yatagarasu-writingtips

[yatagarasu-writingtips]

Resources For Describing Characters

Physical Appearance

Arms

Athletic Build

Back

Butts

Cheeks

Chest

Chins

Curvy Build

Ears

Eyebrows

Eyes

Faces

Facial Hair

Feet

Fingernails

Fingers

Hair

Hands

Head

Hips

Jaws

Knees

Legs

Lips

Muscular Build

Neck

Noses

Shoulders

Slender Build

Sickly Build

Skin

Stocky Build

Stomach

Teeth

Toenails

Toes

Underweight Build

Character Traits

Affectionate

Ambitious

Bossy

Brave

Calm

Cautious

Charismatic

Clever

Conceited

Courageous

Creative

Critical

Curious

Determined

Diplomatic

Dishonest

Disorganized

Eccentric

Excitable

Friendly

Funny

Generous

Glamorous

Guarded

Honest

Impulsive

Independent

Intelligent

Just

Kind

Loyal

Manipulative

Mature

Modest

Mysterious

Naïve

Optimistic

Prejudiced

Persistent

Proper

Responsible

Sensitive

Sentimental

Serious

Shy

Reckless

Stingy

Stubborn

Talented

Thoughtful

Thrifty

Visionary

Wise

Witty

Worry Wart

Wounded

Talents & Skills

A Knack for Languages

A Knack for Making Money

A Way with Animals

Archery

Astral Projection

Astrological Divination

Baking

Basic First Aid

Blending In

Carpentry

Charm

ESP (Clairvoyance)

Empathy

Enhanced Hearing

Enhanced Sense of Smell

Enhanced Taste Buds

Farming

Fishing

Foraging

Gaining the Trust of Others

Gaming

Gardening

Good Listening Skills

Haggling

Herbalism

Hospitality

Hot-Wiring a Car

High Pain Tolerance

Knife Throwing

Knowledge of Explosives

Lip-Reading

Lying

Making People Laugh

Mechanically Inclined

Mentalism

Mimicking

Multitasking

Musicality

Organization

Parkour

Photographic Memory

Predicting the Weather

Promotion

Psychokinesis

Reading People

Regeneration

Repurposing

Sculpting

Self-Defense

Sewing

Sharpshooting

Sleight-of-Hand

Strategic Thinking

Strong Breath Control

Super Strength

Survival Skills

Swift-footedness

Talking With The Dead

Throwing One’s Voice

Whittling

Wilderness Navigation

Wrestling

Elemental Abilities

Miscellaneous

Voices

Voice Types

Speech Patterns

Speech Impediment

List of Character Flaws

List of Archetypes

Hairstyles

Describing Body Types & How They Move Around

Secrets To Give Your Character

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[yatagarasu-writingtips]

Hot take: Actual literary analysis requires at least as much skill as writing itself, with less obvious measures of whether or not you’re shit at it, and nobody is allowed to do any more god damn litcrit until they learn what the terms “show, don’t tell” and “pacing” mean.

[yatagarasu-writingtips]

misc considerations for writing disabled characters.

mobility aids & so forth are not limiting. using a wheelchair or a cane or crutches and any other device > being in pain or flat out bedridden or not being able to navigate certain environments.

not everyone is Happy being disabled and / or chronically ill. being in pain can be & is difficult. access barriers are difficult. internalized ableism exists. that’s okay. it’s a common struggle, and acknowledging that does push against the expectation that disabled people have to be “inspirational” or completely unaffected by their disability. that said, disabled people aren’t Completely Miserable all the time (spoken by someone who loves to Complain about theirs all the time).

don’t use disability as suggestive of morality. your character is a terrible person? don’t make them disfigured or disabled to show it! i like to call it the “crippled monster” trope, which has been in circulation for centuries & you can see alive and well in current films like detective pikachu or wonder woman.

faking disability or performing is a terrible trope. faking illness for money is a terrible trope. this is why disabled people get harassed in public for using an aid or denied disability or flat out abused by doctors and undiagnosed. “catch the scammer” is a game abled people often play, as i like to say.

invisible disabilities exist. not everyone uses an aid; that said, not everyone who uses an aid has a condition you can see or explain right off.

disabled people of color exist. “no shit,” you may say; but disability is portrayed as overwhelmingly white, and people of color are pervasively undiagnosed or discarded in real life by medical professionals.

curing & eradicating disability in your fictional worlds isn’t cool, whether by magic or technology. it’s lazy. technology & magic as accommodations or aids and so forth is way cooler & more creative & doesn’t suggest you think a certain group of people shouldn’t exist.

disability is fluid. people can move in & out of categories. disabilities can flare. several people with the same disability can look completely different or require different accommodations. someone with one disability may / will have different access needs than someone with another disability.

feel free to add, idk.

[yatagarasu-writingtips]

Honestly as a blind person I’m so tired of seeing fictional blind characters who don’t use white canes or other guides. “They have special powers so they know what’s around them” or “they’re confident enough to not need a guide” are common tropes, and I’m tired.

Are people scared that using a white cane will make their blind character seem weak? They can’t use a cane because they’re so special that they already know what’s around them, and other blind people who use guides are inferior because they’re not special?

I’m tired. Give your blind characters white canes and other guides. Let them hold onto their friends, let them have guide dogs. Don’t make white cane users feel ostracized for not being “strong enough” to go without.

Another thing that pisses me off is when a sighted character comes up with the fantasy equivalent of braille and teaches it to the blind character. Braille was invented by Louis Braille, a blind man, in 1824. The blind character should be the one coming up with it.

Tldr I’m blind and tired of sighted people lol

🔪 Sighted People MUST Reblog This 🔪

[yatagarasu-writingtips]

Writers Write is a writing resource and we have created a series on punctuation for beginners. In today’s post, we answer the question: What is punctuation?

Last year we featured a popular series for beginner writers: All About Parts Of Speech. This year, we’re starting a series called ‘Punctuation For Beginners’.

I am starting with:

What Is Punctuation?

“Punctuation marks are the traffic signals of language: they tell us to slow down, notice this, take a detour, and stop.” ~Lynne Truss, Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation

Punctuation is the name for the marks we use in writing. Punctuation marks are tools that have set functions. We use them to structure and organise our words, and to give sentences meaning and rhythm.

Punctuation marks help readers to understand what the writer is trying to say.

Without proper punctuation, serious sentences become jokes, misunderstandings flourish, and confusion reigns. For example, ‘Let’s eat, children.’ is very different to ‘Let’s eat children.’

Punctuation For Beginners

These are the most common punctuation marks:

The Full Stop

The Comma

The Question Mark

The Exclamation Mark

The Semicolon

The Colon

The Hyphen

The Em Dash

The Bracket or Parenthesis

The Inverted Comma/Quotation Mark

The Ellipsis

The Bullet Point

The Apostrophe

Why Do We Need Punctuation?

[yatagarasu-writingtips]

When you are writing a story and refer to a character by a physical trait, occupation, age, or any other attribute, rather than that character’s name, you are bringing the reader’s attention to that particular attribute. That can be used quite effectively to help your reader to focus on key details with just a few words. However, if the fact that the character is “the blond,” “the magician,” “the older woman,” etc. is not relevant to that moment in the story, this will only distract the reader from the purpose of the scene. 

If your only reason for referring to a character this way is to avoid using his or her name or a pronoun too much, don’t do it. You’re fixing a problem that actually isn’t one. Just go ahead and use the name or pronoun again. It’ll be good.

[yatagarasu-writingtips]

External vs. Internal Character, Part 2: Taking Advantage of POV

One major reason to choose a written medium over a visual one is that it more clearly shows the external vs internal workings of a character. This not only allows for reader closeness, but the direct link to the protagonist (or other POV characters) enhances the reader’s understanding of the character(s) and their motivations, personalities, and three faces.

Part 1: The three faces (link embedded) helps bring to light how varying company affects actions and highlights the “second face” as the “basic character personality”. It also puts emphasis on the “third face” where the point of view lives, but unlike the third face a narrating character’s POV can be seen no matter where they are or what/who surrounds them.

A character may be judged by other characters according to actions but POV writing allows access to thought and can affect the reader’s impression and knowledge. 

“Did you like it?”

It took June a moment to realize that Allen was talking to her, leaning so far over the bar to see past their colleagues that his hair brushed the Angry Orchard tap.

“Sorry, I was asking Pierre something,” she said, having to elevate her voice over the distance and din of the bar. “What am I judging?” 

“My show!”

Ah. The talent show. Her spine was still crooked from cringing at his attempt to rile up the tired work crowd to little avail. Some of the acts were decent, she wasn’t going to deny it, but most of the office only went for the free food and a measure of support that didn’t extend to the in-depth critiques and exuberance that Allen had been asking from everyone since the start of happy hour. 

She took a sip of gin and tonic and tried to think of something positive to not choke on. 

“It was cute,” she said. “I liked the stage setup and the banner was well-decorated.”

“It was beautiful, wasn’t it?”

It was hastily made and gaudy, but the color choice was complementary. She nodded anyway. 

Allen likely finds June to be an agreeable person, but June’s narration teaches the reader that her reaction is monitored to not give away her natural thought. Allen sees the external character, the reader sees the internal character, and the interplay of both shows June’s personality as critical but still outwardly polite and measurably concerned for her colleague’s happiness.

Not every moment of external vs internal warring has to be that dramatic. The point is that most people just don’t behave in ways that 100% matches their thoughts and that effect can shift depending on which of their three faces is prominent at the given moment. Perhaps June would have been more honest with a close friend, but still not as brutal as her thoughts automatically jump to. 

So how do you take advantage of the internal character to make someone more human?

Lies. Small or large, good intentions or bad ones, lies spill into everyday life and often go unnoticed by those being lied to. The thing to keep in mind is that people lie for a reason. June lied to spare Allen’s feelings, not just because she felt like it. Some characters may be more prone to “unexplained” lying than others but those characters should have a reason they’re chronically untruthful. 

Holding back emotion. A form of lying, but one that’s seen as much less distrustful and is extremely common in real life. Sometimes emotions are held back to avoid hurting others, to manipulate a situation to an outcome, to “stay strong”, etc. In the end it comes down to the consequences of letting the emotion out not being judged as worth it. 

Doing things they don’t want to. Something that everyone can relate to is having a task to complete that they’d really rather not, but while there may be complaining and internal fighting, it has to be done anyway. What a character doesn’t want to do, but does anyway, can show duality of personality by what they prioritize (or don’t prioritize) over how they feel.  

Personality traits fight for dominance. People are complicated. Someone can be competitive until they start losing. Someone can be cowardly unless a loved one is put in danger. Someone can be aggressive until their victim fights back. When necessary, let the internal character fight itself over which trait shows up more prominently in a situation.

There can be many more examples, but every POV character should have some form of external vs internal character depth because nobody has their true self out to the world at all times. Non-POV characters have it too– the reader doesn’t get to see that narrated part of them. It’s still possible to hint at the inner workings of a non-POV character with commentary on body language, especially if the narrating character knows them well or if clues are dropped that indicate that disagreement of thought and action, but at the end of the day it’s still all filtered through the eyes of the narrator.

Thinking of asking a question? Please read the Rules and Considerations to make sure I’m the right resource, and check the Tag List to see if your question has already been asked.

[yatagarasu-writingtips]

Writing Chinese characters set within Western worlds

If you don’t want to read it on tumblr, go check this out on medium or go follow me on instagram at @annessarose_writes!

Alright. You know what. I’ve seen plenty of stereotypes in fiction (and in social media) that are so incredibly pervasive I’ve seen many Chinese people within the western world internalize it themselves. So here’s a rough guide on writing Chinese characters in an English-speaking Western setting, written by me, a Chinese Canadian woman.

If you’re here to say something racist fuck off. Otherwise, welcome! This is not a comprehensive guide by any means. This is merely a brief overview based on my own experiences. My experience (as someone in North America) will differ from someone living in, say, Europe or South America. I’m not representative of every Chinese person because everyone’s experience is unique. So here were are.

1. Our names

Chinese names are usually written as follows: [family name] [name]. Let’s take a Canadian historical figure as an example: 黃寬先. In Chinese, it’s pronounced “Wong Foon Sien.” On Canadian documents — which are written [First name] [Last name], he’d be called “Foon Sien Wong.” He went by “Foon Sien” for most of his life. That’s his full “first name.” Nobody would call him Foon because that’s just half of his name (unless given permission). It’d be like meeting a stranger called Alex and calling them “Al” right off the bat. Sure, they could go by Al, but you don’t know that.

For those of us living in the Western world, some of us have both a Chinese name and an English name. In these cases, our Chinese name becomes our middle name in English (e.g. a character could be called John Heen-Gwong Lee).

For some people who immigrated to the Western world but were born in China, their legal name would be their Chinese name. Some choose to keep that name. Some choose an English name as their “preferred” name but keep their Chinese name on legal documents. It varies.

Keep reading

[yatagarasu-writingtips]

Are you really…. not supposed to…. describe what your characters are wearing….

[yatagarasu-writingtips]

Skin.

Writing with Color has received several asks on this topic.

Everything from “how do I describe my character’s skin tone without being offensive?” and “what’s the problem with comparing my character to chocolate and coffee?”

I’m hoping to address all these and likewise questions in this guide on describing POCs’ skin color, from light, dark and all that’s in between.

The Food Thing: So what’s the big deal?

So exactly what is the problem with comparing a POC’s skin tone to cocoa, coffee, caramel, brown sugar and other sweets and goods? Well, there’s several potential problems you come across when you pull out the old Hershey’s bar comparison for your dark-skinned character, even if offense is not your intention.

Keep reading

[yatagarasu-writingtips]

hey icarus, if youd like to, do u have any tips for writing autistic characters and/or some common pitfalls to avoid? thanks!

ohhh that’s a great question for the start of autism acceptance month!

it’s kind of difficult to come up with an answer because i just tend to write how i think, for one, and for another autism has such a wide range of experiences that there’s no one monolithic experience.

here’s a few things, though:

i think...sensory experiences are going to be extra important for writing from an autistic point of view. how much noise or smell or the exact way something feels or tastes and the brightness or dimness of your surroundings...idk how allistics experience it but a lot of this can be overwhelming for autistic people (and other neurodivergent people!) in a way it just isn’t for neurotypicals.

so many different things count as stimming. playing with piercings. pacing. cracking your knuckles. running your hands through your hair. the sky’s the limit when it comes to stimming. flapping and spinning are great but they’re not the only types of stimming out there!

also stimming is not a compulsion! stimming is something you do to self-soothe. if your character feels anxiously compelled to do something to prevent another action from happening that is a compulsion, not a stim! which (read below) they can co-occur but just be aware that there is a difference.

it’s common for autism to have comorbidities but i feel like i don’t see it written about that often. most people know about the overlap w adhd, but it’s also really common for autistic people to have an anxiety disorder, a mood disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, gastrointestinal disorders, intellectual disability, or epilepsy. there’s a wiki page on autism comorbitidy here but it’s not terribly filled out.

there’s nothing wrong with characters being Obviously Autistic, but also like...not all autistic people are obviously autistic. we’re not inherently shy or introverted, not every autistic person has low empathy, some of us are great at masking, and a lot of us have been made at some point in time or another to stop doing things that would make us look obviously autistic.

your autistic characters should have an internal logic that is different from your allistic characters, but they should still have one. and their logic probably is greatly affected by how other people react to their autism - for example, they may cut themselves off from explaining concepts because they’ve been told once too often that people don’t care about their explanations - or on the reverse, they may over-explain because they are used to people telling them that they don’t understand.

if you’re trying to write from an autistic person’s point of view and you’re allistic, you’re going to have to think from like a sociological standpoint about how you interact with others. allistics tend to do a lot of really bizarre things under the guise of normalcy that autistic characters simply are not going to do and many won’t even understand. for example, a lot of allistics think they’re being “clear” and “honest” when they communicate through hints, passive-aggression, hyperbole, and metaphor, a lot of which is going to be lost on autistic people who, for the most part, aren’t going to hear “please mop the floor” in the sentence “the floor is dirty”.

you don’t grow out of having autism!! it would be nice to see more autistic adults - that aren’t androids or aliens. and i know that a lot of nd-coded characters have been reclaimed by the community, but you shouldn’t have your only neurodivergent character be nonhuman, that’s literally dehumanizing.

also? i hear too damn many allistics describing autistic people as “robotic” in movement, speech, or manner, and that’s so obnoxiously dehumanizing. knock it off. there’s nothing wrong with saying “flat affect” or “rigid movement”

stop with the “uwu soft baby” thing for autistic-coded teenage & adult characters, that’s so infantilizing. autistic people can and will do things that are bad or wrong, sometimes even intentionally! we are not stupid helpless babies who don’t understand anything.

i’ve been trying to figure out how to say this... it’s not uncommon for autism to effect the way we experience gender or attraction, but don’t be weird about it? being autistic does not mean we are innatey aromantic or asexual. this sort of goes hand in hand with infantalization and dehumanization in that people will sometimes portray autistics as “too stupid to understand sex or romance” or “too Intelligent (TM) to bother with sex or romance” which misrepresents both autism and asexuality & aromanticism.

i’m sure i’m forgetting things so i’m maintagging this so people can add on with things they’ve seen that particularly bother them in fiction or that they wish they say more of! ty for asking :)

[yatagarasu-writingtips]

Redemption arcs and Christian hegemony in fandom

Note: I originally had another half-written post delving into this topic. Then Tumblr went, “LOL! Fuck you!” and ate it. This is my second attempt.

As a fan of many characters deemed villains in their respective stories, redemption arcs are often a topic of discussion. Does this or that character deserve redemption? What makes for a satisfying redemption arc? Which redemption arcs work or don’t work?

However, it’s rare for me to come across a conversation that examines the concept of a redemption arc itself, let alone the forces that shape our understanding of what redemption means and how it works.

With that in mind, I’m going to see what I can do to crack open the assumptions behind redemption narratives and see what interesting alternatives present themselves.

Keep reading

[yatagarasu-writingtips]

1/2 i wanted to let you know that there is actually a shaelin and rachel cult-ish writing group called the garamond squad and we are deeply appreciative of you. currently we're at two members, not currently recruiting. both members (including me) are really inspired and we've both started new novels, short story collections, and i've even tried my hand at screenwriting. i found your channel and tumblr at a time that was really hard for me mental health-wise so you've been a real help for me.

2/2 anyway on to my question. as i said i'm working on a novel, which is why i wanted to ask you something. i don't think this is on your blog, your masterlist, or your channel (i checked), but i'd love to know how to appropriately represent aro people as an alloromantic person who is writing an aro character. i need to get the representation right as this character is bipoc representation, nonbinary rep, and (hopefully) positive aro rep. thanks and be sure to have a very good day!

I think @coffeeandcalligraphy would be very happy to know that our lifelong dream of starting a cult has been realized. 10/10 respect for not recruiting any members. Starting the cult of your dreams should NOT require social interaction (ew). 

Anyway, on to your question!

Main issues you might face with alloaro characters (characters who are aromantic but allosexual)

oversexualizing them or portraying them as promiscuous due to being alloaro

portraying them as ‘only caring about sex’ but not about connection with other people, or portraying them as taking advantage of characters they have sexual relationships with because they don’t feel the romantic attraction (basically, be careful not to treat them as predatory!)

portraying them as not able to have fulfilling or healthy sexual (or even romantic! many aro people do have romantic relationships) relationships 

not exploring what it means to feel sexual attraction but not romantic attraction, and treating the character as ‘essentially straight’ (many people try to invalidate the alloaro experience by treating it as a lesser queer identity, or saying things like ‘that’s just all men’ which is super harmful to both men and aro people)

portraying them as ‘lacking’ something essential or being broken

having them be fixed by a love interest

**i am not alloaro so can’t speak to this with authority, but these are common stereotypes I am aware of and have heard of from the community.

Issues you might face with aroace characters:

portraying them as lacking something essential or being broken

portraying them as unable to form meaningful bonds with people as a result of being aroace

portraying them as cold, emotionless, detached because of being aroace

not exploring what it means to not feel romantic and sexual attraction  in a society that sees this things as essential/mandatory/‘part of being human’

having them be fixed somehow

**For transparency, I don’t identify as aroace, but I do feel close to the aroace experience in many ways because I am ace and on the aromantic spectrum

Things you can do!

explore how being aro can make one feel alone/isolated/broken, especially before they know that it’s valid to be aromantic, but make sure that it’s clear that this is due to *societal ideas about sex and romance* and that the character themselves is not broken and there is nothing wrong with them. However, keep in mind that even when someone knows their aro identify is valid, this won’t necessarily make the struggle of dealing with societal pressures about romantic relationships go away, and this can still be hard to manage.

show them having meaningful non-romantic connections with others and how these relationships can be just as important

dismantle the hierarchy that places romantic relationships as the most important type 

if the character is cold or less emotional by nature, don’t connect this to their aro identity

show them connecting with characters of other queer identities, to show that the aro experience is a valid queer identity

research QPRs (queer platonic relationships) to see if this would be relevant for your story!

In your specific case, you have some very specific intersections between multiple identities to explore with this character, so put time and care into unpacking that. People of colour are often hyper-sexualized, so if your character is alloaro, this could compound with the fact that alloaro people are often misconstrued as being promiscuous, predatory, or only caring about sex. However, non-binary people are often de-sexualized or infantilized, which adds a whole other layer there. And, non-binary identities are often seen as “a white thing” (they! are! not!) so your character could possibly deal with a lot of people invalidating their experience based on the intersection of these multiple identities. 

There is a severe lack of good aromantic rep out there, so I wish you all the luck with this character!

[yatagarasu-writingtips]

writers:

break up your paragraphs. big paragraphs are scary, your readers will get scared

fuuuuck epithets. “the other man got up” “the taller woman sat down” “the blonde walked away” nahhh. call them by their names or rework the sentence. you can do so much better than this (exception: if the reader doesn’t know the character(s) you’re referring to yet, it’s a-okay to refer to them by an identifying trait)

blunette is not a thing

new speaker, new paragraph. please.

“said” is such a great word. use it. make sweet love to it. but don’t kill it

use “said” more than you use synonyms for it. that way the use of synonyms gets more exciting. getting a sudden description of how a character is saying something (screaming, mumbling, sighing) is more interesting that way.

if your summary says “I suck at summaries” or “story better than summary” you’re turning off the reader, my dude. your summary is supposed to be your hook. you gotta own it, just like you’re gonna own the story they’re about to read

follow long sentences w short ones and short ones w long ones. same goes for paragraphs

your writing is always better than you think it is. you just think it’s bad because the story’s always gonna be predicable to the one who’s writing it

i love u guys keep on trucking

[yatagarasu-writingtips]

advice for writing a stutterer from an actual stutterer;

okay no shade at all I just want all of u to learn and grow and become better writers! so here’s a handy tip list!

we don’t stutter on every word. okay, sometimes it can seem it, but honestly, we don’t, so leave a few words in there to give your readers some breathing room.

we stutter more on specific sounds. for me, f and s sounds are big ones. everyone has their thing and most stutterers have sounds that are harder to get out.

we don’t just stutter at the beginning of words and sentences. okay, honestly this is a big one for me. sometimes, a word starts off really well and goes down the drain at the second syllable! and the stutter doesn’t disappear once we’ve made it past the first word - it clings in there, so don’t forget it.

some of us don’t always stutter. some, not all, of us have what’s known as an anxious stutter, which generally comes alongside anxiety disorders. so, while it may be usually present, when a person with an anxious stutter is particularly comfortable with a situation, it tends to get better (or even almost disappear).

we don’t stutter when we swear. this is why some of us can stutter and stutter and stutter on a word and then shout fuck and everything’s cool. as far as science knows, this is because swearing is from a more primitive part of the brain, and so it bypasses the bit that makes us stutter! it’s so cool honestly.

we don’t stutter when we sing. the biggest two reasons for this one is 1) music comes from a different part of the brain to talking (language=left; music=right), and so it once again bypasses the stutter, or 2) ‘easy voice’, which is the voice that people sing in, is softer and smoother, and the sounds are longer so there’s less opportunity to stutter. either option is way cool but we don’t stutter when we sing.

sometimes, we give up on words. after a certain amount of stuttering on a certain word, you may see a stutterer take a deep breath and either try again, or replace it with a synonym. sometimes that word just won’t fit right in our mouths!

we hate it when people try to guess what we’re trying to say or try to speed us up. this might be a more personal thing for me, but there’s nothing I hate more than that clicky sound people make or the weird hand gestures or being told to “spit it out.” because we can’t control this shit and it gets tiring. it’s better just to let the person get it out and take their time with it, so when you’re writing, keep this in mind!

it gets worse when we’re anxious or stressed, and when we’re excited! I get really really stuttery when I’m enthusiastic about the topic of conversation, because I know so much about that thing that I try to talk really fast and my mouth can’t keep up! it’s the same when I’m anxious or stressed - when there’s more on our minds, the more everything gets a little muddled.

I hope this was helpful! feel free to add on and spread around!

[yatagarasu-writingtips]

[yatagarasu-writingtips]

Something I think people tend to get wrong with characters with self-esteem issues is that many times* it isn’t feeling bad for existing/feeling like you’re bad at everything every moment of time forever, consistently at a steady intensity.

*(of course depressive episodes/longstanding mental health issues etc. are a bit of an exception and those can last varying periods of time or be steady without seeking help)

Many times it can go unnoticed, ignored, or suppressed by the person who’s having the issue. Often if you grew up with it / self-esteem issues was a problem from an early age you assume it to be normal and right. That everyone feels like this. 

And if this gets reinforced by compliments about how humble you are or how easy you are to get along with or be around because you aren’t like all those other people (and someone gestures to the most cocky prick that everyone gets annoyed with) very quickly thinking of yourself as having nothing to offer or with little value becomes a “virtue” in your eyes. If you feel like a burden most of the time, might as well make other people at ease, right?

But past all of that--it can often be little things that make you notice how poorly you think of yourself. It can be being in a group/club/etc, and they’re asking volunteers to do something that you have a bit of experience in doing, but you don’t volunteer because you believe someone else certainly has more experience and can do it better--that you aren’t cut out for it. It’s applying to things, whether it be jobs, fan collaborations, pitching your idea in a business, pitching your book idea, game idea, etc. and preemptively deciding you probably won’t make it so better to not waste your time and let other people have the slot or take the opportunity. It can be hating that you have to dress up for some event because what’s the point, you don’t look or feel good and you’d rather everything be causal so you can more easily step into the shadows because again--there’s no way you’ll be as good as other people. It can be hating having to take your photo for whatever reason and thus avoiding doing so even at gatherings or special events because you know you’ll not like it no matter how many times you take it, so what’s the point? 

But during other times this person can feel pretty okay about themselves. Not that they’d shout it to the rooftops or consider themselves a pro at everything. But maybe do think there are a few select things they’re pretty proficient at and like that about themselves and feel content about their own sense of self--until something like the above paragraph challenges that.

Most often in media or writing you see a character do something small like dropping/breaking an object in front of another character, apologizing profusely, etc. and it’s played off like a gag and little quirk that doesn’t go away until another character gives 1 pep talk about “how important you are, don’t undershoot yourself” and then it either magically goes away for good, or it’s only brought up again for some quick feels and soft comfort scene.

Or of the self-esteem issue of the character literally becomes the only thing they are. They’re always babbling about how much of a burden they are (again largely as a gag or a way to make a love interest or whatever go soft and magically care about them and be the one to ‘fix them’). They don’t have other hobbies, interests, ups or downs. They are just constantly a self-conscious jittery panicky person and it comes off as a “look at this character!! Pity them or else!” and that’s all they are. People are more complicated than this. Yes, like onions people have layers.

|| All of this was a lot less well-organized than my usual posts, so apologies for that. This is a combination of things I’ve both experienced and watched other people experience, but remember not everyone acts or reacts the same to a specific scenario and be aware of that when writing. ||