29 May 2015

Writing Resources: The Introduction


I’m one of those writers who loves research, but I’m also a little bit hesitant about writing diversely. Then I realised that there are aspects of my person that are diverse. In some ways, I’m pretty average — I’m a 19 year old female, I’m half-Australian half-British, and a student. In other ways, I’m a little bit different — I have anxiety, I lost my mum to cancer, I’ve been a Type One Diabetic for almost six years and (something I’ve never mentioned here) I have a disability that affects my ability to walk. This isn’t a pity party though, I’m mentioning all this because I want to start sharing my experience of these things with other people, other writers specifically, in the hope that it’ll help somebody.

I know things like this exist on the internet already, but sometimes I think that the websites you find for research can be very informative, even clinical. Sure, that’s great sometimes but I personally think the best kind of writing resources come from real people. The resources I’m going to be writing are going to be that kind — the real kind. I’m not going to tell you the scientific reasons behind Diabetes (not that I even know them), but I’ll tell you how difficult injecting yourself four times a day can be, about Diabetes burnout and other general sucky things.


For the things I’m not confident in I’ll be sharing resources I’ve found on my many travels of the internet. If there’s something you’d like to write about whether you’d prefer to post on your own blog or guest post for us, just shoot me an email and we’ll work something out. Similarly, if there’s something in particular you’d like to see then leave a comment and I’ll do my best to find something to help you out.


Comments (3)

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I don't think I could handle diabetes - I really, really do not like needles pointing at me. I was diagnosed with an allergy last year and had to have numerous blood tests done up until January this year, when they took about 10 vials of blood. It was HORRIBLE. And it didn't help, since cold urticaria doesn't really show up in the blood! (Basically, I'm allergic to the cold.)

When I first started getting rashes, I had no idea what was happening. I couldn't tell what it was that was causing them. It took weeks of getting rashes in breezes and air conditioning to start thinking it could be the cold, and then I thought I was crazy! The best resource I stumbled across online was actually a blog post written by someone with the primary kind (so, from birth). The real talk and advice was a lot more helpful than the few clinical resources I found (since the allergy is fairly rare and unstudied).

This ties into what I recently wrote in my ABEA introductory post about diversity. Everyone is unique. You may have many of the same components as someone else, but there will always be something different, or those components will be rearranged slightly. I love it when authors acknowledge this diversity. Ok, sure, have another white girl as your protagonist, but acknowledge all the people out there with allergies or diseases. Why not have a character kick ass with diabetes?

Sorry, long comment!
1 reply · active 517 weeks ago
I love that you're allergic to the cold and you live in England. It's just too good. (But I'm also really sorry you have to deal with it)

I totally agree with your last point there. I feel diseases, disorders, allergies and the like are very rarely dealt with in fiction. I'm totally all for characters of colour and different sexualities, but I want to see more novels about these kinds of things too. Cancer has such a big presence in literature so why don't these other conditions?

I'd loved your long comment, Dani :P
I think this is a great idea, and I speak from experience when I say these type of posts invite a lot of people to come out and share their stories with you, too. Which is amazing, because it makes the both of you feel less alone. :)

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