I was diagnosed with ARFID, I struggled with anorexia nervosa. Now that I have over-come my anorexia nervosa, I make sure in my stories I don’t write anything that may trigger someone to limit their intake because you just don’t know who’s reading.
What if it was a 13 year old struggling with their body image and they read your story and it triggers them to become anorexic? That is a big fear of mine.
When I was sensitive and soon to be anorexic I would watch shows, read episode and remember every time anyone would mention the ‘f’ word. I still do remember the lines even though I don’t have anorexia anymore. I would run out of the room if I knew a scene about body image or anything like that would come on when I was watching a film with my family or just not watch it at all.
So, I would just like to say imagine a sensitive child reading your stories and write for them and for everyone. We try to include diversity and make episode for everyone well for me, reading a story without a black character- I click off. Reading a story which subtly promotes limiting intake - I click off. Misinterpreting religion - I click off. What if a Muslim girl read your story and saw no one else that looked like her? Saw the female identifying MC dressing in revealing clothes and felt uncomfortable because she had no other option. Write for her too. I got to say back when I had anorexia I felt like none of the stories were written for me, maybe I wasn’t the reader the writer was expecting. I wasn’t welcomed to read their stories. Well I gotta say- Write for everyone! I don’t want to sound self-absorbed but write for me too! I love reading your stories and don’t want to stop reading because I’m afraid of what the author is going to write. You don’t know who’s reading but that should be the beauty of writing. No one is like you and neither should your characters be in my opinion. Let’s represent and give readers a reason to be strong and uplift them, show them how diverse the world is, not trigger a mental health issue, that’s not why I write and I doubt that’s why most authors write too.
Thank you for reading.
I hope you have a lovely day.
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I think writers should be able to include sensitive topics provided they have a trigger warning or they have an option to skip the scene and get a summary instead
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It also depends on characters with revealing clothes. If it’s a story with established characters and styles, it’s different than a YOU story.
It all depends on the time period, location of story etc when it comes to diversity wise.
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I agree and I tend to read the disclaimers very carefully but not every story has them and they don’t have them for certain things, like things that triggered me into relapse. I’m also talking about misinterpretation of female Muslim characters that wear revealing clothes, as I have seen this before.
I understand this too it’s just when it’s not explained well, or done in a distasteful or uneducated way. I imagine writing my story like someone who doesn’t know much about things so I make my story diverse in terms of abilities also to show that everyone is different and in different ways too.
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Does anyone know how to make stories on episode?
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Yeah that happens alot, but then again all Muslim women are different. Usually Hijabis are modest!
Yeah you want your aim to be educating, I agree!
Welcome to the community, just wanted to let you know you may get flagged for being off topic there’s a community guidelines you can read here: FAQ - Episode Forums
Now to answer you question:
Plan what you want to write, a good starting is characters, description, title, time period, genre, and what your story will be about, along with what is the end goal (end goal like do the MC and Li hug, does the MC find a long lost sibling, etc.)
After you plan those things code by following the sections on these guides, in the future if you have questions check a thread on the forums related to your question if there isn’t one create a new thread.
https://episodesupport.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/sections/115000804113-Writing-Directing
Know that it may get tough, you may get writer’s block or coders block but remember to take breaks and no rush yourself to be at one person’s level, and make sure to care for your mental health too.
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