r/Writeresearch

I know this is a really weird question but i have a protagonist whos a white cop in 70s and the story is like pretty woke, but i realised just how much the time period and position would affect his character and how he'd react or feel about certain things. For the least racist part, I'm moreso asking about the degrees of racism and what was possibly the mildest or least intense (assuming there was no '100% not racist' option back then), the character will be educated and learn to move on with it though, ofcourse.

So I'm a woman and have a full head of hair, which is not the case for one particular character in my novel. There is no chemotherapy or anything involved, just bad genetics. I can only imagine how hard it is to be losing your hair no matter your gender, I just feel like men get zero sympathy for it? So I really want to write this well and would really appreciate it if any of you could share your expiriences, again, no matter your gender, but especially men. Just wanted to add, this is not the main focus of the story nor the main issue, the guy in question is the protagonist's husband, and the novel is mostly about her, but this is just something I wanted to feature. Thanks in advance <33

Full disclosure: I used to hold a CDL, thirty-plus years back, in the days of the second logbook and similar. I didn't stick with it long, and I was never actually pulled over and cited.

I'm working on a story now in which a corrupt sheriff and some of his deputies are providing "protection" to a commercial chop shop specializing in very heavy equipment, which they re-tag and clandestinely ferry at night to the nearest barge port for shipment down to Central America and such. The story begins with a trucker, already on notice for a previous data logger violation, just about out of hours but nearing a truck stop on the old US highway which has a space available for him...when he sees the biggest front-end loader he can ever remember being trucked, without lights or escort, down a deserted back road...and it's North Carolina (where ANY oversize/permit move after dark is illegal). Just then, a county deputy pulls him over, and proceeds to give him the ticky-tack treatment while completely ignoring the monster oversize load proceeding on its way to the barge dock in nearby Tennessee.

Just like to hear some of the more outrageous examples you've encountered from either real life or the grapevine?

I am working on several fan projects based on Barbara Gordon/Oracle that fully embrace her status as a full-time wheelchair user (I'd love to do something official - It's an extremely long shot, but we can all dream, can't we?) A key part of these would be learning as much as possible about Barara Gordon's disabilties and the way they work. How would the Joker's close-range bullet to the spine (a bullet that was deliberately filled with less gunpowder to ensure it caused paralysis rather than death) specifically paralyse Barbara? How would the time spent on the floor being tormented by the Joker exacerbate the injuries?

I would be interested in learning more about the specifics of Barbara's daily life as Oracle (which DC Comics understandably glossed over somewhat during the Oracle era).

- How much would the pain disrupt her daily life?

- How much would it affect things like going to the toilet?

- What would the effects of the disability be in the first few months - how would they be managed longer-term?

- How would Barbara work to maintain her health to ensure that her disabilities do not have any adverse effect on her life expectancy?

- What specific forms of training can Barbara do?

- What disability networks would she be part of?

- Would Barbara be able to do anything with her lower body at all?

- Barbara didn't get into many Damsel-in-Distress situations as Oracle (The Black Mirror and being captured by Spellbinder in the Black Canary/Batgirl early Birds of Prey story are two notable exceptions) but if she did get into peril, how would she try to escape it herself - would she be able to untie restraints on her legs?

If I spend long enough on AO3, I can find some fanfics that explore these, but I would like to go to the source and hear from people who know more about the topic and can provide me with information or direct me to relevant links. I would also be interested in being directed to the comics stories that specifically highlight the various aspects of daily life with her disabilties.

I would also like to learn more about other ways to disable Oracle - move away from "The Joker Shot Her In The Spine" to look at different causes...

Aside from the main DC Continuity, there are some adapted takes on Oracle that DON'T use the traditional approach, but tend to be pretty vague about the nature of the injuries that paralysed her (an unspecified "accident", a gunshot from a random heavy) - the Adaptation of Oracle with the most detailed alternative explanation of her paralysis is Young Justice, but that raises a few questions of its own - How would that sword sever her spine without damaging any internal organs?

How could explosions or car accidents cause a level of paralysis similar to the comics? What additional complications would there be?

It's a lot of questions, but I'd love to see them all answered...

I have a character in Texas who passes on a threat through a third party in Mexican Spanish.

The line is something like:
'You tell him I said: watch out'

Where 'watch out' is written as the Spanish equivalent but the 'You tell him I said' remains in English.

I've spent a long time Googling this and the best word seems to be 'aguas', but the more I read, the less certain I'm becoming!

Would 'aguas' work?

'You tell him I said: aguas.'

Thank you!