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Characterization: The Template

Posted by Aibird on October 5, 2016
Posted in: Characters, Writing. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

I have a fairly robust character template that I keep regularly updated as I progress through my novels. Character aren’t static, and they do change over time, so I have a section in my template that covers character growth.  I try to dig deeply into the psyche of my characters as well as their past and what influences them throughout the story. This helps me get inside their heads, so I can write believable, interesting, and dynamic characters.  My goal is to go through the sections of this template in further detail in a different post, but for now, I’ll leave this template up for folks to peruse.

Here is the template for those that are interested in character design:

character-template

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!

 

Let’s Write! Constructing and Developing Ideas

Posted by Aibird on February 5, 2015
Posted in: Characters, Writing. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

In a writer’s life, there are times where ideas seem plentiful, like the molecules in a river, and other times, ideas seem scarce like water in a desert. No matter how plentiful or scarce your ideas are, the hardest aspect to them is constructing those ideas into workable stories. In the following writer’s exercise from Now Write! Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror (pg. 49, original exercise devised by Brittany Winner), the challenge is to take these ideas and channel them into a workable story.

  1. First set your timer to two minutes. Next, pick a genre and create an eight word summary of your scene. Once you have this summary, start your timer.
  2. Think about the summary and your genre. What image comes to mind? Take that first image and construct it in detail.
  3. Consider the following questions: What does your character(s) look like and what are they wearing?
    Where is your character(s)?
    What is going on around them?
    What actions does your character(s) take? Why do they take those actions?
  4. Write this down in as much detail as you can.

Genre: Science Fiction

8-word Summary: A daily jog transforms into life-threatening situation.

Begin Timer.

Full-figured lady with dark curly hair and brown eyes. She is jogging in a park full of trees and an occasional bench along the path. There is birds singing in the tree branches, and the trees are oak and cedar. A person clothed in black shirt and pants grabs her arm. Startled, she grabs her mace spray and fires it in his face. He clutches his eyes as she kicks him in the groin. A second assailant shoots her. And she falls to the ground, blood coating the front of her bright blue shirt.

End Timer.

So that was all I had time to write in two minutes. I spent at least half that time thinking about what the life-threatening situation could be and decided on an attack. This is what I call a story nugget. It’s a short scene but evocative and leaves me with a lot of unanswered questions such as:

  • Who are the assailants and why did they attack her?
  • What is the motivation of the assailants?
  • Will she live or will she be kidnapped?
  • Who is she? Is she someone important or just an unlucky jogger? If she is not someone important to the community or a specific group and is not wealthy, then why would they target her?
  • How does she escape?

These are all questions I need to answer if I were to sit down and develop this story nugget into a full-fledged story. Since this is a science fiction genre, some of the answers to these questions could draw upon science fictional ideas.

For example, perhaps she is a scientist who likes to go for daily jogs in the park after a day in the laboratory. Her research could be focused on nanotechnology, specifically building tiny robots that perform surgery without having to cut open the body directly. She is attacked because the assailants are part of a fringe group, who find her research to be a danger to society. They hoped to kill her and then raid her facility later that night. Their plan included dumping her dead body in the lab as a symbol of their movement.

Now this story nugget is slowly starting to grow into a possible short story. However, the last question still hasn’t been answered. How does she escape? Should I introduce a new character, such as another jogger, who happens upon the scene and calls for help? This could introduce a third aspect to the story, one in which bystander intervention could spell the difference between life and death.

If I go this route, then I may need to either use two points of view — the first jogger and second jogger — or have her see the second jogger stop at the sight of her and the assailants and then turn and run. The sounds of sirens will then sound within a few minutes as she struggles to negotiate with her attackers to avoid death. The sirens could cause them to run off for fear of getting caught, leaving her to bleed to death. The bystander may return with police and an ambulance team, and she could be saved by her own technology. Thus the assailants inadvertently hurt their cause as the press will see the attack as another example of how important her work is, and the fringe group will lose more credibility.

Now that this story nugget has been fleshed out, I can sit down and write the story. However, one thing to note: even with all this planning and outlining, it is rare for me to follow these ideas exactly. Once I am inside the story idea and writing it down fully, the characters often surprise me. Sometimes they introduce new ideas and scenarios that I never would have contemplated during the outline process. Due to this, my stories tend toward a more organic form of growth, where the characters influence the final result immensely and the plot can evolve into new territory in interesting and fascinating ways. It’s why my outlines often lay forgotten during the writing process, especially after character input has altered the story in a way that improves upon my original ideas. Keep this in mind as you work on your story nuggets. Let your characters guide you as you get to know them better, and you may discover interesting ideas and subplots that could beef up your story further.

When you write this first draft, try to include all the possible ideas and scenes that may transpire during the course of the story. You don’t want to limit yourself in the first draft, for some of these side tangents may prove more interesting than your original idea. In the editing and pruning process, you can cut out any unnecessary scenes that don’t move the story forward and really start to polish the piece. Until then, channel your imagination and let it flow freely and abundantly. The above exercise can help jump-start that process, but don’t let it confine you either.

Traveling the Internets Again

Posted by Aibird on September 8, 2014
Posted in: Author, Blogging, Feminism, History, Writing. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

I may make this a regular post. I read a lot, and sharing what I read may be helpful to some. So without further ado, here is what I’ve read this past week:

Writing

How to Structure a Premise for Stronger Stories <— Great article to help you strengthen your stories.

The Different Levels of Editing <— An awesome article from an editor on the forum I help moderate. It explains in detail the different levels of editing, and this can be very useful for writers to understand. Each level has its place and its purpose, and knowing when and where to use each can be helpful in how we utilize editors and how we edit our own work.

“We have always fought.” Challenging the Women Cattle and Slaves Narrative <— By far one of the best articles I've read this week, especially in pertains to writing and other forms of media. Must read.

PSA: Your Default Narrative Settings are not Apolitical <— Also a must read.

Culture/Society and Us

Things I’ve Learned from being Transgender that aren’t about being Transgender <— Can relate to this article a lot.

What President Obama has done for Transgender People <— As the article name says, he has been heralded as the first transgender president. To be honest, I would say he is the only president that cared enough to act. For him to stick his neck out like this for people like me is pretty huge, especially in a culture that still vilifies us as monsters or curiosities that are publicly stripped apart.

The Militarized Mind: How a Narrative Becomes a Weapon <— A must read for everyone.

Violence Against Indigenous Women: Fun, Sexy, and No Big Deal on the Big Screen

What if we all carried that weight? <— If we all carried the weight of injustice, then we would not be able to bear it, and maybe, just maybe we would stop tolerating what we have forced others to carry alone. It is a good wake up call for us all.

How Men and Women are Critiqued in Performance Reviews <— I see the gender bias every day, and since I sit on the border of both genders, being trans, I notice it even more heavily. Here is yet more proof that gender bias exists and it hurts people.

I am not Afraid to Die: Why America Will Never be the Same Post Ferguson

The Police Violence We aren’t Talking About

The Brutalizing of Women in Video Games, and its Apologists

Science and Technology

Laniakea: Our Local Supercluster <— A fun article that explores our place in the universe.

Betelgeuse: Astronomers give it 100,000 years before it explodes <— A deep look into the science of astronomy.

Impact: Earth! <— Not really an article, but an interesting look into what would happen if an asteroid hit Earth. You can alter the parameters in various ways to see the differences based on size, density, approach vector, and so forth.

Books I read and am reading

The Four Agreements: A Toltec Wisdom Book by Don Miguel Ruiz (Finished.)

How to Know God: The Soul’s Journey into the Mystery of Mysteries by Deepak Chopra (1/3 of the way through the book.)

Beautiful Outlaw by John Eldredge (1/3 of the way through the book.)

Now Write! Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Edited by Laurie Lamson (Just started. Will write a review of this in the future.)

Update on Blog

I am working on a few articles that are specific to worldbuilding and one specific to genres. This has been a painful and busy few weeks for me, so my posts are taking longer to write than I would have liked. Thank you for your patience, and let me know your thoughts on the above articles! If you have any interesting articles to share, leave them in a comment, and I will be sure to read them.

Traveling the Internets

Posted by Aibird on August 29, 2014
Posted in: Blogging, Writing. Tagged: , . Leave a comment

I have been a bit swamped at work and so am behind in my posts for this blog. Below are articles I found interesting sorted by category:

Video games:

Trigger warning: Discussion of death threats and harassment. Yes, her life was threatened to the point she had to seek safety away from her home and notify authorities. Read on for more analysis of the situation.Each new video that Anita Sarkeesian posts is a sign that the bullies are losing.

New Videos up by Sarkeesian: Feminist Frequency

Great post that shows why we need more representation (and to stop the harassment and shaming that happens everytime a woman tries to speak up on the Internet): Illustrated Guide to Harassment, Representation, Criticism

Writing:

Why we need more diversity <— This can never be stated enough.

The Hero’s Journey <—- randomly encountered this and found it to be a good resource. I often fall into the pattern of writing my story after an altered idea of the hero’s journey. It’s such an ancient way of telling stories. How does it influence your storytelling?

A great article: The Inner Editor vs the Inner Critic and How to Ignore Them <—- I can’t even say how much I need to take this to heart. So often both of those kick in hard in the butt when I try to finish a novel or a short story. I start to wonder if it’s good enough. If I’m good enough. The truth is we are all good enough. We all have stories to share, and we just need to keep at it.

Sums me up, especially when I have a deadline that I’m way too close to for comfort: Neurobiology of Writing

Anyone have any other good links in regards to writing?

General Real World Stuff:

Home is Where the Hatred Is <— Amazing essay about racism. Long but worth the read.

Paul Ryans Poverty Plan Attacks the Wrong Problem and comes up with the Wrong solution

Miami Drowning in Climate Change Deniers as Sea Level Rises <—- Miami is being flooded not only yearly but often several times a year, the city is slowly being engulfed by the sea as sea levels rise and there’s still people with their heads in the sand trying to pretend climate change isn’t happening. I want to laugh at the irony here; the climate change denialists claim doing anything to curb climate change will “ruin the economy.” Climate change will ruin it. Doing something about it might actually save it. But sorry to say, I’m not sure anything can save Miami at this point.

The horrifying reality that is Ferguson, MO: Police again foiled in their quest for a bloodbath will try again tonight <— At this point, considering they have freaking tanks on their side and the protesters are unarmed, it does make me wonder if their hope is to kill them all. Did you know tear gas is banned in some countries? Yet it’s being used on unarmed civilians in America, who are just exercising their rights under the Constitution. Also, in regards to Ferguson: Daily Show Take on it And self Segregation: Why it’s so Hard for Whites to Understand Ferguson.

Not surprising to me but maybe to some: Forcing kids to Stick to Gender Roles Can Actually Be Harmful to Their Health

The Bigot <— this is sad but alarming truth. This in particular:

Using the language of liberty to justify policies that disadvantage woman, gays, and people of color cynically enables him to fit into a changed cultural and political climate. It is also not merely a matter of the bigot demeaning the target of his prejudice but in presenting himself as the aggrieved party. That purpose is helped by (often unconscious) psychological projection of the bigot’s desires, hatreds, and activities upon the Other.

The persecuted is thereby turned into the oppressor and the oppressor into the persecuted. The bigot’s self-image is mired in such projection. “Birth of a Nation” (1915) — the classic film directed by D.W. Griffith that celebrates the rise of the KKK — obsesses over visions of freed black slaves raping white women, even though it was actually white slave owners and their henchmen who were engaged in raping black slave women.

In Europe during the 1920s and 1930s, similarly, anti-Semitic fascists accused Jews of engaging in murder and conspiracy even while their own conspiratorial organizations like the Thule Society in Germany and the Cagoulards in France were, in fact, inciting violence and planning assassinations. Such projection alleviates whatever guilt the bigot might feel and justifies him in performing actions that he merely assumes are being performed by his avowed enemy. Perceiving the threat posed by the Other, and acting accordingly, the bigot thereby becomes the hero of his own drama.

Think about that for a bit. Then consider how it can influence the villains in your stories to give them more depth. People will often try to find any way to justify their actions, no matter how harmful they are, and the above is a great analysis of some of the most terrifying and damaging moments of history, where entire people were either enslaved or the victims of genocide. The people committing such atrocities? Well, in their eyes, they were doing the right thing, no matter how horrifically wrong and harmful their actions were. Stepping inside another’s shoes for a bit can be useful but also can be terrifying.

When the writing is dry

Posted by Aibird on August 1, 2014
Posted in: Author, Poetry, Writing. Tagged: , , , , , . 3 Comments
Fractal Art

Birthed into being through me.

I sit at my desk and consider the fact that I have not written anything beyond a blog post in over a month. My novel sits in its folder, languishing in that guilt-filled pool of depression, where I tell myself I will write but cannot bring myself to type the words. The energy flows out through my fingers and into the universe, and I am but a dry noodle, baked in the sun unable to release the torrent that rages inside.

When the dry spell comes, it comes with a vengeance, a reminder that I am a fickle human being, and no amount of determination or willpower can save me from my own mental demons. I exorcise my pain and exhaustion with bursts of imagery, painted across the blog, dissecting the words of others, until I am left with this infantile reminder that I am yet again nothing. My words are lost in the avalanche of information that barrages our attention each moment we open a tab in our browser. How arrogant of me to think my words matter amongst this deluge of everything that ever was and every will be that assaults our senses and strips us bare before the gods of the universe. We are but specks on a planet, hurtling through spacetime, a tiny drop in the vast ocean, and our futile and brief lives soon forgotten.

Am I a fool for thinking my words matter in the vast scheme of things? That what I unveil will strike the hearts of another enough to spark change, even on the minutest scale? When you step back and see the universe in all its thirteen billion year glory, it is hard to remember that our fleeting lives upon this wet earth holds meaning and worth.

And yet it does, because we are conscious of it. We are conscious and alive and experiencing this universe as it stands right at this moment. This moment that will never come again. It is not that our words are futile and meaningless because we are but specks in the vast scheme of the universe; no, as it is said by Ambassador Delenn of Babylon 5:

“The molecules of your body are the same molecules that make this station and the nebula outside, that burn inside the stars themselves. We are star-stuff. We are the Universe, made manifest, trying to figure itself out. And, as we have both learned, sometimes the Universe needs a change of perspective.”

Yes, we are the universe knowing itself, the emergent consciousness, and it is through us that the universe sees itself in all its glory and agony and mystery. Through the words we throw out into the ocean of spacetime, we live and change, our creativity breathing life not just into our creations but into our very souls. Our works invigorate not just our own minds and dreams but those of others, the expression of energy that catapults from person to person, until it expels into the universe itself. Energy that is neither created nor destroyed, but cycling, in this infinite loop of possibility.

We are the creators. And let us not forget it.