Can you be a system with only two alters? Also, can you be one if you start having headmates later in your life?

I often write a character who consists of two headmates, let's call them A (he/him or he/they) and B (it/its or zie/hir). The main problem with calling them a system is the fact that they were seperate people and started sharing a body because of magic. So I'm not sure if calling them a system would be ableist or derespectful.

I also write them to switch pretty fast and I'm afraid it's not accurate.

When A is in charge he is doing the talking while B can hear him and talk to him with its thoughts but not talk aloud itself. Same goes for when B is in charge. Also, both B and A have different walking patterns, facial expressions and slightly different accents, to the point in which A's sister can tell them apart.

So, can I call them a system if they got like this with magic later in their life or would that be disrespectful or ableist?

(Disclaimer: We are not an authority, we're just some person on the internet. And we certainly don't speak for all systems)

Maybe gonna give you a little whiplash from that disclaimer, but yes, absolutely, 100% of the time, a system can have only two alters. Anyone who tells you otherwise is wrong and you shouldn't listen to them lol.

As for developing a system later in life. That's a little more tricky because I want to paint you a full picture.

From a medical perspective, the most universally accepted theory is that it forms in early childhood in response to trauma and can't form later in life. However, there is no definitive proof that's how systems form, or that it's the only way they can form for that matter.

From a more anecdotal perspective, many people claim their system formed later in life. Some even say they created theirs on purpose.

In my personal opinion, I think the medical community is missing the forest for the trees. After all, autism used to "only effect young boys". And "only dysphoric people could be trans". I think it's absurd to think all those people contradicting the science are wrong when the fact of the matter is that it's still a developing field of study.

I don't see anything wrong with calling them a system. "System" isn't a medical diagnosis, it's a state of being. If they function as a system... then they're a system lol. The only thing I'd maybe be mindful of is how you share your story with people. If you say "This is a story about a system." It's a bit more like "This is a story about a system*..... *Created through magical means."

Kinda like, the difference between a gender bender and a story about a trans person.

Oh! Also maybe avoid calling them alters since they're literally different people, not alternate identity states.

For us, sometimes switches happen without us noticing, sometimes it literally happens in the blink of an eye, but sometimes it takes a few minuets, or even several hours. Fast switching is fine in your story, but if you want to mix things up, maybe make it relatable to more people, don't have them switch the same way every time. Maybe when they're stressed it's harder to switch on command and they need to calm themself down first, or something happens that triggers one of them to front (It doesn't need to be a bad thing, it could be simple like being given B's favorite food causing it to front. Or A hates a song so much he gets pulled to front so he can turn the music off.)

Again, we also can communicate like that and perceive the world "through each other's eyes" (it's called co-con/co-conscious) but sometimes it's harder than others.

Different gaits, facial expressions, and accents are all stuff we have. To us they feel obvious, but no one's commented on the differences except for some words or phrases specific alters use. Most of us can also mask making it even harder for people to tell us apart. I'd imagine your characters would have a hard time masking at first, but maybe with time they could learn to mimic each other's behavior.

...It took long enough to write this we switched part way through ^_^'

enemies to lovers midpoint prompts

as the request stated, that ‘i am trying really hard to keep hating you‘ phase, or what i like to call the reluctant friend stage. feel free to use :)

“i think we’re friends now.” “God, don’t say that.”

“everything is just a competition for you… isn’t it?” “isn’t it for you, too?”

“h—” “don’t talk to me.”

“i’d pay good money for you to admit you tolerate me.” “tolerate being the operative word.”

“why can’t you open up to me?” “why do you want me to?”

they’re so used to hating each other sometimes the snide remarks just slip out LMAO

like “should i get you something too?” “you can get out of my fa— woah, hehe. sorry.”

“you’re still on that?” “still on that..??? STILL ON THAT?????? I CANT STAND YOU???!!!(!;!”

a whispered moment between them ; “i’m trying so hard to hate you.” “why?”

they’re trying hard to hate each other then something happens (plot) and they’re stuck together which makes it ten times harder

“be honest with me.” “but why? why would i do that?”

“stop.” “stop what?” “being so kind to me.”

remember… they hated each other a couple chapters back. what changed? why did it change? who did it start to change in first?

the moment where your character asks themselves; “when did this nuisance become so important to me?”

how to write a collage poem - read a more thorough explanation on my substack here!

i found a book abt the anti lawn movement at the library & decided to sit out in my yard & read it. but ironically there was a neverending barage of power tool noises making it difficult to focus. so i walked to a nature park near me in order to escape the dreaded sounds. almost stopped at the mowed picnic table area bc i hate walking but fortunately pushed forward and made myself walk up an annoying hill to an area that is a preservation of a native oak savanna & sat down against a tree near the edge of the path & did my reading there. and honest to god that was a 100/10 experience. there was something so powerful abt being in a preserve for a locally native habitat while reading abt the impacts homeowners can have on native plant preservation! it powered up my energy towards my life mission (evangelize abt enviormentally sustainable gardening to every single person who comes within a 10 ft radius of me) by like. 15 points. also a deer walked up to me and that was super cool

Hey, writers of tumblr. I'm thinking about putting together a self-study course/ebook type thing on how to edit, intended for new/aspiring authors and those looking to prep their work for self-publishing.

For context: I currently do most of my freelance work through an agency that positions itself as an industry leader for author services (make of that what you will) and I get a lot of quote requests from folks who know their work needs editing, but have little idea where to start or what to expect. Frequently, either cost is a barrier to entry for them, or I find I'm having to correct or explain the same issues to a lot of clients.

I'd like to put something out on a pay-what-you-want basis that covers the most common issues I see in manuscripts. I'm thinking topics like basic grammar and formatting (especially for ESL writers and those working with translators), POV and perspective issues, filtering, pacing, rhythm & flow, dialogue, and a primer on techniques for self-editing your work prior to submission, pre-production, or sharing it in general.

Is this something you'd be interested in? What other kinds of topics would you like to see? What format(s) would you prefer?

just wondering how writing atwmd is going atm due to the slower updates? absolutely NO pressure whatsoever write at your own pace im just wondering since ive been hurt one too many times by abandoned fics and atwmd is honestly genuinely incredible i love it sm youre so talented, again 0 pressure literally just wondering

i updated a week ago lol what is ur frame of reference for “slower updates”…like i get that i’ve been updating more slowly than when i originally started posting the fic but ive still been posting consistently 1-2 times a month for like the past 6 months and i regularly answer questions abt the fic on this blog + talk abt my plans 4 it so i’m not really sure why you’d be worried abt it getting abandoned.

im begging people to turn on the post dates for your feed bc sometimes i see ppl rb advice with good intentions but the advice is from 2010-2017 and therefore is WILDLY outdated!!!! and that's not good!!!!!

Important things to consider:

What does this character do for the narrative?

and

What does the narrative do for this character?

[Plain text: What does this character do for the narrative?

and

What does the narrative do for this character? /end PT.]

every agent 24 shipper is like "3 is a bad bitch and 8 is obsessed w them" but have you considered... the opposite. 8 is a bad bitch (because 3 helped them gain confidence in themself) and 3 is obsessed w them (because 8 taught them to how to actually express their emotions). imagine the possibilities. the possibilities are endless, man.

The biggest recommendation I can give on writing dialogue that sounds in character for the character to say is, not to read the quests they are in, but to listen to the English dub whenever you get the chance. This may seem difficult especially if you are used to playing it in another language, but listening is key to getting the vibe of a character down. What you pay attention to is, not what they say, but the cadence in which they say it. Pay attention to the emotion in their voice, the speed at which they say things, the volume, etc. Once you get this down, it becomes easier to get an idea of what “sounds” right and what doesn’t. Cadence is an especially powerful thing. By training your ears to a character’s cadence, you can get a better idea of which words they would prefer to use, the lengths of their sentences, and things of the sort.

For example, reader asks Zhongli to dinner and he accepts. How would he respond? “Hmm, I’m not busy this evening, so I accept. Thank you for the invitation.” But that doesn’t sound right, does it? Is Zhongli the type of person that uses many contractions? I don’t think so, so let’s fix it. “Hmm, I am not busy this evening, so I accept. Thank you for the invitation.” But would he say “I accept?” Perhaps, but it still doesn’t sound right. How has he accepted proposals in the past? A bit of research shows he has said “sure.” How can I mix that in? “Hmm, I’m not busy this evening, so sure. Thank you for the invitation.” But hmm… the second sentence doesn’t sound right. What else could he say instead? “Hmm, I’m not busy this evening, so sure. It would be my pleasure.” That sounds a lot better.

Some people may ask why you can’t do these things while listening to another language. Personally, I don’t believe you can. If you are not fluent in those other languages, your ears are not properly trained enough to understand the nuance of the ways they speak. The correct emotion and tone will come through, yes, but you still won’t be able to intuitively know what sounds right and what does not. You only will get this sense by listening to it in the language you choose to write in.

The only downside to this is that your writing will become based upon the English translation of the game. As many people know, the portrayal of characters in English often does not completely match the portrayals in Chinese. This is especially so for characters like Zhongli, Xiao, and Kaeya. A lot is lost in the translation and dubbing process. Characters do not vibe the same. Thus, your portrayals will be more true to English, but not how it technically is “supposed” to be. Personally, I don’t necessarily believe this is a bad thing. However, it is something that can bother people. The only way I can imagine getting around it is by playing the game with the Chinese dub and by following accounts that speak Chinese and can give insight on the literal translations and what they mean and imply.

when in writers block (bc me too)

yes i realize this isn’t 100% foolproof and doesn’t work for everyone but it sure as hell helps me (at least a bit) when i don’t know where to start. good luck writing and may words flow from you faster than water in the largest waterfall ever <3

reread your old writing

revisit unfinished discarded projects

just write. everything. search up prompts and write your characters into them even if you’re not feeling it — which i know is easier said than done but we as writers need to realize that sometimes we gotta do what we don’t want to do

start a new book (ignore the pile of unfinished wips ok??!?!?!!!)

browse apps ((like pinterest) sounds anti productive but actually helps)

inspiration is literally everywhere and in everything u just need to know where to look, whether that be online or in person where you’re observing relationships w people and how humans act

on the opposite end of the spectrum: close that google doc… and just take a break. most ideas come when you’re not trying to force them out like ur life depends on it

ask a friend to read some writing and give their prediction of what will happen next… then use it !

just don’t give up!!!!!!! think about how an incredible book could be written and we wouldn’t even know because writers block kicked in & u gave up </3

i do love sneaking in side ships to fics where they arent the focus but also i think the only reason i have the cater/trey mention in this story was bc i needed a reason to prevent cater from giving silver and kalim more thought out advice kflsjdfklsjd i had to interrupt him and make him LEAVE!!!

Hello! I hope this ask finds you well. I have a question (as a non-Jewish person). I sometimes write and I've thought about writing a Jewish character but I feel like I don't know enough. Are there any common mistakes gentiles make while writing that I should avoid? Sorry if this ask sounds ignorant/weird, I'm still kind of learning. Have a nice day!!

I have posted about my position on this topic before, but I'll reiterate it here. If you don't think you know enough about Judaism and Jewish culture you shouldn't be writing Jewish characters. I understand that you want to, but you wanting to write a Jewish character does not outweigh or trump the potential harm or misinformation that would be spread by writing about a culture you're not educated on or part of.

The consequences of an incorrect portrayal would not be mitigated by me telling you about common mistakes gentiles make when writing about us, because there's just so much that could be incorrect that can't be anticipated. I can always tell when a non-Jew tries to write a Jewish character. It is always painfully obvious to me even if the author feels like they've put in time and effort into educating themselves.

This also might not be a popular opinion, and it's just my own (I am not speaking for every Jew), but it always feels uncomfortable to me when gentiles want to write Jewish characters. Unless the character's Judaism is central to the story (in which case you'd need to be really knowledgeable about us to pull off in a believable way), I can't think of a story that couldn't be told if the character was a gentile. It feels more like "Oh my character is Jewish that makes them interesting" or it's an afterthought, in which case we have enough characters already who were written by gentiles that have their Jewish identity only brought up when the author remembers it. Tokenization would be the term for it, I guess.

All that being said, if you still want to write a Jewish character, it's necessary to put in the work and effort into learning about us and I'd recommend having a Jewish friend check your writing to make sure it's accurate. If it's just for something like a fanfic and you want a Jewish character, then it's not as big of a deal but it's still important to be accurate.

In conclusion, Jews deserve better representation than an off-handed comment about their bar/bat mitzvah and the fact they celebrate Chanukkah or some yiddish words sprinkled into their vocabulary. So if that's the extent of what you want to write about your Jewish character I would rather you don't.

breaking my artistic dry spell by drawing my 6'5" orc and her 5'5" bosmer husband as every single tall goddess/short king meme that exists. unfortunately I can only think of 2

some funny snippets of a tentative timeline for the reverse gondolin au

DAMN IM SO FUCKING MAD BC IM WRITING AN ENGLISH ESSAY ON HAMLET AND FRANKENSTEIN RIGHT AND I KIND OF JUST WENT WITH EXAMINING THE FATHERLY RELATIONSHIPS BUT I JUST CHECKED THE ASSIGNMENT DOC TODAY AND LISTED IN THE EXAMPLES OF POTENTIAL TOPICS IS THE ROLE OF STORYTELLING AND IM SO UPSET BC THAT WOULDVE BEEN A BANGER OF AN ESSAY FOR FRANKENSTEIN AND HAMLET. FRANKENSTEIN BEING FRAMED WITH A STORY WITHIN A STORY WITHIN A STORY AND HAMLET HAVING BOTH THAT PLAY WITHIN A PLAY AND THEN THE ANALYSES OF HAMLET KNOWING THAT HIS STORY IS A PLAY THE WHOLE TIME AND HAVING THE AUDIENCE WATCHING OR WHATEVER. LIKE HAMLET STORIES REVEALING THE TRUTH (EXPOSING CLAUDIUS' MURDER), FRANKENSTEIN ALSO HAVING STORIES EXAMINING THE OTHER CHARACTERS' PERSPECTIVES BY HAVING THEM SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES, EVEN FRANKENSTEIN'S MONSTER HAVING HIS PERSPECTIVE ON THE WORLD BUILT UP FROM STORIES. WHAT IF LIKE 29 HOURS BEFORE THE DEADLINE I SCRAPPED MY TWO PAGES OF ESSAY IVE BEEN LOWKEY DREADING WRITING BC I FEAR I DONT HAVE ENOUGH TO SAY ABT FRANKENSTEIN AND HIS CREATURE'S RELATIONSHIP (ITS INTERESTING I JUST READ IT TOO LONG AGO TO HAVE THE DETAILS AND I WAS DREADING HAVING TO SPEND TOO MUCH TIME RESEARCHING) AND PIVOTED TO A COMPLETELY NEW TOPIC. WHAT THEN.