Saturday, September 13, 2014
Hiatus
Hey guys, I don't know how permanent this is, but I feel the need to take a break from blogging. I've missed two days of my schedule, I don't know if I have any more tips left in me. If I have any more and I ever feel like blogging again, I'll let you know. But right now it kind of feels like a chore.
Tuesday, September 9, 2014
Aceline Callow-Nováková
Aceline is the protagonist and title character of Aceline's Paracosm.
Origins
Aceline was created in May of 2012. She was inspired by the wild tissue monster from this Puffs commercial. Aceline began as a little girl with a tiger hairband who imagined that she was a tiger and played the hot lava game.
Though this quickly changed into the hairband actually giving her the abilities of a tiger. The title of the story came from randomly browsing wikipedia and reading the article for paracosm. Temale-Netam, the eponymous world which Aceline imagined. At least at first.
Temale-Netam is now the creation of Aceline's schizophrenic mind and whether or not it actually exists is a driving point of the story. Her age was recently increased from 7 to 9.
Bio
Aceline was born on May 11th, 2005. She was conceived out of wedlock and her parents married shortly before she was born. She has an older maternal half-brother, Erik Novák and an older paternal half-sister, Sky Callow.
Aceline was delayed developmentally, not walking until she was nearly 2 and not talking until a year later. This lead to her eventual misdiagnosis as autistic.
She was thought to be highly imaginative when she was little, having created a complex imaginary world populated with characters that seemed real. She would share stories with her siblings about her world and insisted that it was real.
Because she was so young, her family didn't think there was anything wrong with this. Her behavior began to steadily get worse and she was diagnosed with schizophrenia at the age of 7. Shortly after being diagnosed with schizophrenia her relationship with her siblings deteriorated.
Personality
Aceline is very friendly and protective of the people she loves. Any perceived threat to them is enough to make her react violently, along with getting significantly agitated. Though Aceline hates violence she is sometimes unable to control herself.
Along with being agitated, low mood and feelings of neglect make her fall away into Temale-Netam. She is a very hyper child and will often be up at the crack of dawn. Aceline loves animals, especially tigers. She believes that they are the most adorable creatures on the planet and doesn't think they are dangerous. In Temale-Netam, she is best friends with a talking tiger, which may be why she believes this.
Miscellany
1. Aceline has many hairbands, all of which give her powers of the animal it resembles. Though while wearing them she cannot talk. She finds this strange however, since they come from Temale-Netam and the animals there can all talk.
2. Aceline was probably not originally hyper. Her hyperness was actually a side effect of stopping thorazine, which somehow found it's way into a permanent part of her personality.
3. Aceline's birthday is the same as the date the first draft was originally published on bookrix.
Author's comments
Aceline's Paracosm was one of my earlier stories I attempted to write, trying to update it as I went along. Though I haven't worked much on the story in over two years, I feel I'll eventually get to it once I get through my other projects at which time I hope it is a better project and Aceline a better character.
I do like Aceline, she's one of my more adorable characters (not hard only being 9 right?). I'm torn between how the story should end, it seems like there are many different fates for both Aceline's Paracosm and Aceline herself.
Origins
Aceline was created in May of 2012. She was inspired by the wild tissue monster from this Puffs commercial. Aceline began as a little girl with a tiger hairband who imagined that she was a tiger and played the hot lava game.
Though this quickly changed into the hairband actually giving her the abilities of a tiger. The title of the story came from randomly browsing wikipedia and reading the article for paracosm. Temale-Netam, the eponymous world which Aceline imagined. At least at first.
Temale-Netam is now the creation of Aceline's schizophrenic mind and whether or not it actually exists is a driving point of the story. Her age was recently increased from 7 to 9.
Bio
Aceline was born on May 11th, 2005. She was conceived out of wedlock and her parents married shortly before she was born. She has an older maternal half-brother, Erik Novák and an older paternal half-sister, Sky Callow.
Aceline was delayed developmentally, not walking until she was nearly 2 and not talking until a year later. This lead to her eventual misdiagnosis as autistic.
She was thought to be highly imaginative when she was little, having created a complex imaginary world populated with characters that seemed real. She would share stories with her siblings about her world and insisted that it was real.
Because she was so young, her family didn't think there was anything wrong with this. Her behavior began to steadily get worse and she was diagnosed with schizophrenia at the age of 7. Shortly after being diagnosed with schizophrenia her relationship with her siblings deteriorated.
Personality
Aceline is very friendly and protective of the people she loves. Any perceived threat to them is enough to make her react violently, along with getting significantly agitated. Though Aceline hates violence she is sometimes unable to control herself.
Along with being agitated, low mood and feelings of neglect make her fall away into Temale-Netam. She is a very hyper child and will often be up at the crack of dawn. Aceline loves animals, especially tigers. She believes that they are the most adorable creatures on the planet and doesn't think they are dangerous. In Temale-Netam, she is best friends with a talking tiger, which may be why she believes this.
Miscellany
1. Aceline has many hairbands, all of which give her powers of the animal it resembles. Though while wearing them she cannot talk. She finds this strange however, since they come from Temale-Netam and the animals there can all talk.
2. Aceline was probably not originally hyper. Her hyperness was actually a side effect of stopping thorazine, which somehow found it's way into a permanent part of her personality.
3. Aceline's birthday is the same as the date the first draft was originally published on bookrix.
Author's comments
Aceline's Paracosm was one of my earlier stories I attempted to write, trying to update it as I went along. Though I haven't worked much on the story in over two years, I feel I'll eventually get to it once I get through my other projects at which time I hope it is a better project and Aceline a better character.
I do like Aceline, she's one of my more adorable characters (not hard only being 9 right?). I'm torn between how the story should end, it seems like there are many different fates for both Aceline's Paracosm and Aceline herself.
Saturday, September 6, 2014
How to write introverts and social anxiety
Shy and anxious characters often find themselves into fiction. Usually as secondary characters. The exception seems to be when her social anxiety is the main part of the show.
Introversion
Introversion does not mean that you are anti-social and that you dislike interacting with people. The change is in how your character prefers to interact with people. Introverts expend energy when interacting with people, whereas extroverts gain energy from social interactions.
Introverts also prefer to interact with a smaller group of people.
Social anxiety
Social anxiety also does not mean you're anti-social, though you're more likely to come off that way. Social anxiety presents as an intense and often unrealistic fear of interacting with people or quite simply just discomfort.
There are many ways your character might experience social anxiety.
- Asking somebody for something is often difficult, even if you are close to the person or it's an important question. Your character may feel like she is being bothersome or anticipate rejection. Instead she might opt to wait for the person to ask her for what it is she wants, as not to come off as bothersome.
- Clamming up. Your character may go quiet during a conversation, particularly during an argument when lots of people are talking. She is very likely to be talked over and allow it to happen, though she may not want to accept it, it is difficult for her to talk while others are doing so.
- Eagerness to end social interactions. She'll want to like social interactions and she may in fact like them, but if they go on too long, she will grow wary of it and want it to end.
- Dwelling on to things. If your character does something embarrassing or something she deems to be embarrassing she will dwell on it, possibly forever. It doesn't matter if it's not a big deal to anybody else, she will want that moment back and to have done something different.
- Talking to people in general is preceded by intense feelings of discomfort and a "psychological block" from inside the chest that makes it feel like it's impossible to speak.
Social anxiety is very frustrating to the sufferer because she wants to be more social but doesn't know how to and/or can't.
As you may have been able to tell, I am speaking from personal experience. I am not sure how much of it is a learned behavior and how much is inborn (I suspect it's a good deal both) but in any case it's not something that is easily overcome and I suspect that it isn't even possible (but that's probably just me).
Any questions or comments? Leave one below or e-mail me at emanation63@gmail.com.
Introversion
Introversion does not mean that you are anti-social and that you dislike interacting with people. The change is in how your character prefers to interact with people. Introverts expend energy when interacting with people, whereas extroverts gain energy from social interactions.
Introverts also prefer to interact with a smaller group of people.
Social anxiety
Social anxiety also does not mean you're anti-social, though you're more likely to come off that way. Social anxiety presents as an intense and often unrealistic fear of interacting with people or quite simply just discomfort.
There are many ways your character might experience social anxiety.
- Asking somebody for something is often difficult, even if you are close to the person or it's an important question. Your character may feel like she is being bothersome or anticipate rejection. Instead she might opt to wait for the person to ask her for what it is she wants, as not to come off as bothersome.
- Clamming up. Your character may go quiet during a conversation, particularly during an argument when lots of people are talking. She is very likely to be talked over and allow it to happen, though she may not want to accept it, it is difficult for her to talk while others are doing so.
- Eagerness to end social interactions. She'll want to like social interactions and she may in fact like them, but if they go on too long, she will grow wary of it and want it to end.
- Dwelling on to things. If your character does something embarrassing or something she deems to be embarrassing she will dwell on it, possibly forever. It doesn't matter if it's not a big deal to anybody else, she will want that moment back and to have done something different.
- Talking to people in general is preceded by intense feelings of discomfort and a "psychological block" from inside the chest that makes it feel like it's impossible to speak.
Social anxiety is very frustrating to the sufferer because she wants to be more social but doesn't know how to and/or can't.
As you may have been able to tell, I am speaking from personal experience. I am not sure how much of it is a learned behavior and how much is inborn (I suspect it's a good deal both) but in any case it's not something that is easily overcome and I suspect that it isn't even possible (but that's probably just me).
Any questions or comments? Leave one below or e-mail me at emanation63@gmail.com.
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