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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:

Writing Process: An Update

Posted by Aibird on June 5, 2016
Posted in: Characters, Elivera, Writing. Tagged: , , , , , . 1 Comment

Update on The Dragios Twins Trilogy

Book 1: The Lost Ones

A few weeks ago, my editor returned my book to me with some excellent edits and suggestions. She noted areas where I needed more precise and descriptive words, areas where believability was an issue, characters who weren’t as strongly painted as other characters, suggestions on how to reword convoluted sentences, and other mistakes that I had missed. Objective eyes really can help polish a book, because a lot of these issues I hadn’t noticed. Although I had spent many weeks scouring it for mistakes, being that entangled with the novel, my brain tended to fix things for me as I read through the pages. Sometimes an objective pair of eyes can ferret out easy to miss problems because their brain isn’t automatically fixing it for them; for the editor, this book is new to them, the material fresh, so they don’t have the history of the story’s evolution like I do, and are able to see problems as they are. I highly recommend all writers find a professional editor to review their work. It really does help.

What’s the next stage? Researching legitimate agents, writing query letters, and submitting queries. I have a few potential agents picked out, but now I have to research their submission process and make sure I abide by it. I also need to try to write my queries  so that I sell myself and yet also sound succinct and professional. This is a hard balance, and it’s been stressing me out. This is the part of the writing process I hate the most.

Book 2: The Experiments (or The Found ones)

I have started the second book in this trilogy and am near the quarter point of 25,000 words. The first book is more of a mystery in which the characters try to understand what is happening to them and why by seeking out clues. In the second book, the characters understand what is happening and are now fighting to save each other from dangerous situations. They know what they need to do, but doing the actions are proving difficult. So the second book has a lot more action and fighting scenes.

The theme of the second book is tied up in the theme of the first book: empathy, seeking truth, and conflict resolution.

Analysis of my Character’s Journeys

I tried hard to avoid any spoilers in the following analysis.

Kia

Kia’s journey starts with her in a healthy place in life. She has conquered cancer, emotionally fairly healthy, and has regained some of her strength. She strongly believes in equality and civil rights, and fights against xenophobic attitudes within her classmates behavior, especially if they direct it at Kate. She’s a fighter to the core but also loyal to those she loves. In the second book, these qualities are put to the test to a high degree.

In The Lost Ones, Kia is kidnapped and placed in a terrifying new world that she doesn’t understand – the only similarity between her new world and her old is pain. She understands pain very well due to her cancer and due to fighting against discrimination. By the end of the first book, Kia and Kate come to understand who Kia’s captors are, but their motives are still obscured by a language barrier. In the second book, Kia struggles with anger and a growing hatred of her captors and their actions. She starts to distrust anyone who looks like her captors, and in doing so, she starts to judge everyone within that species as bad — discounting the good ones that are actually her allies. Her distrust and growing hatred of her captors puts her in danger of becoming the xenophobic person she had fought so hard against at the start of The Lost Ones.

The climax of the second book depends on Kia mitigating her anger into less destructive avenues and quelling her hatred of her captors in order to find common ground with potential allies who seek to end her captivity. As Kia toes this line between constructive avenues for her anger and destructive, Kate serves as her foil; she holds Kia accountable, and for Kia, who ends up in a leadership role during the events of the second book, she needs to be held accountable and needs the emotional support, so that she can make decisions and act in a way that drives toward justice and resolution rather than destruction and revenge. All good leaders need someone to hold them accountable.

Kia’s question becomes: how does one seek justice without perpetuating a cycle of violence?

Kate

Kate’s journey in The Lost Ones centers on her anxiety disorder and how she mitigates its effects on her life. She has lived most of her life in the shadows of other people, quite content to support them so that she could escape notice. She doesn’t like to be the center of attention and struggles to speak up about her needs due to her anxiety. In the first book, Kate must learn how to speak up and fight for those she loves, and she starts to discern when speaking up is necessary and when to use her tendency toward silence during stressful situations to her advantage.

In the second book, her newly developed skills are put to the test as she and her cousin must fight their way to Kia. Kate, who prefers to avoid conflict at all costs, must learn how to defend those she loves and most importantly how to diffuse intense conflict by speaking and fighting back. This is extremely difficult for Kate due to her anxiety disorder and also due to her struggle with PTSD, as the events of the first book will have a tremendous effect on her mental health. Throughout the second book, Kate struggles to articulate her needs to those she trusts and allow their help when she needs the support.

Kate’s main motivation is finding and freeing Kia, the person she loves most in the world, but as the events of the second book progress, Kate’s motivation starts to change. She still seeks to free Kia from captivity, but at the same time, she wants to help Kia heal from the trauma they’ve both endured. Her empathy toward Kia’s struggle and toward the struggle of Kia’s fellow captives pushes Kate to try to find ways to help others discover their inner strength to survive and heal from the trauma they’ve endured. Kate wants a peaceful resolution to the conflicts they face.

Kate’s question becomes: how does one seek resolution and healing in and after traumatic situations?

Jillsa

Jill’s journey differs from both of Kate and Kia. She enters the tale in the latter half of The Lost Ones. As Kate’s cousin, Jill has lived most of her life in Norway, hasn’t experienced that much discrimination due to her unusual looks, and she’s fairly well adjusted. She has a terrible sense of humor, but is very loyal to those she loves. Unlike Kate and Kia, Jill has no desire at all for romantic relationships, and enjoys long arduous hikes and creating things with her hands. She doesn’t have a lot of interest in outside affairs, so when Kate tumbles into Jill’s life, Jill is thrust into a world of intrigue, adventure, and dangerous conflict. At first Jill resists it, but Jill has a strong urge to keep those she cares about safe, so when she begins to hear Kate’s mind-song, Jill finds herself empathizing with Kate’s struggles. This pushes her to assist Kate in finding the truth of what happened to Kia and ways to save Kia from her captivity.

At first, Jill’s main motivation is keeping her cousin safe. She could care less about the affairs of Kia’s captors or the fate of Earth, but by the end of the second book, when she confronts the horrors of the captors’ experiments, Jill must make a choice — she could turn and walk away, go back to her home in Norway, and continue to avoid recognizing the larger problems, but doing so would mean turning her back on Kate and Kia entirely. And even then, she might not escape the impact Kia’s captors have on Earth and Elivera.

Jill, by the end of the second book, has developed empathy for the captives’ plight and for Kate’s fervent desire to seek a peaceful resolution to the conflicts between all the factions involved. Jill understands why Kate wants to avoid loss of life as much as possible, but Jill also understands that sometimes loss of life is unavoidable when people are fighting for their freedom. As much as Jill wants to go back to the life she lead before the events of the first book, Jill slowly comes to understand that if this larger conflict is not addressed her life and many others could be severely harmed.

Jill’s question becomes: how does one balance one’s needs against the needs of the many?

Book 3: Liberation (placeholder title)

At first I wasn’t sure I’d need a third book for this series, but the further I move into the second book, the more I realize how necessary a third book is. The third book will focus on conflict resolution, seeking common ground (empathy for others), and the characters trying to avoid an all-out war between Earth and the scientist factions (Kia’s captors) on Elivera. I have 12,320 words for the third book thus far, and these scenes exist only within notebooks currently. I have yet to transfer them into my Scrivener project. Originally, I wrote these scenes for the second book, but then realized that including them would draw out the ending of the second book too much. So the scenes were shifted to the beginning of the third book.

The events of the Dragios Twins Trilogy takes place a good 900 or so years before most of my planned Elivera novels. This Trilogy is the origin story of my Elivera world. This series has been years in the making, and I’m determined to get it right. Kate, Kia, and Jill’s story has a huge impact on humanity’s presence on Elivera and their relations with their homeworld, Earth, so I best get back to writing it!

 

Book Review: The Telling

Posted by Aibird on June 17, 2015
Posted in: Books, Reviews, Writing. Tagged: , , , , . 1 Comment

The Telling
by Ursula Le Guin
Published by Ace Books in 2000.

 

Sutty comes from a tumultuous time in Earth’s history, where religion has bombed libraries and universities. She comes the planet Aka as an observer in hopes of studying a world of rich history, where equality is paramount. Except by the time her ship finally arrives, the world does not match the reports of the original Ekumen observers. Technology has utterly transformed it. The Corporation strictly monitors the citizens in their March to the Stars, and all books and stories of their history has been banned and eradicated. Her first few months is spent under rigid control by the authorities, where she is given propaganda and nothing that she can truly study. However, Corporation bureaucrats suddenly grant passage out of the capital city and north to a small town in the foothills of the mountains. Here she uncovers the once rich society of the the Telling. People here risk much to keep their stories alive, and intrigued by their beliefs, Sutty joins them on a sacred journey into the mountains. It is there, deep in the highest caverns of the mountains, that she delves deep into her past, these peoples’ past, and how it all intertwines here on this planet far from Earth.

The book itself is short but is a fascinating trip through philosophy and societal change. The characters are vibrant and interesting, full of quirks and flaws. Even the Monitor — one of the Corporation’s agents — has incredible depth, once Sutty has the chance to truly talk to him outside of the strict confines of the Corporation. All of the dissendents — the Maz, storytellers — have a richness of personality and character. The characters just leap off the page. The discovery Sutty makes surprised me a bit and added further depth to the world. It’s such a small book, and yet the richness of the world-building and the characters is displayed so brilliantly.

I highly recommend the novella as it’s masterfully woven, each page begging to be turned. It’s science fiction at its best — exploring humanity in all its depths.

Let Us Go Write! – Choosing a genre

Posted by Aibird on October 5, 2014
Posted in: Books, Writing. Tagged: , , , , , , , . 3 Comments

As much as we’d probably not like to admit it, our works will get categorized into genres. Often times people will seek out books of certain genres because that’s what they like. People expect certain experiences from the genres they like, and they choose that genre because it promises to provide their expected experience. When it fails to deliver, this can leave them feeling disappointed, annoyed, regretful, and sometimes even anger. This can be even more pronounced in the genres of speculative fiction such as science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Why is this? Jule Selbo, explains in the essay “Choosing Your Speculative Genre:”

“Because these three genres attract specific audiences that tend to be knowledgeable and demanding and very, very picky—not to say prickly—if their expectations are not met. That’s a lot of pressure for a “genre”—a French-based word that original meant to simply denote “type” or “category,” but one that has now taken on a much, more important place in the lexicon of narrative fiction.”

This means that sometimes it can be useful to know what genre your story is, and how it informs your storyline and writing in general. A book or movie or even TV show is never solely one genre only, there is often a supporting genre that also influences the characters and plot. So for this exploration, we’ll take a look at genres and how to identify the primary and supporting genres in your piece of fiction. To do so, let’s discuss the three main speculative genres and how the supporting genres can lend development to the story. Jule Selbo goes on to explain some of the basics of these three genres:

“I suggest we think of science fiction, fantasy, and horror for a moment as “world” genres, for there are few inherent story components in these genres (genres that have stronger narrative dictates include mystery, romance, and crime). Their main feature is that they invite the audience into a specific world—and there are many fans enthralled with these worlds.”

For Science fiction:

Science fiction genre stories have their roots in science. The writer’s imagination can extrapolate and vamp on the chosen scientific nugget, and the fun of the sci-fi genre is its proximity to some scientific truth or hypotheses.”

For Fantasy:

“The fantasy genre allows the author to create an imaginary world, often using supernatural elements as primary inspirations for plot and characters. The world may be dreamlike, it may at times feel real, but it is always illusory. Think Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings novels and films.

Environments can be otherworldly but at the same time must be clearly drawn; rules of the society and more and beliefs of the characters must be clear. Without such as societal expectations, rules of conduct, limitations on power,etc., it is very hard to create conflict.”

For Horror:

“The horror genre features plots where evil forces (events or characters) invade the everyday world and upset the social order. There is narrative dictate in horror, which makes it different from the science fiction and fantasy genres; the horror genre calls for a writer to create a space or situation for the evil entity to show itself and, in most cases, make life miserable for those who inhabit the story.”

Now that we have basic definitions for each of the primary speculative genres, what about supporting genres?

Supporting genres tend to include adventure, action, mystery, romance, buddy, coming-of-age, comedy, drama, and probably a few more I’m forgetting. These tend to have narrative dictates that influence the plot and characters arcs more directly than the over-arching world genre. These provide more of the beef of the story, and all stories, no matter the medium, tend toward a mixture of some of these supportive genres along with an overarching world genre. Each of these supporting genres have a narrative dictate that is often used, and is what defines that particularly supporting genre. They also provide an expectation of what to expect in the story itself, and help provide it with a more structurally sound and interesting narrative. It can help flesh out characters, worlds, and plot points.

Here is a list of definitions for some supporting genres:

  • Adventure (a goal is set and the hero, against all odds, must strive to reach that goal for the betterment of community or all of humanity)
  • Action (a heck of a lot of action, where there is less dialogue and more movement and doing things.)
  • romance (two or more people interested romantically and sexually with someone else or with each other)
  • coming-of-age (character matures and comes to understand something about themselves)
  • buddy (character arc toward bonding and friendship)
  • comedy (humorous scenarios, incongruity)
  • drama (suspenseful series of unexpected events or set of circumstances that happens at a crucial moment in a characters’ life, focuses on emotional conflict generally, those sub-genres can include conflicts such as war, political conflict, crime, tragedy)
  • mystery (plot points structured so that a puzzle is slowly put together by figuring out the meaning of clues)
  • Any other genres I missed or better definitions for the ones above? Drop them in a comment!

As a tool, this can be very useful, especially if you are struggling with a story idea. I find that I often struggle more toward the middle of the story rather than the beginning and the end of the tale. By thinking about the different supporting genres, what I expect when I hear about those genres, and what are some common themes and plot points I often see in those genres, it helps me develop ideas for my own work. Its like I’m jump-starting the idea section of my brain. I wish I’d thought of this earlier to be honest, but it’s only recently that I started thinking about the use of genres and their effect on my writing.

Here is an exercise to help us jump-start this process:

1. In choosing to write in one of the speculative genres, consider making it clear to your audience from the outset that they are going to “get what they paid for.” Construct a scene or situation set in the overriding genre to open your narrative. Just keep in mind that the goal should be to create a scene or situation that makes the genre clear as well as includes a way to get to know one of your main characters so that the audience begins to understand/care for him/her. If you want to start your story with an event that does not feature your main character, best to keep it relatively short. Audience members are quick to understand a “setting the genre/world” scene and are waiting to engage in characters, so don’t tax their patience.

2. List possible supporting genres. Decide which may lend a sense of originality to your piece. Which will illuminate characters and which will help raise conflicts between characters? Consider which supporting genres will help complicate/raise the stakes in your plot. Write a scene that exemplifies this supporting genre, but still has the over-arching world field of your primary genre.

Feel free to discuss this further in the comments, and if you have more resources regarding genres, definitely drop it in a comment!

 

 

Let us go Write! — Horror Edition

Posted by Aibird on September 14, 2014
Posted in: Aliens, Characters, World Building, Writing. Tagged: , , , , , , . 3 Comments

I write speculative fiction, where most of my focus is on science fiction with a dabble of horror. However, my roots were in fantasy, partly because when I first started writing in middle school I simply did not have the scientific foundation to write science fiction well, but that didn’t stop me. I tossed aliens into my stories, clones, and mind controlling gadgetry, all of which lived alongside feats that would only work if magic existed. I had dragons and demons and monsters. This need to understand science better to more effectively write science fiction played a large role in me earning the physics degree I have today.

Now I look back at those tales and recognize them for what they were: my practice sessions and my imagination garden. There I planted the seeds of my future fiction, and over the years I cultivated my imagination garden, helping it become more refined and less chaotic. I learned how to write a story arc. How to craft a consistent and coherent plot, and most of all, I learned how to build a science fiction world. This new series, that I’m starting with this post, will focus on various aspects of speculative fiction and will offer myself and my readers a challenge for their writing. It’ll help me plant more seeds in my imagination garden and hopefully expand my capabilities as a writer.

I’m still not perfect at writing speculative fiction, but no one ever is. We simply keep trying and keep writing the best we can. It’s always good to push our boundaries to the limits because the challenges are what helps us to grow the most. This is why I’ve tried to start learning how to write horror. So this first post in my “Let us go write!” series will focus on the horror story.

In the Now Write! Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror edited by Laurie Lamson, several articles discuss horror directly. Glenn Benest, a horror screenwriter and producer, writes:

Unlike other works of fiction or film, the protagonist in this genre does not need to go through a character arc.

He goes on to explain how horror’s main focus is not necessarily on the protagonist character.

… we must realize that the real star in the horror genre is not the hero but the source of the horror itself. Whether it’s a haunted hotel in The Shining or the great white shark in Jaws, the crucial thing that makes a horror project really work is that which scares us.

This isn’t to say strong characters shouldn’t exist in horror pieces, but it is important to take notice that the focus isn’t really on the characters. They are the vehicle that brings the reader to the confrontation with the terrible evil; this means that there is something even more important that the protagonist character when it comes to writing good horror fiction. Another point the essayist makes is that often the audience for horror pays money to be scared silly, and so expect to be scared silly. It’s not the nuances of the characters that impress them, but more how well they are scared and how much of a lasting impact that has on them. Understanding this aspect of the horror audience can aid a writer in getting their story sold.

When I think back on my own experiences with horror, I notice that the pieces that stood out to me the most were indeed dependent upon the source of the horror. I don’t remember the characters as much, nor was their character arcs that important. What made the piece good was the source of the fear. For example, in the Alien Franchise, the aliens had a very lasting impact on my psyche. Yes, Ripley has become an iconic character, but examine her storyline. She is shown from the beginning of the film to be a strong-willed and courageous woman. This doesn’t change at all during the course of the movies. She remains strong and courageous, but what changes is that she confronts the terrifying aliens and finds a way to survive. Her confrontation is what made the imprint in my mind, and has made those movies some of my ultimate favorites in the genre. It’s that confrontation that made the movie, not necessarily her story arc (or lack thereof).

So when I write horror, I need to be cognizant of this factor. The horror that is confronted is the focus of the piece, and the characters are there to help force the confrontation. I need to bring out that confrontation, really examine ways to showcase the horror and the scare factor, but to do so in creative ways. I can’t use just one method of scaring a person, but instead, I need to utilize a whole tool belt of scare methods. If I use just one method, I risk losing the element of surprise and the piece becoming lackluster and boring. Surprise can play a large role in pulling off horror well. One way to utilize different methods is to cross-cut scenes with another line of action to build the suspense. Or the writer can utilize a fake-scare, where it seems like something terrifying will happen, but it turns out to be mundane, and then start the real terror directly afterward. Another way to add variety and keep the reader on their toes is to build the suspense slowly by adding creepier and creepier situations, and then add an unexpected scare. Alien was excellent in this regard, as the creepiness of the discovery started slow, and then the alien bursting from the guy’s chest was an unexpected terror.

If a writer is having trouble finding scenarios that could be scary, examine what scares you. What causes you to jump in fear at night? What sort of dream causes you to wake up in a cold sweat or with a stifled scream? Ask friends and family about what truly scares them, and compile a list of ideas. Then try honing that list and creating ways of writing them effectively.

The essayist also points out that humor, especially in longer pieces, is a very useful tool to have in the horror tool be;t as well.

Humor always plays well in the horror genre because it gives the audience a chance to laugh and dispel tension, before you ratchet up the suspense and horror even more. When you scare us, it makes every fiber in our being taut with tension — so occasionally we need a reprieve, and humor is how that reprieve is achieved.

So it’s not enough to just learn how to utilize various scare methods. I also need to become more fluent in the use of humor done well. That will, of course, take practice, but then that’s all part of the job of writing. Now, my readers, let us go write!

Feel free to share your thoughts on horror in the comments below, or even excerpts of your own horror pieces. How else can we improve our horror fiction, and what methods (and combinations of methods) do you find most useful?

To stand on an alien world

Posted by Aibird on August 10, 2014
Posted in: Aliens, Physics, Science, World Building, Writing. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . 1 Comment
stand alone in the void of your mind from Flickr via Wylio

© 2012 David Dehetre, Flickr | CC-BY

Our eyes can’t see Infrared light, so a world that thrives on IR might look like the above picture to us. Though the color of the sky might be a different color than this picture shows.

Our Moon

What is it like to stand on a world that is not Earth? For those that have had the chance to walk on the moon, they experienced this to a small degree. The moon is a hostile environment. There is no atmosphere, and has very light gravity. You must have technology in order to survive on the moon; without it, you’d be dead. Yet, what is it like to stand there and look up at the sky? First, you’d see the earth. Large and colorful. You’d see the clouds drifting across its surface and the blue of the oceans, the more pastel colors of the continents. You’d see the sun as a bright white light tinged with yellow far in the distance. You may even see stars, but the black void that is space will be all around you.

There isn’t an atmosphere that refracts light, giving day time a blue tint. The day and night sky would be black. There isn’t any protection from the sun’s more harmful radiation. You’d have to put the whole moon between you and the sun or hope your suit and technology could protect you from the more dangerous rays — the ones that could damage your cells and slowly kill you.

To live on the moon would require a massive undertaking, where we’d have to build a base that is sustainable and highly shielded. Any leaks would be disastrous, and help may not reach us in time. We’d have to be able to jury-rig solutions on our own and extract our own water from the moon, grow our own food within the protected and sealed base, because supplies would be expensive to send from Earth.

Alien Planet or Moon – Red Dwarf System

What about a different planet altogether? Let’s examine a system where the star has a different range of light than our sun. Let’s start with a red dwarf star system, one of the more common stars in our universe. Red Dwarf stars are fairly small and burn their fuel slowly, and thus have a fairly constant luminosity. However, its luminosity is only 10% the luminosity of our sun, so this star’s light is faint. It may appear as more of a dull orange or red in the sky.

The planet, in order to be habitable, must be fairly close to the star to receive enough light and energy to fuel the systems necessary for life. This means the planet may be tidally locked, which would cause large temperature variations. The side that faces the sun would be blistering hot, making it hostile to life, and the other side would be incredibly cold. The cold side may even be cold enough for the atmospheric gas to turn to liquid or solids, which isn’t conducive to life at all. To compensate for this, a heavy atmosphere and a large ocean would be necessary to distribute this heat from the tidally locked side to other places on the planet. However, a thicker atmosphere means you run the danger of having a greenhouse effect, where then the planet’s surface would be too hot to sustain life (a bit like Venus, the ultimate example of a run-away greenhouse effect).

Another way for life to exist in this system is if the planet is a gas giant and the moon is tidally locked around the planet. As it orbits the planet, it’s able to receive sunlight from the star at several stages of its orbit: when it’s between the planet and the sun and when it’s to the side of the planet. It’d receive no sunlight when its behind the planet. This gives the moon a day/night cycle and distribution of heat. In certain parts of the orbit, the sun will appear very low in the sky on the tidally locked side. This means that the tidally locked side won’t be completely cut-off from sunlight, which is good for life. There’s also the demarcation of the night and day side of this tidally locked moon — this border region would have less extreme temperatures than the tidally locked side and its opposite side. Thus life may be more prevalent in this border region.

Let’s say that we’re on that tidally locked moon. Remember, the red dwarf star is small, and thus will mostly emit radiation in the infrared spectrum and will be fairly faint. Even close to the star, the planet still must contend with variations in the energy output of the star due to sunspots that can cover up to 40% of the surface of the star at a time. This effects the output of the energy released, which in turn effects how much of that energy reaches the planet. During these periods, temperatures may dip a bit and plants will find it harder to absorb the needed light for photosynthesis. Perhaps they’d evolve a form of hibernating state during the sunspot periods? Sunspots often are cyclic, and thus after a long amount of time, it is possible life would adapt to the sunspot cycles.

Any plants on that moon will have to absorb spectra other than the red and blue spectrum of light that Earth plants’ absorb (and thus give them their characteristic green color) in order to receive enough nutrients to fuel its photosynthesis. This will change the color of the plants, giving them a different color than what we’d see on earth. It’s possible the plants would be black if they absorb all visible light wavelengths.

However, since infrared light is the dominant light, the plants are more likely to evolve with infrared light as the driver for photosynthesis. This means they may not appear as black at all. Our eyes, which require the visible spectrum to see, may view the plants as colorless. However, to aliens that evolve on this moon, they would likely evolve eyes that see infrared light, so they’d see the color of those plants. They’d see a very different world then us.

What will that look like? The best way for us to simulate this is to show false color images of infrared sight, where we translate the infrared spectra to visible light spectra in order for us to “see” what it’d be like. The focus would be more on the process of life — where we’d see temperature differences more keenly. In fact, the world would be based upon temperature differences since the amount of infrared light emitted (or reflected) by objects depends on the temperature of that object.

How would that alter the alien society if the world they saw was based upon the temperature variations in their environment? How would it alter their views of themselves? Their view of their world and how they construct their cultures?

Also remember, if this is a tidally locked moon around a gas giant, that planet will take up a huge section of the sky for the tidally locked side. It will take up a smaller portion for the border area, and won’t take up any of the sky for the side not facing the planet. How will this effect the evolution of the alien culture?

It’s also possible that this moon may be either be a fairly dry, desert-like world or one that is ocean rich and full of moisture. To develop an ocean, the moon needs to form with an abundance of water molecules and eventually evolve a process to keep that water cycle moving. However, it is also possible for this moon to develop a dry, desert landscape, where water is hidden under the surface or trapped in the atmosphere. This would be a warm moon where water is more scarce, but life could still evolve. However, for either possibility, the moon would still need an atmosphere to protect life as it evolves.

Another important point is that the moon would experience stress from the gas giant’s gravitational pull, which could drive enough tectonic activity to help bolster the formation of life. Tectonic activity would allow for the formation of mountains, valleys, plains, ocean trenches, rivers, lakes, and other interesting geological features. Take a look at Titan as an interesting example of a moon with an atmosphere and some minor tectonic activity. Water doesn’t exist on Titan because of how cold it is, but it still has lakes and rivers — it’s just liquid ammonia.

The temperature of that planet will influence what exists as a liquid on that surface, and if the planet is too hot, it may not have liquids but instead will be dry and arid. (This is also possible for a planet that is fairly cold. Mars is a good example of a planet where there is no flowing water because of how cold it is. A thin atmosphere also inhibits liquids existing over long periods on a planet/moon’s surface. It’s always a good idea to know the phase transitions of different elements and molecules, especially those that are fairly abundant on your moon or planet.)

The above is mostly a thought experiment to help you visualize what it might be like to stand on another planet. What else should I consider as I examine standing on an alien planet or moon?

Review: Darkout

Posted by Aibird on July 13, 2014
Posted in: Reviews, Writing. Tagged: , , , , . 2 Comments
Never leave home without a torch.

Exploring a Cavern

As a lover of science fiction, when I saw this video game, I knew I had to try. Your escape pod crash lands on this hostile planet, where the majority of the world is covered in cloud cover. You rarely get any sunlight, and thus creatures that thrive in the shadows have evolved on this planet. These are deadly creatures, so expect to die often. As long as you have a bed in the home you must create, you’ll re-spawn there after every death. This game holds some similarity to Terreria in the sense that you must scavenge for your materials and then craft what you need; however, Terreria was more of a fantasy world. Darkover is pure science fiction. There is no magic in this game; it’s all about the materials you scavenge and the technology you craft from that.

The game is a 2D world, though it gives the illusion of 3D since you must put in a back wall to keep out the nasty creatures. You start out with a basic tool kit, scavenged from your escape pod, and if you want, you can even scavenge the escape pod itself, gathering scrap metal from its parts. The combinator found in your pod is where you’ll do most of your crafting.

Inventory and Crafting screens

Inventory and Crafting screens

In the above screenshot, I showed the inventory screen that appears on the right hand side and the crafting/research menu on the left. Some things you can craft anywhere, but others you’ll need to be within range of whatever device that item requires. For example, I can’t craft any tin bars until I research and craft a furnace with my combinator. Once I place that furnace, then I can start making tin bars. Over time as you accumulate more and more materials, you’ll be able to research other devices such as a chem-lab or a workbench, allowing you to create more advanced items. Some of these things will need to be powered, involving wires to be laid down to connect them to a power source. Your combinator can only power so much before you need to craft a power generator. Finding the materials will be a challenge, but exploring is your friend in this game.

The more you explore the land, the more interesting things you’ll find, but it’s often hard to stay alive. You have only a limited amount of ammo, and thus you need to find the necessary materials to craft more. This means going back to the basics. Save your pistol’s ammo and make a bow and set of arrows as soon as possible. Also make a sword as soon as you can. That will help keep you alive. Build a basic base, tall enough for your combinator, and over time, as you learn to research new devices and equipment, you can expand your base to accommodate your furniture, storage, and the other devices you’ll need to craft better and cooler stuff.

As you can probably tell, crafting is essential. Everything you do involves staying alive long enough to find the materials necessary to create the items you need. Torches will always be your friend. As soon as possible, find some tar, cut down a tree, and craft that torch. Put them everywhere you go, especially in the caverns you find. The shadow creatures hate the light and it hurts them a bit; there’s also the added bonus that the light reveals where they are, allowing you to kill them before they get to you.

Overall, this game is fun. It gives me my science fiction fix, let’s me explore a huge world full of wonders and dangers, and I can craft just about anything I want — if I can find the materials necessary. I highly recommend buying this game if you enjoy exploration and crafting games.