rose-is-in-the-void:

transsteves:

advice for writing a stutterer from an actual stutterer;

okay no shade at all I just want all of u to learn and grow and become better writers! so here’s a handy tip list!

• we don’t stutter on every word. okay, sometimes it can seem it, but honestly, we don’t, so leave a few words in there to give your readers some breathing room.
• we stutter more on specific sounds. for me, f and s sounds are big ones. everyone has their thing and most stutterers have sounds that are harder to get out.
• we don’t just stutter at the beginning of words and sentences. okay, honestly this is a big one for me. sometimes, a word starts off really well and goes down the drain at the second syllable! and the stutter doesn’t disappear once we’ve made it past the first word - it clings in there, so don’t forget it.
• some of us don’t always stutter. some, not all, of us have what’s known as an anxious stutter, which generally comes alongside anxiety disorders. so, while it may be usually present, when a person with an anxious stutter is particularly comfortable with a situation, it tends to get better (or even almost disappear).
• we don’t stutter when we swear. this is why some of us can stutter and stutter and stutter on a word and then shout fuck and everything’s cool. as far as science knows, this is because swearing is from a more primitive part of the brain, and so it bypasses the bit that makes us stutter! it’s so cool honestly.
• we don’t stutter when we sing. the biggest two reasons for this one is 1) music comes from a different part of the brain to talking (language=left; music=right), and so it once again bypasses the stutter, or 2) ‘easy voice’, which is the voice that people sing in, is softer and smoother, and the sounds are longer so there’s less opportunity to stutter. either option is way cool but we don’t stutter when we sing.
• sometimes, we give up on words. after a certain amount of stuttering on a certain word, you may see a stutterer take a deep breath and either try again, or replace it with a synonym. sometimes that word just won’t fit right in our mouths!
• we hate it when people try to guess what we’re trying to say or try to speed us up. this might be a more personal thing for me, but there’s nothing I hate more than that clicky sound people make or the weird hand gestures or being told to “spit it out.” because we can’t control this shit and it gets tiring. it’s better just to let the person get it out and take their time with it, so when you’re writing, keep this in mind!
• it gets worse when we’re anxious or stressed, and when we’re excited! I get really really stuttery when I’m enthusiastic about the topic of conversation, because I know so much about that thing that I try to talk really fast and my mouth can’t keep up! it’s the same when I’m anxious or stressed - when there’s more on our minds, the more everything gets a little muddled.

I hope this was helpful! feel free to add on and spread around!

Some of my personal things. (Can’t day the same for others)(I have mostly gotten rid of my stutter so this is based off past experiences)

•when I’m acting, I don’t stutter. Probably because the words aren’t mine and I don’t have to come up with them myself. (But when reading through the script the first few times before I’ve memorised it I will struggle)

•when I’m reading aloud however, my stutter becomes even more prominent

•sometimes I’ll give up talking all together and say never mind so I’ve developed the habit of not inputting into conversations

•not really all that relevant but I used to talk to my baby sister all the time because she couldn’t talk yet and wouldn’t complain about my stuttering, and so when she started to talk with a stutter like me, I wasn’t allowed to talk to her for a WHOLE TWO YEARS

Reading aloud is the actual worst. 

Back when I was in elementary school my third grade teacher didn’t believe I could read as well as I could (I was tested that year as having a reading level equivalent to a typical tenth grader) because I couldn’t read aloud. I have a stutter. It was severe in third grade. And like anyone who has a stutter will tell you, reading aloud is awful. The teacher wanted to hold me back in third grade because I can’t read aloud. Thankfully, the principal and my folks vetoed that idea. 

Hell, I’m 30 now, and my stutter is mild most days now, and I still can’t read aloud. At all. My stutter won’t let me. 

The other thing I can’t do: Field sobriety tasks involving talking like trying to say the alphabet backwards or counting out loud on one leg or something. A cop thought I was publicly intoxicated on Hallowe’en when I was 15 because of my stutter and tried to do a field sobriety thing on me.  Thankfully my little sister was with me and was like, “She can’t do that, she has a stutter. And she’s not drunk!” If she hadn’t been with me, I’m pretty sure I would’ve been arrested solely because I stutter.