diversity

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A Primer on Writing Trans Characters

Posted by Aibird on June 13, 2016
Posted in: Books, Characters, World Building, Writing. Tagged: , , , , , , , . 2 Comments

Introduction

A question I’m commonly asked is: how does one write a trans character? I also get asked this question in regards to writing gay, lesbian, or bisexual characters, and/or how to write a person of color. There is a lot of overlap in these questions since a person can have a variety of skin colors, and that same person can also be trans or cisgender as well as gay, lesbian, bi, asexual, or straight; therefore, some of the articles I will link offer excellent advice on writing people of different skin tones and ethnicity as well as different genders and sexualities.

In this primer, I will focus primarily on gender identity. I will provide some common definitions, how to worldbuild with trans characters in mind, things to keep in mind when designing a trans character, and steps you can follow when writing trans characters’ stories. I will also have a list of resources at the end of this article for further reading.

How to use the guide

Think about the setting of your story and the characters you wish to create. For writers whose settings are real locations in current or historical time periods of Earth, you may not need to go through the worldbuild section. Instead, you can research how gender is perceived and how people are treated within your chosen location and time period, then go straight to the Designing Your Character section. For example, if your setting is 1800s Ireland, then do some research to see what it was like for men and women in that time period, then go straight to the Designing Your Character section of this primer. If you are writing an alternate Earth history, then you may find the content of the worldbuild section helpful. If you are creating your own science fiction or fantasy universe, I highly recommend going through the entire primer and not skipping any section in order to assist you in deepening your understanding of your world and characters.

Important Things to Keep in Mind

Trans people are a diverse group, so I will cover a few of the most common gender identities. Trans women were assigned male at birth but are women. Trans men were assigned female at birth but are men. There are also non-binary people, who could be assigned either male or female at birth and may use various identifiers such as genderqueer, neutrois, agender, and others. Although some intersex people are trans, not all trans people are intersex. You can view the transgender language primer link I provided in the definitions section to read more about the various terms and identities.

The gender identity of a trans person is real, and it is important to respect their pronouns, to use their chosen name, and to not out them without their permission. When talking about transgender people before they transition, it is important to  use their current pronouns unless specified otherwise by that individual; do not use the sex assigned at birth pronouns.  Also, avoid the use of their “deadname,” which is the name they were given at birth but is not their chosen name. Even if discussing their life before transition, it is still better to not use their deadname unless they give permission. When writing the character’s story, seriously consider whether it is even necessary to provide the dead name ever. In most cases, it will not be relevant to the plot.

Why is this important? Because trans people exist, and representation really does matter. In this essay by a transgender woman, she discusses the power of representation and the tragic tropes people often use when writing transgender characters. Negative portrayals that show us as comedic relief or as a villain only serve to perpetuate the stereotype that we are not serious (or real) or that we are dangerous, which can also cause tremendous harm — trans people, due to discrimination and rejection of who they are by today’s society and sometimes their family and friends, already have high suicide rates and rates of being murdered for who they are. Negative portrayals can aggravate those rates by perpetuating harmful myths, which can lead to increased harassment, lack of acceptance, and other harmful behaviors perpetuated against trans people.

Tragic portrayals done respectfully can be important in showing how society treats trans people today and gather sympathy for trans people. However, in our current culture (in America where I live), most of the stories I see of trans folks are tragic portrayals. Having an overabundance of tragic portrayals is exhausting to a trans person, who already faces discrimination and injustice and makes it hard to hold out hope for positive change in society’s treatment of us. At this point, I am desperate to read anything but a tragic and/or negative portrayal, so that I can enjoy seeing a trans person flourish and thrive rather than wither and die.

Positive portrayals provide hope for the future and shows people that trans people can do awesome things too, where trans people are shown as human beings just like everyone else and that we are just as worthy of rights and respect as a cisgender person. It’s important to think about how we portray characters, especially if you wish to write a trans character respectfully. We often underestimate the influence literature, video games, movies, TV shows, and other media can have on our perceptions of others and ourselves.

This isn’t to say you can’t have trans people as villains, comedic relief, or have them experience great tragedy and/or death. But if that is the only portrayal of trans people you have in your stories, then there is a problem. Trans people can be heroes as well — diversity in representation such as providing balanced portrayals is also important. Let trans people be heroes, and let them experience interesting story lines that aren’t only about their gender identity. Think about all the diverse portrayals of straight, cisgender people, then consider how, with some alterations here and there, you could give a trans person similar diverse roles in stories.

Diversity can help to deepen your worlds and stories. Diversity can also provide you with more opportunities for conflict, character growth, and societal change, which can give you even more ideas for future stories. Writing diverse characters and diverse story arcs also challenges us to learn more about people not like us; this can increase our ability to emphasize with others, helps us reconcile diverse worldviews, become more accepting of other people, and pushes us to challenge any biases we have that may be holding us back as writers and as people. Writing diverse characters can be a fun and interesting journey, but it will require you to do some research, but then as writers, we should all be used to research by now!

In order to start our journey, it is important to understand the terms we will be using. I have provided a short list of terms, but I included a resource for a more comprehensive list of terms that you may encounter as you research and explore the transgender community.

Definitions of Terms

Gender identity means a person’s internal sense of what their gender is. Some describe it as their brain’s gender. The person’s gender identity may or may not align with the sex assigned at birth.

Sexual orientation denotes who a person is attracted to. Gender identity and sexual orientation are not the same thing. A trans person can be any sexuality.

Sex assigned at birth means that at birth the doctor looked at the baby’s genitalia and labeled them as either male or female (rarely if ever is any other test used to determine sex). (Note: if the genitalia is ambiguous due to various Intersex conditions, the doctor may do surgery without permission to force the baby into either male or female. This is a common practice in America.)

Cisgender means people whose gender aligns with the sex assigned at birth, i.e., they are not trans.

Transgender means people whose gender does not align with the sex assigned at birth. This is often shortened to simply trans. A transgender person can be a woman, man, neither, or an third gender altogether. Trans people may or may not experience gender dysphoria, and they may or may not decide to physically and socially transition. Again, there is a lot of diversity within the trans community.

Non-binary denotes a person who does not identify within the male/female binary. Non-binary people fall under the transgender umbrella, although not all may identify with the term trans. See the Transgender Language Primer for definitions of various non-binary identities.

Gender Expression denotes the external appearance of one’s gender identity, usually expressed through behavior, clothing, haircut or voice. A person’s gender expression may or may not conform to society’s gender norms.

Transition denotes the process a person may undergo in order to align their body and/or their gender expression with their gender identity. Physical transition may or may not involve hormone therapy, various surgeries, and voice training. Social transition involves changing how a person expresses their gender and may or may not include changing their behavior, clothing, haircut, or voice.

Gender Norms denotes society’s rules, expectations, and roles that define for each gender a set of behaviors, gender expressions, characteristics, and roles. Norms often include how society enforces these roles, expectations, and rules.

Gender Roles denotes society’s expectations for each gender in regards to the familial, workplace, and social positions within society as well as the characteristics and traits society associates with each gender.

Socialization is a sociological term that refers “to the lifelong process of inheriting and disseminating norms, customs, values and ideologies, providing an individual with the skills and habits necessary for participating within their own society.” (Definition from wikipedia).

For a comprehensive list of terms and definitions, please see this lovely list: Transgender Language Primer

Worldbuilding

I have an extensive list of resources and articles I have written regarding worldbuilding. You can view that here.  In this section, I will explore how gender can influence society (such as the culture of your country and/or planet). When you engage in worldbuilding and/or designing your characters, many different influences from society, language, and history can increase the complexity of your character’s journey, of how characters interact with each other, and of your plot lines. I have provided some questions for writers to consider:

  • How many genders does your society and/or country have? Some cultures on Earth have up to five genders. In fact, biology is showing more and more that even humanity is not as simplistic as having just two sexes. Think of gender as your identity that is within your brain. Your sex is related to your biological make-up such as secondary sex characteristics or chromosomes; however, studies show that using sex to determine gender is not always reliable. Also, there is some evidence that one person could technically have cells with very different chromosomes. The point here is to show that even gender can be incredibly diverse.
  • Is gender neutral pronouns common in your society? What types of pronouns does your society’s language have?
    • As a side note: In American society, gender neutral pronouns are rare, but people are slowing changing the language over time by using gender neutral pronouns within written and spoken works/discussion.  There are many languages in the world where there is multiple gender neutral pronouns or the language may not have any gendered pronouns at all. (Finnish is an example of a language that doesn’t have gendered pronouns (or nouns) like what we see in English.) Remember language also affects how people perceive others, and languages are not static. If a language doesn’t have gender neutral pronouns, this can change if enough people use gender-neutral pronouns, which is how languages evolve — folks changing how words are used over time.
  • How does your society treat each gender? Is one considered “better” or “stronger” or “more intelligent” or “more simplistic” than the other? How is gender perceived and experienced within your culture? What are the gender  roles? This leads into my next question about gender norms (rules or expectations enforced by society).
  • Has the treatment of each gender changed over time? Was some genders treated differently in the past? How did that change over time?
  • What rules and/or expectations does your society enforce for various genders? This can manifest in various ways (this list is just to get you started):
    • What types of employment are accessible to what genders?
    • In what ways are people of each gender typically presented in the media/entertainment, educational, and/or political discussions?
    • How do people view the body (as in are there specific body parts that society labels is for one gender only?)
    • How people view sex (as in how is consent taught? Is specific sex acts considered belonging to one gender only? Is one gender presented as more dominant in sex than the other genders?)
    • What clothing is taboo (or allowed) for each gender?
    • What types of physical or psychological characteristics are associated with each gender?
    • How are people of certain genders treated in public?
    • What actions a person of a specific is allowed to do in public and what is considered taboo?
    • Is one gender considered better than another gender and how this power differential is enforced?
    • If people transgress the gender norms, how does society punish them (if society punishes them at all)?
      • (For example, in America, if a man (cisgender or trans) acts too feminine, other guys may beat him up, insult him, abuse him, and/or demote him until he acts the way society states a “man” should act. In some extreme cases, the man could be killed. Or if a woman (cisgender or trans) acts too manly in America, she can be dehumanized, abused, raped, verbally harassed, insulted, and/or demoted until she acts the way society states a “woman” should act. Again, in extreme cases, the woman could be killed. Also, note that this enforcement is even more harsh for trans people in America, especially if they do not “pass” as a cisgender person. Many trans people, especially non-passing and non-binary people, are often seen as “transgressing” the gender norms, and so they experience harassment, abuse, destruction of their property, loss of jobs or denied jobs, loss of or denied housing, loss of rights, unable to access public services, etc. In some cases, they may be driven to suicide or are murdered.)

When you think about gender norms and their enforcement, think about socialization. This can be a complex topic, so reading sociological theory on socialization may be useful. How we are socialized by society today may not be how people in the past were socialized, as socialization of norms is changeable over time. Think of it this way. You know how we are socialized to think pink is feminine and blue is masculine? At the end of the 1800s and early 1900s, blue was actually considered feminine. Things like this can change depending on time period and culture.

For example, in American culture, guys are supposed to be tough and show little emotion, and masculinity is associated with power, sexual prowess, and violence. Femininity in America is often associated with being overly emotional, not smart enough, weak, or bossy. However, in some societies on Earth, the masculine person is expected to show more emotion than the feminine person and their gender roles are polar opposite of how gender roles are perceived in America.  These socialized perceptions and gender norms have an impact on how people are perceived and treated. And all of what I’ve discussed thus far? That’s all learned behaviors and perceptions. I bring this up because I want writers to think outside the box. To avoid having these biases and/or socialized perceptions color your world-building.

The Sociological Images page does a good job of breaking down how a society enforces and perpetuates its norms. Also see their “for instructors page” as it has a lot of good resources for learning more about sociology and societal norms.

Designing Your Characters

Now that you understand the backdrop of your world in regards to gender, think about your character and how they inhabit that space. By understanding the environment, space, history, and personality of your character, you can develop intriguing story lines that move beyond stereotypes. Although there is a time and place for stories about the act of transitioning, there’s also much to be said about giving your trans character different types of story-arcs. You don’t have to make their entire plot line about them being trans or about their transition. Remember, trans people are very diverse, exist in all sorts of professions, and there’s more to them than just their gender identity. Their gender identity is only one facet of who they are. Also, recognize that a trans person can be any sexuality — gender identity and a person’s sexuality are not the same thing, so a trans person can be straight, bisexual, gay, lesbian, asexual, or pansexual.

The following questions can help you better understand your character and the space around them, so when you write, you can include little details that add depth to their story-arcs and their interactions with other characters and societal systems.

  • How does the character navigate their society? (Is there roadblocks that prevent them from accessing certain opportunities or areas of society? Are their laws that prohibit their movement or restrict their rights? Do they have laws that guarantee their rights? Is society accepting of them or not? How do they react to these things? What is their opinion on the state of society?)
  • How does the character get through a day? (As in how to people respond to the character’s existence? Is it positive, negative, and/or neutral? Do they feel safe going about their day?)
  • Does the character encounter discrimination? How do they deal with discrimination? (Is there legal recourse for them? Programs or resources to help them access healthcare, employment, education, basic needs requirements, etc…)
  • What sort of movements exist that challenge the society’s gender norms? Or is your society accepting enough that there is no need for such movements? Is your character connected with such movements and what do they think of them?
  • How does your character experience gender? Do they have dysphoria? Will they transition physically or socially? Or are there roadblocks that prevent their transition? How do they react to society’s view of people like them?
  • What does your character like to do? Hobbies? Work?
  • What is your character’s spirituality or belief system? How does that influence their behaviors and thoughts?
  • What is your character’s worldview — how do they perceive their place in society? What do they feel about some of society’s laws or expectations? What sort of political theory to they adhere to?
  • Where did your character grow up and what was their childhood like? How does events from their childhood influence them today? What lessons did they learn during their childhood in regards to life, society, and their view of  themselves?
  • What is their family like? How many siblings do they have? What are their parents like? Does their family accept their gender identity?
  • What is your character’s sexuality? Have they dated anyone in the past, and if so, why did the relationship end? Are they interested in dating anyone? Are they in a relationship?
  • If in a relationship, did your character marry the person or not? Why? Do they have kids?  What are their kids like? Do they have any pets?
  • Who are your character’s friends? Why did they choose those friends? How did they meet? How deep are the friendships?
  • Is there anyone your character really dislikes? Why do they dislike them?
  • What was their education like? What did they study? Why did they decide to study that particular subject(s)?
  • What type of employment does the character have? Why did they choose to apply for that job? Or were they forced into that job due to societal norms or family pressure?
  • What is a typical day in the life of your character? (Think of a day before the big events of your story changes their life forever.)

For a longer list of character questions, see this thread on Legendfire Writing Forums.

Do not be afraid to use gender-neutral pronouns if there are characters who are of a third or fourth gender (or no gender). You can even meld the gender neutral pronouns into the society of your character’s world by making it a commonplace and/or important to the culture. When integrated into the setting (world) and characters, gender neutral pronouns will seem essential and not jarring to readers. For example, in science fiction, writers will use a variety of techniques to denote people (or aliens) of genders outside of the male/female binary:

  • Writers may use actual gender neutral pronouns such as ve/vir/vis (Alastair Reynolds has a character who uses these pronouns in one of his novels).
  • Or they may use a pronoun native to the language of the character (common with stories that have aliens in it like the Xenogenesis trilogy, where the aliens denote their third gender as just ooloi, or in Julie Czerneda’s works where it is a word native to the alien language).
  • Another approach involves writers using humanity’s tendency to stereotype and denote things by human’s norms. In this case, humans may decide to use only one pronoun for the entire alien species.  (The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin does this, where the human observer denotes all of the people on Winter as “he.” Ann Leckie does this in Ancillary Justice, where humans denote everyone within the alien species as “she.”) As a caveat: this particular approach may be useful for aliens and human stories, but I find this approach to be limiting and somewhat troublesome when used for non-binary characters (human or not).

 

Writing the story

Writing the story can often seem daunting, especially to people who are uncertain if they can portray trans characters well. I’ll tackle the steps to take in a bit, but first let’s discuss ways of writing the story your characters inhabit.

Once you have designed your characters, be willing to place them in diverse roles within your stories. You can make them the hero, the antagonist, an important side character, or peripheral characters that influence the plot in minor ways. It only takes a sentence or two to establish that they are trans. This can be done through a conversation the characters have, how other people interact or react to your character (such as microaggressions), the character’s inner thoughts about society and what they experience, or through well-worded descriptive details. The best way to explore how to do this is by reading books that feature trans people. Or think about how trans people may discuss being trans to other people — sometimes it comes up naturally in conversation. I will include a list of books to try at the end of this primer for you to explore how others have written trans characters.

For an example, I will use myself. A few days ago, some friends were sharing experiences of harassment (namely cat-callers). As a trans person who was assigned female at birth, I have experiences with this from when I was not yet out and was still perceived as a woman by nearly everyone. Since I was with friends, I joined the conversation by saying, “I get that. Before I came out or even considered transition, I experienced that too. I remember this one time…” Another example was when I was with friends on a hot day. I made the comment: “Ugh, I hate that feeling of sweat inside the binder. I’m totally going to take a nice shower when I get home.” My friends then shared their own discomfort with the heat, we laughed about it, and the topic changed to something else. In both these instances, my sharing of my trans part of my identity was brief and not the focus, but in both instances I felt comfortable and safe enough to share my experience.

By reading and listening to trans people’s stories and experiences, you can compile all sorts of ways to slip in details that the character is trans, where it may or may not be crucial to the plot but it is another interesting detail that develops the character further.

Here is a wonderful example of a writer doing a good job in creating a trans character. In Dragon Age Inquistion, there is a character who is trans, and the main indicator is some dialogue where the character mentions that they bind. Here is a blog post of how the writers and developers of Dragon Age Inquistion researched the subject and implemented the character in a respectful way: Building a Character: Cremisius “Krem” Aclassi. This article also shows the steps involved in writing a trans character well:

  1. Research and lots of it. Best way to do this is to listen to the stories of trans people. Read about their lives and read stories by them. Read up on definitions and concepts pertaining to trans people and the issues they face.
  2. Look for roles trans people can have in your stories — try for diverse roles in a variety of professions, and try to avoid making their story-arc just about the fact they are trans. Trans people are just as interesting and complex as cisgender people. Trans people can be any profession, any sexuality, any ethnicity or race, any socioeconomic position. Diversify!
  3. After you write your story, look for beta readers who are trans, and ask for their critiques. Listen to their constructive feedback on how to improve, and don’t feel defeated or sad if their reaction is less than stellar. Learn from your mistakes, fix any errors, and keep doing your best to diversify your characters. The best way to write diverse characters is by trying, learning from the experience, and trying again when you mess up.
  4. Understand that no matter how hard you try, some folks will love what you write and other people may not. As long as you do your best to write trans characters respectfully, that’s what’s important.

Remember, you don’t have to be a trans person in order to include trans characters! Writing trans characters may seem hard at first, but I challenge you to try anyway. Realize that trans people are just like you, and by writing about them, you can not only better understand trans people but also grow as a person and a writer. If you have any questions or want to see certain sections covered in further detail, feel free to drop me a note, and I’ll see what I can do.

Resources:

Legendfire Writing Forum Thread discussing how to write trans characters.

The Gender Book is a good 101 primer about trans people and issues they face. I highly recommend starting here.

Tips on writing trans characters (article published at Strange Horizons).

An article published on SFWA that provides tips on writing characters of different races and/or ethnicities. A lot of the advice is applicable to trans characters as well.

An article published on Walrus called Rise of the Gender Novel. It discusses how trans people are portrayed in literature.

Kat Blaque’s Advice on How to Write Transgender Characters (a YouTube video):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3fbvOX8Zh4 (I highly recommend this resource. Kat Blaque is a trans woman, who does a wonderful job offering tips on writing trans characters well.)

Lists of books with a trans protagonist:

Banned Books Week: Reflections

Posted by Aibird on September 27, 2014
Posted in: Books, Feminism, Writing. Tagged: , , , , . 1 Comment

Inspired by the Banned Books Blog Party hosted by Hannah Givens.

Reflections

It would probably take me quite some time to go over every book that heavily influenced me over the years, especially those that appear on numerous banned book lists. Instead, I’ll finish off this week with a reflection.

The most common theme for book bans, at least in my part of the US, centers on if the book contains objectionable material. Yet, the question here is what do people consider objectionable?

Words hold power, and books often can hold tremendous power in the ability to put a reader in the protagonist’s shoes. It allows people to really feel for the character, to experience their suffering and their joys, and it lets them try on a worldview for a little while, even if they may not realize it. Stories can challenge our most tightly held beliefs. They can also reinforce those tightly held beliefs.

If we go through our history, you’ll notice that what is deemed objectionable shifts based on the culture of that time period. For much of American history, novels and stories about African Americans, especially any that had interracial couples, were seen as objectionable, and often called amoral and dangerous. Books about LGBTQ people often fell into similar categories, where even the existence of an LGBTQ character may cause the book to be banned. Another target is minority religions, such as paganism or wicca, which the majority religion may view as evil or bad; often times books will be banned for having imagery that might relate, even remotely, to those unpopular religions. Yet another reason may be the politics within the book itself, which people may deem as dangerous for whatever reason.

This link provides a synopsis to commonly heard reason for banning books: Reasons for banning books. Violence and sex is also a fairly common reason. Yet, what do all these books hold in common?

They challenge the reader to think, and to put themselves in another person’s shoes. All books do it to some degree, though how much they challenge the reader depends on the genre and how the book is written. It also depends on where the reader is, what they personally believe, and what their worldview is, as to how challenged they are by the book.

Although people will cite that the primary reason for banning books is to protect children, the truth of the matter is that it’s not really about children at all. It’s about the control of ideas. Some people want to control what ideas a child is exposed to and the reasons for this may differ depending on the group. Control of ideas allows people to stay in power, to exert their influence, and to propagate the beliefs they find most important.

When we examine whether a book is appropriate for a child, we are exerting our control and power over that child, whether we realize it or not. Is this always a bad thing? Not always, because sometimes a child may not be able to handle the material within the book. It’s up to the child, their loved ones, and their teachers to determine what is best. It’s often not necessary to ban the book outright for that child, but instead to have them wait until they are at an age where they can emotionally and intellectually handle the book.

However, there are a great many times when exerting our control and power is a bad thing. By banning books, people are controlling the flow of ideas and this exerts their power over others in their communities. It’s a form of forcing others to conform to their view of the world,regardless of the damage that may cause to those around them. This excerpt from On Liberty John Stuart Mill sums up a few reasons why this is harmful (found at the ALA website):

If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind. Were an opinion a personal possession of no value except to the owner; if to be obstructed in the enjoyment of it were simply a private injury, it would make some difference whether the injury was inflicted only on a few persons or on many. But the peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.

We need to be challenged in order to grow as people. Children, especially, need to be challenged in order for them to learn. By being exposed to multiple viewpoints, children learn critical thinking skills and how to differentiate between arguments. They are better equipped to handle differing point of views as adults and discern truth from propaganda, which is necessary if we wish to uphold and strengthen our democratic society.

Children also need to be exposed to a diverse group of people in order to learn and expand their ability to empathize. Everyone is capable of empathy to some extent; we evolved with it (and it’s also present in many different species of animals as well), but the issue here is that empathy also requires a choice, to mentally put yourself into another shoes. If you don’t do that or don’t know how to do it, then you are less likely to seek understanding, less likely to view that person as an equal, and often times it can cause people to view others as less than human and not worthy of their respect or caring.

By reading books from diverse point of views, children learn how to put themselves in another person’s shoes. They are able to see, through the eyes of the protagonist, a different point of view, one that may be wildly different from their own. Stories often present their protagonist as someone that is relate-able or sympathetic to the reader, in order to get readers to care enough to read to the end, and by doing so, it helps teach children and adults alike ways to empathize with others. It also provides them a chance to understand someone else’s perspective and allows them a chance to reevaluate their own views and opinions.

In order for us to grow as individuals and as a society into a more caring and accepting world, we need books that challenge us, that provide diversity in protagonists and perspectives, and we need the freedom and access to be able to read those books.

 

Sharing Your Story

Posted by Aibird on September 24, 2012
Posted in: Blogging, Writing. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

All of us have a story to tell. How we tell it is perhaps the difference between all of us.

Some of us choose to tell it through the art of writing. We mold our words into the frame of our story, crafting it through the fires of our knowledge and heart, and then release it onto the screen. Readers read these words long after they are written.

There are others who share their story through the art of speaking. They release the words from their lips in a torrent of imagery and sound, gathering their listeners close as the story unfolds immediately. There, the listeners, interact directly and immediately with the speaker, though not always, for with the technology of today, those that speak can amend their story into a myriad of forms – crafting it into a speech to be recorded and shared or transforming it into a film or play where the story is directly acted out and displayed through performance or recorded for later viewing.

Still others choose art. Crafting the materials into a form that fits what they’ve envisioned. The result could be anything – a painting, a sculpture, a photograph, a piece of jewelry, a scarf, and so on and so forth. This form is elusive, quieter, and requires more thought and more concentration; even then, the viewer can never be completely certain that they’ve established the entire story, for what they see is viewed through the lens of their own story, making the interpretation of the art piece as complexly beautiful as the art itself.

And others may choose music. Molding and shaping sound to fit the story, to express it with or without a singer’s voice, and to envelop it with the emotions and thoughts of the story. Listeners come and feel the emotion of the songs, hear the words if there is any, or even if there isn’t any words, they can hear the beauty of the story within the realm of the composer’s and performer’s music.

And yet others take their art of writing, combine it with the art of speaking, adding a layer of art and music to their story, and then transforming it into a playable world, where the gamer can plant themselves in the shoes of the character, experiencing the story themselves.

There’s so many different ways to share your story, but finding the way that’s right for you is harder. For some, the simplest way is to simply share it with a friend or a loved one. For others, they seek to go further and so share it through the art of writing or through art itself. Each of us has our own unique gifts, and our own unique set of memories and experiences that mold and shape us. Sharing it is hard, for often we feel that no one will listen, that our stories are not good enough, or not capable of inspiring anything in anyone.

Brenda Ueland wrote a book called If You Want To Write, where she discusses this very topic in more depth. Here is an excerpt from her last chapter:

–if you want to write:

  1. Know that you have talent, are original and have something important to say.
  2. Know that it is good to work. Work with love and think of liking it when you do it.  it is easy and interesting. It is a privilege. There is nothing hard about it but your anxious vanity and fear of failure.
  3. Write freely, recklessly, in first drafts.
  4. Tackle anything you want to –novels, plays, anything.
  5. Don’t be afraid of writing bad stories.  To discover what is wrong with a story write two new ones and then go back to it.
  6. Don’t fret or be ashamed of what you have written in the past.  How I always suffered from this!  How I would regurgitate out of my memory (and still do) some nauseous little lumps of things I had written! But don’t do this. Go on to the next. And fight against this tendency which is much of it due not to splendid modesty, but a lack of self-respect.   We are too ready (women especially) not to stand by what we have said or done. Often it is a way of forestalling criticism, saying hurriedly: “I know it is awful!” before anyone else does.  Very bad and cowardly. It is so conceited and timid to be ashamed of one’s mistakes. Of course they are mistakes. Go on to the next.
  7. Try to discover your true,honest, untheoretical self.
  8. Don’t think of yourself as an intestinal tract and tangle of nerves in the skull, that will not work unless you drink coffee.  Think of yourself as incandescent power, illuminated perhaps and forever talked to by God and his messengers.  remember how wonderful you are, what a miracle!
  9. If you are never satisfied with what you write, that is a good sign.  It means your vision can see so far that it is hard to come up to it.Again I say, the only unfortunate people are the glib ones, immediately satisfied with their work. To them the ocean is only knee-deep.
  10. When discouraged, remember what Van Gogh said: “If you hear a voice within you saying: You are no painter, then paint by all means, lad, and that voice will be silenced, but only by working.”
  11. Don’t be afraid of yourself when you write. Don’t check-rein yourself.  If you are afraid of being sentimental, say, for heaven’s sake be as sentimental as you can or feel like being!  Then you will probably pass through to the other side and slough off sentimentality because you understand it at last and really don’t care about it.
  12. Don’t always be appraising yourself, wondering if you are better or worse than other writers.  “I will not Reason & Compare,” said Blake; “my business is to Create.” Besides, sing you are like no other being ever created since the beginning of Time, you are incomparable.

And why should you do all these things? Why should we all use our creative power and write or paint or play music, or whatever it tells us to do?

Because there is nothing that makes people so generous, joyful, lively, bold and compassionate, so indifferent to fighting and accumulation of objects and money. Because the best way to know the Truth or Beauty is to try to express it. And what is the purpose of existence Here or Yonder but to discover truth and beauty and express it, i.e., share it with others?

We all have stories to share, and it is okay to share it. That’s something I feel that people, including myself, often don’t do – give ourselves permission to share our stories. Recently a friend of mine reminded me that self-love is more than just eating healthy food and maybe exercising. It’s giving yourself permission to share your story, to feel your emotions, to seek to understand yourself, to take yourself out to eat because you have money to spare, to go play a game just because you want to and it feels good, to sing a song as loud as you can because it brings you joy, to dance around the room just because you can, to set boundaries that help you feel safe and comfortable, and to do what is best for you because you love you for who you are. We often forget that loving ourselves is just as important – if not more so – as loving other people. Once we love ourselves, it is easier to love another person.

And when I speak of love, I speak of respect, acceptance, kindness, listening, vulnerability, and empathy – all rolled into the act of loving. Sharing your story is part of loving yourself, and as hard as it can be at times – for we all have our own dark tales that are painful to bear – sharing it could very well end up helping you heal and at the same time, it may end up helping another person heal as well.

Diversity: Race

Posted by Aibird on July 24, 2012
Posted in: Characters, World Building, Writing. Tagged: , , , , , . 2 Comments

At Racebending.com, the article, “Frustration of an Asian American Whedonite,” expressed in vivid detail one of my biggest qualms with the Firefly universe – a show I dearly love.  Here is the fusion of Asian and American culture in the future, but there is no actual representation of Asian people outside of a few scarce faces in the crowd.

Even xkcd, the awesome stick figure comic that covers everything from culture, math, language, to romance, pointed this out: xkcd: The Uncomfortable Truths Well

So it’s been noticed by people of many different races, which brings us to some very pertinent and needed questions brought up in the article:

Shouldn’t it be a priority, if you’re trying to tell a believable story about a Sino-American future, to include Asian characters?

Isn’t it marginalizing to fantasize about a “mixed Asian” world completely absent of Asian people, especially when you live and work in a city that’s almost 1/8th Asian?

If you were to write a scifi show about a merged African and North American empire, do you think it would be acceptable to avoid giving a single spoken line to a black actor?

This question in particular struck me as the one most likely to hit home for Joss Wheldon and others like him:

Would you ever tell a story that purported to have major elements of American gay culture, without having a single gay  character in-frame for more than 3 seconds? What about a show that claimed some feminist themes, but cast only men, with women barely seen and never heard?

These are excellent questions that need to be asked. Joss Wheldon is one of my favorite directors and producers of television and movie storylines. He does a great job in fighting for equality; however, he is a bit blind when it comes to race.  All of our heroes have blindspots and weaknesses, and asking them to consider their blindspots are opportunities for growth.  It’s also an opportunity to seriously consider how one creates a story, builds a world, and what are the implications inherent within building that world.

As the article itself says:

The issue isn’t Joss Whedon. It’s the blinders. All the blindspots that make it tough to understand problems that you’ve never or rarely ever had to personally deal with. The blindspots that make it tough to understand why, sometimes, race should influence casting decisions. That sometimes it should be a mission statement – or, at the very least, a priority.

These blindspots is something everyone has, but in order to grow, we need to acknowledge them and confront them.  If we truly wish to create a more inclusive future, then we have to seriously examine our own blind spots.

When you create a world, there will be diversity. It does exist. Examine our own world, particularly American – which is my home country and the one I know the most about: Demographics of the United States, Census 2010 Report on Race in America.

So let us crunch some numbers specifically for Asian Americans: Census 2010 Data states the total population of the United States to be: 308,745,538.  Asians are listed as 4.8% of the population. Some may claim this isn’t a lot, but the 4.8% is misleading for if you crunch the numbers here and see how many people are represented in that percentage, you end up with: 14,819,786.  That is over fourteen million people that are being erased. That is a heck of a lot of people, and this number is increasing every year.  In 2000, only 3.6% of the population was Asian, meaning 10,242,998 people in total. That is a 43.6% increase over ten years, and this data shows this is expected to increase even more. That’s a heck of a lot of people.  I’m only examining Asians here.  Blacks represent 12.6% of the population, an even larger number, and Hispanics 16.3%.  This is only three races, for there’s also the Native Americans, Pacific Islanders, and biracial people.

Out of curiousity, let’s count up the population statistics for all non-white races: In 2000, 69,961,280 people were non-white. For 2010, 85,192,273 are non-white. All this data is from the 2010 Census report I cited above in a link, and it shows that there has been an increase in diversity over the past ten years, and this is expected to increase.

Diversity is increasing in our world, not decreasing, so creating a futuristic world where diversity is nearly non-existent not only erases whole swathes of people, it leaves huge gaping holes within that universe.  I’ll use Firefly as an example. What happened to the diversity?  With it’s increasing trend, it seems highly unlikely that the other races vanished or diminished out of nowhere. Even a genocide wouldn’t go down without a huge fight, but there is no evidence of a huge genocide to wipe out the majority non-white races within the history of the presented universe in Firefly.  Speculation on this matter is a moot point, for when it comes to already created universes, it is best to examine what has been presented to us as the history, the details of this world, and the people within it.  The Firefly universe gives no explanation to the lack of diversity, and instead, claims to be a mix of two very different cultures – one Chinese oriented and the other American oriented, but if this is to be true, then where is the Asians? Why are they not prominent everywhere and why do they not have major roles within the story and in various places of power? Quite simply, this seems to be a major a blind spot; the creator simply didn’t consider it, and thus the universe, which had great potential for examining diversity within the fusion of two fairly different culture, doesn’t live up to its own ideas, nor is it willing to even prod the possibility of what a world would be like with our currently increasing trend in diversity.  This is a bit of a failure, and it’ll always be a very disappointing and sad mark on one of my most beloved television series.

It’s these blind spots that we have to seriously examine if we wish to create not only a fully realized and three dimensional world, but also realistic three dimensional characters.  The repercussions of writing worlds and stories that contain little representation of other races is fairly significant in our culture, for it is a form of white-washing.  As the above analysis on the Census data shows, over eighty-five million people have little to no representation in our media and literature, and thus, they have little to no characters with which they can relate.

To help define a few of my points, here is some information on white-washing: “CNN Explores White-washing,” “White-washing Race.”

As quoted within the CNN article on white-washing:

“Certainly changes will be made to the story in adaptations, such as setting a story in the United States instead of Japan,” Racebending.com states. “What disappoints us is that when these adaptations are reset to America, they do not reflect the diversity of  the United States. Many people are of Asian descent but are also ‘totally American.’”

Indeed, considering over eighty-five million people in American are ‘totally American’ and non-white, and over fourteen million of those non-white people are of Asian descent.

This idea of “color-blindness” when dealing with race is a form of very subtle racism, and often results in these blind spots, where non-white races end up nearly invisible, often in their own adapted stories.  This erases entire swathes of people, which is a form of oppression.  It allows certain people in our society to just never examine their blind spots, to never examine ways to make their works more inclusive and more representative of the beautiful diversity that is our world.

It is a challenge for us writers to examine our blind spots and find ways to improve our writing, our stories, and our view of this world.  But it is a challenge we all must face if we truly wish to dig deep and explore within our stories not only ourselves but our world, our dreams, and our future.

Tropes Vs. Women and Diversity in Literature

Posted by Aibird on June 13, 2012
Posted in: Author, Blogging, Characters, Elivera, Writing. Tagged: , , , , , , . 6 Comments

My world-building series takes time to craft, since I often sift through my old notes and textbooks to make sure all the information presented here is accurate.  For all my readers wondering, this is why the next installment on Atmospheres and the various cycles on planets is not yet ready.

In the meantime, I can discuss instead this fascinating series by a wonderful vlogger: Anita Sarkeesian – Tropes vs. Women

She deconstructs several tropes about female characters in pop culture America in her videos, and does a much better job than anything I can write here.  So my challenge for this week is for people to watch her video series.

Writing female characters that are fully developed is absolutely essential when developing a cast of characters that are highly diverse, interesting, and fully developed.  It isn’t enough to just include people of color, people of varying gender identities (including non-binary genders such as gender queer, neutrois, and androgyne along with the typical male and female), and people of varying sexual orientations.  You can include someone, but the hard part is making sure that you don’t fall in the trap of writing that character as a stereotype rather than as an actual, breathing, realized character.

Language holds a lot of power in our society, as I detailed in my previous entry concerning languages and world-building.  When language is used to oppress, ignore, and de-legitimaze the experiences of various groups of people this can cause a ripple effect within society.  As this language use continues throughout the decades, this can become internalized to the point where people began to believe the stereotypes about people of color, people who are not straight, people inside and outside the gender binary – and this in turn can lead to prejudice, systematic racism/sexism/homophobia/transphobia within all areas of life, harassment, sexual assault, and even viciously violent hate crimes that end in death.

One of the first things I noticed growing up was the lack of character to which I could identify.  This bothered me a lot.  Some of my favorite books, where there was great adventure and in-depth plots and characterizations, had male leads – white, straight, male leads.  Any females were often supportive characters if they appeared at all.  A few exceptions would be Eowyn in Lord of the Rings, but despite her great strength and how fully realized she was as a character in a male dominated world, she was still just a supporting character in a tale mostly about men doing great things.  In my senior year of high school, I began to realize my own sexuality and how I identified with my gender; however, being the avid reader I am, this is also around the time I began to realize that nearly all the books I read had absolutely no one that I could relate to in regards to sexuality, and there was very little characters that represented my gender that were not one-dimensional stereotypes.  In fact, many of the books I read, and the socialization I received through my childhood and my time at school, lead me to believe that my sexuality (and how I viewed my own gender) was some evil, terrible thing I had to fight against, fix, and ignore.  This caused great harm in my life, and although I survived it, it really forced me to realize that erasing people through literature is incredibly harmful for everyone within our society.  Sadly, this topic is not something that’s discussed very often.

I started writing stories at a very young age – when I was in first grade in fact – mostly because I wanted stories that related more with not only how I viewed my gender but also allowed myself to experience the same inspiring, intricate, and/or intense adventures that male counterparts did.  As I came to understand myself better over the years, this opened my eyes to the realization that who is represented in literature and the media can have a profound affect on how we view ourselves and others. It also inspired me to investigate this further to try to understand why this is, and this lead me into the realm of feminism and other aspects of social equality.  Now, when I examine the stories I wish to write, I consider who these characters are and I make sure that my cast of characters are diverse.  Not only do I wish to be more realistic – considering how diverse my home country is, it just makes sense to include diversity in my novels – but the world of Elivera is set in the far future where the human species is highly diverse with equality being one of the top priorities of the cultures of Elivera.  If this is true, then my cast of characters must reflect this, meaning there must be people of color, people of varying gender identities, people of varying orientations, and people with or without disabilities.

If I want to fight back against the white-washing that is prevalent in our society, the cisgender male-dominated stories, and the push for straight only relationships, then I need to be coignizant of the diversity within my own writing and world-building. Learning about these issues is incredibly important, but it often takes us realizing that maybe we might have a bit more privileges than another group of people, and that privilege may be masking the true awfulness prevalent within our society.  Language can play a huge role in combating that awfulness and that oppression, and language is the tools that a writer uses to craft stories (and even whole universes) as well as to influence a wide range of diverse readers.