I’m sure someone will argue with something up above. Anyway, this is the end of the ‘Autism Awareness Month’ posts. I’m curious to know if anybody learned anything interesting about autism. Not only from my posts, but over the years or even recently. Education is the best way to get people to understand autism and not jump to harmful conclusions when interacting with someone who is autistic. Below, I’ve added any information that people have shared this month that they found interesting. Please feel free to do more in the comments.
I will say that any comments made to insult, belittle, or be any way harmful towards people with autism will be deleted. Thank you.
This might be a fairly niche topic, but we’ll see how it goes. Definitely won’t be connecting to stories that don’t have action scenes. After all, why have a weapon that can be transformed if you aren’t going to have combat?
To explain, I’m talking about a weapon that can be quickly changed into another one. I know there are some real-world weapons that can be modified using time and special kits, but that’s not what I’m thinking about. These are fictional weapons that you can change into entirely new ones. For example, the character above has one that can be turned into a halberd, boomerang, bow and arrow, giant scissors, and a kusari-gama. All different weapons combined into one.
The practicality situation is the hardest one to get over here. Most readers will argue that you can’t transform a weapon on the fly without getting hurt, so it isn’t useful. You will have to pick one version and hope it can get the job done. If not, you have to hide and change it again, which makes it a terrible weapon. So, suspending our disbelief is necessary for such a thing to work out. Thankfully, they occur primarily in fantasy and science-fiction where that’s already happening.
Magic or some kind of energy tends to be the catalyst, which counters the time it takes to transform. Simply channeling the power source or thinking of the weapon changing causes it to do so. This means it’s an instant effect, which authors will use to create some wild action scenes. I think the fluid shifting from one form to another during active combat is what makes this so appealing. There’s a sense of excitement as a character keeps switching from melee to range while battling for their lives. You feel that one wrong transformation will get them killed.
There’s an added challenge here too. The transformations have to make some kind of sense. If you are allowing the weapon to turn into anything then you need to explain how and put on limits. A sword can’t be turned into every other type of weapon in an instant without there being some limitation. Otherwise, it’s overpowered and the audience will hate the concept. For example, there was a manga long about called ‘Beet the Vandal Buster’ where the main character had 5 weapons he could summon from his soul. He couldn’t use them naturally, so he had to master each one in order to make use of this power. This isn’t a transformation, but the limitation can work. So, if the weapon is incredibly powerful, the weakness should be with the wielder.
My personal preference is to use a transforming weapon sparingly and only if it makes sense for the character. I’m actually more of a fan of giving these to villains because it’s more interesting to me. Having my heroes figure out how to counter a weapon that can change shape and use during a battle is a challenge. They have to be cautious and ready for sudden shifts in combat instead of barreling forward. Creates a chance at maturity and development for the heroes and possibly the villain who might depend on this tricky weapon too much.
What do other people think of this transforming weapon concept?
I saw an article a few months back about whales beaching themselves and nobody really knowing why. There are many theories and it’s believed each situation is a collection of different factors. Could be that the animal was sick or they got too close to shore when hunting. Others may have become confused by bad weather or a disruption to their echolocation. No real way to tell right now. Anyway, it got me thinking about what can be done if you come across a marine mammal in danger.
Beached/Stranded
Every site I found gave simple instructions:
Do not touch the animal.
Watch the animal from a safe distance and keep other people and animals away.
Figure out how to describe your exact location.
Call a local helpline to get experts to come and help the animal.
This is interesting because of the first part. It’s even said that one shouldn’t pour water on the animal, which you see many people doing. The reason is really because the animal is scared and disoriented. So, they could attack and that may lead to it being euthanized instead of saved.
Now, I have nowhere else to go with this topic. That’s because the rest of the advice for any other situation was what I already said. Yet, we see so many videos of regular people jumping in to help. I was really surprised to find out that they were running a big risk for the animal. Always looked like things were great and inspiring, but now I realize there are probably more times where this goes wrong. So, it’s good advice to not be a hands-on hero and call experts. It’s more important to keep yourself and the animal safe from each other and those that won’t be careful.
Has anybody ever come across a marine mammal in crisis? I never have, so I’m curious about the experience.
The week started off with me still in Oswego and making my way back down on Sunday. I got home with enough time to unpack, do laundry, and get to bed early. No energy or time for Darwin & the Beast Collector or Pokemon Go. I got plenty of both done while I was in Oswego. Well, 3 chapters done and May will have enough opportunities for me to finish the rest. So, I should have been rested for work, right?
My energy didn’t last long because certain entities began wearing on me almost as soon as my week started. Not really work, but it was tough getting back into the 5:30 AM wake ups and getting my son back into the schedule. Tests for him turned up quickly, so we didn’t get much time to relax. Even when he was with his mom, I ended up having to run around and got maybe 30 minutes to rest before bed. This wasn’t enough to remove my stress, so back to nocturnal panic attacks.
An added headache for me has been the opinions and actions of RFK Jr. towards those with autism. Being the parent of an autistic child and a person who works with neurodivergent students, I’ve had people ask me if I’m looking forward to him ‘curing’ them. Needless to say, I don’t hold back on the horribleness of that statement because autism is NOT a disease. It is simply how a person’s mind is wired, which can make it difficult to function in a society that wasn’t designed for much variation in perceptions and thoughts. Another atrocious part of his statements is that he seems to have people thinking ALL autistic individuals are non-verbal and unable to function. So, I’ve had a few people suggest that my son isn’t even autistic since he’s been honor roll nearly every quarter since 7th grade, All County chorus twice, and many other successes. He got them all by working his ass and sacrificing time that neurotypical students used for hanging around and relaxing. Even people who are lower on the spectrum have amazing skills such as baking and art. Yeah, my week has been filled with a lot of range and worry since this overcooked scrotum of a creature has dehumanized people I care about, including my son, and wants to make a list with them on it. Keep in mind that certain groups who pushed for purity of the species went for neurodivergent and disabled first.
Anyway, that was a rant I’ve needed to do for a while and probably another reason why I didn’t get much else done. I’m hoping to relax with my son this weekend since I don’t get a lot of time with him in May. Just how it works out. Rain today isn’t helping, but we might go out with umbrellas to enjoy the Pokemon Go events. The local library has an anime convention this weekend too, so we’re checking it out today. He’s entering the cosplay competition tomorrow afternoon as well. My car is currently in the shop getting an inspection, but I still have access to a vehicle. Doesn’t have my CD’s in it, but I’ll make due.
Speaking of my car, it did give me a headache this week. Made it to Oswego and back without a problem. Tuesday morning, the check engine light goes on. I hate that thing because it’s so vague, but it seems to be fixed. An added frustration is that I wanted to get it inspected this month in order to switch it from May to April. I have many more free days in April to get it done, so this is better. Need to get a new registration too, but I can’t until I know the car is drivable. So much money going towards a machine that has terrible timing with its problems.
This coming week is going to be wilder than the previous one. Monday is when my school hosts a special event for life skills classes, so I’m going to be outside and running around the whole time. I need to do some major food shopping because I’m going to be in charge of dinners for a lot of May. Made a full 2.5 week menu to make sure I don’t buy anything I don’t need. This also means I have less time after work for Pokemon, editing, resting, and the like. Sure, I could make simple meals, but I want to cart out my big guns like penne with vodka sauce, sweet and sour meatballs, and restaurant style chicken lo mein. I’m going to attempt pepperoni pizza lasagna rolls too. On top of ALL of this, I’m helping with our students’ first away basketball game. That is going to be a really long day where I get home late, so it’ll be a quick dinner and bed to make it through Friday. So, I’m definitely going to be resting as much as possible next weekend . . . Outside of a Pokemon Go event on Saturday. Really wish using my exercise bike counted for distance on this thing.
Goals of the week?
Make it through all of the events.
Help my son with homework.
Food shopping.
Cooking.
Sleeping.
Editing Darwin & the Beast Collector if possible.
Remember the plan to ‘fix’ Rayne’s background.
Exercise whether it be Pokemon Go walking or bike.
(Long ago, I had the time and energy to play a bunch of video games. Probably wasn’t the biggest gamer, but I enjoyed the hobby. Now, I barely play unless my son is here, so all I have are the memories.)
I remember quests
Along the dangerous roads
Of many pixelated worlds
That was a click away
I walked with heroes
As they grew into their roles
And rid their world of evil
Fighting villains of great vision
I grafted these vast tales
Upon my deepest thoughts
Wanting them to stay
As I grew into older roles
These became the stories
That I dreamed of every night
Until they faded back
Coated by life’s winding path
These memories are not dead
They sleep beneath my skin
Easily stirred to mind
By half a melody
That calls it to my eyes
Edged with wanting tears
For the worlds I left behind
And may never play again
Keeping a story flowing is more difficult than people realize. In fact, I think there are multiple threats to this essential of storytelling. These are from my own experience, so I’m sure there are more.
Concurrent Adventures
This is when an author has multiple storylines happening at the same time. You can’t have them occurring at the same time on the same page, so you have to jump around. This can create a lot of jerky story flow. It’s inevitable to have a bit, so the goal with this issue is to reduce the breaking to a point where it’s tolerable. This means, you can’t spend too much time on one story unless the other is much less important. Even then, you can’t be away for too long or the tension creating for the ignored one will disappear. Try to create a pattern for jumping and use cliffhangers and temporary closure to make sure you aren’t creating loose threads.
Overuse of Cliffhangers
I know I just said to use cliffhangers, but there are limits. If you keep stopping with suspense and moving on, the audience will become numb. This creates a flow that repeatedly hits a wall and has to restart. So, you have to use them sparingly and as surprises. Keep in mind that I’m talking about big cliffhangers and not the mild ones you may find at the end of a chapter. There’s a difference between transitions and cliffhangers, which I should probably make a post about in the future.
Adding or Subtracting for Page or Word Count
Longer than I’ve been writing, people have noted which page and word counts constitute a novel, short story, or novella. So, an author aiming for one of those categories might pad or condense their story. If you add too much then you create a sluggish flow due to there being extraneous words and scenes. If you squeeze things together, the flow may seem rushed with minimal or no character development. The answer to this is to write the story as you see fit without focusing on size. Alterations can be made with editing, but you still risk this issue. Best to just write and see how it comes out.
Too Many Characters in the Spotlight
Similar to the multiple storyline issue, you can really mess up the flow if you have too many characters fighting for attention. I’ve run into this situation with my big casts and wanting to have everyone be noticed in every scene. The flow becomes a ping-pong ball getting launched from one paragraph to the other. My answer to this was accepting that not everyone character had to be present or active during a scene. So, someone characters might only say one line that was important or be noted as hanging around while others do the legwork. Having mild temperament characters that can be left in the background until needed helps here too.
Author Perception
This is a challenge to recognize. Basically, the author feels that the story is flowing really well, but it ends up being fractured for the reader. How could this happen? Well, the author knows the whole story on some level. They know where it’s going and what they want to do with it in some way. Their mind will fill in the gaps to make one think that the flow is perfect or at least steady. Best way to counter this is with beta readers or at least focusing on if things are connecting well while editing.
Legends of Windemere 