Subject: Re: Honestly, just... try?
Author:
Posted on: 2019-04-06 22:14:00 UTC
That good advice. I'll keep it in mind going forward. I'll make a new post sometime later on when I start re=posting my works.
Subject: Re: Honestly, just... try?
Author:
Posted on: 2019-04-06 22:14:00 UTC
That good advice. I'll keep it in mind going forward. I'll make a new post sometime later on when I start re=posting my works.
Recently in deviantart I ended up in a bit of a debate with another artist over how I was doing an OC character as well as how I was doing a certain game.
Then, following a recent comment, I made the mistake of posting my issues of the local forum without consulting the rules.
I'll admit that was pretty stupid of me... I ended up causing drama.
I had to give this a great deal of thought after reading the following replies. Then I came to the conclusion that I'm not good at writing LGBT OCs.
So I decided that on April 2, I'll be taking down all my fanfic on both deviantart and FF.net and do a complete overhaul. As of tomorrow all my LGTH OCs will be straight.
I know what I'm doing will be seen as completely stupid but I just wanted to clean my slate and start over again.
Well I just finished removing all my works from Deviantart and FF.net.
And, after giving this some thought, and reading the comments posted by the deviants. I eventually came to the decision that perhaps straightening my LGBT OCs wasn't that good of an idea.
So I'm going to do some studying on how to a better job of writing LGBT characters before I can begin reposting my work.
But, for now, I need some time to cool down Before I feel ready to repost...
This wasn't an April Fools Day "I'm quitting the Internet" thing that I didn't get because I don't know you very well? This is a real thing? If so, are you looking for some advice, or...?
~Neshomeh, confused.
No, I'm fine. I just need some time to cool off. After that, I'm going to start over and try to do better.
Thanks for asking by the way.
What did you do wrong that you feel you need to do better?
We have a lot of writers here, and we have a lot of people who are LGBTQ. If there's a place you feel like you're falling down, I can't think of a better place to ask for help.
That's a good question, Thoth...
To be honest, I'm not sure how to correctly answer without leading to a misunderstanding.
Anyway, one of my critiques gave me a link following that fiasco to how to write LGBT characters.
https://hobbylark.com/writing/writing-gay-characters
I'm currently studying it right now while I'm re-working her origin story.
As I am informed by LGBTQ+ people in my circles, the main take-away message about writing gay people (or people of any minority) is that they are people first. We all have the same basic psychological needs. Identity and life experience, and how they interact, in all their infinite variety, color how we go about fulfilling those needs. It's important to be aware of the stereotypes and the history that created them in order to avoid perpetuating harmful ideas, but basically, as long as you're treating all your characters as complex human beings, regardless of sexuality or whatever else, you're probably fine.
Like the article says, take the feedback on board and give it serious and respectful consideration, but you can't please everyone all the time. Don't let it scare you away from trying to do something good with your writing.
~Neshomeh, demi/straight woman who sometimes writes gay men and is still working hard to wrap her head around the idea of attraction to women.
We're not exactly heavy on the pitchforks around here. And seeing as I don't know what's up, I don't know how to help too much.
Speaking for myself, I think most of that advice is pretty sound, honestly. Although I have a bit of my own.
1) Accept that you cannot please everyone: there are a lot of different opinions about how to write LGBT characters. Especially from LGBT people. You won't make all of them happy and it frankly shouldn't be your goal to, because the inherently conflicting nature of all the different opinions means that you'll wind up with a character with no personality. Some LGBT people believe that straight people shouldn't write gay characters, or shouldn't write about certain aspects of their experience, like coming or what ever. Do your research, try and get the tricky stuff right, but don't listen to those people and subsequently avoid writing key scenes in the life of your characters because strangers on the internet said you shouldn't write them.
2) Personality: different people approach things differently. Personality, not sexuality, is the primary discriminator here. If you know that a character is gay or lesbian or bisexual or trans, look at who they are and how they got to where they are. That's going to inform a lot about how they act. It will also do a lot to tell you how they handle their own sexuality: not everyone is flamboyant and all out there. Some of us (*cough cough* me *cough cough*) would rather go sit imn a corner and read or whatever.
...Honestly, the article pretty much covered all that. Huh.
That good advice. I'll keep it in mind going forward. I'll make a new post sometime later on when I start re=posting my works.