I’m Not Dead Apparently Lol

This might or might not have been created for my ao3 account

A general cane guide for writers and artists (from a cane user, writer, and artist!)

Disclaimer: Though I have been using a cane for 6 years, I am not a doctor, nor am I by any means an expert. This guide is true to my experience, but there are as many ways to use a cane as there are cane users!

This guide will not include: White canes for blindness, crutches, walkers, or wheelchairs as I have no personal experience with these.

This is meant to be a general guide to get you started and avoid some common mishaps/misconceptions in your writing, but you absolutely should continue to do your own research outside of this guide!

This is NOT a medical resource!!! And never tell a real person you think they're using a cane wrong!

The biggest recurring problem I've seen is using the cane on the wrong side. The cane goes on the opposite side of the pain! If your character has even-sided pain or needs it for balance/weakness, then use the cane in the non-dominant hand to keep the dominant hand free. Some cane users also switch sides to give their arm a rest!

A cane takes about 20% of your weight off the opposite leg. It should fit within your natural gait and become something of an extension of your body. If you need more weight off than 20%, then crutches, a walker, or a wheelchair is needed.

Putting more pressure on the cane, using it on the wrong side, or having it at the wrong height can make it less effective, and can cause long term damage to your body from improper pressure and posture. (Hugh Laurie genuinely hurt his body from years of using a cane wrong on House!)

(some people elect to use a cane wrong for their personal situation despite this, everyone is different!)

(an animated GIF of a cane matching the natural walking gait. It turns red when pressure is placed on it.)

When going up and down stairs, there is an ideal standard: You want to use the handrail and the cane at the same time, or prioritize the handrail if it's only on one side. When going up stairs you lead with your good leg and follow with the cane and hurt leg together. When going down stairs you lead with the cane and the bad leg and follow with the good leg!

Realistically though, many people don't move out of the way for cane users to access the railing, many stairs don't have railings, and many are wet, rusty, or generally not ideal to grip.

In these cases, if you have a friend nearby, holding on to them is a good idea. Or, take it one step at a time carefully if you're alone.

Now we come to a very common mistake I see... Using fashion canes for medical use!

(These are 4 broad shapes, but there is INCREDIBLE variation in cane handles. Research heavily what will be best for your character's specific needs!)

The handle is the contact point for all the weight you're putting on your cane, and that pressure is being put onto your hand, wrist, and shoulder. So the shape is very important for long term use!

Knob handles (and very decorative handles) are not used for medical use for this reason. It adds extra stress to the body and can damage your hand to put constant pressure onto these painful shapes.

The weight of a cane is also incredibly important, as a heavier cane will cause wear on your body much faster. When you're using it all day, it gets heavy fast! If your character struggles with weakness, then they won't want a heavy cane if they can help it!

This is also part of why sword canes aren't usually very viable for medical use (along with them usually being knob handles) is that swords are extra weight!

However, a small knife or perhaps a retractable blade hidden within the base might be viable even for weak characters.

Bases have a lot of variability as well, and the modern standard is generally adjustable bases. Adjustable canes are very handy if your character regularly changes shoe height, for instance (gotta keep the height at your hip!)

Canes help on most terrain with their standard base and structure. But for some terrain, you might want a different base, or to forego the cane entirely! This article covers it pretty well.

Many cane users decorate their canes! Stickers are incredibly common, and painting canes is relatively common as well! You'll also see people replacing the standard wrist strap with a personalized one, or even adding a small charm to the ring the strap connects to. (nothing too large, or it gets annoying as the cane is swinging around everywhere)

(my canes, for reference)

If your character uses a cane full time, then they might also have multiple canes that look different aesthetically to match their outfits!

When it comes to practical things outside of the cane, you reasonably only have one hand available while it's being used. Many people will hook their cane onto their arm or let it dangle on the strap (if they have one) while using their cane arm, but it's often significantly less convenient than 2 hands. But, if you need 2 hands, then it's either setting the cane down or letting it hang!

For this reason, optimizing one handed use is ideal! Keeping bags/items on the side of your free hand helps keep your items accessible.

When sitting, the cane either leans against a wall or table, goes under the chair, or hooks onto the back of the chair. (It often falls when hanging off of a chair, in my experience)

When getting up, the user will either use their cane to help them balance/support as they stand, or get up and then grab their cane. This depends on what it's being used for (balance vs pain when walking, for instance!)

That's everything I can think of for now. Thank you for reading my long-but-absolutely-not-comprehensive list of things to keep in mind when writing or drawing a cane user!

Happy disability pride month! Go forth and make more characters use canes!!!

More European Renaissance Art Vocabulary

for your next poem/story

Halo - The gold circle or disk placed behind the heads of Christ and saints, a symbol of their sanctity or the light of God.

Hatching - The drawing or engraving of fine parallel lines to show shading. When the lines intersect each other, it is called cross-hatching.

Horizon Line - The line where the sky and earth appear to meet. The horizon line is drawn across the picture at the artist’s eye level.

Hue - A particular variety of a color, shade, or tint.

Lunette - A semicircular shape.

Magus - A member of the ancient Persian priestly caste, skilled in Eastern magic and astrology. In the New Testament, the Magi are the three wise men who came from the East to pay homage to the newborn Christ Child.

Majolica - Tin-glazed earthenware.

Palazzo - An Italian word used to describe a large building. It may be a mansion or palace, or an official government building like a town hall, court, or embassy.

Passion, or The Passion of Christ - The events surrounding the Crucifixion of Christ; a popular subject for religious drama, painting, and sculpture.

Perspective - A technique that artists use to represent the three dimensional world on a two-dimensional surface, such as a piece of paper, canvas, or wood panel. Using perspective, an artist can create the illusion of depth or space and show the proper proportion between objects. Without perspective, a painting or drawing will appear flat.

Pictorial Space - The illusion of three-dimensional space created on a two-dimensional surface.

Predella - An Italian word for the series of small paintings that form the lower section of large altarpieces. It usually has narrative scenes from the lives of the saints who are represented on the main and side panels of the altarpiece.

Putto - From the Latin word meaning “male child.” In 15th- and 16th century poetry and painting, putti are depicted with wings and connected with the god of love, Eros, also known as Cupid.

Red - In Christian paintings, a symbol of the blood of Christ or the Passion.

Relief - A raised surface; for example, sculpture that is carved or modeled and which projects from a background.

Star - In Christian paintings, a symbol of divine guidance or favor. The Star of the East guided the three Magi to Bethlehem.

Triump - An ancient Roman tradition honoring the return of a victorious general, who paraded his soldiers, prisoners, and spoils through the city streets.

Tromp L’oeil - French for “fool the eye”; a style of painting intended to trick the viewer into believing that the minutely observed objects shown are part of the viewer’s three-dimensional world.

Vanishing Point - The point where parallel lines appear to meet on the horizon line.

Source ⚜ More: Word Lists ⚜ Part 1

besties who hate each other so bad (aka sisters)

You've mentioned how one thing GRRM could have done in terms of world-building to add distinctiveness to each of the 7K would have been to come up with different cuisine for each region. Could you elaborate on that? After reading your amazing posts on military doctrines and burial customs I'm interested in your take on that. Thanks.

When it comes to designing regional cuisine, the things you have to think of are, what foods are available in that region? What vegetables grow in the soil, what game are in its wilderness, and whether or not the area is suited for pasture. Anybody who’s a grower, a farmer, or just likes old school au naturel foods feel free to add anything, I’m a rank amateur when it comes to this stuff.

The North: The North is cold, so sheep would be the primary animal crop instead of cattle, and oats and barley would take the place of wheat. I’d imagine the commoner would typically eat boiled roots, herbs, wild onion, and other hardy winter vegetables in a pottage. Meat would be rare except when the herd needs slaughtering during long winters, and the bones would be left to flavor the soup as stock. Blood sausages and hearty roasts of mutton, venison (elk if you can get it), and cold weather birds like grouse. Meals would be filling, so they stay with you longer when rations are tight. The crannogmen would be eating swamp vegetables and frogs, primarily, with a lizard-lion if you could catch one.

The Vale: You’ve got rich black soil for tasty, hardy vegetables, and mountain valleys for cereal grains and pasture, so I’d imagine a healthy mix. The Vale would probably produce fine sheep and goats. Space is a premium, so more ‘efficient’ animals are desired. The soil is rich and dark (probably peaty), so legumes, mushrooms, root vegetables, and some dark leafy greens that can handle a chill. All of that makes a fine hearty, brown stew. I’d imagine the Vale, snooty learned and cultured that they are, would produce exceptional cheese, as well as whiskey.

The Riverlands: Given how large the Riverlands is, there’d be a lot of variety between different regions. The colder climate of the Twins would be different from the warmer climate of the Blackwater Rush, after all. But given the plentiful water resources. There’s plenty of food and forage for a wide variety of meats, so you’d expect different places to have beef, pork, venison, and boar, with a nice variety of ducks, geese, and chickens for poultry. Fish would be salmon, trout, pike, carp and perch. In lands with little in the way of arable land, you’d have fish and wild game, while flatter, richer lands that can support large-scale irrigation works would have fine wheat. Anything that doesn’t require the hot climate of Dorne can be grown in the Riverlands. Viva variety.

The Iron Islands: Since space is a premium, most of the bounty comes from the sea. Saltwater fish is the primary delicacy, caught fresh and poached with a light sprinkling of salt, or salt-cured, even fermented like rakfisk. Other sea creatures would find their way to Iron Islander tables, too, I can’t imagine the Greyjoys worship krakens so much that they wouldn’t pass up good octopus, and who doesn’t like a good dish of clams and oysters? Hardy, shaggy sheep call some of the smaller islands their home, and they’d form a place to, in warm stews and meatcakes.

The Westerlands: The soil of the Westerlands is probably has chalk and/or clay in it, but that wouldn’t stop the early First Men from growing fruit trees and summer vegetables like cucumbers, squash, and eggplant that thrive in that good clay. Good grains like millet, rye, and wheat, cooked into porridges and baked into breads would be the common fare. Nobles would eat warm roasts and sauteed vegetables. Some of the more southern Westerlander houses probably have a fair hand at making crisp cider.

The Reach: The verdant fields of the Reach mean a wide variety of crops, and a wide variety of flavor. More than any other region, the Reach would turn cooking into an art form, with prized chefs being valued and well-compensated servants. Crisp fruits are simmered and stewed, vegetables are chopped and arranged, and seasonings are bountiful. A Reachmen might think other regions as frightfully bland (except Dorne and their love of spice), even their breads would baked with herbs to give it a unique regional taste. Wheat is the primary cereal crop, so lighter breads than the darker North. Once you go to the Reach, you might never want to leave.

The Stormlands: As we might expect, the Stormlands is rainy and heavily forested, so primary meats would be game: boar and red deer. The heavy rains means that farmers need to worry about drainage, but that also means that a wide variety of crops can grow in the Stormlands. You’d probably have dishes made of meat, spinach, onions, and bread, served in a dark broth, which keeps you warm on those wet, windy days. Commoners probably make do without meat, eating hard bread and milk.

Dorne: Lucky for us, Dorne has been well-developed already in terms of foods, with olives, citrus fruits, and spicy peppers for a fine Mediterranean diet. Lighter fare is essential in the arid deserts of Dorne, and those on the Greenblood would probably prefer fish to meat. Foods fried with the native olive oil and spiced with peppers, tart red wines on the side, and blood oranges as a midday snack, Dorne’s palate jumps from one flavor to the next.

Thanks for the question, Anon.

SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King

a list of 100+ buildings to put in your fantasy town

academy

adventurer's guild

alchemist

apiary

apothecary

aquarium

armory

art gallery

bakery

bank

barber

barracks

bathhouse

blacksmith

boathouse

book store

bookbinder

botanical garden

brothel

butcher

carpenter

cartographer

casino

castle

cobbler

coffee shop

council chamber

court house

crypt for the noble family

dentist

distillery

docks

dovecot

dyer

embassy

farmer's market

fighting pit

fishmonger

fortune teller

gallows

gatehouse

general store

graveyard

greenhouses

guard post

guildhall

gymnasium

haberdashery

haunted house

hedge maze

herbalist

hospice

hospital

house for sale

inn

jail

jeweller

kindergarten

leatherworker

library

locksmith

mail courier

manor house

market

mayor's house

monastery

morgue

museum

music shop

observatory

orchard

orphanage

outhouse

paper maker

pawnshop

pet shop

potion shop

potter

printmaker

quest board

residence

restricted zone

sawmill

school

scribe

sewer entrance

sheriff's office

shrine

silversmith

spa

speakeasy

spice merchant

sports stadium

stables

street market

tailor

tannery

tavern

tax collector

tea house

temple

textile shop

theatre

thieves guild

thrift store

tinker's workshop

town crier post

town square

townhall

toy store

trinket shop

warehouse

watchtower

water mill

weaver

well

windmill

wishing well

wizard tower

more words for characterization (pt. 4)

Age

adolescent, afresh, ancient, antiquarian, antique, big, childish, crude, doddering, elderly, fresh, full-grown/full-fledged, green, hoary, immemorial, infant/infantile, junior, late, medieval, mint, modish, new, novel, older, old-fashioned, originally, outdated/out-of-date, passé, quaint, refreshing, secondhand, stale, state-of-the-art, undeveloped, up-to-date, well-preserved, youthful

Appearance

adorable, aesthetic/esthetic, artistic, beautiful, comely, crisp, dapper, decorative, desirable, dressy, exquisite, eye-catching, fancy, fetching, flawless, glorious, good-looking, graceful, grungy, hideous, homely, irresistible, natty, ornate, plain, pretty, refreshing, resplendent, seductive, spiffy, striking, stylish, ugly, unbecoming, willowy, with-it

Genuineness

abstract, actually, alias, apocryphal, apparently, arty, authentic, baseless, beta, bona fide, circumstantial, concrete, contrived, credible, deceptive, delusive, dreamy, ecclesiastical, empirical/empiric, enigmatic/enigmatical, ersatz, ethereal, factual, fallacious, fantastic, far-fetched, fictitious, foolproof, fraudulent, good, hard, historical, honest-to-God, illusory/illusive, imitative, indisputable, invisible, just, lifelike, made-up, magic/magical, make-believe, matter-of-fact, metaphysical, monstrous, mystic/mystical, mythical/mythological, nonexistent, openhearted, ostensibly, paranormal, physical, positive, pretended, quack, quite, realistic, right, sincerely, specious, spurious, supernatural, synthetic, tangible, true, unearthly, unnatural, unthinkable, unvarnished, unworldly, valid, veritable, wholehearted/whole-hearted, wrong

Movement

ambulatory, brisk, clumsy, fleet, fluent, frozen, gawky, graceless, immobile, indolent, itinerant, leisurely, lifeless, liquid, lithe, maladroit, migrant/migratory, motionless, moving, nomadic, oafish, passive, pendulous/pendent, portable, restless, roundabout, sedentary, slow, speedy, static, vibrant, winding

Style

adorable, baroque, becoming, black, bold, brassy, cheap, class, classy, contemporary, country, cultural, dashing, dowdy, eat high on the hog, exquisite, featureless, flamboyant, floral, flowery, formless, futuristic, garish, gay, glamorous, gorgeous, grand, graphic, hot, improvised, informal, innovative, kinky, loud, lush, luxurious, mean, meretricious, modish, neat, new, obsolete, old-fashioned, orderly, ornamental, ostentatious, outdated/out-of-date, palatial, picturesque, plush, posh, prevalent, quaint, refined, resplendent, rustic, scruffy, sharp, simple, sleazy, smart, snazzy, spiffy, spruce, stately, state-of-the-art, stylish, swank/swanky, tacky, tasteless, tousled, two-bit, unbecoming, unworldly, up-to-date, vogue

NOTE

The above are concepts classified according to subject and usage. It not only helps writers and thinkers to organize their ideas but leads them from those very ideas to the words that can best express them.

It was, in part, created to turn an idea into a specific word. By linking together the main entries that share similar concepts, the index makes possible creative semantic connections between words in our language, stimulating thought and broadening vocabulary.

Source ⚜ Writing Basics & Refreshers ⚜ On Vocabulary

> sees complaints that a female character looks "too masculine" or "like an ugly lesbian"

> ask if we got an actual butch character or if shes just a normal looking woman that isnt wearing make up and a dress

> person is visibly confused, i start explaining the difference between actual butch presentation and dress and a woman simply dressing comfortably to avoid indecent exposure

> person laughs and says "she straight up looks like a guy, i can barely tell her apart from the actual men"

> google the character

> shes just a normal looking woman that isnt wearing make up and a dress