r/Writeresearch • u/Simon_Drake Awesome Author Researcher • Jan 01 '25
Short Questions Megathread
Do you have a small question that you don't think is worth making a post for? Well ask it here!
This thread has a much lower threshold for what is worth asking or what isn't worth asking. It's an opportunity to get answers to stuff that you'd feel silly making a full post to ask about. If this is successful we might make this a regular event.
We did this before branded as a monthly megathread then forgot to make a new one. So maybe this one will be refreshed quarterly? We'll have to wait and see.
Past threads:
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u/scottiboi68 8d ago
how fast would a person bleed out from the brachial artery?
this person im talking about is 18, female, in very good health otherwise, and is bleeding out from this artery after getting shot.
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u/greatgottlieb 15d ago
How do I write realistically about what it is like to be, or know, a social media influencer? I'm not an influencer so I have no first hand experience.
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u/Educational-Shame514 1d ago
First, write what you know doesn't mean write what you are and only what you are. Nobody has been a wizard or dragon rider or fought aliens but there are books about that!
"Social media influencer" covers a lot of different types. Mommy blogger, tradwife, male fitness or streaming video games, completely different pressures.
Do you have any real ones that are similar to what you envision for the character? Are they your main character or a side character?
Then you have to figure out some ideas of the story you want to tell, and this can be done before knowing the specific details. There are plenty of documentaries about the dark side of influencers. Or you could make it an idealized version.
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u/Hour_Celery1384 2d ago
since influencers famously lie about their actual lives... try looking into anti-influencer content on Youtube (things like 'crazy things influencers do' or 'they're lying' videos)
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u/Simon_Drake 15d ago
Have you googled what it's like to be a social media influencer? They are famous for making videos about themselves.
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u/SpecificJealous1732 24d ago
If a character got hit by blunt force in the eye with no modern medicine whatsoever. Could that character go completely blind in that eye without dying from this, how long would the recovery to this be, and how painfull would it be?
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u/bitter_decaf 10d ago
Yes absolutely. E.g. globe rupture or traumatic cataract 2. Depends on the specific injury they got 3. Very
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u/YourFavoriteGoddess2 Sep 28 '26
Is someone with chronic euphoric mania always happy/on top of the world no matter what? Or can they get angry or sad or whatever?
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u/Unlikely-Result909 24d ago
in short, pretty much yes. they can get sad or angry, but its kind of fleeting, and their euphoria will take back over again. but this state is quite rare. its usually found in those with bipolar, and they swing back and forth.
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u/1NNOC3NTbystand3r Sep 24 '26
I’m currently writing a short story, and I wanted to let my MC explain why he doesn’t really dress up (i.e. just wears stuff like monochromatic hoodies and plain trousers) by saying that he feels like people would expect more from him if he did, a better ’performance’ so to say.
But after thinking about it, I’d say that's a sentiment that stems from my personal experience as a girl and that men might face the opposite type of pressure, as societal expectations are different. Maybe they could be criticised for putting ’too much’ effort in their appearance since it could be deemed feminine or something (I’m just reaching here). Since this is a relevant detail later in the story, I don’t want to decide on it only by following my conjectures.
What I wanted to ask is: could the MC's reasoning be realistic from a 21st century boy/man's point of view?
Thanks in advance :]
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u/Simon_Drake Sep 24 '26
I would describe this as a "how to write" question whereas this subreddit focuses on "what to write".
A character's opinions on fashion and how they express those ideas to someone else is a softer topic around word choices and personal perspectives. We tend to deal with "Can a nuclear reactor have college students visit on a tour" or questions about being arrested or being stabbed.
There are other subreddits better suited to character study, I think WritingAdvice and there's definitely one dedicated directly to getting characters right. But I don't know them well enough to be certain which ones allow what sort of content. In the past I have recommended people visit r/writing and been told the question isn't suitable for them either. So I don't really know. Good luck finding an answer.
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u/1NNOC3NTbystand3r Sep 25 '26
ohh alright, I wasn't really sure where to post this either. Thanks for suggesting alternatives, I'll definitely check them out
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u/Simon_Drake Sep 25 '26
Also you should know that your comments are being rejected by the Automoderator as potential spam because your account is too new. I've manually approved them but you might have the same issue somewhere else too and then be confused why your comments aren't showing up.
One option is to be patient, hope the moderators of other subreddits spot the posts being incorrectly flagged as spam like I did and manually approving them. With time this will build up your Karma and post history until you pass the spam filter checks. This happens to all new accounts and just takes some time until you look trustworthy to the filter. It usually takes a week or so depending how often you post.
Or if you are impatient you could visit one of the larger subreddits which often have more complex / nuanced / intelligent spam filters and don't reject new posts as ruthlessly. For example any of the subreddits around "Check out my cat, isn't he silly?" That would be a good place to earn a lot of karma easily if you have a pet fluffball to share. Or commenting on a Star wars discussion or something similar.
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u/Offutticus Sep 04 '26
I have a fantasy (with swords and horses but no elves or dwarves) where the MC is a leathercrafter. The other MC comes to the shop and one of the things she needs repaired is her chaps.
Chaps is an American Spanish word derived from chaparreras or chaparejos.
It has become such a common term though, no longer limited to the leg coverings worn by cowboys/girls.
Is there another word I can use? Should I use another word? Everyone (who speaks English and probably Spanish) knows what chaps mean. So does it really matter?
I get hung up on the weirdest things....
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u/Kjorteo 25d ago
If you think you get hung up on the weirdest things, our story is adamant that anything instantaneous happens in a matter of "moments" because even acknowledging the existence of "seconds" feels too adjacent to having real-world unit measurements, which breaks immersion for me. This is also why nothing can ever be described as chaotic (Chaos was a Greek figure; there is no Greece,) okay (the etymology of okay/OK is a whole other can of worms,) etc.
... Don't ask me how most of the cast still ended up with names like Girard, Cameron, Celine, or Jonathan, though; those all have immersion-breaking real-world etymologies as well, but somehow that was the one time we could just let it slide..? Brains are weird.
As for chaps, Wikipedia defines them as "a type of sturdy over-pants (overalls) or leggings." Would any of those terms work, possibly with context to explain what type of leggings you mean?
Another possibility in a swords and sorcery fantasy world is to worldbuild up your own etymology. The most accepted etymology for "chaps" is the Mexican colloquial term for a type of shrub or perhaps a downpour or heavy rain. So, swap a Mexican colloquial term for an, I don't know, Elvish one? What are (insert culture here)'s words for shrubs or storms in your setting?
(Careful about falling so far down that particular rabbit hole that we end up seeing you in r/conlangs someday, LOL.)
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u/Offutticus 25d ago
Thanks! Yes, I am currently referring to them as leggings but I hate modern leggings. I have strong opinions about them. So I'm still poking around looking for another word or term.
I'll hit wikitionary again after this edit run and see what comes up.
And good luck to you in your anti-chaos chaos!
Oh, and great, now I have another subreddit to follow. I now threaten you with r/drunkbeardies so there.
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u/Nice-Charity4728 Aug 31 '26 edited Aug 31 '26
Hi, just a short question because I've been searching for a while but haven't been finding anything!!!
One of my characters has the ability to appear as an embodiment of other characters feeling/toughts/emotions and the thing is, i really want to base this characters name off of another pre-existing character/deity, literally anyone, fictional or not. But I haven't been finding anything somehow? So if anyone has any suggestions please rell me!
Uh okay thanks byee!!
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u/Simon_Drake Aug 31 '26 edited Aug 31 '26
The Greek God Proteus is officially a sea god but he's also the god of flexibility and changing shapes.
Here's the first paragraph of his wiki article "In Greek mythology, Proteus is an early prophetic sea god or god of rivers and oceanic bodies of water Some who ascribe a specific domain to Proteus call him the god of "elusive sea change", which suggests the changeable nature of the sea or the liquid quality of water. He can foretell the future, but, in a mytheme familiar to several cultures, will change his shape to avoid doing so; he answers only to those who are capable of capturing him. From this feature of Proteus comes the adjective protean, meaning "versatile", "mutable", or "capable of assuming many forms". "Protean" has positive connotations of flexibility, versatility and adaptability"
There's also a link to Proteus In Popular Culture. There's a shapeshifter named Proteus in X Men, DC and Ghostbusters. The adjective form Protean is used to describe shapeshifters in Harry Potter, Pokemon and a dozen other forms of media.
I'd recommend Proteus.
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u/Unlikely-Result909 Aug 26 '26
Not a short question, but wanted to offer my services: I’m an experienced attending/consultant surgeon who loves to write - short stories, novels, screenplays, longform journalism. If you're seeking medical authenticity in your story telling, drop me a DM.
I’ll answer all your medical queries, and review your scenes, plot points, or characters from a medical perspective - no fee, just for the love of the craft.
Drop me a DM or comment if you’d like me to take a look!
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u/SpecificJealous1732 24d ago
It's been awhile since you posted this, but i do have a medical question and I would love your feedback :)
If a character got hit by blunt force in the eye with no modern medicine whatsoever, could that character go completely blind in that eye without dying from this, how long would the recovery to this be, what would the eye look like, and how painfull would it be?
Thank you :D
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u/Unlikely-Result909 24d ago
Happy to help! Ok so
yes, blunt force to an eye by itself could cause blindness - very high risk of it in fact if the blow is hard enough. and someone could certainly survive with this being the only injury
in terms of recovery, it's very possible that the loss of sight is temporary - the extent of the injury could be just swelling around the eye, or blood sitting in the eye, or the retina being bruised; expect the loss of vision to happen almost immediately, or close to the time of injury. Obviously the more severe the injury, you can expect permanent loss of vision e.g. retinal detatchment, eye ball rupture or optic nerve damage.
You could also even get a delay - so the blow happens, they can see, but then over the next day or 2 the damage starts to manifest
3. the eye would almost certainly look bruised - black eye perhaps - swollen for the first couple of weeks to the point where the character may struggle to open their eye. after a few weeks, that brusing will fade and you can expect the eye to look red and bloody. If the injury is recoverable, then vision should start to come back within the first few weeks, but the character may find it cloudy, and then the eye will probably look normal by about 6-8 weeks. A permanently damaged eye - depending on the exact injury - could look kind of glassy, may drift to one side or even shrink down.
4. it would be very painful and i expect that pain to last a couple of weeks. of course a blow to the eye could also cause other injuries - brain bleed, broken cheekbones come to mind. And these would prolong the pain, and cause other problems too.
Hope that helps!
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u/Inevitable-Level-687 Sep 19 '26
Oh hey, you might be able to help me!
I have a female character in a Regency-era novel who tries to drown herself after she thinks her reputation is ruined. She breathes in a bit of water but quickly realises that her body is going to fight her attempts and gives up. She gets sick from aspirating the water and the pathogens in it - she didn't aspirate that much but still enough she'd surely have gotten ill from it anyway.
My question is, was it at all possible to survive something like pneumonia in those days? From what I'm reading it seems like it'd be impossible without antibiotics as it's quite a serious condition even today. I don't want her to die but I also hate implausible recoveries in fiction so I might just make it that she didn't aspirate any water at all if it wouldn't have been survivable.
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u/Unlikely-Result909 Sep 19 '26
Hey! Thanks for reaching out.
Well I would not say impossible to recover from pneumonia - pneumonia itself is and always has been very common. A healthy adult would have a good chance of surviving - about 20-30% back then. The human body is truly remarkable - a healthy immune system can fight a pnuemonia. If she only aspirated a bit of water and is otherwise in good shape, it's definitly plausible.
I'd expect an elderly peson/young child/immunocompromised to have less chance though - 50-50 in those cases.
Hope that helps!
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u/Simon_Drake Aug 26 '26
The preferred approach on this subreddit is to have discussions "in the open" so to speak rather than by DM. It allows other people to chip in to the conversation or to read it and learn from it. If you imagine someone googling a question about say pacemaker surgery, they'd prefer to find a thread of people discussing it rather than a single comment that says "I'll send you a DM to answer everything".
This subreddit has hosted AMA sessions before but to limited success. I remember one was regarding the National Parks service and a couple of others whose topics I don't recall but they didn't attract a lot of questions. I think it's just the relatively low number of visitors here compared to when say actors host an AMA on one of the movie subreddits.
We do get a LOT of questions around gunshot wounds, stab wounds, falls from heights or the survivability of injuries. If you're new to the subreddit then you could keep an eye out for medical questions and I'm sure there'll be one shortly.
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u/Unlikely-Result909 Aug 26 '26
ok, thanks i will keep an eye out for such questions 😄 an AMA could be something i can offer as a surgeon. Trauma is one of my specialities, so i see gunshot wounds, stab wounds, falls from height regularly!
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u/Simon_Drake Aug 26 '26
What would be ideal is to advertise an AMA with an expert on a given date and people will collate their questions in advance to be sure they ask the most succinct and critical questions.
In practice the majority of medical questions tend to show a lack of consideration for what sort of answers they will receive. Because the answer is usually "it depends on what you want to happen". In real life a fall or stab could be fatal or relatively minor based on the roll of the dice but in fiction people will die or survive based on what the author wants. So instead of asking "Would someone die from this injury" it would be more helpful if people asked "Is this injury believable to be fatal or should I change the details to make it more severe?".
In which case I doubt people would 'save up' their questions for an AMA and would just ask their questions as and when they think of them. Let's give it a while and see how it goes, maybe an experimental AMA would be helpful to get people to think more critically about the way they ask questions.
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u/Hour_Celery1384 Aug 24 '26
Can someone give me an hour-by-hour breakdown of what would happen to someone's arms if they were hung by the wrists for an hour? two? five? All my research brings up something about hanging by the neck. In the specific situation, the character is being hung by the wrists form a tree, not too far from the ground but he is unconscious. Could be rope, ribbon, anything. just trying not to make it crazy unrealistic. TIA!
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u/Unlikely-Result909 24d ago
at one hour - expect some abrasions on the skin, numbness and pain along the entire arm..recoverable at this stage
at 2 hours - more numbness and pain along the whole arm and can expect that to persist for hours to weeks. expect the skin to be even more damaged - think deeper abrasions, cuts.
at 5-6 hours: getting dangerous as the limbs can only tolerate up 6 hours of reduced blood supply. they could have permanent damage, may need surgery to restore the blood supply and function. and at 5-6 hours, expect the whole body to be suffering too - breathing especially; also something called rhabdomyolysis - the muscles start to break down and the byproducts leak into the blood supply causing damage to the kidney and the body as a whole
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u/Wandersails Aug 24 '26 edited Aug 24 '26
Couple of questions...
What's the drug that would cause the most extreme hallucinations? It would need to be something my MC could realistically pick up in the 90's in England. I want them to have a really hardcore vision/dream that unlocks traumatic memories from their past. (if anyone has any good resources on writing about drug use and abuse in general that would be amazing as it's quite a major part of the story)
And also... what's an injury that could happen in a car crash to cause a very visible leg scar but which would mostly leave the person mobile? I'm thinking that the bones shattered and they needed to put in a metal rod or something? It would need to leave a visible scar, but also the character is a dancer and although the leg is a bit weaker and leads to occasional balance problems or falls, it's mostly not something they usually need to think about. The injury happened when they were a child so not recently. And this is still set in the 90s.
Thanks :)
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u/Simon_Drake Aug 24 '26
LSD is probably good for the first one. It's phenomenally powerful for the dose with no known fatal dose and virtually tasteless. So you could put a splash in a few drops / tabs in someone's coffee and give them ten times a normal recreational dose and leave them seeing all sorts of nonsense for hours.
Leg injury I think you're on the right lines. Shattered bones that needed metal rods inserted. I know there are treatments that leave rods and pins in the leg forever and there's also some where you put in a metal splint and remove it after a few years, especially if they break the leg young and the leg would continue to grow over time. If the narrative objective is a visible scar then maybe multiple surgeries to add/remove/replace rods over time could be good to explain the scar not fading because it's actually multiple overlapping scars.
Now I'm just guessing with this part but I think you should stick with the shin / tibia / fibula and stay away from the knee and ankle. The joints have lots of fragile bones and cartilage and an injury bad enough to leave major scars a decade later might be bad enough to limit mobility. I think a tibia shattered like glass and painstakingly rebuilt wouldn't limit dancing mobility because the bone is mostly just load bearing, it's not a fiddly little piece like in the ankle. But that's largely a guess, you might want to double check with real dancers. What you could do is keep it vague, they have a big scar from the surgeries after the car crash but specifically which bone was broken isn't mentioned.
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u/Wandersails Aug 24 '26
thanks so much, that's really helpful! appreciate you taking the time to answer :)
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Aug 10 '26
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u/Writeresearch-ModTeam Aug 10 '26
This is not a generic creative writing sub.
This sub is for researching the information and facts behind topics you are writing about in creative fiction. This is not the place for inspiration, titles, help on publishing, overcoming writers block, or discussing tools and resources for writing. Nor is this the place for non-fiction writing, academia, or speeches. There are other subreddits for these topics. Remember to check the rules of that subreddit before posting.
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u/Offutticus Aug 10 '26
There's a thing I learned in college through the European and Japanese students of making a line through a 7. I want a character to do that for reasons. I've researched it but can't find anything that gives it a name. Is there one? Or do I say "I know that's her note. There's a line through the seven."
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u/Simon_Drake Aug 10 '26
Wikipedia calls it a "Crossed 7" which sounds about right for lexicography terminology. There's a lot of odd characters in the International Phonetic Alphabet with names like 'Turned C" and "Reversed R".
Someone not familiar with the correct name might call it a "Strike through Seven", referring to the text formatting option that puts a line through a piece of text. Or just as you said "A Seven with a line through it", I think people would understand what that means.
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u/Offutticus Aug 10 '26
I read the Wikipedia page on 7 but didn't see that.
Thanks! It's little crap like this that I find the hardest to skip over until later.
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u/Simon_Drake Aug 10 '26
I found it in this page rather than the page on the number 7 itself https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_numeral_variations
Thank Arceus we mostly use the same numbers internationally/ globally. Can you imagine the chaos if every country had their own number system or as many number systems as there are languages and alphabet variations. That would be chaos.
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u/sanjuro_kurosawa Aug 05 '26
I'm writing about a Las Vegas cocaine dealer, and for slang he uses the term "large" instead of a thousand dollars, specifically $20,000. Is that current slang? Or is it too Miami Vice? Or is that what drug dealers might say.
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u/Nabeshima_Neko Aug 05 '26
What kind of injury could leave yt person with black scars ?
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u/leaf_eye8778 Sep 25 '26
Any kind of skin grafting (note that a lot of injuries can require skin grafting as treatment) can result in hyperpigmentation.
Any kind of dirt, debris, ink, or other material inside a wound can be visible under the skin. A small pebble in the leg is one I've seen at least twice on other people, and tiny "tattoos" from getting stabbed by a pencil or pen are common. I have a piece of graphite in the back of my hand from about 12 years ago and it was once a distinct black dot but has faded to a subtle gray speck with blurry edges. Theoretically, any wound could somehow get a lot of ink into it early in the healing process which would also cause a tattoo-like effect. This would, however, be a likely cause for infection. (This paragraph is all anecdotal.)
Infection can cause all kinds of fucked up scarring. Just look up "infection scar" or something, there's a lot of factors there.
Any burn scar is likely to be hyperpigmented.
Repetitive scarring over one area or repeatedly ripping open the same wound can cause inflammatory hyperpigmentation but this is less likely to be permanent.
Certain medical conditions impact scarring. Skin, circulation, and connective tissue health are big factors.
People with more variable skin tone (pale in winter but tan in summer) might see more scars that are more or less pigmented than expected.
Hypertrophic and keloid scars tend to be hyperpigmented but usually red or purple on white skin.
Hyperpigmentation on white people generally tends towards the outside of the scar with hypopigmentation towards the center, but this isn't absolute.
A red or purple scar (much more commonly seen in white people than brown or black scars) could start to look more brown with certain treatments. Tattooing, for example, might aim to get the hue closer to the person's skin rather than making it lighter overall.
I myself have an abundance of small, red/pink/purple, hypertrophic scars you could look at for reference but I don't know any white people with properly brown or black scars to show you. There's also plenty of images on medical websites and in textbooks.
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u/CertifiedDiplodocus Aug 05 '26
Dark brown scars are fairly common on people with darker skin (google hyperpigmented scars to see what I mean).
Otherwise, traumatic tattoos: small foreign bodies like dirt, graphite, gunpowder etc become embedded in the skin during an injury (e.g. explosives accident, road rash)
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u/CertifiedDiplodocus Jul 29 '26
I'm not American. Writing a scene featuring a police officer whose name is not known or revealed, so I describe him exclusively as "the officer", "the young officer", etc.
Midwest (specifically Missouri, but it's a bit vague and the character could easily be from elsewhere). Is this a natural choice of word? The scene is from the POV of a civilian woman in her 40s who feels fairly neutral towards him, which is why I chose "officer" instead of the more informal "cop".
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u/sanjuro_kurosawa Aug 05 '26
Officer is fine. It's the official term for a police officer, cop is informal.
Unless this involves the military where officer is a rank, readers will think officer is a police officer.
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u/Forsaken-Rush962 Jul 15 '26
when did digital music composition and notation software become available to the public?
I have a character who composes piano music as a hobby which is set in 2004 and I would like to know whether he would be using some kind of software or just playing what he plays on the piano and then writing it on manuscript paper
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u/Marshmallowwithabs Jul 19 '26
There definitely was composition/notation software available to the public by 2004.
If you want a contemporary (for his time) example, MuseScore was released in 2002, and you may or may not be able to find a working build of the 0.0.6 version, which was the latest release during 2004.
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u/faeartangelican Jul 12 '26
What's a realistic height difference for siblings to have?
I have 2 characters, Vanessa and Jessie, who are siblings. Vanessa is 6'0, and I originally put Jessie at 5'6, but I'm now second-guessing this height bc of the pretty drastic difference and wondering if I should bump their height up to 5'8. Vanessa is 20, Jessie is 18. They're not half-siblings.
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u/ToomintheEllimist Jul 24 '26
I have one sibling about 9 inches taller than me, and in my family I have a male cousin whose sister is 8 inches taller than him. So it doesn't strike me as that unusual.
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u/CertifiedDiplodocus Jul 16 '26
Not unusual, if one takes heavily after another side of the family. One of my uncles was nearly a head taller than his older brother, I think. Same with my grandpa and his brothers, and two of my cousins.
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u/corpse-eater Jul 08 '26
How long would it take for dark hair to start showing through a blonde dye job?
Asking for a scenario where a character's dye job is medium blonde, while his natural hair is a very dark brown, and his roots are already showing quite a bit. He's being teased about "that shitty dye job you got [x] months ago?" by a friend and being compared to a character whose dye job is a light blonde, while her natural hair is a medium-dark brown, and her roots are only just starting to show. The friend's implication is that the character with the naturally dark brown hair did a bad job of dying it, but he defends himself by telling him that's a normal amount of time for his roots to be showing this much.
Also, I know it has to be bleached rather than dyed (or both?), but I'm not sure how or if that complicates things? Thanks in advance, I feel like it's a simple question but I don't even know what to look up lol
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u/tonystarksanxieties Jul 10 '26
Having dyed and bleached my hair a lot, I feel like it would take a couple weeks to show if it's a sharp contrast (light blonde vs dark brown). After a few months, I'd say I have /at least/ 1-2 inches of root growth. You grow about half an inch a month on average. When maintaining blonde professionally, I think you have to go to the salon every four to six weeks at least. Less often if they did a shadow root (similar enough to your natural color, but blended well, takes longer to notice, good for about twice as long).
Tbf though, I think the contrast between medium blonde to dark brown and light blonde to medium brown would be similar enough to be noticeable on similar timelines. It's possible to get a good amount of growth before it's observable to the average person who all up in your hair.
If you want him to be correct in his assessment that it's a normal amount of growth, I'd say a 1-2 inches of root showing after a few months is normal. If you want him to be wrong and for it to have genuinely been a 'shitty dye job,' look up the concept of hot roots. It could make his roots much lighter than the rest of it and subsequently make the root regrowth far more noticeable earlier. Or perhaps the blonde itself could be more brassy (orange). Comparatively, the friend could have gotten a shadow root done, which would make it far less noticeable.
To answer your other question, 'bleached' would generally be referred to as 'lightened' depending on how much experience the character has with coloring. Neither character would be dyed, strictly speaking, unless they had to have it toned, but that's getting into weeds I'm not sure you need to be in lol
Hopefully that made sense, happy to clarify anything.
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u/Previous_Addition588 Jun 25 '26
a character gets a pretty nasty cut through his eyebrow when his head is slammed against a splintery wooden table; part of his face hits the side/edge and yup, now he's bleeding. it's not very deep, so he ends up just cleaning it and putting a bandaid on it.
would it scar? if so, would it be visible at all? i'm assuming that it'd be a really tiny scar and would be covered by his eyebrow hairs, but i just want to double check. thanks!
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u/ToomintheEllimist Jul 24 '26
Scarring can prevent the eyebrow hairs from growing back. My mom has a little bald spot in the middle of her right eyebrow (I tell her it looks rakish) from a minor fall 20+ years ago. The cut itself healed within a week, but that tiny patch of hair never grew back and it's still visible if she doesn't draw over it.
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u/justified1969 Jun 26 '26
People's healing and scaring depend on several factors. Some people scar very easily. Others only scar when the wound doesn't heal well. That's why picking scabs almost always leads to scars. The injury you described might leave a scar on some people.
Even after scaring occurs, products with ingredients like alpha hydroxy acid, hydrocortisone, or retinoic acid may help lighten a scar, while gels made with silicone can shrink scars or even prevent them from forming in the first place. There's also different procedures to reduce or remove scarring.
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u/Saletales Jun 21 '26
I'm trying to find slang/lingo for Texas cowboys in the late 1800's but the sites I'm finding are, like: pardner, howdy, dernit, and skedaddle. It feels a little... cartoony? Where could I find a period-specific language site to better tune my dialogue/narration?
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u/ArthuriusMinimus Jul 10 '26
Maybe Zane Gray novels? He wrote a little later than that, but based his writing on his travels in the West around the 1870s, iirc. I know my local library has some of his novels available on Libby (I read one to see what contemporary views/depictions of Mormons were like then).
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u/Simon_Drake Jun 21 '26
Try to find sites debunking the dialog in westerns. Something like "Top 10 Westerns That Get Old West Lingo Wrong" or "Linguists Hate This Fake Wild West Speak". I'm sure Buzzfeed or Cracked or Vice have have done an article about it.
Or watch a big Western movie from that era like The Searchers and collect some of the lingo that characters say. Then go to a Western fandom/subreddit and ask people how accurate the dialog is to how real cowboys spoke in those days. Hardcore western fans probably know which lingo is legit and which is just for movies, like how hardcore sci-fi fans can explain exactly why the transporter on the Enterprise breaks several laws of physics.
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u/Saletales Jun 21 '26
Ooh, on it. I'm looking for the fake speech. (The first thing I got was an AI "cowboy translator" which, yeah, I don't trust, but I'll keep looking!) And I never thought of a subreddit. Thanks.
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u/TheKingDroc Jun 18 '26
If your thigh bone gets dislocated from your hip, is it possible to reattach it with adrenaline?
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u/InevitableBook2440 Jun 19 '26
It's rare to actually dislocate a hip unless it's been replaced. More common to fracture the neck of femur, which can sort of look like you've dislocated the hip and historically was confused with this. It would be a problem to confuse these two things because the treatment is completely different (fractured NOF needs surgery or it won't heal properly). Assuming the hip actually is dislocated, it's possible to reduce it but I really don't think you could do it yourself because a) it hurts like hell b) there are several very strong muscle groups that will be in spasm and resisting the movement that is required c) you need to apply quite a bit of force in a specific direction that would be very hard to achieve on yourself. Basically, you need several people who know what they're doing, pain relief and muscle relaxation (usually achieved with sedation/ general anaesthesia).
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u/Simon_Drake Jun 18 '26
Probably not.
The hip is a very strong joint that isn't easy to dislocate. Which also means once it's out it's not easy to put it back in. You need to push the bone back past the ridge of cartilage that is meant to keep it in but you also need to fight the strength of all the muscles and tendons involved in holding you upright which will be pulling the limb up.
There was a problem with broken femurs where the bone fracture couldn't be held rigid long enough to fuse because the muscles and tendons would try to pull the knee up towards the pelvis and shift the bone pieces out of alignment. They had to invent an external frame to physically stretch the leg so the two ends of the broken femur could be aligned and allowed to heal over time. I think a dislocated hip might have a similar problem.
Here's a video of a technique to relocate a hip that relies on the doctors own leg strength and upper body strength and leverage against a fulcrum. https://youtu.be/Fl71ztyFU7I That's a lot of force needed being applied in a very specific angle with mechanical advantage. I don't see how someone could do that to their own hip, even with adrenaline masking the extreme pain of a dislocated hip.
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u/sanjuro_kurosawa Jun 15 '26
What would an Irish middle aged woman call her a young man, particularly in a bar setting? Son?
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u/Efficient_Spirit_683 Jun 14 '26
hypothetically, would a character be able to carry kitchen scissors and bring them to their neck for a quick insta-death?
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u/sanjuro_kurosawa Jun 15 '26
I'd say not exactly. Scissor edges are not that sharp, which is why they require an identical blade to push against. Also many scissors have blunted tips.
A kitchen knife is actually a common murder weapon, simply because it is so available. Users often sharpen them as well.
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u/GoddessRin1 Jun 15 '26
It depends on how deep you intend on going and how sharp the scissors are, but the death wouldn’t be instant. You would be awake and bleed out, but you would fade to unconsciousness at some degree. A light slice wouldn’t do major damage.
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u/sanjuro_kurosawa Jun 10 '26
In a politically correct environment, would you ask someone in a first meeting what pronouns do you use?
Is that too satirical?
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u/ArthuriusMinimus Jul 10 '26
Someone might do this if they're LGBTQ+ themself, esp if they can do it in a way that doesn't risk "outing" the person. I've heard it phrased as, "What are your pronouns?"
People are more likely to ask if they clock you as nonbinary, queer, etc. in an ambiguous way. No one is asking the middle-aged white guy in a suit who's talking about golf what his pronouns are.
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u/CertifiedDiplodocus May 27 '26
Can you call a specific police officer's radio without anybody else listening in? (as in, the radio they carry on their uniform.) A high-ranking police officer is going to lure a subordinate into a trap, and does so by calling him on his radio and pretending nobody else is responding - however, the victim was the only one to hear.
Is this possible? (mobile phones are not an option for this scenario)
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u/Simon_Drake May 27 '26
Based on what I've seen in The Rookie (a police drama that tries harder than most to be accurate but remember this is still TV so it might not be) they have something in between.
Sometimes the captain will radio on an open channel "Hey Lopez, switch to Channel 7, we need to talk about something" then it'll show another car with a different officer saying "Ooh Lopez is in trouble, I bet it's about that thing with the Captain's wife". Then I think Channel 7 would be a different frequency reserved for non-open calls that you don't want to annoy the entire precinct with. But I think there's nothing stopping the second car of cops from switching to Channel 7 themselves and listening in.
They do this process enough times that if there was an alternative they'd probably use it. They always say "Officer X, switch to Channel Y" they never say "I need to contact Officer X, I'll switch to the frequency that only his radio will receive." Or "Dispatch, connect me directly to Officer X.".
There have been times they've done an open channel call for "Lopez on Channel 9" then someone else has replied "Hey captain if this is about wife then it was actually my wife's fault." Then all three of them switch to Channel 9 to discuss it. I don't recall any time they switch to Channel 9 and someone sneakily switches to Channel 9 too so they can listen in. But there is a time a rookie cop is chastised for saying "I think we have a serial killer on the loose" over the radio because civilians have their own police scanners and nothing on the radio is considered confidential. If they need to discuss something private they use mobile phones.
Now this is all based on LAPD and might just be fake for TV but that's my understanding of how it works. Maybe someone with real experience will know more.
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u/CertifiedDiplodocus May 28 '26
Thanks for the detailed response! I had a feeling that might be the case, but so it goes ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Have to come up with a different approach, then.2
u/Simon_Drake May 28 '26
That's just what I've seen on TV. It might not be true in the real world. You should consider making a full post about this and see if other people have better information than me. It's an interesting question in general and I'm kinda curious what the real answer is.
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u/CertifiedDiplodocus May 23 '26
How do intercoms work? I'm writing a scene in a 90s US police station where external phones and radios are down (apocalypse) but the intercom system still functions, so people can call from one part of the building to another. Do you use a receiver as with a traditional landline?
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u/justified1969 Jun 26 '26
I worked in a hospital that had them to all the rooms within each department. You could press a button to broadcast your voice to all of the room speakers at once or press a specific button to send your voice to one room's speaker. Some of these were simple wall panels with buttons and a speaker. Other's were phone handsets used only for the intercoms where you dialed the intercom you wanted to talk to.
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u/Simon_Drake May 23 '26
I think they worked like a hard wired walkie-talkie. There's a Transmit button that activates the microphone and your voice will come out of the linked speaker. There's usually a little box with a speaker grill and a microphone inside and sometimes a single button or sometimes a row of buttons so you can call to reception or captain's office or the holding cells. In theory they could have used a telephone receiver, that might be more appropriate for a police station where you don't want the whole room to know what you're saying.
These would have been hard wired cables threaded through the walls of the building. They would need electrical power but not much, if they have a windmill or solar panel the might prioritise the intercom and break room fridge over the lights.
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u/sanjuro_kurosawa Apr 21 '26
I'm writing about an narcissistic woman. Her and her date go to a biker bar, and she asks for a light beer. When the drinks arrive, she says that she wants a mug, which her date gets another beer in a mug.
Does that sound like a request of a manipulative woman?
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u/SecureAirline3617 Apr 20 '26
I am thinking of writing a medical romance but I don't know where to find accurate ER medicine and procedures for writers. Does anyone have any websites and other reddit groups to help? I also might need information on US social worker.
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u/InevitableBook2440 Apr 28 '26
Honestly, you'd be best off finding some medically qualified people to advise/ beta read if this is going to be a major focus of your story. There are a lot of revision resources for medical students on youtube (eg Osmosis) which explain things from basic principles. Patient information leaflets are more accessible and lots of hospitals have made them on a variety of procedures and conditions. You could try Life in the Fast Lane for emergency medicine-specific things, although it's a resource for healthcare professionals and assumes quite a lot of prior knowledge.
I feel like it's often the internal politics, the personalities and just the way of thinking and being that people without a medical background get wrong, as much as the technical stuff. Dr Glaucomflecken does little comedy clips but they're actually very accurate on that side of things. There are a lot of books with autobiographical elements by doctors. You could try reading some of those eg This is Going to Hurt (by a British ex-doctor turned comedian, now adapted into a TV series). Weirdly, I thought Scrubs also got a lot of the human element right.
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Apr 14 '26
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u/George_Salt May 08 '26
Depends where you are in the UK, remember England & Wales have different legal systems to Scotland. Very different when it comes to inheritance, and how wills can be written and challenged. Quite a bit of guidance on this available online.
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u/Simon_Drake Apr 14 '26
That might be the kind of thing you'd put in a Prenuptial Agreement before getting married rather than in your will.
Let's imagine the will says "Donate it all to charity, even if I get married one day, she gets nothing". And the prenup says "Wife will not contest the will and knows she will inherit nothing" then I believe that's binding and she won't get anything.
Then I suspect it's ok for the Prenup to also have a clause saying "Husband swears that if they're still happily married on date X he will change his will to the version attached in Appendix B which gives the wife everything." So it's not strictly a condition in the will, it's a promise in the Prenuptial Agreement to change the will later.
But really I'm just guessing. It's interesting though, you should consider making a real post about it and see if anyone else knows the real answer.
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u/TheKingDroc Mar 30 '26
If you have a broken wrist, can you fire a handgun and hit a target? Or with the weight of the gun in the recoil, make it impossible to shoot or too painful to keep?
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u/Material-Routine Jun 19 '26
Use the other hand.
I have had a broken wrist (displaced colles fracture with multiple carpal dislocations). Hand was unusable (and facing the wrong direction) until after orthopedic surgery, 2 months of external fixation, 2nd orthopedic surgery, and months of physiotherapy. I was not able to hold anything in that hand immediately following injury.
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u/CautiousConfidence8 Apr 17 '26
One of the symptoms of a broken wrist or arm is being unable to curl your finger, so unlikely without a LOT of adrenaline or using the opposite hand.
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u/TheKingDroc Apr 21 '26
That’s kind of the angle I’m going with. I realize I haven’t responded to anyone my bad. But yeah, that’s the one I’m going with that. It’s adrenaline scene.
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u/Tall_Pumpkin_4298 Apr 09 '26
When I had a small buckle fracture in my wrist as a child, I couldn't even curl my fingers into a full fist. I'm not sure if it was the pain, swelling, or if my range of motion was limited (which can happen). But I was also a 7 year old crying in the school nurse's office with probably not the greatest pain tolerance. So make of that what you will.
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u/SelleizVa Apr 05 '26
Dudo que alguien pueda sostener el arma con su muñeca rota, por conexiones nerviosas y todo eso, no creo que pueda mover los dedos, aún cuando aguante el dolor 🤕
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u/Miraculousimply Mar 31 '26
Technically, yes. However, it could lead to gun malfunctions or further injuries, in my opinion. It really depends on the direction you want your script to take, whether you want to favor the character or not. It also depends on how you’ve developed your character, such as having a high pain tolerance or exhibiting inhuman qualities.
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u/CertifiedDiplodocus May 23 '26
Re. malfunctions - a police instructor told me that handguns jam more easily if you have a poor/loose grip, which is likely if you're using a broken wrist.
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Mar 28 '26
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u/kschang Mar 29 '26
If you can find a very big blood vessel to cut and the victim don't have a tourniquet and some good first aid, absolutely.
Nowadays, you can buy "disposable" scalpel blades separately from the handles as craft knives. (Swann-Morton sell them for a couple bucks, and Temu sell them by the pennies) So you don't even need to go to a medical place to get one.
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u/Simon_Drake Mar 28 '26
Yes. There's several delicate tubes in the throat that could be cut by a scalpel and are usually fatal.
If there's any location where a slashed jugular isn't fatal it would be inside a hospital operating theatre with immediate attention of highly skilled medical experts, which is also a place you would find a scalpel. But if the incident happened elsewhere then yes it's probably fatal.
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u/Extreme-Reception-44 Mar 14 '26
Where the hell do i find a community that actually helps people find sources?
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u/Simon_Drake Mar 15 '26
Google?
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u/Extreme-Reception-44 Mar 15 '26
Ah great. I'll just site the Wikipedia page and search through random books and papers for what I want. Thanks.
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u/Simon_Drake Mar 15 '26
You are throwing a childish tantrum because your question got removed. Your question was "Tell me some cool stories about cowboys" which is not suitable for this subreddit.
If you've never heard of Google before then that's not my problem.
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u/Bitter-Cow-6744 Mar 05 '26
okay so I’m working on this story and one of the main conflicts is that the main character isn’t very mobile. So he was an accomplished investigative journalist that was about to crack a case before he got in a horrible accident. So he can’t work on the case anymore and he is taken out of action. I was thinking that the actual accident happened two days ago and he went through surgery the day before present time. I want to list the conditions he has, broken blah blah blah, strained blah blah I just don’t all of that stuff (I was thinking he got in a crash and a car nailed him from the side, breaking his left leg REALLY bad, he needs nails and all that. He might’ve broken a nose, got scratches from glass and bruised/strained other parts but the leg is the main focus) any insight
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u/Material-Routine Jun 19 '26
I've had similar degree of injury requiring orthopedic surgery (arm not leg though) and severe bruising everywhere, broken tooth and facial bruising, and embedded glass in the opposite arm - no skull or brain injury. The collision was very close to the hospital, the orthopedic surgeon happened to be available, OR time happened to be available, It was before cutbacks to the ambulance service.
Think more like 2 nights in hospital minimum, 2 weeks before the character is leaving the house, on leaving the house, still doped up on painkillers an additional 6 weeks, then needing months of physiotherapy after.
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u/kschang Mar 12 '26 edited Mar 12 '26
You are misunderstanding how hospitals work.
After an accident, and you get into the hospital, the first thing they do is they make sure you don't die. Second is make sure you don't suffer (treat pain), and get worse. They won't start treating your damage until you're stable enough to survive FURTHER operations. It's NOT a car repair place: one stop in the OR do it all.
If you want his leg "crippled" long-term, maybe you can have him break out of the hospital to work on his story, and thus the leg never healed right. May work even better drama-wise.
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u/Educational-Shame514 Mar 12 '26
Two days is super fast for a broken leg and the rest. Which is more important, the timeline or the injuries?
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u/Bitter-Cow-6744 Mar 12 '26
I’d say definitely the injuries
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u/Bitter-Cow-6744 Mar 12 '26
So this guy is an investigative journalist who basically lives for his job. So he’s a stubborn asshole obviously. He doesn’t know what it’s like to be sheltered. Unable to do anything but rot in his house; confined from anything. So he refuses physical therapy after whatever happens with therapy and shit (that I don’t know) and so he is sent home. He has a list of what to do by his doctor and he’s basically just sitting there, helpless.
I definitely need help 🤣
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u/ODFoxtrotOscar Mar 11 '26
Try a compound fracture of the femur (compound = the broken bone pierces through the skin), Casualty needs careful handling (so the broken ends of the bone don’t damage the femoral artery - something that’s quickly fatal) and will require surgery to plate/pin. You don’t necessarily get the external pinning with this, but chances are you’ll be in hospital for a week or so, it’ll be a few weeks before most activities are possible,,and you’ll need physio follow up for several months. Even if you’re quite young, you’re looking at 3-6 months to be fully better
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u/Bitter-Cow-6744 Mar 12 '26
Thank you so much! So it wouldn’t make sense for him to be back in his house after surgery the day before?
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Mar 02 '26
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u/Educational-Shame514 Mar 02 '26
Guess what! You control the depth of the river, how fast it is flowing, how deep it is and everything else about the situation.
If you read this in someone else's book would you throw the book across the room in disbelief or would you believe it?
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u/Crissa_01 Feb 28 '26
Hello!
I am writing the first time my protagonist meets with his abuser, but also showing how his coworkers used to treat him, and how tough being homeless was.
He is a minor working at a bar with a fake ID.
I was thinking 1 of the customers is a police officer. Based of the following excerpt, can the fellow bartender be arrested?
"Why are you so tired buddy? Today was dead."
"Hard to sleep. Too cold." he looked up to face the other bartender, who shook his head with a hint of sadness.
"Sorry kid. My wife doesn't... My wife said she... Doesn't want my kids around someone like you.." the older one hit his back.
"Oy... Soften the blow you asshat. A simple 'No, sorry, she refused.' would have been enough."
"I've heard worse, I guess." Good thing he returned to his original position, or his friend would have seen the tears in his eyes, tho his voice gave it away.
"Or you could... You know. Follow my advice for once ~" He received another hit. The gentleman refused to let people trigger his dear friend. He saw him as his own kid. Of course, Daniel never spoke of it ; but he was smart enough to pick up on certain hints.
Daniel raised his head again, annoyed.
" I don't wanna use my body to... Survive."
"But you did it before, and you know it works. What difference does it make if you hook up again, huh?"
The kid looked down, and wrapped his hands around his torso, his eyes watery again.
"I just don't want to unless I have no other options, ok? Just leave me alone."
I was wondering if this is enough to be considered like coercion or smth like that. I could keep going with his rude comments or I could also make the cop leave for other reasons ( so that the villain can do what he wants with more ease)
Also, will they ask for Daniel's ID? And what if he says he doesn't wanna press charges?
Thanks in advance!
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u/kschang Mar 12 '26
I think your MC talks too much, and a homeless man's first thing to slack is his hygiene. IMHO, of course.
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u/NinjaBnny Feb 25 '26
What’s it feel like to be woken up in the middle of the night after taking NyQuil or a sleeping aid?
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u/Educational-Shame514 Feb 26 '26
If you can safely take NyQuil can you simulate it? Are you similar enough to your presumed MC?
I mean, potentially they could be unsure if they really woke up or if it was a dream until they find evidence towards it being real.
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u/NinjaBnny Feb 26 '26
I have a sleep disorder so I wouldn’t trust my results. Also I don’t have anyone to force me awake 3 hours into a NyQuil coma. If I set alarms I’ll just turn them off without waking
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u/Educational-Shame514 Feb 26 '26
On second thought it's probably so individual that you can pick how it affects your character on that day.
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u/Simon_Drake Feb 25 '26
It depends on the cause. If you're woken up by a strong urge to pee or something mundane like a truck driving by or your cat knocked something over, then you'll probably handle it on autopilot and go back to sleep. Go and pee, close the window, pick up the fallen can of deodorant then go back to bed and not even really acknowledge that anything disrupted your sleep. You'll be asleep again in a few minutes and were barely across the border into being awake to begin with.
But if something wakes you up that is serious like a burglar or your friend has been stabbed and needs help urgently, then adrenaline wins the battle. You're probably a little more foggy and in need of a coffee than anyone else in that situation but you're not going to be yawning and falling asleep while calling the ambulance.
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u/NinjaBnny Feb 25 '26
I was thinking something in the middle? Like you’re being shaken awake by someone and now need to be conscious for at least a period of time, but it’s not an emergency or anything scary. Like your kid wakes you up because they wet the bed, that level of activity and brain power needed
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u/Simon_Drake Feb 25 '26
Yeah it's still going to be something you can handle without falling asleep, but perhaps it's something you won't want to handle and will do a half-arsed job with.
Imagine going to bed really late like 2am and you're really worn out from physical exhaustion or just generally a long day. Then you need to get up at 6 the next day and discover you're out of coffee and haven't got any choice but to continue your day uncaffeinated. That's what it's like waking up from sleeping pills, you CAN function but you kinda don't want to.
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u/Dazzling_Start_3805 Feb 18 '26
So I’m writing for a creative writing class and I’m writing three scenes and one has a murder, whats the least painful way to kill a person with a meat cleaver?
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u/Educational-Shame514 Feb 24 '26
Why go for the least painful? Or do you mean least painful for the killer?
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u/Dazzling_Start_3805 Feb 24 '26
Least painful for the person dying, the killers trying to get something from the goddess he’s sacrificing to.
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u/NinjaBnny Feb 25 '26
Maybe look up halal or kosher slaughter methods? Their whole goal is a painless death. Then again they don’t use meat cleavers
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u/George_Salt Feb 24 '26
Use it to push a button to cause a powerful paralytic sedative to be administered.
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u/TheKingDroc Feb 13 '26
You know that scene in “Leon, the professional” where he is stitching together his wounds in the shower. Is that an effective or a safe to stitch wounds?
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u/Simon_Drake Feb 13 '26
I've not seen the movie but the shower is as good a place as any if you have the right equipment. I believe surgical thread is different to regular sewing thread, it's designed to be a smoother fibre without tiny threads that can host bacteria or break off and get stuck in the wound, it's stronger and also has deliberate barbs on it to help it snag the skin and not slip free. And if you're using a topical antiseptic cream (or even better antibiotics) then the shower is a fine level of cleanliness, even if there are bacteria in his sweat washing into the wound it's better than leaving it uncleaned.
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Feb 08 '26
How does a man get a female stalker ?
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u/Crissa_01 Feb 28 '26
In white Christmas ( 2011), the killer has a female stalker because he was her psychiatrist.
I don't remember how it started but it's only 8 episodes and a very very good psychological horror so you can try watching it!
Check the content warnings if you have something you don't vibe with like suicide bullying or drug abuse.
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u/RBC-8526 Feb 10 '26
I feel like saying "I suppose the same way anyone else might" is a bit on the nose because there are some nuances here. I would consider the roads of some substantial metal health issues and a parasocial relationship, a perceived wrong/slight, and/or someone who fixates/refuses to let go of a terminated relationship of some kind. ID used to have a show called something like "Stalked: Someone's Watching" that told the stories of stalking victims. That might be worth checking out.
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u/wisedec4u Jan 18 '26
My main character is flying in from out of town to try to warn/save his fiancee from a stalker. He's been trying to reach her by phone with no success. What he doesn't know is he's already too late. The stalker kidnapped his fiancee and her best friend. Is it realistic that a detective would answer his fiancee's cellphone(she was forced to leave it behind) and inform the MMC that his fiancee was shot? Just to clarify the detective mistakenly identifies the gunshot victim as his fiancee.
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u/kschang Mar 12 '26
No way. Detective would NOT disturb the phone (fingerprints, etc.) they can pull who called from the phone company.
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u/George_Salt Jan 26 '26
Very unrealistic.
More likely that they would say no more than that the phone has been recovered as a result of investigations/enquiries and they'd ask for him who and where he was so they could speak to him.
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u/wisedec4u Jan 30 '26
Thanks! 🙏
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u/George_Salt Jan 30 '26
You could still get the confusion you're looking for if it's needed in the plot. If the caller says that he's trying to reach his fiancé and this biases the detective's initial identification. It depends whether you need for plot purposes for the detective to make an initial misidentification or if you need the fiancé to be told an initial misidentification.
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u/PrincessPhrogi Jan 12 '26
I have a character who needs to travel from Australia to the USA (New York City specifically) for a change in custody (her mother has gotten a new job and will be unable to care for her properly as it is a very demanding job). The character is about six when this happens, and it is pre-9/11 (by like, a few months. It's july of 2001). Would the character be able to travel alone, or would she be required to have a guardian with her for international travel?
The character's mother is a single mother and her father isn't really in the picture. She's moving to NYC to live with her maternal uncle, who works a less demanding job and generally has better resources and support to care for a young child. The mother has a very minimal support system in Australia and is ostracized by her community, so has decided that her daughter will be better taken care of in the US, and that she will move there as soon as it's financially feasible in the long run.
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u/George_Salt Jan 24 '26
Major airlines offer an unaccompanied minor service, they're escorted by designated members of staff at all times. You could contact one of the airlines and see if they can provide you with details of their policy at that time, or maybe the Internet Wayback Machine can help find an old version of the relevant website page.
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u/thebanjo_kermit Jan 03 '26
i have a 16 yr old teenage girl character that just got a car. shes fiiilthy rich and her parents just got it for her. what car, or car brand, would she have?
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u/Previous_Addition588 Jun 25 '26
my first thought is a really fancy Jeep? or like a BMW. i could also see her owning a Tesla
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u/RBC-8526 Feb 10 '26
Are either of the parents really into cars? They'd likely get her a more entry level with their preferred brand.
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u/Crissa_01 Dec 21 '25
I have a fairly odd and morbid question... What bdsm tool can you use to kill someone? My character finds out what his brother went through and confronts the villain about it.
They are stuck in the middle of the forest, with probably little to no potential weapons, as to not put himself in danger. So. I can't really say he grabbed a knife from his kitchen and went to the villain.
Thanks!
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u/Simon_Drake Dec 21 '25
Why are they in the middle of the forest with no weapons except for BDSM gear? If it's some kind of remote cabin in the woods without kitchen knives then could there be outdoor-themed equipment, wood axes, maybe just a hammer or a tyre iron?
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u/Crissa_01 Dec 21 '25
He îs renting this apartment complex, yes. The BDSM stuff is because he is evtremely sadistic and does stuff to the character's brother.
Also yes, he does have a shed outside but he mostly keeps it locked. Would it feel cheap if he forgot that day?
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u/leopardnose1 Dec 16 '25
I have a 16 y old character who already has an ED and is underweight. If she was forced to stop eating completely how long would it take for her to die? I know 3 weeks is the typical guideline, but how much less would it be for someone already significantly underweight?
(specifics are hard to find cause Google keeps giving me resources)
For a starvation motive in a fangan
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u/Simon_Drake Dec 16 '25
It might be better to work backwards from the outcome you want. Do you want her to die, to nearly die before being rescued or to collapse from starvation and need to be hospitalised before her captors escalate their crime from kidnapping to murder.
If you want her to die then she could collapse from hunger and hit her head in whatever timeline fits the story best. Or she could have some sort of organ failure from malnutrition that makes her sicker faster, kidney failure or she's so weak her immune system is failing and she gets a UTI and the fever kills her. That could all happen in under the three weeks of 'normal' starvation.
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u/Icy-Intention-5348 Dec 14 '25
for a danganronpa fanfic
is there a way to cut someone throat or something in their mouth so that they no longer have the ability to speak, but its not noticeable on first glance
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u/NinjaBnny Feb 25 '26
A laryngectomy removes the voice box, but it does leave a scar in the front of the throat. You can also paralyze the vocal cords by messing with the nerves that go to the larynx, I think it would be pretty easy to hand wave the process? Like paralyzed vocal cords technically have more side effects than just loss of speech but I’ve seen it used in published media before without it feeling off at all
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u/Legitimate-Ride4320 Jan 02 '26
Perhaps cutting out their tongue? It wouldn't render them unable to make sounds but it would make it impossible to make some of them (lingual consonants such as t, d, n, l, s, z, sh, ch, j, r among other things) which would make their speech unintelligible.
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u/Sceaftling_wrs Dec 09 '25
Is it feasible to force a snake to bite and envenomate someone?
I have a fictitious snake whose venom is a powerful hallucinogen, and a culture who use bites from this snake to experience vision trance. Trying to figure out exactly how they'd carry out the procedure.
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u/Simon_Drake Dec 09 '25
There's a process of "milking a snake" to extract the venom for scientific research purposes, making antivenoms etc. You get a glass jar with a sheet of rubber stretched over the top, hold the snake by the back of its head and kinda stab the rubber with its teeth.
You could probably do the same thing with stabbing a person. It might be easier with a person, with the jar you need to get the snake angry so it folds out it's fangs and the rubber is to trick it into thinking it's really bit someone and make it pump the venom. But if it's genuinely biting someone then all that happens naturally.
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u/Hour_Celery1384 2d ago
how would a 90s/2000s era hospital treat whip lacerations realistically? most posts I find about whipping are period-specific to before the 20th century... so how would that be reated modern day? especially with infection. stitches? bandages?