word:

”You and I - going to L-O-N-D-O-N.”

For another, the syntax of your translated signed dialogue is subtly different. One sign can ususally mean several different words and filler words are absent. If someone were to say “really big.” in sign, they might just make the sign for “big” and super over-exaggerate.

So, verbal dialogue version:

“It was really, really big!” Lottie jumped and down in excitement, her eyes shining. 

And the signed dialogue version:

“The dog was huge!” Lottie flung out her hands into the word, making it larger than it needed to be, bouncing on her heels.

Keeping in mind that large, big, huge, bountiful (and other connected synonyms) are all the same sign.

I don’t like to write signed language in the syntax that it would be signed in (Name, yours, what instead of “what is your name”). Not only is this confusing for non-signing readers, but it also reads as childish or overly-simplistic for readers who don’t understand sign, which reinforces the harmful stereotype of deaf people being stupid/infantilisation of deaf people. It is impossible to truly do signed language justice in writing, because it’s a language made for hands, bodies and faces.

This all comes together to mean that the sentence structure of dialogue in sign will be different. You would use less contractions (isn’t, you’re, might’ve etc), fewer modifiers and shorter chunks of dialogue with the description of the sign in between.

If it reads differently or feels strange, that’s okay: signed language is different to verbal language and so they won’t sound the same as one another in writing. They’re more like cousins or step-siblings than part of the same direct family group. You’re utilizing different descriptors and tools.

Hopefully, this also answers the repeated issue of differentiation, which has come up time and time again from various people. Best of luck to you all with your writing x

you guys made luigi mangione trend for days and I need to see the same energy for brianna boston. she is a 43 year old mother of three who ended a phone call with blue cross blue shield (after being denied a claim) “delay deny depose, you people are next” and is now being held under a 100,000$ bond and could face FIFTEEN years of prison if charged. she has no weapons, her record is clean, and yet she is being held behind bars. they are afraid of the public and are trying to subdue. do not let them!!!! be outraged that our freedom of speech is being threatened!!!!! deny defend depose! free brianna boston!

A Somewhat Useful Masterpost for Writers

Websites for Critique:

Authonomy It’s been a while since I used this website in particular, but it’s useful for helpful critique and to get your original works out there. If your book get on the top five list at the end of the month Harper Collins will read it for possible publication.

Teen Ink

Figment

Fiction Press

ReviewFuse

and of course… Tumblr

Other Websites:

Write or Die is great if you want to give yourself a certain amount of time to write a set amount of words.

Tip of my Tongue for when you can’t remember the exact word

Character Traits Form 

Online Thesaurus where you just type in a word and you get a cluster of different words

Characters

Top 10 Questions for Creating Believable Characters

How to Create a Fictional Character

Describing Clothing and Appearance

The Difference between Ethnicity and Nationality

Describing a Voice

Characters (part 2)

How to write Funeral Directors  I’ve read quite a few fanfics where they just have funeral directors slapping clothes on a body and calling it a day. As a former funeral services major I can tell you that’s not the only thing they do.

How to write Drug Dealers

How to write Gamblers

Interview with a Hitman

Terms for royalty

Naming Characters

Behind the Name

Top Baby Names

Looking for a name that means a certain thing?

7 Rules of Picking Names

Most Common Surnames

Medical/Crime/Legal

Coma: Types, Causes, etc 

Tips for writing blood loss

Gunshot Wound Care

Examples of Hospital Forms

Common Legal Questions

The Writer’s Forensics Blog

Brain Injury Legal Guide

Types of Surgical Operations

Types of Mental Health Problems

A Day in the Life of a Mental Hospital Patient

Global Black Market Information Because where else would you find out how much money it takes to get a 16 year old girl to kill someone in Mexico?

Crime Scene Science

Examining Mob Mentality

How Street Gangs Work

Other Helpful Stuff

Poisonous Herbs and Plants

The Psychology of Color

The Meaning behind Rose color

Compare Character Heights - I personally love this site so much. 

Types of Swords

Color Symbolism

How a handgun works

Blueprints for Houses

The Six Types of Haunting Activities

The Difference Between lay and lie

10 Words You Need to Stop Misspelling

5 Easy Tips to Improve Your Writing

How to Write a Eulogy

Types of Crying

Career Masterpost

Avoiding LGBTQ Stereotypes

Tips for Writing Ghost Stories

A Spell to See Spirits

Make Graphics out of Quotes

Superstitions and More

The 12 Common Archetypes

Language of Flowers

Military Sign Language

A Visual Dictionary of Tops

Describing Tiaras

What author do you most write like? (I’ve gotten Stephenie Meyer)

12 Realistic Woman Body Shapes

Japanese honorifics

Dress Up Games  I personally like to find games that I can make my OCs with.

Azalea’s Dolls

Doll Divine x

Dress Up Games

Shidabeeda Games

Free Writing Software

Google Docs (automatically saves as you write. 100% recommend)

EverNote

OpenOffice (a free version of Microsoft Office)

Articles

25 Steps To Edit the Unmerciful Suck out of Your Story

10 Rules for Writing First Drafts

10 Things Teenage Writers Should Know About Writing

Create a Plot Outline in 8 Easy Steps

Publishing Agencies to Stay Away From

5 Ways to Make Your Novel Helplessly Addictive

Books:

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King

Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules of Writing

Chicken Soup for the Writer’s Soul

Writing Great Books for Young Adults

Inspirational Quotes: x x 

And I couldn’t find the original post for these so (pictures under the cut)

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