Be willing to offer a listening ear to the person. The victim may feel frightened, scared, confused, sad, or hopeless. Let the person discuss feelings, thoughts, ideas, and plans. It's not your job to take over, problem-solve, or do everything, just listen. If the individual asks for help, offer it, but don't make it your job to solve all the problems. Focus on showing your support by listening without interrupting. For more information, check out How to Be a Good Listener. Show your support in all ways and don't say anything that blames the victim. Saying things like, "If only you would have left the relationship sooner" or, "Well, you did leave the window unlocked" are not helpful. Nobody asks to be stalked and it is a terrifying experience. Avoid any criticisms or judgments and focus on helping the person. Avoid saying more subtle things that express blame as well, such as, "If only you had left sooner," or, "I wish you hadn't given your number out like that." Someone who says these things might mean well, but the phrasing implies that the person could have prevented being a victim, which isn't true. Every stalking case is different. If you helped someone else with a stalker, don't expect things to be the same with this friend. Be sensitive to differences and don't make choices for the victim. Let this person make their own choices. You may wish to present options, but do not make the decisions for them. Especially if life feels out of control, it can be important for the person to have control over certain aspects of responding, as stalking can feel very out of control. While the victim may be nervous or afraid to tell friends and families about the stalking, it's important that people know. The stalker may try to inadvertently get information from unsuspecting friends or family. For this reason, it's important to alert those around the victim as to the situation. Help the victim come up with a list of people to talk to about the stalking. You may wish to help tell friends and family members and alert them what to do in case the stalker comes around. You may want to provide a photo of the stalker.

Summary: Listen. Avoid victim blaming. Allow the person to make their own choices. Help tell others.

If you get a fungal infection on your toenails or fingernails, you can see your doctor for some oral antifungal medications. Nail fungus can be treated with topical medication, oral medication or a combination of the two. Your doctor will most likely advise you to take the medication for six to 12 weeks; however, it may take up to four months for your fungal infection to fully resolve. Most topical agents cannot penetrate the nail plate and cure rates are less than 10%. The best-penetrating formulation of ciclopirox is a nail lacquer Penlac, which you apply daily for up to one year. The downside of this lacquer is that it is costly and recurrences are common; however, it is safer than oral therapy. When topical therapy is insufficient, oral agents should be considered. Talk to your doctor about the benefits versus the risks of oral therapy. Even with successful therapy, relapse is common. Two most common agents used in oral therapy are itraconazole (Sporanox) and terbinafine (Lamisil). These drugs interact with many other medications, both prescription and over-the-counter, so make sure you tell your doctor if you are taking any other medications or supplements. They can also have severe side effects, including irregular heartbeat, liver damage, decreased urine, joint pain, loss of hearing, vomiting, depression, and more. Call your doctor immediately if you experience any of these serious side effects. Oral antifungals also require you to undergo continuous monitoring and lab tests to check for side effects. Oftentimes, the combination of an oral medication and a topical medication lead to the best results when it comes to clearing up a fungal infection. Your doctor might suggest you do a combination of these treatments. Your doctor can prescribe these to you if needed. For fungal infections that are extremely severe and/or painful, and that cannot be resolved with medical treatments alone, surgery is an option. The infected part of the nail may be cut out and removed, and the healing time will be the time it takes to grow a new nail back in its place. Surgery is used as a last resort for fungal infections that are not able to be successfully treated in any other way. You may want to try natural treatments on you fungus. If you are using an oral treatment talk to your doctor or pharmacist before trying an alternative treatment, as they may interact. Snakeroot extract can be applied to your affected nail every third day for a month, then twice a week for the second month, and once a week for the third month. Tea tree oil is also can be helpful. Apply twice daily directly onto the nail. Even after you have cleared up and successfully treated your fungal infection, it is still important to practice preventative measures to diminish the risk of the infection recurring. It is very common for fungal infections to come back, and it is in your hands to take daily steps to prevent this.

Summary: Know what medications are available if you do develop a fungal infection. Try topical nail treatments. Ask about oral medications. Try combination therapy. Opt for surgical nail removal. Consider an alternative approach to treating nail fungus. Note that repeat infections are common.

One of the key aspects of your alien characters should be how they look. To make your aliens seem convincing and interesting, you should try to be as detailed about their physical characteristics as you can. Because you are writing fiction, you have the ability to create as many strange and interesting details about your alien characters as you like. Avoid using familiar images or descriptions of aliens and use your imagination. Think about how the aliens walk and move their bodies. You should also think about how their bodies are proportioned. They do not necessarily need to walk on two legs and have limbs like humans. They may have physical characteristics that have evolved due to their world or environment. For example, maybe your aliens have antennas on their heads because they can feel shifts in the wind in their world, allowing them to hunt for food more effectively. You should also think about whether there are different genders in the alien world and how the bodies of different genders appear. You do not have to be limited by male or female genders. Maybe the alien race has a third gender that is asexual or a combination of male and female genders. Avoid creating the alien characters in the shadow of humans and get creative with language, thinking beyond English or other languages found on Earth. You may decide to create an alien language that may then be translated with the help of a computerized device or an implant in the human brain. Your alien race may also communicate in other ways besides language or words. Maybe they use their antennas to send messages to each other or have the ability to communicate through telepathy. Perhaps they use a system of body movements to communicate. The humans in your story may also be key characters in the narrative, so you should create humans that are just as interesting as the aliens. Your main character may be a human with a special ability or a unique characteristic. Creating nuanced humans in your story will make it that much stronger. For example, maybe your main character is a human who has been gifted with the ability to read minds. This human is then able to access the conversations of the alien overlords, who have enslaved the human race. This ability could allow the human to save the humans from the aliens and become the hero of the story. Once you have sketched out your characters, you should identify the central conflict. Doing this will give the story an end goal and frame the narrative for the reader. It will also allow you to use your characters to build tension in the story. The central conflict may be between your alien characters or between an alien character and a human character. For example, maybe the central conflict of your story is that aliens have taken over the human world because their planet is no longer habitable. This alien invasion may then result in a human hero who tries to fight the aliens with a special ability and help from other humans in his community. Or, maybe the central conflict is that humans have enslaved aliens who have crash landed on their planet. The humans may then try to hide the aliens and experiment on them. This may then result in one alien who tries to oppose his human captors.
Summary: Describe the physical characteristics of the aliens. Create an alien language or way of communicating. Give the human characters special abilities and unique characteristics. Determine the central conflict of the story.