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Underrated scenario in whump is dehumanization from caretaker. Caretaker treating whumpee like a traumatized animal; whether unintentionally, or because they're forced to, or because caretaker actually sees them as such.

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On one hand, I am a firm believer in "just start writing a fictional story without hard research if that's what it takes to get the first draft down, mistakes can be fixed in future drafts". On the other hand, I am also a firm believer in cultivating the reflex of "hang on, I don't really know what that means, let me at least go skim the Wikipedia page right now to make sure I'm headed in the right direction here".

Sometimes, especially with original fiction that's presumably been professionally edited, obvious mistakes that are harmful can be infuriating, but I'm usually just amused whenever I encounter an author who clearly hasn't done research for the industry or skill that plays a central role in their story. If one of your main characters is an athlete, you should probably know the rules of that sport??? How its professional leagues work??? Maybe???

"Character A is a chef in a 5-star Michelin restaurant!" <- Michelin stars only go up to 3, bud. "Character B is a famous Michelin food critic!" <- Michelin reviewers are also famously anonymous, bud.

The easy fix for the above example is to just invent a fake food guide company for your story, with known reviewers and a system that goes up to 5 stars. Michelin Guides came out of a tire company and they're not infallible; they've received plenty of reasonable criticism over the years. If you know what Michelin stars actually are and where they came from, they can be modified and replaced in your fictional world's alternate universe to suit your purpose. Instead of you being very obviously misinformed about, uh, the basic facts of your setting in your own summary.

Does anyone have any memorable examples of "that's not how that works" experiences with fiction that have stuck with them?

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love when fanfic writers are like “I love this character” & proceed to put them through shit even God has blacklisted, baby the middle ages called they want to hear your ideas

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"Ao3 should allow multiple kudos" "I want to be able to leave more than one kudos"

COMMENT ON THE FUCKING FIC

I SWEAR TO GOD NO ONE COMMENTS MUCH NOW WHEN THE ONLY WAY TO SHOW APPRECIATION FOR A SINGLE CHAPTER IS COMMENTING AND I AM NOT HAVING THIS BULLSHIT BE LIKE TIKTOK WHERE NO ONE EVER COMMENTS POSITIVITY

FOR FUCKS SAKE JUST COMMENT ON THE FUCKING FIC YOU DON'T NEED A MULTIPLE KUDOS BUTTON YOU NEED ACTUAL WORDS

TRUST ME ON ANY WEBSITE OR APP I POST COMMENTS AND WORDS ARE 10X BETTER THAN ANY PLAIN LIKE AND WORDLESS REBLOG IF YOU LIKE SOMETHING LEAVE WORDS

COMMENT

ON

THE

FUCKING

FICS

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I think every film critic review needs a footnote called the “fun-o-meter” where they ignore everything they said in the previous paragraphs and have to answer objectively. put it on a scale. good good to bad good to bad good to bad bad. for example. did venom get a 30% on rotten tomatoes? yes. but watching sweaty tom hardy sit in a fish tank and eat a live lobster was VERY fun. some movies aren’t meant to win awards. they’re just meant to be a hoot n a holler

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This is your friendly reminder to give your whumpee consequences to the stress they've been under in the form of physical ailments! These can include but are not limited to: migraines, grey hairs, shock, memory problems, brain fog, emotional outbursts, gastrointestinal pain, vomiting, fatigue, insomnia, fatigue AND insomnia, hives, illness, passing out, heart palpitations, numbness, and more!

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What the fuck is he even doing?? I hate him 😭

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Showing the cis women who make fics about skinny hairless bottom trans men a trans bear with a strap so they get heart attacks

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Just a psa for fic writers who use the “trauma bond” tag, please make sure you’re using it correctly. A trauma bond is not two people who experience similar trauma and bond over it. It’s a carefully curated, manipulative bond between abuser and victim to keep the victim coming back because of the addictive highs and lows that come with abuse.

If you want to tag two characters bonding over shared trauma, a good substitute tag would be “bonding over shared trauma.” Trauma bonding is, by definition, an abusive relationship and may steer people who have experienced it away from your fic. Please spread the word and happy writing!

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lesbian but no lesbian to be in lesbians with 💔

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super simple low-effort ao3 summary methods that are 1000% better and 1000% less annoying than just saying you suck at summaries:

copypaste the first few lines of the fic. u already wrote ‘em. let ‘em be their own damn hook

if ur feeling fancy & don’t mind showing ur hand a bit, copypaste the first few lines of the fic that u feel are esp. Important or Interesting - the ones where u first start getting into the real meat of things

state the main tropes! theyre probably already in ur tags - just say them again - maybe as a full sentence if ur feelin fancy. or with a joke if ur feelin Extra fancy

ask a question. pose a hypothetical. eg what happens if u take [character] and put them in [situation]?

make an equation. [character] + [thing] = [outcome]

just write like a one-sentence summary of what the fuck is going down. just one (1) sentence. doesnt matter if it doesn’t cover every important aspect. or if it sounds bland. any summary sentence is gonna be miles better than “idk i suck at summaries”

just…explain the fic like u would to a friend? it doesnt have to be a polished back of the book blurb. it can just be “[pairing] coffee shop au, but like, still with murder, and also i made everyone trans. enjoy”

just stick a meme in there

honestly who cares

just put literally anything but a self deprecating comment in there & ur golden

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For my inspired-by-silvercap's [redacted] Leon whump:

"Bro, what the fuck?!" Leon pants, a bit impressed with himself that his voice recovers so easily after the yelp he made.

@welcome-leon and @waywardsou2 cough up your last sentence!!! I NEED TO SEE!!!

@residentcrows tagged me for this!! what a fun little game <3

Writing game: post the last sentence you wrote then tag someone for every word in the sentence.

Eddie resists the urge to curl in on himself, the guilt a physical cowl over his shoulders and pressing to his throat.

@silvercap @thebrandywine (shamelessly drooling at both of your writing begging for scraps, please don't mind the tag) and anyone else who sees this and wants to jump in!

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carlitos doodle

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*cracks knuckles and then taps Leon's head*

This is a man who is used to working-- and thus-- fighting alone a lot of the time. In RE2, Leon is a rookie cop. Admittedly I have not looked into the training cops get, but surely he has been trained about crossfire/friendly fire. But he hasn't *lived* that experience yet. He doesn't realize how confusing combat/dangerous situations can be when they are real and not simulated. He hasn't yet had coworkers/fellow officers/friendlies/innocents to worry about being in his line of fire. The situation in RE2 is new in a lot of ways. So yeah, Leon being a bit eager to point his gun at someone approaching him in a high stress point is very understandable. 95% of the people approaching him in that game are zombies, so they are hostile. Short term muscle memory + panic = Ada ends up looking down the barrel of Leon's gun.

Now, in the future/aka every other time. Leon should be experienced enough to know to identify targets before aiming (that's one of the rules of gun safety-- identify your target and what's behind it). Damnation, makes a lot of sense it takes Leon shining a flashlight on Ada to identify her. So, yeah. Not a comfortable experience for Ada, getting a gun pointed at her, but an understandable one.

Now, let's talk about identifying targets. Combat makes that really hard. Combat is quick and dangerous. Your brain is focused on NOT DYING, so it has to be a conscious effort to go "hey, is this someone I should be shooting at?" is important. Friendly fire happens. It still happens today. It's tragic, but it's very understandable how it does, when you realize how FAST things happen and how-- when you train someone to fight/shoot in response to deadly threat-- you can end up with friendly fire causalities pretty damn fast before people realize "wait a second, who is this?!". Especially with guns. When you can shoot quickly-- and with how deadly bullets are when they connect-- yeah...

And what is Leon (maybe) never shown as wearing after Re2? A UNIFORM!* Leon does NOT have identifying gear or a uniform to make him identifiable to friendlies. When he is wearing gear, there is no logos, no flags. Nothing like that. If someone glances at Leon, they just see an armed man (if that-- if Leon is wearing obvious body armor. Otherwise they will just see a guy with a gun like in RE4/RE6).

Other than not identifying himself, you know what Leon also doesn't often have? Partners. Friendlies he consistently fights alongside...

All of this is to say, Leon assumes everything is hostile to him unless otherwise proven. And the second/half second it would take him to pause and register is way too much time when he is in life or death situations. (I know this is for meta reasons, having fights be drawn out-- but the best way to fight is not to look cool. It's to finish it as soon as fucking possible). Leon's habit is to shoot/attack first, question later. Because he has to. That's the safest option for him.

[Meanwhile, Chris. Chris is in uniform almost every time we see him. Which both makes him easy to identify but also means his friendlies are also identifiable without seeing their faces.* He has a team-- or had a team, RIP Chris' teammates across the franchise. Chris operates knowing he has friendlies in the field. His brain is probably wired to always consider that he's got people nearby that both NEED protection but also need him to not accidentally shoot in their direction. (I maybe misremembering Vendetta, but I'm pretty sure Chris ducks into a side hallway in that zombie fight scene so he gets a hallway and Leon gets the perpendicular one Which-- ignoring ricochet/how cheesy that movie is-- is a good call by Chris to remove himself from accidentally catching Leon in crossfire).]

*Uniforms! Uniforms mean someone can look at you and identify you (if they know what uniform they are looking at/can read the patches/flags/etc). Chris is supposed to be identifiable. When he is in his STARS uniform, when he with the BSAA, etc. Especially with the BSAA, Chris is there in official, sanctioned capacity when he is uniform. Leon... Leon is clearly not. The government does not give Leon a way for bystanders/observers to identify him during at least some of his missions. RE4 and OJ especially are the biggest ones to me. He has documentation/files, if he has to prove it. But he has NOTHING to visual identify himself when he is on official orders. Meaning, the government does not want Leon being linked to them/anyone just from a glance.

TLDR: Leon fights first, identifies later because it's safer for him and he does not habitually have friendly fire to worry about. Due to a lack of friendlies.

I know it's memed a lot, but the concept of Leon not recognizing people when they're right in front of him has piqued my curiosity. A lot of people joke that he needs glasses, but as someone who's has both a high prescription and a condition that effects the quality of my vision, if he can shoot targets with that level of accuracy, he should be able to recognize a person he's spent time around even if his hypothetical glasses prescription needed an adjustment haha.

And this is not a one-off thing either-- it's practically a running gag in the franchise.

I think the problem is not that he doesn't recognize the people rather it's that he doesn't process what he's seeing quick enough to realize who he's fighting. All of these instances have been while he's literally fighting for his life or otherwise in a situation where he's on edge. In the various examples where Ada, Jill, and Chris are fighting with him, he's probably not going to be looking at their faces, he's going to be watching their movements, watching for weapons, and trying to win the fight. It's only when the fights come to a stalemate or there's a break where he has the chance to look at the person's face that he's then like "oh... shit... wait--" and realizes who he was fighting. From what I remember, the only exception to this would be RE2, however, considering he's scared and on edge in the middle of the apocalypse on top of just having watched Mr. X crush Ben's skull, I think "who's there?!" is a pretty normal, instinctive reaction to a sudden sound.

I think it's also important to consider that what we see isn't necessarily what Leon sees. We have to be able to see what's going on during the scene because we're an audience watching a movie/cutscene/etc. but these situations are often dark, meaning, realistically, Leon probably can't see much of their faces, especially when they're not looking at him. We sorta see this in Damnation where when Leon raises the light on the gun, he then realizes who Ada is.

But... that's just my theory. I do really love the headcanon that Leon has glasses though, especially after the glasses editions for 4R because they look cute on him hehe.

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Okay I do not give a shit about this article at all but where did they get this picture of the skeleton wearing prescription pill armor

Like this is the coolest fucking thing I have seen in a while who made this

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A pig photobombs a rural wedding, location unknown, but somewhere in England, 1927.