DO NOT ATTEMPT TO HELP SOLVE THIS SITUATION IRL PLEASE, I'M JUST ASKING IF IT IS POSSIBLE/BELIEVABLE!

A character in my story is basically a Mithridates (the guy who microdosed on various poisons to make himself immune/resistant to them) who uses wine made from toxic berry plants to kill their enemies.

But I'm not sure if the toxins would get through the fermenting process, or if the chemicals would be diluted/evaporated/counteracted/etc.

I've tried to research this scenario and nothing has come up, though I'm probably on the FBI's radar now.

I was wondering if an epi-pen could be used instead of adrenaline to stop a drug overdose. I’ve tried to google but it keeps giving me bloody helplines instead of telling me the answer.

I want to give one of my characters a job as a janitor or custodian. I'm thinking he works outside of normal business hours, preferably in the early morning, in a building that's mostly empty. An office before the employees are at work, or something.

Most of the information I've been able to find has been about custodians who work in schools during the day while the kids are there, so it doesn't fully apply.

I'm wondering:

1. What kind of building might he be working in? I would guess office or retail space is plausible, but is it more likely to be one building, or several different locations he visits during a shift? Would some types of organization pay better than others?
2. What would the hours be like? When might his shifts start and end? It doesn't necessarily have to be full-time.
3. How much would he be interacting with other people while working?
4. Any anecdotes or other information about what this kind of job is like would also be helpful.

Setting is Boston, early 1990s, without any fantasy or sci-fi elements. Level of accuracy is "generally plausible," so I can kind of make up whatever I want, but I'm looking for some real-life examples to use as a starting point for that.

A character of mine wants to mess up a rival's engine, but needs something subtle. Instead of keeping the car from starting like sugar in the tank or a potato in the tailpipe, they want to destroy the engine during a race in a way that can't be repaired easily. Something like draining the oil and coolant so it seizes up and welds together

I want to have a character that failed to learn to read as a child due to dyslexia. As far as my research, dyslexia was not even defined, much less understood, until later.

My character thinks he is 'stupid' but he does learn to read eventually, taught by a schoolteacher. How would someone go about teaching an adult with dyslexia to read, when they have no understanding of the disability?

Any help or shedding light on someone's experience with dyslexia would be very helpful. I've done research but I am struggling to 'get into the head' of someone with dyslexia.

I'm writing about a boy who commits suicide and intends to leave evidence against his family. What kind of poison can kill someone painlessly and how can make a suicide look like a crime scene?

Not too sure on what flair I should add on this since it's my first time reaching out to anybody about this, so, I'll just put that there.

Long story short, I'm just some bored Highschooler trying to get into story writing. I'm taking Creative Writing this year, and I plan to keep on doing that depending on if the next semester goes well. I'm trying to write in first person, but it just gets so confusing some times. Not some times, all the time. I want to make a story that you can feel. Something you can connect to, and somewhat feel personally bound to. It's like making a friend. You don't know them at first, but as you grow to become inseparable, you start to feel connected. It's ambitious, especially with what experience I have, but that's why I'm asking around. Every time I type, it feels wordy. Like "I went out and [X] then went and did [Y]", or "I [X] this and went to do [Y]". It feels monotonous in a way. Boring, repetitive, all the above for what you don't want a story to get. Then describing adjectives and what not gets limiting for me. Here's an excerpt, around 640 something words; please bare with it if you do read it. It's basically a Fanfic off of some game. I like the concept, and my plan is to basically put you into the eyes of a normal guy. A soldier. It's only the start of the entire story, so I'm sorry again if you don't have any context or background. I was told that if you write first person, the reader learns with the character.

"What is this."
It was more of a demand than a question, but I couldn't help myself from sounding so forward at the face of this odd stranger who had started chatting me up while I was by my usual post spot. The coins in my hands were like nothing I had seen before in my time around the Landship. The coins in hand were about 4-ish centimeters in diameter, which was a bit bigger than what the chervonets we usually used around here were. They were also given a more 'metallic' like coloring. Imagine the taste of metal, then imagine stone. That was the color of the coin. It even had dentils on the thin part of the coin, which wasn't something our coins had that were in circulation. Hell. It was pretty heavy for a coin, too. A ounce and a half if I had to guess.

The woman ahead of me shrugged, her fluffy oaky-bark bangs bobbing like a floater above a calm pond as she did.

"A florin," She brushed her lazy lob with the hand she had given the coin to me with while she started to explain, pushing past the fluffy, pointed looking Lupo ears that ordained her head every time her fingers ran through it. 

"it's a form of currency from where I'm from."

"Where're you from?"

"Brunello."

"Sounds Siracusan."

She gave me a sort of look. The kind you would give to someone stating the obvious.

"Because it's a city from Siracusa."

That made sense.

She stopped brushing her fluffy looking hair after she spoke, now standing there with her arms crossed under her nonexistent chest with a slightly prideful look. You could mistake the look for pouting if you wanted to.

"Oh. Lovely. Is it as good as the travel magazines make them to be?"

"Depends. Which city was the magazine for? Volsinii, Palermo, Florentia?" She tilted her head left from where I was, looking somewhat curious for my response.

I couldn't really tell if I was being honest. I had only skimmed through one of them once in my entire lifetime. And that was while my then girlfriend took me out to the library along with a group of her friends to talk and hang out. I was bored, and I didn't understand whatever girl-talk they were having, and the travel magazine was the closest thing to me that looked like it had pictures. So, I flit through that sucker for a few seconds until I got bored again, and tossed it away. All I remember were some bushes, a slightly blurry tree, a old man doing a thumbs up in front of some sign, and a admittedly beautiful scenic view with a vibrant forest under the orange lights of the afternoon sun that was at the end of the mag. But asides from that, I didn't really have any other memory of the magazine. Let alone something like a name. 

"The one with spikey trees. The one with acres of land with rows of bushes and the sort." That was a three point shot if you wanted to compare my explanation with a basketball term. Trust me.

She heard my response, then all of the curiosity left her body like a candle being snuffed out. Like a finger to a wick.

She gave me the "What the fuck are you talking about??" look, along with the subtle small mouth drop, before she shook her head, probably wounded and baffled at my info-lacking response.

"What are you on about??" Her voice raised slightly from the normal conversation-sounding level we had going earlier.

"I don't know about you. You asked, and I gave you what I know." I gave my own shrug. I didn't think a conversation with a foreigner could be this entertaining.

"You could have just told me you didn't know about what city the magazine was about."  Exasperation was the tone.

"But I did know." I insisted. 

"Know? What was there to know??" Now, it was frustration.

"About the city the magazine was about."

"You call that 'knowing' anything about this supposed city??" 

So that's all I have so far, and I had to stop to go and proof read it again. And something about it just doesn't feel right. I'm not sure if it's boring, wordy, all of that, or not any of that, and it's really messing me up right now. Some example books I've gotten some inspiration from for First Person POV were "The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)", "To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)", and "The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins)". I need some criticism and perspective, badly, so if you have any idea on what I could do to improve, please don't sugarcoat it. Was it interesting? Did you feel bored quickly? That sort of thing. Please, and Thank you, in advance.

Basically, they have a very sweet and genuine relationship during their high school years (2 to 3 years at least), and not just based on lust but a loving connection. Their partner passes away before or when turning 18, and they are so affected by the loss that they can't quite move on and fall in love again even with the passage of time.

So picture someone in their late 20s/early 30s still hung up on their teenage love that was taken away from them by a tragedy, and not just a break-up. Is it actually believable? Does it come off as "creepy" because the image they have of their former love is eternally young? I would also appreciate any accounts from people who actually went through this, if they exist. Thank you in advance :)

I am writing a story where its protagonists are Muslims (non-Arabs).

The axis of the history is something called the "Miracle Energy" of which one of the protagonists is a bearer. He (53) never knew of the existence of this power, he grew up as an ordinary human being with his passions and ideals as well as someone who does not consider himself perfect but a rebel with motivations to free his country from the corruption of his government but as a simple citizen. After being taken to a different universe and discovering the power he possesses and giving him some free rein, he doesn't know what his purpose is, why him? why nobody else? The prophet had mentioned that there would be no more prophets after him, so many doubts pass through his head that he decides to ask for help from another of the protagonists, this is a young man of 27 years considered as a spiritual guide in the mosque to which he frequently went, some people who were brought to that universe along with them hope that the bearer of this great unknown power will take them back home, this giving even more pressure to the 53-year-old protagonist. I need to know what Muslims would do in such a situation. This is the beginning of a larger conflict and one of the heaviest dilemmas ever addressed "The Suffering of Becoming a God," I want to respect the beliefs of Muslims and personally I admire them hence I want to write about them in my books and stories, there are many more heavy problems dealt with in this story maybe I will return to this sub to answer some doubts while I keep writing this. I would like to personally discuss several of the issues that this story deals with some Muslim (Malaysian preferably since it is the nationality of the protagonists), since I live in a mostly Catholic country I do not have easy access to its culture and I want to be as respectful as possible and at the same time not ruin the message of the work.

I know it seems like a basic question but I really couldn't find a good descriptive answer.

What does a punch to the chest feel like at the moment it happens, compared to the following hours / days? Will the area hurt occasionally when you move or touch it like any other bruise or be a constant issue due to being so close to the lungs, hurt and other vital organs?

How likely is it that a normal person's punch will cause a rib fracture or something like that? (I'm not going for it but rather want to avoid anything critical or long term, the accuracy matters though)

Edit: I know it can range and depends on the exact conditions. I don't have a spreadsheet mapping my characters' weight, height and exactly how the hit was done. The fact that it depends is great because I'm up for tweaking the circumstances to get the right affect, which matters to me more than the physics lol

I’m looking for information on what the querying process was like in 2003-2005. Anyone in here have first hand knowledge of the process back before we had access to query manager? Did agents depend on email only submissions or was snail mail still a valid and effective model of querying? What did the world of literary agency look like 20 years ago? What was the correspondences like between a new agent/new author relationship?

Hi yall, I have a question about an injury that a character has. She gets a pretty deep cut from an arrow, and ends up passing out and sleeping for two days (the sleeping is because of a potion, not the injury itself). When she wakes up, she gets in an argument with someone and ends up standing and angrily pacing around. Is it reasonable for her to start bleeding through her bandages at that point given the sudden movement?

One of the subplots in my current novel involves one main character having dyslexia, and the other figuring it out. I wanted to check that the way both the background of the dyslexic character and how it affects his life, and the way the other character figures it out both ring true.

The character with dyslexia has two very rich parents who hold their children to very high standards, and don't show them much love. He enjoyed a very privileged upbringing, but they had no patience for understanding his condition or why it took longer for him to learn things.

He didn't get a diagnosis until the age of eighteen, and then they threw some private tutors at him and assumed that had made the "problem" go away. It caused a rift between him and them that made him a lot less willing to accept the path that had been mapped out for him. He projects an image of being a devil-may-care wastrel while and appears to accept their view of him as being a failure, while feeling increasingly aware of and disgusted by the unethical side of the family fortune and finding ways to rebel (by becoming a glamorous phantom thief, but that's not directly relevant).

.

This is how his own view of his dyslexia (before the other character helps him to a more positive view of himself) is described in the novel.

Whenever he mentioned his dyslexia—and that wasn’t often—it was something to be skimmed over nice and quickly. Yeah sure, I’ve got problems reading, but I’m handsome, I’m rich and I can make people laugh. What do I need to read for?

.

And when it comes to how the other character figures it out, these are the clues she uses:
--He struggles to read a menu written in an unusual font.
--He prefers reading graphic novels and comic books (they're easier for him to read, though she initially sees it as a sign of immaturity).
--He needs her help reading some very fine text etched into the bottom of a clock.

So essentially...does this feel plausible for people with a deeper knowledge of dyslexia than me? It's not a huge plot point, but it does inform a lot of how the character became the way he is, and I want to make sure I get it right.

Thank you!

I'm writing a short story where a character wants to stop thinking for themselves, lose fear and anxiety, and only focus on working to provide for others. This character has people they need to provide for, but their own fears, anxieties, and selfish wants get in the way. Are there any real life drugs that would make them stop wanting things for themselves or should I make one up?

Hi!

In this story I'm writing, there's a teenager who was kidnapped by a gang. When she was rescued, the other characters realized that she wasn't speaking. Later on, she found out that her parents were murdered, which further added to her trauma. The main character determined that everything she had gone through triggered a form of traumatic mutism. Over the course of the story, she is adopted by the main character who takes good care of her. During a high-stress moment, she regains her ability to speak (albeit hoarsely and with much difficulty).

I'd like to know if the scenario is realistic or at least possible, since this is a contemporary crime fic. And if it's also possible for someone like her to eventually regain her speech without professional intervention?

Thank you!

I'm writing a fantasy novel where my female protagonist ended up lost in mythological realms parallel to earth. She's had a number of adventures there and finally found a way home, but it was a Mesopotamian mythological figure who pointed out how to get out. Long story short, I want her to come out at an archeological site in Northern Iran, not far from the Turkish border. She's an American, with entry stamps on her passport into Bulgaria, and from there into Turkey, but now she's in Iran with limited funds.

Is there a realistic way to get her back across the border, or should I change things up to avoid writing her into a corner? Narratively speaking, she's a thief, and pretty street savvy, and I wanted to use this as a way to up the stakes and push her to the limits of her comfort zone, but I also like the mythology I'm playing with for the fantasy parts, since it's not as overdone as the more common fantasy tropes.

So, am I writing myself into a corner, or can an American street kid and thief with limited local knowledge realistically smuggle herself across one of the most guarded modern borders?

(Edit: when I say street kid, I mean she grew up on the streets, not that she's currently a kid... she's in her mid 20s.)

Im writing another short story for fight. My MC fells from a balcony into bushes. He survives but breaks 3 ribs, bruises his knee and cant walk. Also some scratches, gashes and cuts.

The character that I'm writing is American, but with arab (Pakistani Iraqi) heritage. She is raised by a single mother and they're not religious, but have some Muslim family members. I'm having her mom call her "habibti" as a term of endearment, and was wondering if that is correct or if there is a better alternative I should use? I know "habibi" is masculine and "habibti" is feminine, and they are used as terms of affection in general.

I don't know a whole lot about arab culture, and it's not important to the story. I just thought it would be neat to sprinkle it in, and I want to get it right.

I'm writing a character who has the power to coat his skin with a thin layer of whatever chemical element is most present in whatever he's touching (half an inch thick layer at most, he won't grow significantly larger). Basically this trope, but only pure elements. Not complex materials. Additionally, I arbitrarily limited his power to not working on carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, or nitrogen.

Now for the million dollar question: which element would give him the most protection in hand-to-hand combat?

We're talking knives, swords, billy clubs, baseball bats. Even just punches and kicks. Don't worry about how hard it is for him to obtain samples of the element, as long as it's not highly radioactive. Remember, carbon is banned.

Google has turned up varying results. I'm not sure if I'm looking at tensile strength, or resistance to pure pressure, or something else. Would a bat even be strong enough to crack tungsten, which is notably quite strong but also brittle? Is it better if the material cracks or bends under pressure? Is one element better against piercing attacks, and another better at repelling blunt force?

Bonus: is there an element that could make him bulletproof or bullet-resistant? What about Taser-proof?

Idk what to flair this as and if this seem offensive I’m so sorry and didn’t intend for it to come off bad

So I have a character and I was trying to think of there childhood and why they ended up the way they are Then I thought of them having a near death experience when they were young and I was thinking they would have a bad fall and if it would be near death then it would have some lasting impact and I was thinking they would likely end up with brain damage or something? Tho if that’s not how it works I’m sorry you can help give me other options I was wondering if it would be possible for this character to run a cult if they had slight brain damage like what are some challenges would they face?

Once again I’m so sorry if this comes off as rude

An idea for the character I have is that he manipulates the main character because the main character has slight delusions and he ( cult guy ) would use that as a way of manipulating him and I was trying to look up how that would work?

If the top on is not nice I won’t do it and I’m sorry if it comes off that way

JUST THOUGHT maybe the manipulation is not “intentional” but he would cause influence? ( cult guy) still does bad things intentionally tho ( sorry )

i've been trying to google this for a full day, but no matter how i phrase it, the search results just keep spitting out the same information about what CAUSES cancer. the character already HAS the cancer from environmental pollution and chemical exposure, plus a genetic predisposition to it in the first place.

what i need to know is if a sudden change towards a HEALTHIER environment (living a much more sedentary life due to more leisure time, increased intake of food and water due to new access to food, access to foods much more rich in sugars/fats, etc) could cause the growth of a cancer to accelerate to the point of metastatizing within 6-12 months. if not, i would like to know what other factors could cause an extremely slow-growing cancer to transition into one able to spread rapidly across the body.

pardon if this message is overly tense, i have tried every way to search this under the sun and the ONLY things i manage to pull up is cancer-causing risk factors. rest assured, google, the cancer is happening! this is not the question i am asking!!!

My characters, teenage nerds, living in the 2000s make homemade experiments, bombs, machines and stuff like that. What do they have to put in it to unintentionally kill a homeless man?
This is a serious question, I suck at chemistry. < 3

i'm writing a story where someone wakes up in the hospital. she's a burn victim and passed out before the ambulance arrived. would they have given her painkillers before she woke up, or would they have to wait until after? all google was giving me was stuff about anesthesia and people exploring end of life care, which isn't what i'm looking for. ultimately this is a small detail since i'm gonna be exploring the logistics about the rest of her life after this scene, but i'd still like to know so i don't get it wrong lol.

I need a way for a secret communication (can be one way) to occur from a submarine to another place (land or water). The information can be as simple, just one ping or something that can be used to communicate location.

I know that most electromagnetic waves are attuned by water, and very low frequencies are kind of hard to use for the plot, soundwaves are ofc very much detectable. Also pretty much anything will be detected by the submarine. There's magnetism, MAD and such but im not sure how that would actually work in relaying information. There's also maybe parametric/focus speakers.
Any scifi way that's still within the realm of possibility would be good to explore but I'm not too knowledgeable on underwater communication or what would be possible to use and in what way to avoid detection/prevent.
Many thanks!!

Edit: To clarify, a spy on the submarine needs to communicate without the submarine being privy to it (atleast for a good duration), and said communication needs to be long range. Thank you to the people that have answered so far! I defiantly got some good ideas from this!!

Might be an oldtimer, I'm not sure yet. I imagine oldtimer parts can be pretty hard to get?

I don't know the first thing about cars. I just need my guy to stay long enough to fall in love with the mechanic.

I want a scene in book 2 of my trilogy where characters try to rebuild something resembling the internet. I'm not sure how they'd do that; the internet exists because all sorts of workers and technicians maintain various hardware. Something akin to Starlink might work if they could salvage devices from somewhere but I'm unsure - how long would a satellite last without anyone maintaining it?

I've tried to research into this, but haven't found a definitive answer and would appreciate guidance and/or information.
Essentially, I have a character who utilizes cybernetic prosthetics made of metal and fiberglass for his right arm and leg. Because they need to charge, he has a more typical prosthetic he'll use if he's woken up at night and expected to move. (His lack of a right arm makes crutches or a wheelchair unrealistic.)
There's a key scene for the plot that involves the group of characters he's associated with waking up at night, and as such, he'll be walking around with a leg made of plastic and fiberglass instead. In my brain, I feel like the weight difference would cause a limp, but I'm not sure.

Im working on a world for a series I'm writing. It's got your swords, sorcery, dragons, the works. I also understand it's a little silly but I do want certain aspects of this world to be believable.

So with that, I'm wondering is it possible for a world orbiting a gas giant to have the properties of an eyeball planet? When I say properties I'm referring specifically to the hot side, cold side, with a narrow band in between that has the optimal conditions for life.

I had specific ideas for culture and religion based around the idea of the gas giant so I was hoping it would be doable. Plus I think that would be the coolest and most terrifying thing to see on the daily.

(before I begin, even I am confused on what kind of genre this is) I'm working on something that involves a main character death -he bleeds out from a gunshot wound to his side- and eventually an unearthing of said body. It's constant winter in this environment with a good two feet of snow on the ground at all times. I'd assume that the temperature of the ground would pretty much preserve him (the body) but I'm not sure what it would feel like to touch him -and eventually saw his head off with an axe. Or what he'd look like really (from previous research I believe after the blood pools at the back of his body he'd be pale, maybe blue-purple?) If anybody has any thoughts/imput that would help, it'd be much appreciated!

My story takes place in Boston, USA. My MC’s are beginning their first year of College (they’re American) in December.

Their friend committed suicide 7 months prior to the events of the story and they were planning on attending a college with their friend. The main girls all got waitlisted besides their friend. Later in December, they all got accepted. Could they start college that very spring semester? Is there any legal issues behind this?