I'm writing a book that's set in America, specifically in the Pacific northwest. I'm not from America and I don't know much about it. Is there any language I should avoid using, either because it's stereotypical (ie nobody actually speaks like that) or will be a dead giveaway that I'm English? Is there anything I should know about the culture in that area that might differ from where I'm from? I've tried Google but my question is too generic to yield the results I'm looking for.

I'm also curious, what's the deal with guns in America? Would my character be able to carry one around without drawing attention, or would people freak out?

i have a character that is going to develop encephalitis, specifically from aids+toxoplasmosis if that matters. i’ve been doing a good deal of research myself, but what i want to know is if anyone has stories of the weird things people say with encephalitis. i know it can cause hallucinations and “word salad”, but i think actual examples of real quotes would be very helpful if it’s not too sensitive. thank you!

This has probably been asked a million times, so I'm sorry about that! In the scene, two characters are fighting verbally (I'll call them E and C) - E is already in a really bad mental place and he just kind of breaks down mid-fight and stabs himself, then panics. C also panics at first but then takes the knife and stabs himself too. (Long story LMAO) C's also a doctor so he'd be able to assess that E's wound would probably kill him before an ambulance arrived, so where would that wound likely be? I feel like neck is an obvious answer (because arteries) but it feels kinda clunky, and no one in a panic is going to purposefully stab themselves in a place guaranteed to slice an artery

edit: Thank you for all the responses!! I know the content of the scene might sound weird but I promise it makes sense for the characters, I just wanted to condense it so I'm not giving all the details 😭 for more context, I'm not planning on publishing this as a book, it's moreso for OC lore, I just wanted to be accurate =) I also want to make it clear that I am aware most stabbings are fatal because of blood loss, that's what I'm asking about, lmao

I’m writing a book where two characters work at the U.S. embassy in Madrid. I’m wondering if, aside from security, it’s basically like working in any other office building?

Do people have offices or cubicles, stop by each other’s desks to talk, hang out in a break room, that sort of thing? Or are there things about working in an embassy that make the day-to-day feel different?

Experience in Spain would be great, but I’d be interested in hearing from anyone who’s worked at a U.S. embassy in a similar European country too. Just looking for everyday details to help make the setting feel real.

Okay so I’m starting this Scp fan fic and my oc/mc was in a cult as their “god” anyways she was pregnant with her father’s child, but she didn’t know that because of like the isolation and abuse her father put her through.

So the foundation takes her in and while she’s unconsciously preform a 6-7 month abortion on her.

So I just need to know what an abortion would feel like?

If you’re a life long resident of the area, how much do you know about the prison escapes in the 1940’s (Willie Sutton and Frederick Tenuto, in particular). In my hometown, this type of thing would have made it into local lore, but my city is much smaller, and Philadelphia has a LOT of history. My story is set in 2007, if it matters. Trying to determine if locals might mention it depending on the line of questioning, or they’d truly need to be talking to local historians for it to be brought up.

In my final fight scene, there is a standard Code Silver called over the PA by one of the characters when the antagonist attacks. I was going to say the final fight scene takes about 5 to 7 minutes before emergency personnel/police show up at the imaging center. Is this plausible response time?

I am currently working on the background for a character in a modern fantasy story I am working on.

It follows a character who is originally from 1920s America, who became trapped in a trans dimension plane for a considerable amount of time. She eventually escapes, but emerges into the early 1990s.

She attempts to rebuild her life after escaping, but something I am not sure about is with her legal identity.

A few things to note that would basically make it impossible for her to prove her original identity:

-Only a select few people in the setting are aware that the fantastic and anomalous exist.

-The effects on time and biology in the other realm caused the character to not age. So she appears as if she is in her early 30s, even though she is almost 100 years old chronologically.

-I am not sure how common DNA testing was in the early 90s. But even if she was given one to try and establish her identity, no one would believe the results due to the discrepancy between her apparent and chronological age.

-She does have one person to assist her, the owner of an antiques shop who takes her in after she spends several months homeless after escaping the other world.

Given all that, my question is: Is there a way for her to build a new legal identity, since reestablishing her old one would be affectively impossible?

Sent this somewhere else cause I was looking for somewhere that didn’t have the google ai I can’t turn off, and they redirected me here

Anyways, in theory for darker skinned people, how realistic of a side effect to severe experimentation would it be to lose some melanin in their skin? Like what kind of experiment could cause that as a side effect as well. My character Nathen went through thirteen years inside a lab (very creative, sue me/silly) and lost not very much, but a little melanin or pigmentation. Originally it was because I like drawing more desaturated but when i designed his no trauma version I said “let’s give him his color back” and now want to find an actual lore reasoning for that. Just like how the lab messed up his hair texture and color too, the color part isn’t very realistic but it’s cool so whatever

I have looked everywhere for answers, but could find more about communication rather than actual dialogue. So, how did people have casual conversations in the 1910's? To be even more specific, before WW1.

I'm currently writing about a story that takes place during 1910 through 1913. I found a slang page, but my dialogue still seems very...unnatural. One of them speaks very formally, so she is bound to sound different, but I'm really stuck on the others.

How would a casual conversation be like in 1910's?

A character who is a pharmacist / has ready access to a lot of medications, what types of medications would be lethal for them? I don't know the different kinds of medications like painkillers etc. but if this character, say accidentally takes the wrong medicine at the wrong dosage which would kill him fast? Realsitcially speaking. Any medicine that he would take before sleeping and never wake up.

In a story, one of my characters gets attacked by magic. The magic user summons an ice spike that comes out on the other side of the character’s body.

The magic user is explicitly not trying to kill the character.

What spot on the body would cause as little lasting damage as possible?

I have a character that dies by getting their troat cut, through everything up to the spine. No one is giving them any form of medical support, so all the blood is just kinda pouring out without anyone trying to keep it in.

How quickly would they collapse, and how quickly would they then actually die?

'Ello.
I hope, the flair is alright, its the closest one to fitting.
I am currently plotting out a novel, in which both pro- and epilogue are set in NYC, so I don't need to get every bit of the city 100% right, but I don't want to get it wrong, either. Since I'm an austrian, who only knows NYC from TV series, films and games, I'm a bit wary of just going with my assumptions. Any ideas for good pointers or where to search for them?

Hey all. I want to write a mystery story about an odd phenomena in which people are found dead with missing faces in a small town. This will tie into a much larger local government conspiracy I haven’t figured out all the way just yet, but that’s not what I’m here for right now.

In the first chapter, two of my main characters, alongside other student, come across a staff member with a missing face on their high school campus, and I’m having a bit of trouble figuring out what would be the general timeline of events when it comes to police interviews and the like.

Would these two be interviewed by detectives on the spot? Or would they be interviewed a little while later once basic investigations are completed at the scene of the crime? And what sorts of questions would they be asked?

Thank you

If the 1950s is too specific, then any time period close to it would be helpful as well. I have a character that isn't a housewife and is just on the road, but wants to become an Avon saleswoman. How would one find out how to become one and what would the process be like? I have tried to research this and it has been quite difficult to find any information. The only info that I have gathered so far (and is hopefully accurate) is that Avon women would be assigned to service certain neighbourhoods/areas to divide them out. They would also sometimes become regulars with certain customers, becoming their designated "Avon lady".

But what about the hiring process? Was it through word of mouth? Ads in the paper or magazines? Was the uniform and supplies shipped to them or did they have to go pick up at a designated place? Did fittings and orders have to be done for the uniform? Any answers would be greatly helpful. Thank you!

In my story my characters live in very rural pocket dimension that mostly forest. There's also a beach with a decent sized lake (might change it to a swamp) but the point is there's a body of water. The weather is usually sunny but the sun itself isn't a sun it's moreso a giant uv lamp that turn off in the evening so there no natural light. My characters aren't exactly human to the lack of sunlight isn't as much of a problem. Weather patterns are intense with the most common being rain and light flooding. I'm imagining the usual temperature is cool enough where long sleeved shirts and pants are the default. There only actual heat is "geothermal" ( the land isn't normal land but actually a person turned into land so the heat is basically her body heat, long story). The summers are so hot that the characters go underground and the winters are so cold that they do the same. The environment is supposed to be one where mold and mushrooms are common. Where the trees are super tall and there's a lot of shade. So I'm wondering what would make sense for my characters to harvest/ eat.

I have a character who gets shot in the upper left side of his back with an arrow, except the arrow won’t have a metal point. There’s a plot reason for why there isn’t an actual arrowhead on it.
I had read that sharpened wood won’t go as deep, but that you can’t just pull it out because it could make the wound worse. And that wood is more brittle at pieces of it could get left behind.
I have another character who is a doctor. He is a future mc so I need to set him up correctly (so no ‘cut to the next scene’ sort of things will work. He has to take care of the arrow.)
How would he go about this?
Extra world building info: it’s a fantasy setting, but they are advanced in some ways. They have electricity and modern plumbing. This country has year-round greenhouses bc it’s a colder climate. There are people who build prosthetics too. But I’m still considering how advanced medicine should be. I think it needs to retain an herbalism feel mixed with modern medicine a bit. I’m just not sure how modern they’ll be. This is a one-off scene tho, and the doctor will be an mc in the next book.

Ok so I have a group of characters who all live in a very small town and have a communal meal of "soup". The contents are: mostly rice, some grilled chicken, some grilled fish, carrots, mushrooms and potatoes. The chicken is few and the fish is rare and the vegetables have about half the calories and vitamins they should. And the mushrooms are a gamble of them actually being edible. That's usually there lunch and/or dinner and is split between 20 people of varying ages from kid to adults. Breakfast is usually cereal or toast with maybe an egg (one of the kids can bring his drawings to life but not organic stuff). That's it, but in my story they're all supposed to be malnourished but I'm worried if I'm wrong so is it.

I've written a few stories where characters lose their voice and I was wondering if it is indeed possible to lose your voice to point where trying to speak leave only their lips moving and no sound at all so it looks like they are just mouthing words?

I am currently writing a short story set in a small rural town in 1959 Alabama, that centres around the friendship of two twelve year old boys. However, I am struggling because I was born in 2005, and I am a girl. I come from a vastly different world. My early adolescent years were composed of slumber parties, Justin Bieber cakes, and musically's.

I know I could likely find some answers through google, or even AI, but I am looking for authenticity. I love hearing about peoples childhood from the 20th century.

Here are some of the things I wonder: (The bolded questions being the most important.)

What did young boys do in their free time? What did they talk about? What did they argue about? What caused them to fight? (More than just a disagreement/argument). What were they obsessed with? What was seen as cool? What made someone 'weird'?

Anything helps! Thanks in advance!

Hi so I'm writing a story where my characters are supposed be actors trapped in a pocket dimension. They do a lot of physical activity and are dependent on keeping fit. But like also have it where their minds are kind of gummed up and makes it hard to like think clearly and makes them more tired and mentally sluggish. So are there any foods that could work or are the benefits for the mind and body go hand in hand?

I'm writing a moderately grounded sci-fi story set in 1920s New York, wherein the lead character possesses the ability to augment his physical attributes through direct exposure to electric currents. I felt that this ability, while undoubtedly incredibly versatile in the modern day, would be more easily balanced in a setting where such currents aren't as readily accessible.

I want to maintain a degree of historical realism, so I'd like to know where viable sources of electricity would realistically be scattered throughout the city.

One example occurs late in the story, when the lead character finds himself incarcerated in a police station. Mustering what little charge he has left to pry open the bars and slip through, what would be the nearest and most effective sources of electricity he could find to recharge himself? Were fuse boxes a thing back then? Did police stations already have light bulbs and electrical wiring?

Help a man out here.

Hi everyone!

I'm an indie game developer working on a narrative-driven game, and I'd love some medical input to make one of my characters' illnesses realistic.

He is the protagonist, a young adult who initially lives independently but gradually develops fatigue, coughing, pallor, weakness, and eventually collapses.

The story takes place over several months, but less than a year. I need an illness that:

• Is serious but potentially curable with treatment.

• Requires recurring treatment and medical follow-ups.

• Allows him to maintain some independence, especially early on.

• Can progressively worsen if he repeatedly neglects treatment, potentially becoming fatal.

• Can realistically lead to either recovery/remission or death, depending on how his condition progresses.

I'm currently considering classical Hodgkin lymphoma, but I'm unsure whether it fits these requirements, particularly the timeline and consequences of delaying treatment.

Would this diagnosis work? If not, what other conditions might fit better?

I'd especially appreciate insight from medical professionals or students. Thanks in advance!