🗣 DIVERSITY IS NOT SAMENESS.

Questions to ask yourself when writing an Autistic character

In media, canonically autistic characters are commonly portrayed as false stereotypes about autism, or they convey false/outdated information.

For anyone writing an autistic character, there should be many questions to ask about that character. As someone who has ASD, I really like to see well written autistic characters. Here I have compiled some questions that I use when starting a new character. I have also included links on terms that may be unfamiliar for those just starting out. This list is just a handful of questions, so make sure to continue researching.

General

1. How and/or when were they diagnosed as Autistic?

2. Do they view their autism as a disability? Why or why not?

3. What are some things they like and/or dislike about being autistic?

Support Needs

4. What are their support needs?

5. Do they struggle with executive dysfunction?

6. What kind of tasks are difficult for them?

7. What kind of tasks are they really good at?

8. What kind of accommodations do they have? (Specifically in a school or work environment)

Communication

9. What are their speech habits? Are they fully-verbal, semi-verbal, non-verbal, or does it vary?

10. Do they use echolalia and/or palilalia to communicate?

11. Do they use echopraxia to communicate?

12. Do they use AAC to communicate? If so, which type(s)?

Associated Conditions

13. Do they have/struggle with any kind of agnosia(s)?

14. Do they have/struggle with Alexithymia?

15. Do they have any other common or associated conditions?

Sensory and Stimming

16. Are they a sensory-seeker or sensory-avoidant?

17. What sensations do they like?

18. What sensations do they hate?

19. Describe a place that would be sensory-heaven for this character

20. Describe a place that would be sensory-hell for this character

21. What do they do to stim? Favorite stims? Least favorite stims?

22. Do they use echolalia, echopraxia, etc. for stimming?

Overload, Meltdown, Shutdown & Burnout

23. What puts this character into sensory overload?

24. What are meltdowns like for them? (What are signs a meltdown is starting? Do they seek or avoid comfort? How do they recover?)

25. What are shutdowns* like for them? (What are signs a shutdown is starting? Do they seek or avoid comfort? How do they recover?)

26. What is autistic burnout like for them? (What are signs burnout is coming? How long does it last? What kinds of support do they need? How do they recover?)

Special Interests

27. What are their special interests?

28. What kinds of topics can they infodump about?

Social

29. Does their family know? Are they supportive?

30. Do their friends know? Are they supportive?

31. What aspects of socializing are hard for them?

32. Are they very aware of their social difficulties (i.e. anxious and shy about socializing in fear of messing up) or are they less sensitive to their difficulties (i.e. unafraid/unaware of social mistakes, feels no anxiety to socialize)

*This link should take you to a playlist of videos that covers a lot of the topics talked about in this list. I highly recommend watching them!

Thank you for sticking it out to the end. I hope this helps!

A Comic Sans Intro for my WIP Murder on the Starship

(images made using this picrew)

a couple of bonus memes under the cut:

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Good friend, Charles, please do add me to the taglist if there is one <333

Someone: You can’t just abandon the main story to write angst-ridden fluff and a bonding subplot!

Me: 

http://chng.it/2TrMRPgFjS

We need to do more than sign a petition. Don't shut up about this.

Hey, followers?

Don't scroll past this.

There are people in the notes saying this isn’t a gassing and it’s “just” a disinfectan0 being sprayed on surfaces to avoid covid, and people are “just” having allergic reactions to it

https://dandymeowth.tumblr.com/post/619934243092561920/your-url-is-problematic-odddior-i-know

That post explains better what this chemical is and what is going on.

“The guards are spraying this disinfectant in retaliation for the report [that revealed the deplorable health conditions in detention centers]. To be clear - HDQ is an industrial-strength disinfectant, which according to the manufacturer is “harmful if inhaled” and “causes severe skin burns and serious eye damage.” The guards are spraying it on everything every 15-30 minutes, according to sources, and immigrants in the center have already experienced severe symptoms including blisters, rashes, bleeding, fainting, breathing difficulties, headaches, stomach pain, and nausea. “

It’s not just allergic reactions. That’s a severe misunderstanding of what disinfectants do and a refusal to acknowledge how serious this is and WHY people are freaking out.

No, they’re not literally being gassed in the grandiose (gore-iose?) way you’d think of - being shoved into an iron chamber like animals that then is filled with gas that melts their skin... But they are still being forced to into small areas with harmful fumes and surfaces covered in chemicals that are made to eat living matter.

If you had to be in a room for days and weeks with bleach or peroxide all over everything, you don’t need to be allergic to start having severe reactions. Cleaning chemicals say to use protective gear and ventilate the area for a REASON.

This is really not okay. It wasn’t okay before, and now it’s worse than it was.

I work as a university custodian. This is the chemical we’re using to sanitize surfaces we’ve cleaned due to coronavirus. We’re not supposed to spray it directly on any surfaces. We spray it onto a cloth and then wipe surfaces with it. It’s supposed to dry before people come into contact with those surfaces. Once it dries on water fountains it’s rinsed off (I don’t know if it actually does anything to rinse it off when it’s already dried but that’s the procedure - we have to let it dry to make sure it’s had enough time to kill virus particles). That’s in university buildings with extra ventilation that are sanitized twice a day. This is horrifying.

turkey and azerbaijan are attacking armenia right now, and it’s 1915 all over again because the world is distracted and people are too busy wondering if they’re gonna live or die, and who gives a shit about my country anyway? my mum told me to tell my friends and explain to them what’s happening and that we are the victims in this war because azerbaijan is spreading lies and people are believing their lies and i told her, what good is that going to do? do you think anyone’s going to come to our aid? is russia going to help us? is america? is england? erdogan said they will finish what their ancestors started, and he means genocide. he means ethnic cleansing. he means to massacre every last one of us. and in doing so admitted to the very same thing turkey has spent 105 years denying. i don’t know who to tell and what good telling people will do because we’re a small, insignificant country, and we have nothing to offer to the people in power, the handful who rule the world. so i sit here with my pain and i feel helpless. i know there’s twitter threads and links to petitions and people being urged to contact their senators, and sorry if im being pessimistic, but azerbaijan has been attacking us for the last 22 years, and though we defend ourselves, we can’t do anything to stop them. they’ve violated ceasefires (and geneva conventions) multiple times. i don’t think they’ll rest until every last one of us is dead.

we just want peace. we just want to live peacefully. we’re not asking for a lot here.

hey either reblog this or unfollow me

Watching this happen I’ve been so scared there is going to be another genocide and nobody would notice. My whole life I’ve hated how forgettable armenian people seem to be to the world. Protect armenian people or rot, please don’t turn a blind eye to us again. And same as above, reblog or unfollow.

here are some cold hard facts for those interested:

1. after losing the war in 1994, the az government spent the next nearly 30 years on a) dehumanizing armenians, b) blaming armenians and losing the war for the terrible socioeconomic state of the people in this oil-rich country while president and his family steal all of the money their oil produces, c) pushing armenophobic propaganda on the population since kindergarten age, d) oppressing and humiliating the other ethnic minorities living on its territories, e) regularly violating the ceasefire of 1994 whenever the internal situation get tense and the ppl get angry, f) selectively sending the youths of said ethnic minorities to the bloodiest parts of the frontline whenever said ceasefire violations happen, g) suppressing free speech, arresting journalists, harassing and threatening those who dare to voice their discontent, etc.

2. in early 1920s, josef stalin, in order to appease the new turkish “republic” and its leader ataturk, with the hopes of using turkey as the base for spreading the communist revolution further into asia, passed artsakh (also known as nagorno karabagh) with its 95% ethnic armenian population onto the new created turkic azerbaijan republic (a country that did not exist before 1918, that’s what newly created means), despite the opposition from the people of the region in question and the republic of armenia.

3. during the 70 or so years that artsakh was part of the azerbaijan republic as an autonomous region, the gov of azerbaijan did everything they could to a) suppress the development of the region, b) change the demographic of the region by moving turkic population to artsakh

4. in 1980s, the people of artsakh, utilizing their rights stipulated in the soviet constitution, petitioned both moscow and baku to be allowed to reunite with armenia. as a response to this, the azerbaijan government started large-scale repressions against the organizers and activists of the reunification movement. arrests on made up charges, threats and violence followed (more info on all that in the link provided below)

5. the people of artsakh then held a referendum as was their right under soviet constitution, and more than 90% of it’s population voted in favor of seceding from the azerbaijan republic. the response to this were the anti-armenian pogroms in baku and sumgait ( https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-01-18-mn-305-story.html)

6. all this grew into the first artsakh war, which azerbaijan lost, as mentioned in point 1.

to sum it up: artsakh was never a part of the independent azerbaijan republic, during it’s brief 70-year forced az control its indigenous armenian people were oppressed via various government policies, the people of artsakh deserve to live a free and happy life in their homeland, free of threats and fear of annihilation that is sure to happen if azerbaijan takes control of the region

to them, it’s just a territory and they want that territory without the people.

for further reading, check out this comprehensive timeline of the artsakh history up to 2017( when it was written)

https://www.evnreport.com/spotlight-karabakh/spotlight-karabakh

then, this: on what actually happens to armenian lands and cultural heritage when it’s in azerbaijani hands

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2019-11-07/armenian-monuments-azerbaijan

while you are at it, read up on the armenian genocide and keep in mind that turkey, specifically for this war, moved syrian jihadists to azerbaijan to fight against armenia and artsakh. read up on the kind of internationally banned ammunition azerbaijan has been using against the civilians in artsakh capital, and then maybe make your judgement.

oh, and if anyone tries to frame this as an islam vs christianity thing, send them to hell, regardless of the side they claim to support, bc this isn’t it.

I reblogged a post about this yesterday, but is there something we can do other than spreading awareness?

spreading awareness is HUGE because azeris are spreading lies (mainly on twitter bc apparently thats the only social media they’re allowed to use atm? i haven’t verified this but it checks out with the dictator in powet lol) and it’s really really really important for us to counter their lies with FACTS. like there’s far few of us and we don’t have any bots lmao so it’s really hard to get people to listen to us.

cardi b apparently made a post about it, talking about how there’s a genocide going on in armenia, and azeris started harassing her so she sort of backtracked and said something like “i didn’t know there was two sides to this” and like it’s not the only person they’ve done this to!

this video on twitter actually explains their tactics (the girl in the video is basically translating azeri post) how they target people who speak out in support of armenia and make them rescind their support.

so yeah. it’s important for us to fight against the misinformation. and i think i have no respect for any armenian person who chooses to not engage because the internet is our battlefield. this is where we fight because it’s the least we can do. (note i said armenian person, because i don’t think its fair to ask this of people who don’t have a personal stake in this war).

you can also donate here: himnadram.org

terfs do not interact

update: genocide watch has declared emergency in Artsakh, placing azerbaijan at stage 9 (extermination) and stage 10 (denial)

when we say we are being threatened by genocide, we are not exaggerating

source: genocidewatch.com

System of a Down just released 2 new songs, their first new music in 15 years, to raise money for the Armenia Fund. Go to their Facebook page or https://systemofadown.bandcamp.com/ to purchase the songs for a donation as little as $2 USD or more of your choice

Reblogging again because this is pretty serious business and awareness is important.

I’d wear these baroque porcelain corsets in battle 🗡

do any of us WANT to write a novel for nanowrimo or do we just want to disguise the crushing anxiety of november with an insane goal that we can blame for our stress levels

the fact that this is getting a sudden burst of notes on october 31st says a LOT about y’all

Tocktick Extract - Sixsmith’s Escape by ResidentoftheDisc/H.M

@queer-crusader @rebelqueen-immortalbadass @cogesque @fields-of-ink @dragonstoravens @radioactive-tiefling

Seeing a lot of new faces around Writeblr...

So the anxious, overprotective parent in me feels the need to drop a dime.

I cannot say this strongly enough: PROTECT YOUR WORK. Don’t rely on anyone else, or common decency, to do this for you. There is an entire branch of legal practice devoted to arguing about intellectual property (frequently short-handed as IP) rights. If there’s an entire branch of legal practice devoted to arguing about a thing, it means that it’s important (and often, that there’s big money at stake).

A few good strategies to protect your work/IP:

1) KNOW YOUR PLATFORM. Every platform has different rules. Some have more robust IP protection than others. Here are Tumblr’s:

HOWEVER (AND THIS IS IMPORTANT!!): other platforms do not necessarily have the same protections. I regret to say that I have personal experience with this as far as Discord and other DM services go; DM services have almost no protection, even with date/time stamps, while most blogs have protections akin to Tumblr.

2) Put all of your OC–art, writing, whatever–under a Read More tag. This ensures that if you ever choose to delete it, it really disappears from Tumblr, because even people’s reblogs won’t have the text–only a link to an abandoned page.

3) Limit how much OC you share. I know, this is Writeblr, sharing is kind of the point. What I mean is, don’t share long, continuous chunks of text. I’ve learned over time to keep it to 1-2 pages (~300-800 words).

4) This one is a kick in the head, and I’m sorry: there are people who have no qualms or scruples about stealing the hard work of others. The law of averages dictates that some of them are on Writeblr. My life experience outside of Writeblr tells me that wolves wear sheep’s clothing, and I see no reason to expect that would be any different here.

Be safe, my darling creators.

This is really so very important and so good of you to share, @typewriter-jade

Unfortunately all of the above is very true and the advice shared is probably the best advice you’ll get for keeping your stuff as safe as possible.

Please do take the time to ensure that you work out a plan for how you want to share your writing. It took me a while to find a process / plan that works for me and makes me feel comfortable about sharing my writing. 

That readmore tip is excellent!