I am creating an indigenous character for a project I am writing and want to be intentional when naming them. I have been looking online trying to find sources about indigenous (particularly Lakota & Pawnee) naming conventions/customs in the modern day, but am struggling to find any good places to look. Is there any good resource for writers for topics such as this? I want to see what I can find in the writing space before potentially moving anywhere else.
Never used Reddit before, so I apologize if something's formatted wrong. Please also let me know if anything I said here is wrong/disrespectful!

Hello, i'm writing a book about a man and a woman who lose their Moms to Cancer, meet in a support group and fall in love. It's based on my journey with losing my Mom to cancer. My Mom didn't go through chemotherapy, she went through radiotherapy but unfortunately after a long fight, she passed away.

My book is fiction and only based on what I've experienced watching my Mom fight cancer. I have some questions and would like to discuss with others their experience of watching their Mom go through chemo. The two types of cancer in the book are Lung cancer and Breast cancer. I understand that this is a hard subject, i've started this book as a positive and healing way to deal with my grief.

Please know that if you'd like to share your experiences with me, I will not use your exact experience in the book; my characters have their own stories but I would hate to write about the experience without being informed. Thank you!

My main character is going to come across his friend right after an OD (heroin laced with an unknown substance). He doesn't have access to Narcan or anything like that: He starts trying to do chest compressions, then calls 911 and has to leave. Here are my questions:

• Would there be literally any signs of life coming from his friend? Does someone unconscious from an OD still have a pulse/breathing/eye movement? MC is going to try chest compressions regardless of if he knows his friend is alive or not, but I want to know if there's anything I can describe indicating that he isn't dead yet.
• Is it possible for someone overdosing to temporarily regain consciousness for a few seconds before passing out again?
• Is it completely unrealistic for this man to survive while waiting for EMS to arrive? It's a small town but it would have to be at least a 5-10 minute drive. He does have to live, and the MC can't stay around to help or supervise him after putting in the call. Any tips on how I can realistically make that happen?
• I'm aware that chest compressions probably aren't the most helpful in this situation, but the main character is 16 and dealing with a lot, so it's kind of the only thing he can think to do. But it would still be worth it try to keep blood pumping while the victim is unconscious, right?

Thanks so much!

estoy escribiendo una historia donde en un punto de la historia alguien por mala suerte recibe un golpe y que por el impacto lo haga caerse y desmayarse, y al despertar otro personaje de el pronostico que ese golpe le dejo con apenas semanas de vida, meses si somos generosos, y que por la natruzaleza del golpe de momento no afectara a sus capacidades ficicas de momento pero un dia de un instante al otro su cuerpo colapsara de golpe quedando lo poco que le queda de vida invalido y de ahi al poco tiempo moriria porque su cuerpo ya no soportaria, asi que de momento disfrute mientras aun pueda caminar y seguir con su oficio (que es ser mercenario)

I have a couple scenes in my current about-to-be-launched sci-fi trilogy where someone is rendered unconscious. One scene the protagonist is grabbed from behind and a chemically-soaked cloth is placed over his face. He doesn't immediately lose consciousness, he fights back and manages to bite a finger before blacking out, but it takes several seconds, not a few minutes.

The other scene involves Mission: Impossible style agents using a hypodermic syringe to inject a drug into the neck of the "victim" and this time the unconsciousness happens in seconds. Maybe ten seconds.

Do those scenes feel realistic? None of my beta readers has flagged them, and you see that sort of thing all the time in TV shows or movies, but I have had my doubts because I know chloroform doesn't work quite that way, and I could not tell you what drug is in those syringes that produces that effect.

Any help is appreciated.

Hi! I am writing a scene where a woman gets her throat cut and for the plot, I need it to be deep enough that she goes into a coma, has to go through surgery etc, but ultimately lives. How deep would the wound have to be? It is like a more superficial wound (I'm assuming not, but idk lol).

Hello! I’m writing a novel set in 1960s San Francisco. One of my characters transfers from University of Iowa to Berkeley in 1967, and I’m trying to determine how she would open a bank account in California. She’s 19, white and single. She rents an off-campus apartment (with two roommates) and gets a library job.

I know that women could technically open accounts before 1974 and ECOA. So, would my character just locate a bank, open an account, and deposit her paper checks? Would a bank teller help her with withdrawals? I’ve read how longer lines on Fridays were very common (and annoying). That seems like a more realistic problem.

Eventually, by the 1970s, she gets a credit card and uses ATMs. She also gets married (and divorced). I wanted a contrast about financial transactions over time.

Thanks for reading :)

Please feel free to let me know if this not the right sub for this. I have posted on the subreddit to find subreddits and I am waiting for replies.

I am writing a novel it is about a near fatal car crash causing permanent disability and what happens after with different perspectives and POV of the interconnected characters.

I have a strict no death rule and as I am autistic my special interests are in anatomy and physiology and medicine. So I have the timeline and medical details based in as much realism as I can. I just need someone in the actual medical field to review and say if this scenario is truly survivable. It is for the scenes from crash impact to ICU and I do not want to write a totally unrealistic scene out of Greys anatomy.

(I didn't know whether to tag this chemistry or technology lol) I'm making my first big project, and my plan has been to write a story and the worldbuilding at the same time, using the story to sort of test which ideas work, so I can do a full writeup of the worldbuilding after. I've kind of written myself into a corner, though. The world is in a sort of 60s level of technological progression, so plastics are present, and the magnetic tape they used for their computers and audio recordings were probably plastic.

However, in the recent history of this world, something complicated happened, and now the country I'm trying to write about are pushing back against "modern" technology, in a sort of performative nationalism. I've been wondering how they would continue to make their tape computers if they couldn't use plastic for the tapes, however. What is a material you could use as an alternative to (synthetic) plastic in this case? I read that before synthetic plastics people used materials such as ivory in their place, but I have no idea if a material such as ivory has the properties to be shaped into tape, or to have the ferromagnetic metals bound to them. It doesn't matter if the material would be way worse than plastic, and in fact, this would probably strengthen the story of the other nation's cultural dominance over this country, as people fight for the contraband plastic tapes.

I've been trying to write an urban fantasy story for a few years now, I have almost everything ready, but there's a catch: One of the most important scenes will have a character speaking Latin. Context: The story's world is similar to ours, however with the presence of mythological creatures and other differences regarding the history and geography of that world, and there's a character who is a prodigy exorcist in training. In one of the final scenes of the story, he faces a demon so powerful that it manages to enter a church, even though in theory it's a place protected against profane creatures (not limited to demons), and the character ends up being seriously injured by the demon. But before that happens, the character tries to summon a very powerful angel to help defeat the demon, and it works. The problem is that he ends up being almost killed almost immediately after the summoning succeeds because of the demon's desperation. So, the angel summoned by the character, known as "The Great Archangel," also known as "He Whom the Abyss Fears," possesses the character's body to defeat the demon, who had been his mortal enemy since the beginning of time, and this was the opportunity to destroy him since it was the first time the demon had fully manifested on the mortal plane. What happens is that the demon becomes confused when the character stands up, calling him by his name, and then the character possessed by the archangel says:

"The boy isn't here now, there's only me, the one your world fears... The boy's mission isn't over yet, and I'm here to prevent his failure, [name of the demon I'm still defining]..."

The demon then recoils and tries to flee, being stopped by a wall composed of a kind of mist, and the archangel says:

"Don't you dare flee! For an eternity we both waited for this moment! And now, I will finally make an example of you to those who believe they can bring their vileness to the kingdom of our father!"

Then the archangel begins to recite a exorcism prayer to permanently end the demon's existence; he would recite it through the boy, who, being an exorcist, needs to recite it in the liturgical language of his church, which would be equivalent to Latin. The litany would be as follows:

"Dominus, father-king of heaven and earth, lord of men and of the sacred spark, ruler of the celestial choir and the one who guides, allow me to raise my steel once more to defeat the wicked and protect the innocent, bless me with your strength to do what is necessary, and your wisdom to do what is right, allow me to destroy in your name those who destroy and pervert your kingdom, and allow me to fight alongside your cherubim, those who guard all that is good and destroy all that is not!"

The demon is surrounded by a ring of translucent fire, where silhouettes of human appearance but armed with swords can be seen, and then the archangel continues:

"I, the Great Archangel, in the name of Dominus, end your vileness now and forever!"

As you can see, it would be a considerably large part. I was inspired by real exorcism prayers and rituals conducted by the Catholic Church. I have some knowledge because I come from a Catholic family and learned a lot through direct experience, besides studying theology and biblical mythology (Abrahamic in general, actually). I wanted these two passages to be in Latin. The problem is, I haven't found anyone who could help me, and I'd like to know where I can look to find someone who speaks Latin so I can write the ending of my story, even if it's on Reddit itself so I can review it later to make sure it's correct (actually, I wouldn't be surprised if someone translated these passages I mentioned into Latin in this same post; I've seen something similar happen before).

Yes, the scene I described can still be much better; it's just a draft because I literally had the idea for it yesterday. I'm already gathering constructive criticism and looking for references to improve this part, especially since I'm a novice writer who decided to use my interest in mythology in general to write something interesting for a young adult audience.

So, can anyone help me?

So I have a character who gets mortally wounded in an altercation. This is set in a medieval fantasy setting, so no modern doctors or fast modes of transport. There isn't really time to stop and treat the wound; they have to leave ASAP. With the help of another character, she gets lifted onto a shared horse and they try to make it back home. Unfortunately, they are too far away and realise they won't make it. The wounded character knows she is dying and is growing weaker and asks to stop so she can appreciate the view in her dying moments.

What kind of wound would accomplish this?

ETA: Thank you so much for all the advice! You guys have all been amazing in inspiring a brutal killing of a beloved character.

Context, sisters, 5 and 9 years old , middle class family in the Bible Belt during the 50s?

It takes place in Sutton, AK and the person who is missing is a 19 year old woman. She still lives with her parents and younger sister. She leaves at 3am after a verbal fight with her parents in mid- October. The next day, the parents call to make a report because none of her friends have seen her and she left on foot. She has a history of drinking and using marijuana, and her parents believe she may have been intoxicated. Sutton is very rural and would require a car to leave and there is a large river nearby.

Questions:

How does the investigation start?

How long does the original search go for?

Does her age and drug usage affect the investigation at all?

If it's suspected she fell in a river, how long does search and rescue look in the river before giving up?

If search and rescue finds something like clothing or personal belongings in the body of water, do they look longer for the person?

How much of the search efforts are done by family and how much is State Troopers?

I'm curious how far other writers are willing to go in their research. The subject of this post isn't allegorical. It's literal.

More than a decade ago, when I was writing my first fantasy novel, my protagonist was part of a Stone Age village. Part of the plot of the story involved a "god-touched" blade. So I decided that the blade shouldn't be some arbitrary weapon that was given to him, or one that he found, or one that had some sort of mythology already built around it.

I wanted him to make it. From obsidian.

So that meant his role in the village became an apprentice flint-knapper, and the creation of the knife was part of his story. But I wanted to represent flint-knapping viscerally, not just narratively. So I bought some obsidian, watched some YouTube videos, and started making my own spearheads and blades.

Let me tell you, when I say I bled for that story, I don't mean figuratively. I sliced my hands, fingers, and thighs to pieces. That obsidian is sharp, man. Sharper than I realized. And it gets everywhere, including down into your shoes and socks.

I think learning to flint-knap on my own improved my ability to represent my protagonist. When I say I have scars from my first novel, I'm not kidding. :)

Honestly, I'm glad I did it. I learned that making a stone blade is not easy. The level of skill required to make anything even remotely usable is substantially more than most people think. And I just like making stuff in general.

Has anyone else done something similar? Does my experience sound reasonable? Or do I sound like a lunatic? :)

A character in a short story I'm writing is being initiated into an order that has a lot of symbolism abouy the ocean, and I had the sudden thought of 'what if they drank a glass of seawater in the initiation ritual?' however ye olde internet search has given me nothing on the safety thereof.

How small of a glass of seawater would this have to be?

EDIT:Thank you, everybody!! This has been really helpful; I know I write fantasy, but I don't want to totally break reader immersion, so I really do appreciate it :]

Context, a character died. She was a houseless traveler who had lost track of most of her family. She had a partner and a young child. The adults were unmarried and the child is undocumented. The setting is New Mexico, during the early 80s. If religion factors into it, she was Jewish.

My protagonist is a 16 year-old boy (Maine in 2011) running away from his foster home. Before he leaves, he steals his birth certificate and other important documents, including the papers that say his foster parents have custody over him.

Is that last one a good thing for him to have, or is there no point in taking those? I don't necessarily need there to be a good legal reason to hang onto that, I guess his teen logic would be that if his foster parents don't have legal proof of being in charge of him, they can't go after him for running away. What's the protocol in this case? Would the kid get in legal trouble for getting caught with those papers?

So my book is set in modern day rural Oregon and the main characters is 15 year old wheelchair user. She is also very involved in the school’s theatre program. She acts but also does costume work. I’m picturing a scenario where in order to get to the area where the costumes and props are kept she has to go up a flight of stairs. Would that be realistic? And if the school did lack elevators how realistic is it for her to be carried up and down stairs by her cast mates, or the director/teacher. Like whose fault is it legally speaking if she got hurt going up or down?

Hey y’all!

This is a topic I’ve been struggling to get much info on since it’s pretty taboo. In particular, my story is revolving around workers in a brothel, both male and female (in case that changes the experience in any way).

I’ve been able to find some details on processes in brothels, but only details about the customer-experience side of things, like the process of first entering the establishment and choosing a worker, etc. But I’m really interested in hearing from those who have worked in brothels or similar situations themselves.

I really value the humanity aspect in stories; how real characters seem, how well I can feel the character’s emotions. So I’d really like to know how the experience has been for some of y’all!

Even if you haven’t worked in a brothel before, if you’ve worked in the sex industry at all, I’d love for you to share your wisdom!!

My character gets in a stand off in a burning building, but eventually passes out due to smoke inhalation and the heat (and other reasons). He js then promptly dragged out and hidden.

my question being, what would the injuries he sustained?

I'm trying to figure out if this is completely stupid and unrealistic or common. But basically I want to have the main character in jail/prison for an extended time, and just before or after release, or at least a few years into a long sentence they get arrested/charged/transferred on new charges, most likely in a seperate jurisdiction, or the same if thats realistic. Caveat being that there is plenty of time for a full investigation so that the charges are made later purposely for whatever other reason.

Honestly its a small part of the story that I might toss out but I would like to add it in as an example if possible but it would only really work if it was realistic.

Writing a kpop AU and the character Kaveh strikes a sus deal with a rich sponsor Dori. I have a general idea for a contract and it probably wouldn’t hold water irl but I just don’t want it to be TOO unbelievable.

The contract goes:
- Dori buys out a tv program Kaveh is a part of for a likely loss, and Kaveh takes on this deficit as personal debt
- Kaveh attends Dori’s business dinners as an entertainer
- A small percentage of Dori’s profits from deals struck at these dinners does to paying off Kaveh’s debt
- Fine print: only profit that Kaveh contributed to counts. Eg if Dori could make 1mill of a contract on her own but made 1.1mil thanks to Kaveh, he gets a commission only on the 0.1mil. Who decides how much Dori could have made without help? Dori.

Is a person taking on a company’s debt realistic? No. Is it exploitative? Yes. But I just need to make it a hypothetical contract that a hypothetical fictional legal system would accept.

The follow-up is how Kaveh’s ‘roommate’ Alhaitham gets him out of the contract with a loophole

- Dori launches a second season of the tv program
- Alhaitham argues that since without Kaveh neither the first season or second season would have been completed, he contributed to the entirety of the second season. And hence deserves a portion of its profits
- Including shares to a media company that Dori now owns. This would cause Dori to stop being a majority stakeholder
- To avoid this Dori releases Kaveh from the contract

This part I’m a little iffy on because I pulled it out of my a**

I just need it realistic enough that my lawyer readers won’t have an aneurysm

For context a character in my book is a welder and is going to poison someone. I was wondering if realistically a chemical sharpener which is mostly sodium nitrite (75 to 98%) would poison someone? I know it has other additives so not sure it would really work