u/Witty_Upstairs4210

Hello! I am a historical romance author writing about a blacksmith with inattentive ADHD (though of course, he wouldn't have that label back in the 1830s).

I'm curious, if you have ADHD, how that affects your blacksmithing experience. Are there things you forget? Are you clumsy with anything in particular? Does hyperfocus show up for you?

Super special bonus question - my blacksmith forces himself to spend time with the love interest in order to desensitize himself to her. Her passing by the forge led to some kind of accident that left the blacksmith with a scar. When he was apprenticing, he heard so many horror stories of accidents killing or maiming people. So, to keep them both safe, he decides that spending more time with her one-on-one should mitigate the situation (spoiler, it really won't).

I've written out several bullet points that I'm working through, but having the input of real blacksmiths like you would be amazing.

• What does his current state of being overly sensitive to her look like? How does it manifest in the forge?
• How would he know he would succeed in desensitizing himself to her? What would "winning" look like?
• What does progress look like?
• What does a mistake look like?
• What does the worst case scenario look like? (I'm assuming some kind of accident that hurts them both).

Mods, I know this is probably not the normal content, but I'm so hoping that this can be allowed and that real blacksmiths (and especially blacksmiths that have experience at living history museums/reenactments!) can weigh in.

Thank you for reading this post!

I'm designing my own patterns and starting from just a single sample size (which I'll have to grade up and down for all sizes, after I polish the mock-up). My sketches are currently small in Illustrator. For example, I've sketched out a skirt on a 5" Illustrator canvas, but I know the center front of the skirt needs to be 100" and everything else in the sketch would be sized up proportionally.

How should I prepare a file for projecting, if it is not a finished sewing pattern, and it's just a single layer of pattern piece outlines from Illustrator? Do I save it as a smaller PDF and then scale up the whole thing in the projector? Or, do I make a PDF that is actually a 100" long and then project that?

About a week out from my period, I suddenly "feel autistic." Like my social skills drop. I lose the ability to mask. I stare at people instead of smiling. I'm less able to cope with stressors. I can't do a conversation where there's another one happening next to me. I'm more likely to have panic attacks and physically stim when stressed. My thoughts spiral and OCD is hellacious. Everything feels raw and exposed.

I'm autistic (and ADHD) all the time, but somehow right now the autistic side is winning.