Rise Up, Oh Heart, For There is Another Battle to Win

nikaalexandra:

the worst thing about writing is that you aren’t just a writer. you have to be a thousand things. a poet, a flirt, a weapons expert, a bleeding heart, a scholar, a legendary cook, a theorist, an engineer, a reckless teenage girl, a dying god. you have to be able to write monologues and speeches and heartfelt confessions, and you have to make them believable. writing is putting yourself into someone else’s shoes.

writing is really hard (◕︿◕✿)

(via clockwork-mockingbird)

For those of you who write military fics

bisexualdavidjacobs:

stephrc79:

eveanyn:

If you have never been in, or aren’t around people who’ve been in, I would dearly love to give you a few pointers.

Let me preface this: I love it when people write military fics (be they AU or canon-fic). I love the characterizations, the story arcs you create, and the love with which you create the stories.

But I’d like to help you make the actions of military personnel as accurate as possible, so someone who’s actually in doesn’t start to read your fic and roll their eyes at some of the things you unknowingly write.

-First off, you do not salute in civilian clothes. It’s actually unauthorized. There are only two exceptions to this rule: the President is allowed to salute in civvies, and if the national anthem is playing outdoors, combat veterans are now allowed to salute. (That came about in 2010, for accurate reference.)

-Do not salute indoors, unless during a formation (but I doubt people who don’t have intimate knowledge of drill and ceremony would bother writing about a formation, so that point is mostly just thrown in for shits and giggles). 

-The army and air force do not say, “sir, yes sir”. That’s a marine thing (I’m not sure about the navy, since I’m not in the navy, but I’m sure someone else could help out if there’s a question about it).

-Saying “black ops” isn’t really something we do. For the army, you’ve got SF (which is how we refer to special forces–the guys you’re probably thinking about (”green beret” is an old term for them that’s not really used anymore)) and Rangers for the two big special operations forces. SEALS are the navy force, and I apologize, but I don’t know the other branches’ special forces. Again, ask someone who’s served in that branch.

-People don’t usually refer to themselves (or others) by their ranks. Exceptions are usually made if hanging out with people from your unit speaking about a superior, such as “Yeah, LT and I were talking the other day and …”. 

-Sergeants are not referred to as “sarge”. You have no idea how many people got the shit smoked out of them in basic for that error.

-Army goes through Basic Training (or Basic Combat Training now; BCT for short), and marines go through Boot Camp. Yes, there is definitely a difference in terms. Army people tend to refer to their initial training as simply “basic”. I don’t know about marines or other branches.

-Calling someone “Soldier” is really something only done on TV/film. It’s usually mocked by people who are in.

-In the army, it is against regulation to just stick your hands in your pockets. We mockingly call them “Air Force gloves”, though I don’t know if they typically put their hands in their pockets. There is also a big stigma against wearing “snivel gear”: the poly pro cold-weather protection gear worn underneath your uniform.

-The everyday Army uniforms are called ACUs (Army Combat Uniform). They are never called anything else, but especially not fatigues. If you’re going back to 2003 or earlier, the uniform was BDUs, or the Battle Dress Uniform. The tan uniforms worn during the Gulf War and first few years of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF; Afghanistan) were called first chocolate chips (gulf war-era) and then DCUs (Desert Combat Uniform). 

-The dress uniform is called something different depending on what time period you’re going for. Saying “dress uniform” is usually a good bet, because you’ve also got Class A’s, Class B’s, ASUs, Dress Blues, Khakis, etc. 

-Typically when meeting someone else who’s in, the first things you ask are, “What’s your MOS (military occupational specialty–your job)? Where were you stationed?” Giving out rank and deployment backgrounds out of the blue don’t usually happen. 

-Time spent in the military is usually referred to as simply being “in”. “How long were you in for?” is heard way more often than “how long did you serve for?” That question is usually asked by civilians. 

-There are enlisted, and there are officers. Enlisted are those who start out as privates, work their way up through the NCO, or non-commissioned officer ranks: sergeant (called “buck sergeant” in a derogatory term for someone who has been freshly promoted), staff sergeant, sergeant first class, and eventually get to first sergeants and sergeants major after fifteen to thirty years in. Officers also usually start out as privates and specialists, then graduate from college and commission as second lieutenants (the derogatory term is “butter bar” and is usually used in reference to said officer’s lack of experience and knowledge) before working up to first lieutenant, captain, major, lieutenant colonel (”light colonel”), and colonel (”full bird”). The general timeline is making captain (”getting your railroad tracks”) after about 5-8 years for competent officers, and spending 5-10 years as a captain. 

-We do not stand at parade rest unless forced. Ever.

-Or at attention.

-When talking to an NCO, a lower enlisted will stand at parade rest. When talking to an officer, an enlisted will stand at attention.

-The highest ranking NCO is lower ranking than the lowest ranking officer. 

-If you want to throw in some humor, if there is a lower enlisted (E-4 (specialist) or below) joking with an NCO, and the lower enlisted says something, the NCO can snark back with, “I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you because you weren’t standing at the position of parade rest.” It’s a dick move usually to call people out for that, but it happens often enough that if you put that in a fic, someone who’s in will likely laugh at that for a few minutes.

-There is a term for a slacker in the army called POG (pronounced “pohg” with a long o). It stands for Personnel Other than Grunt, meaning everyone who’s not infantry. The term has transformed to mean anyone who shirks their duty or is kind of a shitbag and should be kicked out. 

 -There’s also a bit of a stereotype that infantry are made up of dumb guys, because you don’t need a high GT score to get that MOS. Their nomenclature for their MOS is 11B (eleven bravo), which is often referred to as an “eleven bang-bang” when trying to insult them. 

-If someone is making someone else do push-ups, they do not say “drop and give me x number”. They’ll tell them either to push, or tell them to get in the front-leaning rest. The front-leaning rest position is the starting position for the push-up. 

-Usually referring to basic training and AIT (advanced individual training, where you learn your military occupational specialty), you get “smoked” on a regular basis. This refers to PT (physical training), usually in the form of push-ups, flutter kicks, and sprints. It’s not fun. One of the least favorite phrases to hear in basic is, “Platoon, attention! Half-left face! Front leaning rest position, move. In cadence! Exercise!” Because that is the full command for getting people to do push-ups. There is literally no other reason for the half-left face movement. It honestly exists only for push-ups.

-It is awkward as fuck to be told “thank you for your service”. It’s wonderful that people want to show their support, but it is very difficult to respond to that without sounding like a douche.

I know I said a lot about basic training in there, but that’s because I tend to read a lot of fics that are either about basic or about deployments. I can give some pretty firm answers on basic, but everyone’s deployment is different, and I also could be violating a shit-ton of OPSEC (operation security) by telling you guys specific details about deployments. Everything I’ve told you is information you can look up on your own on the internet, but this is a bit more insider’s culture for you to help make your stuff more accurate.

And if you ever find yourself writing a military fic and have questions, by all means, inbox me. I’ve been in for almost nine years and I do have one deployment under my belt, so I can give you accurate army info. I’ve never served in any other branch, though, but I can probably give you a little bit more accurate info than what the movies do if you’ve got general questions.

Also, if you’ve got questions about PTSD, I can help with that. It’s not the cake walk that a good deal of fics portray it as, and it doesn’t always involve nightmares and aversion to touch. It can present as depression, intense anger issues, pulling away from loved ones, driving in the middle of the road, freaking out over pops, bangs, crashes and other unexpected noises, being easily startled by things other than noises, hypervigilance, the inability to sit with one’s back to the room, sudden bouts of anger, depression, tears, silence, or mood swings, among many others.

-Also, please, please, if you’re going to write about someone with a disability, or something that gave them a medical discharge, talk to me about the VA first, unless you’ve got a lot of knowledge about them. Not only am I in, but I’ve also worked professionally for the VA, some of that time in enrollment and eligibility, so I know a lot about disability pensions, who would qualify, what type of benefits they would qualify for, etc. I also know the ways that people can accidentally get screwed over from the VA. (It’s actually one of my long-term professional goals to change some of those things, so I am very passionate and very knowledgeable about it.)

TL;DR: I know shit about the military and the VA. Ask me if you have accuracy questions.

This is AMAZING. Thank you,. OP!

Thank you for offering up this info! It’s honestly where I end up hitting a wall a lot of the time.

(via bronzedragon)

Anonymous asked: I've been trying to write a Deaf character but my dialogue is coming out kind of ... flat. Should I use "said" or "signed" when I'm attributing the dialogue to the Deaf character? How do you even describe someone's tone if they're not speaking? Do hands even have a tone? Help????

deafcecil:

Hey anon! So, let’s go over some tips for writing Deaf and Hard of Hearing characters, shall we?

Said or Signed?

Either! “Said” is one of those words that readers don’t even notice, which is a good thing. You know when you’re reading and everything is “moaned Kate” “uttered Chance” “grumbled Lacie”? That’s annoying, and every writing blog will telly you to use those words sparingly. “Said” is just from the verb “to say,” which doesn’t specify whether you’re speaking or signing. Using “signed” can be really useful, especially when you have hearing characters along with the Deaf character. A hearing character may sign something when the Deaf person is in the room, but speak something when they leave, or the Deaf character may use spoken language primarily but sometimes sign. Don’t overuse “signed” though, because that can be just as distracting as “grumbled.” If your Deaf character is signing, you can just say “Alex said.”

ASL Tone

Yes, inflection and tone do exist in ASL! I love it so much it’s so awesome ok here we go.

Facial expressions are used for grammar in ASL for some signs, but are also used for tone. You can easily tell if someone’s angry by their facial expressions, and Deaf people are no exception.

Also, you’ll DEAFinitely (I’m so hilarious) be able to tell someone’s tone by their hand movements. I knew it was possible to yell in ASL, but I didn’t really know how until I was talking about an episode of Grey’s Anatomy with my ASL professor, and it went somewhat like this.

Me: Remember last class, when you told us about that Grey’s Anatomy episode with Deaf characters?

Shannon: Yeah, that was such a good episode! Did you watch it?

Me: I did, it was so good!

Shannon: IT WAS SO GOOD I WAS SO EXCITED APRIL PAYS SO MUCH ATTENTION TO WHAT THE DEAF COMMUNITY ACTUALLY WANTS AND JACKSON IS A JERK

Shannon really yelled, and there was no question about it. Her face absolutely lit up, eyes wide, beaming smile about to crack her face in half, and she actually leaned into her signing with her whole body. When she was praising April, she leaned forward. During the transition to her next point, she sort of returned to leaning back normally. When judging Jackson, she leaned forward again on the word “jerk.” Her signing was still very legible but it was forceful, flowing very smooth and fast. The stress was really put on “pays attention” because that was praise and it was very important, and she really snapped the sign “jerk” and gave it a negative, sharp tone. 

In short: yes, signers do very much have tones and inflections – they’re just not communicated via voice. Actually, sometimes they are; my Deaf camp counselor vocalized some signs when she got really excited (which was all the time). She didn’t speak, but she did vocalize a bit.

Writing ASL Grammar

Please please please do not write in ASL gloss!!!!!!!! ASL gloss, if you don’t know, is pretty much a written English form of ASL. If I was to sign “I went to the store yesterday,” the gloss version would be YESTERDAY STORE I GO. That is not something you’re going to want your readers to sift through, as it is neither English nor ASL anymore. It’s jarring to read. Don’t use the grammar of ASL while you’re writing in English. Also, because ASL has expressions that English does not, people may get confused (I highly doubt a non-signer would understand when a Deaf character gets in a sticky situation and the dialog reads “DO-DO-DO”).

Writing A Non-Signer/Beginning Signer

If you’ve got a character who is hearing/raised orally/LDA (Late Deafened Adult) or for whatever other reason is learning ASL later in life and is trying to use it, they’re probably going to get a little stuck. It happens! But how do you write that?

The answer is still not to gloss it. You can use other tips and tricks to make the reader understand that this character is grasping for the right word or expression, or just has completely blanked out! Just remember not to overuse ellipses.

Writing Deaf Characters Interacting

Really, if you’re writing any Deaf/HoH character, it’s important that you are knowledgeable about Deaf culture, mannerisms, etc. Deaf culture is very different from hearing culture. For instance, Deaf people share a lot more information than hearing people do. If a hearing person is late to a meeting, they’ll just say “Sorry I’m late, car trouble.” A Deaf person will say “Sorry I’m late, my car made this weird knocking feeling and then totally died on the highway! I had to call Triple A – what a hassle with VRS, right? – and it took an hour for them to come!”

Another example is my relationship with one of my Deaf professors. Most hearing student/professor relationships are very professional with not a lot of (if any) friend elements. Our relationship is very professional, but she emails me links to articles she thinks I might like, rec’d me a movie about a transgender porn star, and told the entire class the story of her first period. Information sharing is very important in Deaf culture, and conversations within that culture will look different than similar conversations between members of hearing culture.

Also, be sure you’re not having Deaf characters facing away from each other when they’re chatting, or in different rooms. With hearing characters, they can chat while doing the dishes or shout from upstairs to someone downstairs. Deaf characters can still do the dishes and sign at the same time, but it just has different dynamics. Like hearing people can talk with their mouth full, it’s possible to multitask with hand use. Just remember what your characters are up to when it’s time for dialog; if someone’s still in the bathroom with the door shut, now is not the time to ask him where he wants to go to dinner tonight. 

All in all, just remember that Deaf people have the same conversations hearing people do – we still talk about how shitty our jobs are and how hot it is outside. We just sign about it. And just like two hearing people are going to have difficulty having a spoken conversation from across a football field, two Deaf characters are going to have difficulty having a signed conversation if someone’s glasses are off or if someone’s juggling their coworkers’ coffees in one hand while fishing for their car keys in the other.

necessaryocthings:

who are your most and least anxious ocs?

(via cthulhu-with-a-fez)

stardusted:

kurosmind:

tbird2290:

milkteaghost:

Imagine a villain getting injured and losing their memory and the heroes finding them and taking them with them and taking care of them and the villain gets their memory back after like a week but doesn’t want to say anything because the heroes are being so nice to them and nobody has been that nice to them in so long and they don’t want it to end and they’re maybe getting fond of the heroes but don’t tell anyone shhh. But eventually something happens and the heroes are in trouble and they’re trying to get the villain to run away because they still think they’re an amnesiac with no idea how to defend themself and they’ve grown to like them and don’t want them to get hurt but the villain just pushes past them toward whatever is trying to hurt the heroes and just fuckin goes guns blazing and destroys them

Well damn

I need this in my life

@joons this sounds like something you would write??

(via clockwork-mockingbird)

Traditional Celtic marriage vows, better than anything I’ve ever heard:

shrineart:

merlins-total-turnip-head:

You cannot possess me for I belong to myself
But while we both wish it, I give you that which is mine to give
You cannot command me, for I am a free person
But I shall serve you in those ways you require
and the honeycomb will taste sweeter coming from my hand.

But there’s more of it?

I pledge to you that yours will be the name I cry aloud in the night.
And the eyes into which I smile in the morning.
I pledge to you the first bite from my meat,
And the first drink from my cup.
I pledge to you my living and dying, equally in your care,
And tell no strangers our grievances.
This is my wedding vow to you.
This is a marriage of equals.

(via cthulhu-with-a-fez)