Let's Talk About: Point Of View,  a Table Of Contents

Comics by Rose Anne Prevec.

I had a bit of fun in the #VeryRealisticYA hashtag. Guess how many of these are autobiographical?

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I don’t often give writing advice, but here is some actual, solid writing advice I 100% stand behind when writing contemporary, fantasy, or sci-fi:

Look at your side characters. Every single one of them. The villain. The neighbor. The captain. The politician. The doctor. The boss. Heck, even the animals—the horse, the dog, the cat, the creature.

If 50% of them aren’t female, why not?

Don’t default to male.

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My Cat: *casually plucks a passing mosquito out of the air with her paw without looking or even bothering to stand up*

Also My Cat: *walks directly into a wall*

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A few of you asked me for historical fiction recommendations, so here they finally are! This is one of my favorite genres and these are some of my absolute favorites! 

Previous Recommendations:

Mythological Retelling 

Mythological Retelling (2)

Fantasy

Contemporary

Urban Fantasy

High Fantasy

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Harry James Potter + character tropes

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I will always remember Christopher Lee as that horrifying moment in the LOTR commentaries where Peter Jackson says he started to direct him on how to act like he’d been stabbed and Christopher Lee goes “no no peter dear, when someone is stabbed like this, THIS is how they look, they don’t make a sound, air just leaves them all at once” and peter jackson remembers in that moment that lee was in the secret service and just slowly backs away.

ABUSE

Information

Love Is Respect (Digital Abuse)

Love Is Respect (Emotional/Verbal Abuse)

Love Is Respect (Financial Abuse)

Love Is Respect (Physical Abuse)

Love Is Respect (Sexual Abuse)

Love Is Respect (Stalking)

Help Guide

Coping

Caring for yourself

Domestic abuse

Chat Rooms 

Survivors Chat

Fort Refuge

Pandy’s

ADD/ADHD

Information

Help Guide

Attention Span Test

Attention Quiz

Concentration Quiz

Coping

Coping Tips for Attention Deficit Disorder

12 Best Tips for Coping with ADHD

50 Tips On The Management of Adult Attention Deficit

Medication

ADHD Medication Chart: Compare Drugs for ADD and ADHD

Drugs Used to Treat ADHD/ADD

ADD/ADHD Medications: Are ADHD Drugs Right for You

ADHD Medication Side Effects, Drug Types, Precautions

ADDICTION

Information

Help Guide (Alcohol & Drugs)

Half of Us (Alcohol & Drugs)

Coping and Recovery

Tools of Recovery: Addiction Coping Skills

5 Ways to Deal With Urges and Cravings 

After Rehab: 5 Ways for Addicts to Cope

Addiction Recovery

Coping With Urges

Dealing With Cravings

ANGER

Coping

strategies to keep anger at bay

Anger management: 10 tips to tame your temper

Anger Management: Tips and Techniques

Feeling Angry

Controlling Anger — Before It Controls You

Dealing With Anger

How To Cope With Anger

Anger management: What works and what doesn’t

Ten Commandments of Anger Regulation

ANXIETY

Information

Anxiety Quiz

Social Anxiety Test

What are your stress triggers?

Coping Skills Quiz

Anxiety disorders explained

Help Guide (Anxiety Attacks & Anxiety Disorder)

Understanding and managing anxiety

learn more about anxiety

Anxiety Self-Assessment

Help Guide (General Anxiety Disorder)

Help Guide (Social Anxiety Disorder & Social Phobia)

Explanation of anxiety and self help tips 

Coping

a list of stress relievers

Identifying and Managing Anxiety

11 Assorted Anxiety Tips for Anxiety Sufferers

How to work through feelings of isolation

Tips and tricks for dealing with anxiety

Anti-stress breathing tips

How to stay under control with severe social anxiety

Coping with social anxiety

Managing Stress

how to help a friend with anxiety

Help Guide (Therapy)

Half of Us

Job interviews and social anxiety

Dealing with anxiety

Coping with test anxiety

Tips for flying anxiety

Grounding techniques 

More grounding techniques 

Even more grounding techniques

Mindfulness

Belly breathing

Living with anxiety

Social anxiety disorder self help tips.

Coping with flashbacks

What anxious racing thoughts are like for me

Using a thought diary

Panic Attacks

How to handle panic attacks

Exploring and coping with panic attacks

10 Rules for Coping with Anxiety and Panic

Tips to cope with panic attacks

Rules for coping with anxiety and panic

Understanding and coping with panic attacks

Understanding and helping panic attacks and panic disorders

Help Guide (Panic Attacks & Panic Disorder)

Coping with panic attacks workbook

Rules for coping with panic

Panic attack workbook 2

Interactives

Emotional baggage check

The Dawn Room

The quiet place

The thoughts room

Stress Analyst

cloudflowing

imagination

planetarium

weavesilk

calm

make sand art online

lifeinneon

dolldivine

barcinski-jeanjean

rainymood

do nothing for 2 minutes

stars

Muscle Relaxation

Mood chart

Medication

Help Guide (Anxiety Medicine)

Common Medications for Anxiety Disorders

Guidelines for Medication Use

Chat Rooms

HealthfulChat

Phobics Awareness 

Healing Well

Anxiety Space

BIPOLAR DISORDER

Information

Help Guide (Signs and Symptoms)

Half of Us

Bipolar Depression Quiz

 hypomania

Coping

Bipolar disorder and self-help

Living with bipolar disorder

How to deal with bipolar disorder without medication

10 ways to cope with bipolar disorder

Coping skills

Help Guide (Self Help)

Bipolar Support tumblr

Medication

Help Guide (Bipolar Disorder Medication Guide)

Help Guide (Treatment)

Chat Rooms

HealthfulChat

Bipolar World

Healing Well

DEPRESSION

Information

depression information

Depression Infographic 

Help Guide (Depression: Signs, Symptoms, Causes & Help)

Help Guide (Teenage Depression: A Guide for Parents)

Half of Us

Depression Quiz

Coping

How to cope with depression

How to cope with depression 1

Natural depression treatments

Ways to deal with depression/stress

Tips to help overcome loneliness

10 Tips on How to Work Through Feelings of Social Isolation

8 Tips to Overcome Loneliness

Ways to deal with depression/stress

having a bad day?

Make a comfort box

10 Things to Do When You Feel Like Crap

how to find a new normal in the middle of depression

you are not alone in the way you think you are

reasons to stay alive

how to stop trying to think yourself into happiness and actually arrive there

cheer me up

Help Guide (Dealing with Depression)

Help Guide (Helping Someone with Depression)

Medication

What to expect with antidepressants

Finding the right anti-depressant

Chat Room

HealthfulChat

Healing Well

EATING DISORDERS

Recovery

281 Reasons to Recover

Eating Disorders and Emotional Eating Test

Relapse Prevention

Bloating, Indigestion, & Feeling too full

Why You Must Eat

Learning to Love Your Body

Tips to Stop Restricting

Dealing With Weight Gain

10 Steps to Bulimia Recovery Workbook

Coping with Exercise Addiction

Tips to help with bulimia recovery

Help Guide (Emotional Eating)

Help Guide (Binge Eating)

Help Guide (Bulimia)

Help Guide (Helping Someone With an Eating Disorder)

Help Guide (Treatment and Recovery)

Stop Hating Your Body

Body Positive Zone

Self Care 101

self esteem

30 day self esteem challenge

developing positive self esteem

learning-to-love-yourself

Something Fishy

Ways of coping with eating disordered behaviors

The addiction help center

FRIENDS WITH ILLNESS

How to deal/talk with bipolar and depressed people

What to do when your friend is talking about suicide

What to do if someone you know is overdosing

What to do if your friend is hurting themselves

How to help someone who is suicidal

here’s what you tell someone who wants to commit suicide

tips for looking after someone with depression

Friends with metal illness?

What to do when someone is suicidal

Help Guide (Helping Someone with Depression)

GENERAL RESOURCES

Feelings Wheel

PsychForums

Psych Central 

Lets Recover Together

How to find a Support Group 

DailyStrength

GRIEF AND LOSS

Help Guide (Coping with a Breakup or Divorce)

Help Guide (Coping with Grief & Loss)

Help Guide (Coping with Pet Loss)

Help Guide (Supporting a Grieving Person)

Help Guide (The Five Stages of Grief)

HOTLINES

Crisis Text Line: Text “SUPPORT” to 741741

Crisis Call Center Call 1-800-273-8255 (24/7) Text ANSWER to 839863 (24/7)

Thursday’s Child Call 1-800-872-5437 (24/7)

The Trevor Project Call 866-488-7386 (24/7)

National Safe Place Text SAFE and your current location to the number 69866

National Runaway Safeline Call 1-800-786-2929 (24/7)

National Domestic Violence Hotline Call 1-800-799-7233 (24/7) 

MEDITATION

Tips to Start Meditating

8 Ways to Make Meditation Easy and Fun

18 Minute Guided Meditation: Blissful Deep Relaxation

1 Hour Universal Mind Meditation

Guided Meditation for Sleep and Good Dreams

Guided Meditation and Progressive Muscle Relaxation

Progressive Muscle Relaxation

Guided Relaxation

Foundations in Flow Yoga Class

Heart Opening 30min Yoga Class

10min Shoulder Yoga Routine

9min Yoga Breathing Exercise (Pranayama) 

Kundalini Yoga Breathing Exercises (3 min)

Yoga Poses

OCD

Information

Specific Symptoms of OCD

Distinguishing OCD From Other Conditions

The Course of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder 

 How do Obsessive Compulsive People Think?

Coping and Treatment

Natural Treatment Options

Treatments for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Additional Treatment Options for OCD

Residential Treatment for OCD

Medications for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

A New Relationship to Your Obsessions

How to Find Help for OCD

OCD: Exposure Therapy Versus Medication

Cognitive Therapy for OCD

Chat Rooms

HealthfulChat

OCD-UK

PERFECTIONISM

Information

Perfectionism Resources

Perfectionism - a double-edged sword

Type-A Personality Quiz

Perfectionism Test

Procrastination Test

Perfectionism: the road to failure

perfectionism and procrastination

Coping

How to Overcome Perfectionism

LEARN TO MANAGE PERFECTIONISM

How to Overcome Perfectionism & Procrastination

Perfectionism - Stress Management

10 Steps To Conquer Perfectionism

perfectionists coping with failure

PTSD

Information

Help Guide (Traumatic Stress)

Help Guide (PTSD)

Help Guide (Emotional & Psychological Trauma)

Mental Help

PTSD Infographic

Understanding PTSD

What is PTSD?

Coping

Coping with flashbacks

Self Help Strategies for PTSD

Coping with Traumatic Stress Reactions 

 Post-Traumatic Stress - Self-help Guide

Understanding and Coping with PTSD

Coping with PTSD

SCHIZOPHRENIA

Information

Schizophrenia: What’s in my head?

Help Guide

schizophrenia

Symptoms of Schizophrenia

Types of Schizophrenia

Causes of Schizophrenia

Coping

Living with Schizophrenia

Coping With Schizophrenia 

Schizophrenia Coping and Recovery

Schizophrenia: Coping with Delusions and Hallucinations

Paranoid schizophrenia Coping and support

Treatment

An Introduction to the Treatment of Schizophrenia

Treatment of Schizophrenia

Drugs to Treat Schizophrenia

Common Drugs and Medications to Treat Schizophrenia

Treating Schizophrenia Successfully 

SELF-HARM

Cut something that’s not real skin

Half of Us

Help Guide

Recover Your Life

Self-Injury Outreach & Support

How to care for cuts

Resisting cutting

25 ways to avoid self injury and prevent self harm

Tips to help stop cutting

99 Coping Skills: Things to do Instead of Cutting

What to do when someone sees

How to fade/cover scars

Alternatives For Cutting 1

Alternatives For Cutting 2

Alternatives For Cutting 3

Alternatives For Cutting 4

Alternatives For Cutting 5

SELF-LOVE

how to stop putting yourself down

Self confidence

how to improve your self-esteem

How to be ok with yourself

tips on self-love

Confidence

Learn to love yourself

when told you are not pretty

emergency compliment

lessons for self-love

SUICIDE

Coping with Suicidal Thought

What to do when someone is suicidal

How to help someone who is suicidal

here’s what you tell someone who wants to commit suicide

Help Guide (Suicide Prevention)

Help Guide (Dealing with Suicidal Thoughts & Feelings)

THERAPY

how to get free therapy

Getting a Therapist - a brief step-by-step

Psychiatrist, Psychologist, Therapist or Counsellor?

50 Signs of Good Therapy

50 Warning Signs of Questionable Therapy

Whispers

by Lazette Gifford

Description of main characters in first draft stories often fall into two wide categories — far too little or way too much.  Writers see their characters and they want their readers to see them, too.  However, sometimes they can go too far in description, especially in the main character.

What?  Don’t you want the reader to see the main character just as he or she is?  Yes, you do.  However, you need to consider two things about readers.  First, they have vivid imaginations and can ‘see’ characters without every detail drawn in.  Second — and the more important of the two — the reader wants to connect with the main character in some way.  This may mean that she wants to see the character as herself or she may want to imagine the character as a favorite star.  If you give too much description, you erase that connection.

Read More →

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