Writer's Block Daily

I mean it just seems really weird that there are next to none because science fiction is about the future, so one would think that an acceptance of LGBT stuff would, well, make it more common.

The fact is also that there are many, many stories where repetitive, useless sex is shoehorned in between characters for no good reason, so it´s the future, and this is always, always without fail heterosexual sex.

I don´t know, it doesn´t make much sense.

So as soon as a characters sexual preference isn't pointed out they default to hetero?

edited 12th May '13 9:07:02 AM by m8e

Exactly. Like it or not, that's how it is. There was a metaphor I heard about a moving sidewalk... should look it up, make sure I'm not misremembering it.

One part spineless pussies worried about offending homophobes, and nineteen parts the assumption is that a fictional character "needs a reason" to be homosexual or bisexual. Hell, I'm guilty of this myself: there's a reason that, of the fist four non-heterosexual characters I wrote, three were attractive women and the fourth was a man I made gay simply because it seemed the most effective way to sever the Wish-Fulfillment link between myself and him that was turning him into a Mary Sue.

edited 12th May '13 9:07:46 AM by KillerClowns

That would seem to be a problem with personal interpretation and not the author. You are openly blaming the wrong end of the equation here.

I do think it's different in different kinds of fiction, which is why I'm pointing out science fiction specifically. In many modern day stories, a character being LGBT and not saying anything can be realistic. Depending on where a fantasy story is set, this may make sense too. Same goes for historical fiction.

However, in science fiction, particularly in science fiction with a free love future or looser sexual mores in general, this makes no sense.

As both of those things are being done probably for fanservice, I'm sure you can answer your own question here.

You're right. It's true that it's interpreter's mistake, not the author's, to automatically assume a character of unstated sexuality is heterosexual. I was just saying — perhaps too shortly and too confrontationally — that society is still pretty much set up to implicitly assume people are heterosexual until it's said otherwise.

So why not include a character about whom it's said otherwise? It's a quiet and subtle way of telling a reader that they are not alone, that there's somebody friendly who thinks and cares about about people like them. That can mean a lot. If I can make one troubled young man or woman's day a little better by quietly including people like them in my works, that just seems like the right thing to do.

Though in the case of what I was thinking of writing was two people in a committed relationship and then stuff happens and they have to ~science~ their way out of it and then the world as they know it ends up changing anyway because of the big bad thing they weren't able to stop but hey you can't win all of them.

One of the arguments I've heard for using swords or other bladed weapons in the zombie apocalypse is, "Swords don't jam, misfire, or need reloading."

So your swing always cuts straight through and never gets lodged in bone? So you always hit your target and never make a misstep? So your sword is permanently sharp?

Conclusion: keep both a ranged and melee weapon close.

If a character shows no interest in other characters I default to asexual/chaste until they show otherwise.

I thought swords would be a bad idea because generally zombiism is spread through fluids and swords make people bleed a lot.

Obviously a bludgeoning weapon is best for close range when dealing with zombies. Try a sledge hammer.

edited 12th May '13 11:42:03 AM by ohsointocats

If you are engaging an enemy in melee who passes on their enemy status by contact infection, you have already lost. Fire and maneuver.

edited 12th May '13 11:44:37 AM by Night

I've heard a lot of good things about the use of crossbows in case of zombie apocalypse. Bolts are relatively easy to manufacture, crossbows are fairly silent, and they've got decent range when you're facing an enemy limited to melee. ROF is the only concern, and even that could be dealt with by way of repeating crossbows. In a war against a sentient foe, repeating crossbows are Awesome, but Impractical due to difficulties piercing armor, but zombies don't do armor...

Still, it does seem like a good idea to keep a decently long melee weapon (a switchblade obviously won't do) and ranged weapon handy, using the melee only as an emergency weapon. The only question is how to fill those slots. Although depending on the range weapon, it might fill both.

edited 12th May '13 11:50:24 AM by KillerClowns

Anyway I am very tempted to call an android OS 3lsen.

I think I'm padding a lot in this book.

So far in this sequel there's a lot less fighting and more focus on the characters's mentor and how he's acting off.

I said this would be a more action packed book. I'm on nine chapters and only had one fight scene. And even then that barley lasted a page.

TLDR; I suck at action stories.

edited 12th May '13 2:21:16 PM by Masterofchaos

Don't worry — sometimes the idea of what you want to start with ends up nothing like what you end up writing. It was when I realized I suck at writing Fantasy that I ended up with what I'm writing now instead, and am happier for it. Write what you like writing, and write it well.

edited 12th May '13 3:14:06 PM by KillerClowns

I just started a new story and I feel like there's way too much background. Fuck science fiction.

People have been focusing on the "who cares" part, but I think Major Tom's #1 is just as invalid (in the sense of actually justifying things, not being a reason in existence) a justification. The primary reason one would need to worry about writing a "LGBT character" instead of merely a "character" is that the character is in a setting where that would be expected to uniquely affect their personality. But much of the argument that there should be more LGBT characters in science fiction is based on the belief that the future is unlikely to be such a setting in the first place. So it doesn't really work.

Well this character is LGBT and her LGB Tness uniquely affects her and the story because her long-time girlfriend is also a major character.

If you're writing a story where romance or married characters or whatever isn't really an element (like the last story I was writing), then yeah, you don't have to say that a character is heterosexual or homosexual or has a sexual attraction to stoplights or whatever. But the thing is that that's actually pretty rare.

What I'm saying is that having a distinct effect on the story - the story itself, not readers' reactions - from her long-time boyfriend being a major character is something that's primarily a product of the setting.

I guess there's not really any difference except for the whole thing where if Iris's mom is going to get the grandkids she wants it's going to require a lot more test tubes than it would otherwise.

In a personal note, now that the summer has fully began, I have embarked on a mission. I aim to finish a rough draft of a novel, somewhere around 200 pages in length, in a month. If at all possible, I even plan to have it published by the end of this summer.

Impossible? Yeah, probably. Worth trying? Oh yes.

This is going to be an interesting summer.

I wrote a little two-page fictional freewrite to sort of reflect on my birthday and my sense of morality. It's a bit depressing, and I'm not sure if I want to show it to anybody, but it helps ease my mind a little.

What the hell did I just write.

I wonder if I could get away with making Brain Uploading possible in a 'verse but not common due to the fact that uploading onto a body other than your own is very illegal.

edited 13th May '13 2:58:33 AM by ohsointocats