The Introverted Detective

We talk about mental health awareness, but as a writer, how do you write a character with  depression? What does that look like, thought-wise? Let's dive into that. Depression is defined as a mood disorder causing persistent dark, sad thoughts and loss of interest, according to the Mayo Clinic. That being said, I know several examples of people you would never guess had depression. There is such a thing as "masking" your true thoughts and emotions. It also causes one to isolate and distance themselves from the support they might have. One reason to check in on someone with this disorder is that they may be battling dark thoughts alone. Most successful suicides that were caused by depression happened with no warning or an alarming, sudden peace.  What Others See When it comes to character building, be aware some people do talk about their depression and seek help. Some also suffer alone and wear a "mask" until it becomes too terrible to deal wit...

Toxic masculinity is a term we hear often, especially when connected to mental illness and men. It is created by society and can be damaging to someone's mental health, but what is it? Today I'm going to break down the idea of toxic masculinity. I've mentioned this idea briefly in previous blogs (PTSD and gender in film). It refers to a particularly harmful concept of what real men should be, including aggressive dominance and not showing emotions (thus, not releasing them). "The Man Box" The man box can be best explained as a constricting list of standards for manhood. I'm going to list out some of what these can be before I continue. 1. no vulnerability  2. strong at all times  3. only anger-related emotions can be shown   4. no signs of weakness  5. aggressive and powerful are good   Most of these can be summed up as not being "feminine", emotional, weak, or vulnerable. What happens when someone doesn't conform to t...

As an avid reader of introvert blogs, and an introvert, I know that being wired differently isn't easy in a society built by extroverts. I have nothing against extroverts, never have, but the fact remains that being wired differently makes life harder. What's the difference between an introvert and extrovert? I have a previous blog on that topic if you're confused or don't know the difference. If you click on the archives it will be there. This post is about writing introverts, specifically from the perspective of an introvert. Everyday conversations When it comes to personal friends, we can talk your ear off or be completely comfortable sitting beside someone, but when it comes to people we just met or large crowds we can become bored, lonely, or uncomfortable, which then leads us to be quieter, and instead turn our attention to the dog in the living room or reading people in silence. Comfortable silence is sitting beside a friend reading; uncomfortable ...

Recently, my boyfriend's family introduced me to several Youtube channels involving people exploring abandoned places. It looked fun, I told my boyfriend. Then he mentioned mold and how you have to do your research on where you are going, that you have to be careful. Without further ado, I present the dangers and fun of exploring abandoned places. First of all, is it legal? Let's start there. Do Your Research When going to do this, you need to ask yourself whether you will be trespassing on someone's property. You can see my blog on self-defense for a glimpse of what can happen when you do (Castle doctrine, they can shoot you in Ohio!). While you can gain rights by trespassing for a long time (squatting is the term), it is extremely frowned upon to do that. So is breaking and entering. No Trespassing sign and padlocks mean one thing: STOP! In short, you may want to do some legal searching to see if anyone, alive or dead, owns/owned the property, and who it ...

We all know about Ted Bundy being real, but what else in media was based on real-life crimes? I know I said I'd talk about Arsenic and Old Lace, but another blogger already did, so I looked around at some other cases of true-crime-turned-film. Most of what I found was obvious and horror-related, but here is what I found, obvious or not. Psycho, a film that has terrified many, was based on a real-life crime, which, frankly, terrifies me. Also, the movies The Boston Strangler, American Psycho, and Halloween. Let's start with one I led with. Psycho This Alfred Hitchcock film stars Norman Bates, but it was actually based on Ed Gein. Gein was also obsessed with his own mother. Some experts have said he used women's skin to dress like his late mother. Terrified yet? Yeah, me too.  In 1957 a woman named Bernice Worden went missing, and Gein was last to see her alive. The police later found her and other womens' remains in his farmhouse. This guy also exhume...

I recently saw a mug on Pinterest that said "this may contain Iocaine powder", but is Iocaine an actual poison? Inconceivable! It is completely fictional. Fellow writers, pick your poison. This is a basic overview of poisons, some of them we see every day and use in smaller-than-fatal doses. It's all about dosage, frankly, especially in drugs (which can always be a poison). Plenty of suicides have been done by overdosing on drugs. Most of the poisons we hear about in mystery novels are actually natural substances being misused in larger dosages and being used incorrectly. Was it deliberate? Depends on the poison itself. Also, some of these are and were used medicinally, again all about how much you breathe in, consume, and soak into your skin. I'm going to talk about the most common poisons in mystery genre novels. Those include ricin, arsenic, and Strychnine. The most fatal will be first and least fatal last, but all are fatal.  Ricin Ricin comes from...

If I had to say one word about men in movies it would be dominance. While there are plenty of exceptions out there (for every stereotype there is usually an exception out there somewhere), I'd say Hollywood and the film industry show men as leaders and main characters, unless it's a sitcom. In the case of some sitcoms, men are shown as incompetent (think Simpsons or Everybody Loves Raymond). Just like Part One of my Gender in Films blog, I'm going to break down the stereotypes out there for you before I begin. After that I'm going to be showing you examples of both stereotype-supporting movies and the exceptions out there. The Stereotypes  1. All humor   - This character is a constant joke machine. An example of this would be Hawkeye Pierce from M*A*S*H. He used it to mask his emotions, as well as deal with the war. Other characters who do this may use it as a mask, too, but to deal with other things of a less serious nature. If the only lines in the whole ...