Inkspots Blog

Writing Trauma Survivors Realistically

On trauma-informed care, administrative burden, and writing trauma survivors realistically — from behind an eligibility desk. A woman called on a Tuesday because her son’s dental coverage had closed. The appointment was in two days. Somewhere between the last review and this one, a form hadn’t been returned, a deadline had quietly passed, and a switch had flipped from open to closed — no malice in it, just the mechanics of a system doing exactly…

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Inkspots Blog

Writing Trauma Survivors in Fiction: What the Case File Doesn’t Ask

A note before you start: this piece references suicide disclosure, child loss, and family separation, drawn loosely from a year spent taking eligibility calls for the state of Indiana. No detail here identifies a real person — specifics have been altered and composited. If any of it lands hard, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is available by call or text, 24/7. Writing trauma survivors in fiction started, for me, as a way of asking…

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