A recent search for a specific type of site to help me build new characters led me down a rabbit hole. Normally, that would make me much less productive, but I have found a treasure trove of websites for writers.
There are a few different places you can use to create a picture of something entirely new. I love this site for making character pictures as references, instead of stock photos or whatever pops up on Google Images.
thispersondoesnotexist: every time you reload the page, this site generates a headshot of someone who doesn't exist. This is great if you're thinking about a character's personality or age and don't have specifics for their facial features yet.
Night Cafe: this is an AI art generator that takes your text prompt and generates an image for it. I tried it for various scenery, like "forest" or "cottage." It takes a minute for your requested photo to load, but no more than maybe five for the program to finish the picture.
Art Breeder: this website has endless images of people, places, and general things. Users can blend photos to create something new and curious visitors can browse/download those images without creating an account. (But if you do want to make an account to create your own, it's free!)
You might prefer to set a story in a real-life environment so you can reference that place's weather, seasons, small-town vibe, or whatever you like. If that's the case, try:
MapCrunch: the homepage generates a new location each day and gives the location/GPS info in the top left of the screen. To see more images from previous days, hit "Gallery" in the top left.
Atlas Obscura: hover over or tap the "Places" tab, then hit "Random Place." A new page will load with a randomly generated location on the planet, provide a Google Maps link, and tell you a little bit about the place.
Random World Cities: this site makes randomly selected lists of global cities. Six appear for each search, although you'll have to look them up to find more information about each place. You can also use the site to have it select countries, US cities or US states too.
Thesauruses are great, but these websites have some pretty cool perspectives on finding just the right words for stories.
Describing Words: tell this website which word you want to stop repeating and it will give you tons of alternative words that mean the same thing. It typically has way more options than other sites I use.
Reverse Dictionary: type what you need a word for in Reverse Dictionary's search box and it will give you tons of words that closely match what you want. It also lists the words in order of relevancy, starting with a word that most accurately describes what you typed. (There's also an option to get definitions for search results!)
Tip of My Tongue: this website is phenomenal. It lets you search for that word you can't quite place by a letter in it, the definition, what it sounds like, or even its scrambled letters. A long list of potential options will appear on the right side of the screen for every search.
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Hope this helps when you need a hand during your next writing session 💛
So here’s an explanation for executive dysfunction for neurotypicals
I need to do my homework
But I feel dirty cause I was walking around outside barefoot this morning
I can’t do homework because I sit in bed to do homework and I don’t want my bed to get dirty
I don’t want to take a shower now because I like to take a shower at the end of the day to wind down
And then you’re just stuck in that loop for hours and there’s nothing you can do, you try so hard to think of solutions but you’re so set on it that you can’t change the problem
Do homework in a different place? Can’t, I like to do homework in bed and plus I can’t focus on anything else cause I feel dirty
Take a shower now? Can’t, but I really don’t want to because then I can’t take one tonight and it really helps me wind down at the end of the day
Do something else? Can’t, it’s time to do homework and yes I have other things to do but homework is the most important thing I need to do right now
And so you just gotta suffer and think and think and think and either do nothing and get nothing done, don’t do homework because you feel dirty and don’t want to shower now, or
Figure out which is the least annoying/disruptive option to your routine and preferences and do that to try to get back on track
In this case I chose to take a shower now so that I could get on with my day cause I knew it would be bothering me all day if I felt dirty, and I can try to do some other things tonight to find down
But it took me an hour to figure out why I was struggling to go do my homework and what I could do to fix it
So true of Altair to name his prison-buddy rat after Nasir.
I see a lot of talk about how neurodivergence evolved and stayed in the gene pool because it was somehow ‘useful’ to our ancient ancestors. While I don’t necessarily disagree with this theory, I would like to propose an alternative. A theory that we already have physical evidence for. Humans just love each other and care for each other. Don’t you think that a species that cared for it’s people while they recovered from broken bones, or nursed their elderly well beyond their ‘usefulness’ would leave a member out because they didn’t make eye contact, or couldn’t stay focused on a particular task, or whatever other trait you associate with neurodivergence? I really don’t.
Sure, maybe it was useful to have someone around who didn’t mind making arrowheads all day, or who knew absolutely everything about all of the local flora and fauna, or who keyed in on every little distraction. At the end of the day, though, these people weren’t kept around because they were useful, they were cared for because they were loved.
Yasmine strangles a man in a choke hold and Zafira heard Altair muttered under his breath lucky bastard before proceeding to throw his scimitar against an oncoming enemy.
pain
Old man insults are wild. "Slut", "Whore", "Dumb Bitch"..... Sir, those are respectable occupations. Call me a landlord
me: *is jokingly mean to my friend*
friend: *jokingly pretends to be hurt*
me (autistic, moral ocd):
My head can't think clearly nor did it remember the things it knows well, so I'm not sure if its an adhd thing or an executive dysfunction thing might be both i dont fucking know..
but the the whole joke about how you procrastinate about peeing.. you know what's even more funnier?
Its when you went to the bathroom, maybe to wash your hands, and at the very same time you also need to pee but you refuse to do it because there are just too many steps to do... so you just said to yourself... I'll pee later... even though you're already in the bathroom, and need to pee.. so badly.....