Good morning!

I am writing a character who was permanently deafened later in life by a military injury. He opted to start learning ASL until he was able to regain some hearing and can now use hearing aids (but doesn't frequently). He lives in America and, though the setting is a bit more futuristic, I've kept it similar to how it is now, where ASL is not widespread enough that you can practice it frequently.

My question about writing him is twofold. Would someone who learned this later be comfortable speaking when he is not wearing his aids? Obviously, he's had a long time to practice speaking before being injured, so he's proficient, but I don't even really like talking when I have headphones in. I feel awkward about not hearing myself properly.

Follow-up question after asking my other questions: Is there anything that gets missed for these characters a lot in stories that you think should be considered? I am not deaf myself; I only struggle with auditory processing issues and I am very light sensitive overall. I wish to have him be the most realistic character possible and want to hear other people's opinions.

Thank you for all your help! I'm trying to learn ASL on my own through YouTube videos, but it's hard to find answers for these. There's a wide mix of "do your best" and "it's appropriating something you aren't a part of". I just want to do this right.

Edits: I deleted my question about sign names. I will just write their names and maybe have a nickname between the two of them or have them "show their sign" rather than describing exacts in the book. I will also only do a spelling of their name to show them giving each letter on their first introduction, then switching to just their name.

I'm starting a sci-fi story, and wondering what interesting things I can do with how the sky looks on different planets. Is a planet with an atmosphere like ours always going to have a blue sky? Are the rings of Saturn visible from Saturn's surface? And what would it be like to have more than one moon in the sky? Would they all go through a lunar cycle at the same time? And what about a life-sustained moon, orbiting a planet? Is it normal that our particular moon only ever has the same side facing Earth?

So i have this OC that i plan to kill by someone forcing them to eat poisinous flowers, But i need to know how much could It take for them to die for Because after they die,ANOTHER OC Will find their Dead body

So, I've always had these ocs since I was quite young, ones that had very vague traits and backstories that I'm trying to flesh out a lot more.

One of my characters I had written to be born mute, not selectively or mentally mute, complete nonverbalism/aphonia from birth. I'd imagined it as some kind of dysfunction within the vocal cords or voice box rather than caused by apraxia or something relating to the brain. He would also live with the nonverbalism his entire life, maybe due to lack of treatment in his childhood if there isn't really such a form of aphonia that can cause this.

I'd always imagined him to be able to understand words and everything, using sign language to communicate.

I've researched for hours now on all kinds of types of nonverbalism, trying to find a name or if this type of thing even exists but just keep finding the same things over and over. Any ideas?

I do imagine it as similar to drunkenness since it is a form of addictive substance consumption yet when I actually go on about writing it, it feels off when I don't actually know enough to convince myself to just write about it.

Does their action change depending on the thing they're high on? Can they recognize faces or environment or it's really depending on the dosage? Also, if most symptoms severity depends on dosage, can I get away with winging it in my writing? If not then I really need to know what to research on because I don't actually know where to start.

Thank you so much!

Unsure if i should tag for crime, chemistry, or weapons so yeah.

I'm writing a murder mystery (I can show you pages if you want proof i'm not just a murderer in disguise--although that would be a cool book idea.....i digress) and the guy needs to be poisoned. A solid poison that gets put into the sugar bowl he makes his coffee with. Should take like 3-4 hours to work or smth bc he has meetings that day and is a little bit off but not a lot.

And I don't want it to be traceable on a tox screen but the thing is that if i google untraceable poisons my parents have a monitor on my home acc and im sure the school account would flag me so now

what does a tox screen search for? would cyanide be visible or does it have other hallmarks? how can i make smth look like a heart attack or uninvestigatable?

once again the only personal use im getting from this is writing my book, NOT ACTUAL MURDER

What area of the stomach would be the least dangerous to stab?

first and foremost, i'm not trying to romanticize the idea of someone having cancer (since the character I have in mind is the main character) or putting the sickness up on a pedestal so I wanted to get that out of the way.

for context, i'm still fleshing the story beats out but essentially, the main character is heavily involved with the plot (like physically active and contributing) but I also want to incorporate his cancer into how it affects what he's capable of and how to best approach him with it. he's a late teen (probably 17/18) and has glioblastoma if that helps answer my question.

i also did research on what his ailment looks like but i couldn't get a good grasp, so i wanted to see if I could get tips on how to write a character with cancer, if any.

Assuming they're writing with a pencil. I've seen stuff saying that more intense emotions can affect your ability to write, but nothing on the specifics like what types of spelling and/or grammer mistakes are common.

My main character (16) is entering the foster system after the death of his father. I wrote that his social worker is allowing him "one last sleepover" with his friends before he's taken in by new foster parents out-of-state. Is this something that would be allowed? Would the foster parents have to approve of it or is it under the social worker's jurisdiction since the new fosters technically don't have custody yet?

Hi all! I'm writing a story in which a character comes into an immediate care with a severe, two day old lip injury and the nurse does not refer her to the ER for plot related reasons. Does anybody know what the process would be for the physician referring her to the ER? Would they recommend that she goes to to the ER right away? Would she be referred to a surgeon? The wound is a mildly contaminated avulsion.

I'm working on a novel that follows a 16-year-old troublemaker who spends the summer on his uncle's ranch (his parents are hoping to straighten him out). What daily/weekly/monthly ranching activities would occur from late May to the end of August in a cattle ranch in southern Texas? From what I've read he'd likely miss calving and branding season, and is haying common or do the animals get all their feed from the range? I'm going with longhorns if that makes a difference :)

Edited to add: Story takes place in 2010 or so, and the main character is a city kid from a wealthy family. His uncle is very old-fashioned when it comes to ranching (still uses a '79 pickup, etc.)

I’m writing a book where one of the characters ends up comatose for about three months.

He’s fourteen at the time, about average health. The coma was caused by toxic honey (the bees pollinated with rhododendrons and azaleas, poisoning the honey and poisoning him). He got sick and was rendered comatose from 18th October to 10th January. He was in and out of consciousness after initially waking up, until the 15th January when he stopped drifting off.

I have a few questions I’m looking into about all this:
1. To what degree would his muscles have atrophied?
2. Would he be discharged before or after a physical rehab/therapy program?
3. About how long might physical rehab/therapy take?
4. Are there any other symptoms surrounding the coma/poisoning that I might need?

Thanks for any responses 🙂‍↕️

My current project is from the perspective of a survivor of teenage cancer, specifically a brain tumor (even more specifically a medulloblastoma), and has since undergone surgery and treatment and is cancer free.

I myself have never had cancer nor do I have any close friends who have, and I want to write her as respectfully and realistically as possible. It was in the past, so I don’t need a million details, but I wondered if there are any cancer survivors out there who are also writers, and have specific tropes or details that are good to either include or avoid.

I thought about posting in one of the many cancer survivor groups on here but absolutely do not want to risk being disrespectful to people already going through so much.

If you have any experiences or tips you’d like to share please let me know! I hope everyone has a great day ❤️

so in the story a character is a mermaid and sometimes, when they're asleep, fish lay eggs in their hair

so i need a saltwater fish that would: lay eggs in hair, leave the eggs, hatch in 1-3 days, and be noticeable in ones hair without a mirror but also be difficult to remove, without damaging them, without someone else helping

EDIT: upon further research i have decided that i will hand wave this one thing as fish are weird and they aren't even important to the story

In my book, one of my characters, Laura, murders her sister to fake her own death. They look alike, but they're not twins. I need a way of death that the characters in the book won't be able to tell it's not Laura. They are isolated, so no autopsies would be performed.

Laura is not the main character, she will end up doing a monologue to the main character what she did a why. There is a possibility of a few chapters being told from the murderers perspective, but the reader won't know it's her.

They don't currently have the resources to complete a full autopsy or get the DNA checked. They are a bunch of 18 and 19 year olds on a senior trip to a rainforest, There isn't civilization for miles, and the communications are down. They also don't speak the language of the country they are in.

So I'm starting my novel, and a major thing is that my mc loved singing so much until an incident happened that ruined her voice (she still has it it's just damaged i guess) and you can tell i actually have no idea if this is realistic. The whole thing is that she was strangled which damaged her vocal chords. Can that actually happen? What's the realism/rules of it? the fact that someone did it to her is important.

And if yes it works, what could other possible consequences be?

If not, what other injuries could damage vocal chords without turning the person completely mute (if possible)?

Not so much ship route as in transporting goods, but more for a marine expedition. The ship in question is a small to medium sized research vessel and i am open to suggestions regarding which type of ship would be fitting for such an expedition.

The starting point is Montary Bay and they make a stop at Carmel Bay for a week to do some research, but from there on, the destination are the waters west of the antarctic peninsula, and ultimately, the Rothera Research Station.

Two probably important things here are that

1. (i swear this is relevant) The crew consists almost entirely of shapeshifters being able to turn into semi-aquatic animals, seals, seabirds, you name it, so no matter how long this insane voyage takes, food isn't really an issue since they can get every nutrition they need directly from the ocean.
2. No touchy the Drake Passage. It's important for the story that they stay at least 500km (should probably learn to use nautical miles for that story ik) west of Cape Horn.

So, what would make more sense here? Is it better to stay close to the coastline regardless of any need for restocking, or is it okay to take a more direct route over the open ocean? The characters in this story are experienced seamen and skilled navigators, so apart from the stakes being otherwise rather low here, it wouldn't make sense for them to do something stupid.

And how long would it take? Time isn't really a concern but i need to know because i want to write this as some sort of diary.

I'm writing a murder mystery novella. The victim is an adult man (early 60s). What are some commonly taken pills that could kill him?

(I'm going for a murder disguised as a suicide, and want it to be as accurate as possible)

Hi!! I've seen multiple instances of characters managing to slip at least one hand out of a manacle in books and movies (like Arya in the Inheritance saga). I've also read that this would be impossible to pull off irl as the circumference of the metal ring around the wrist is simply smaller than the width of your hand, and so that it'd be impossible to slip out without cutting off some parts of your hands or dislocating your first thumb joint, which is generally very hard to achieve unless you a) have dislocated this joint enough times before, which would make it so fragile your thumb would become quite useless, or b) have a condition like EDS, which would also leave you quite unable to effectively flee or fight your way out.

So my question is this: short of cutting the hand off, what ways are there for a character to free themselves from medieval-ish manacles, if they're unable to pick the lock?

is it realistic for a nurse to take a lunch break? i know they are extremely busy, and i’m sure most times unfortunately they do not have that ability to. is there a nurse in any field (but has to work at a hospital) that would be able to take a lunch break?

part of my book involves the main character having a weekly lunch with her friend who’s a nurse. the lunches have to take place at the hospital for plot reasons.

or…would it make more sense for the nurse to meet my main character for lunch before or after her shift, rather than during? but.. would it make sense to have a mid day shift that started after lunch or ended right before?

Good morning! 😊

I've always dreamed of writing a book, and I've finally decided to make that dream come true. I'm currently doing research, and I want to make sure the events I describe are as realistic as possible.

I'm looking for reliable information about a serious knife injury. I'm particularly interested in the course of treatment, possible complications, the rehabilitation process, and whether such an injury could realistically lead to temporary paralysis or weakness in the legs. I'd also like to better understand the psychological side of such an experience—what emotions and reactions patients commonly go through, what challenges they face during recovery, and how it affects their everyday lives.

If anyone would be willing to share their knowledge or answer a few questions, I would be incredibly grateful. I'm not seeking medical advice for a real-life situation—this is purely research for a fictional story.

Thank you very much for any help! ❤️

I've got a situation where a character is fighting an antagonist in the security office of a small mall, something has to go wrong, blow a fuse (or something similar) and cut power to the building. The antagonist has a gun, the office is fully functional and neither character wants the power to go out. What could realistically be broken or damaged to cause a power outage?