General Writer's Block thread

That's called stereotypes.
None of my stories deal with "race or gender issues," but I always have all sorts of skin shades, same sex and opposite sex couples, and no real concern about gender. People who want characters of their race/gender/sexuality/whatever to "act like it" are just looking for something to be mad about. Or they're like the people who bully a kid in school for being "not black enough" or whatever.
That would be like someone saying "a black actress can't play Hermione because Hermione doesn't listen to hip hop in the books."
If you're writing historical fiction, that's different. But unless someone's oppression or whatever is the focus of your story, there's no reason for you to let that sort of stuff define who they are as a person. I see that sort of thing as more limiting than not.
Actually, that plays into what was being said about casting earlier. If you write this character and put all this stuff into their backstory that's dependent on their race, they can only be played by an actor of that race. You can't have a black person play a character whose backstory revolves around immigrating from China, and you can't have an Asian person play a character whose backstory revolves around being black. But if you just write the characters doing whatever they do, anyone can play them. Also, you wouldn't feel the need to "explain" a white character's Irish immigrant story or whatever. That sort of attitude is just perpetuating the "not being x makes them different" / "x is normal" attitude.
Make them equal by making them equal. ((If they actually lived in a different country from the other characters for most of their life up until recently and you want to show culture shock, that's different. ))

edited 14th Feb '16 7:18:00 AM by lavendermintrose

Recently, I've tried writing my first-ever homosexual relationship, between two married men. Because I like to write what I want to read, I don't make their story revolve around the fact that they're two men in love- that's what would turn their story into LGBT fiction. A good number of people around them have a problem with their marriage not because they're two men, but because one of them is a commoner, and the other is high-ranking, but still a servant to the ruling family. The commoner is a mild-mannered, but well-known leading man in operas who sings with a bass, with the size and body mass to match. The servant is very physically strong and skilled in combat, he's built like a tree trunk, he's covered in flamboyant, brightly-colored tattoos, he can be a bit vain, and he's gruff and duty-bound.

They met when the servant decided to branch out into makeup for the opera. They enjoy helping each other with their work, taking long walks, telling each other stories, and making each other laugh. They like to have sex occasionally. Sometimes they get into arguments about many of the same things that straight couples do, such as money and not spending enough time together, and they have to storm off and be apart for a few hours. Neither wants children, kids just aren't their thing.

What I wanted to do is show that these two men are like any other married couple and that the fact that they're both men doesn't actually mean much, without playing into any stereotypes of gay men. That is the end goal of undoing discrimination- showing that you're more than your demographic. "Buh... But... Conservation of Detail, amirite? If they really are the same as a straight couple, why can't you just make one of them a lady?" Because why should I? American media has a problem with preconceptions. There are still a lot of people out there who will look at a black person, or a gay couple, or even someone of the opposite gender, and will presume they'll act a certain way. And when most people read a novel where nobody's race is explicitly stated or can be inferred from names or any other clues, they'll assume everyone's white. And that sucks.

And you know what? I think a lot of discrimination is cultural in nature, because the person doing the discriminating assumes someone different from them is going to be hardwired in a fundamentally different way. I'm of Chinese descent. I was adopted by white American parents when I was an infant, and raised in American culture. I don't speak any Chinese, I have an outsider's perspective of Chinese culture, I've physically been in my home country for a combined total of probably seven months over my life, and the last time I was there, I was five. So in effect, I'm just an American who looks a little bit different. Stripping away all of the cultural baggage, the fact that I'm physically Chinese hasn't left me feeling that I think or act any different from a white person.

Real-life people aren't made different from their country's majority for any reason at all. I'm not Chinese because I need to show everyone my Chinese-ness, any more than people who are white are made that way to show everyone their whiteness. Gay men don't marry just to make a sociopolitical point, any more than straight people marry to make sociopolitical points. People of minority demographics should be portrayed as normal human beings. If you can give white, straight, cisgendered, culturally American characters such a rich variety of motivations and personalities, you can do the same with any other character.

edited 15th Feb '16 5:55:02 AM by CrystalGlacia

"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."

The problem with colorblind casting is not the theory itself. Minority actors of any kind would LOVE to be judged by the basis of our talent and not our skin color.

But society doesn't work that way FOR US. It only works that way for white people right now. That is why we want more minority-specific roles.

Just google "actors dealing with racism in theater/TV/media" and you'll find out how inefficient the idea of "colorblind casting" is. Since the media is so heavily white-dominant, actors of color are only asked for roles that specifically call for people of color, and those are usually stereotypes. Unless we're lucky, we don't get called in for roles that are "for any ethnicity," because either our agents pigeonhole us into stereotyped "ethnic roles" or the director "can't see a black/Asian/non-white as the lead." Even if they do, there are so many more white actors that we have a very slim chance of actually landing the role—not because we're not talented, but because we just don't have the numbers working for us.

We NEED color-specific casting just to get work. Whether it's through minority-specific names like "Jerry Yang," through the writer specifically writing a play/movie that deals with race, stating "X character is black," or any other small but very important things, colorblind casting is not feasible at this point in society.

As for the "write characters as people," well, you can't really avoid bringing race into the mix. Even just a little bit.

White people are the only ones who have the option of "race neutrality."

I'm Asian-American and I dealt with a shitton of random "Asian porn" accounts trying to follow me on Tumblr a few weeks ago, completely out of the blue.

I have no pictures at ALL that would ever be construed as sexy or pornographic, but I knew immediately that people went "HOT AZN GURL" and followed me just because of my profile picture. That was the first time in twenty-five years that I've dealt with this personally, but I knew it was going to happen eventually. Because I have a lot of other minority friends, especially Asian friends, and we all know that there's creepy white dudes who have a fetish for Asian women. Maybe not in our immediate circle of friends, but they're out there.

So race is ever-present in our heads, but it's not necessarily at the forefront. We don't have massive in-depth conversations about race, but usually there's a day where we go, "ick, a bunch of Asian porn accounts tried to follow me on Tumblr" and there's this empathizing "Oh, attack of the creepy white dudes."

I've also gotten a lot of people asking "Where are you from?" and they are never content with "I was born in San Francisco, but I grew up in Alameda right by Oakland." I know they want me to say "I'm Filipino, and my mom's side of the family are immigrants." And then they usually ask if I've visited the Philippines. (When I was about twelve.) Then they ask if I've visited a touristy part of the Philippines (Usually Baguio or Tagaytay) and I'm like, "No, my mom lived outside of Manila."

I was a bit baffled when my white friend went "WHAT. WHY ARE THEY INTERROGATING YOU ABOUT YOUR FAMILY?" and it's like, "Oh, because I'm Asian. We get that a lot."

That subtle, everyday racism is what a lot of white people can't comprehend.

edited 14th Feb '16 12:22:54 PM by Sharysa

That exactly, really. This is how I'm writing characters in my stories. ... sort of biased because the point of the work is "pretty boys in pretty clothes" but still. I actually put down a book recently because it introduced a supporting character (read: sassy gay friend) by throwing about five gay stereotypes at you, but you could tell the writer was doing it to try to "make them realistic" or whatever. Yeah... not really.

. . . did you see what I said before, though? a) it's changing more than you give it credit for. Actually recently, there was a production of a Shakespeare play in London that got a lot of flack for having a cast that was all white, even after the director said they did it for historical accuracy. and b) If your agent does that to you... get another agent. Really. Honestly, maybe move to New York, because I go to the theater pretty often and I don't think I've seen casts that were all white in a long time if ever. TV shows filmed here also tend to have diverse casts, I think (I don't watch much TV, but the one or two shows I did watch...) I would be very surprised to hear that any major role in a long-running Broadway show had only been played by people of one race, (except for the lions in The Lion King who are always black).

Things can be changing and there can still be an issue. Both are capable of existing, and I've seen more of what Sharysa said tbh.

The theater might be getting better, but that doesn't mean all other aspects of life are getting better.

edited 17th Feb '16 9:14:31 AM by MrAHR

Read my stories!

TV can deal a lot better with race because there's simply less money involved. It's more complicated than that, but a BIG SUMMER MOVIE is going to go the safe, 90% white route because there's only one movie compared to many TV episodes.

But Hollywood and Broadway, the two giants of American media, are still refusing to admit that whitewashing casts will inevitably result in the movie/show bombing. The fact that they think whitewashing is feasible in the first place is a sign of horrible race education, and the many times they've tried whitewashing means that it's going to be a long time before they finally admit that no, white people aren't the center of the world anymore.

Trying to consider how to properly flesh out a Mega Man X fanfic I'm writing.

I have a general idea of how the story will go, exploring themes of reploid oppression and the ethical implications of giving machines truly free will and then treating them as mere tools, as well as tying together the X series with the Classic and Zero series. Each of the eight maverick bosses has their own unique motivations for rebelling against humanity, and none of them are unsympathetic. The antagonists' plan involves stealing the research information from government scientists to create a much more unstable isotope of the infinite-energy-producing element that powers Zero, and then using it for a weapon that will spread deadly radiation across the Earth and kill all organic life, leaving only reploids behind. While most of the villains believe they are doing so to create a better world for reploids (though a couple of them are reluctant to go along with the plan), the Big Bad actually has their own motive for doing so. His identity is kept hidden at first, though there are some hints as to who he is, and its' eventually revealed that he's Bass from the classic series, who has managed to survive for three centuries due to him being powered by bassnium (yes, that's actually what it's called in canon), an element Dr. Wily accidentally created and later used as Zero's infinite power source. While not entirely villainous in the Classic series, straddling the line between anti-hero and and anti-villain, Bass has become much more malevolent since, partly because of gradual Sanity Slippage for having outlived his intended purpose for so long, and partly because he resents humanity for creating reploids, all of whom are more powerful robots than him. True to his massive superiority complex, his motivation for wanting to destroy humanity is purely out of spite for rendering his strength obsolete. He also has a large scar across his chest where Zero allegedly injured him between the X and Classic series and wears a brown cloak to conceal his identity, making his character reminiscent of Bass.EXE from the Battle Network continuity. After Bass attains an upgrade thanks to the stolen research on Zero's body, X destroys him for good and puts a stop to his plan, saving humanity in the process. However, even with their leaders destroyed, reploids continue to revolt on the surface due to anger at their enslavement. Cut to six months later, where X is meeting with the human government leaders and the remaining officers of the reploid rebellion for peace talks. The fic ends just after a young Doctor Weil approaches the negotiating table, says he has a solution to the conflict, places a folder titled "Project Elpizo" that hints at the future Elf Wars.

That's basically the whole thing, and though I've got a general idea of how it will go, I'm having trouble with the details. More specifically, while I've got the first and third act planned, I'm having difficulty coming up with what to do in between. At first I thought of having the second act just make its way through the bases of the eight mavericks (though "maverick" is used loosely here because they're not infected by the Maverick Virus) after the initial introduction and then go straight to the final confrontation with the Big Bad, but I'm wondering if following the games' structure too closely would work for a more literary format.

Any advice on what I could do to make it more interesting than just "travel to the next bad guy's stage and defeat them?" Ideas on how to expand upon what I already have planned?

edited 28th Feb '16 7:40:40 PM by Zennistrad

When you come to write it 'French' kissing sounds just bloody weird.

French kissing is bloody weird, mate, it's just a relatively fun, socially acceptable kind of weird.

On that note: Kissing is a hard behaviour to translate to things that aren't built like and don't behave 100% identically to humans, and that can be a bit confusing. Many animals do particular affectionate mouth-things, but calling it a "kiss" runs into the same problem as calling that thing cats and dogs do with their ears and mouths a "smile." Which is to say, it's a good enough shorthand, but unless you establish it, you are going to confuse matters.

Why did I do this to myself? "Because you're weird like that." Oh, fuck off!

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.

It's not bloody weird, there's no blood involved!

There's a trope for that, it's called Alternate Animal Affection. Heck, animals IRL do display not-kisses. For example, birds often engage in allopreening, where they preen each other's feathers.

So, with alternate kissing, get creative! Just explain what's really going on in a non-visual medium.

edited 17th Mar '16 2:50:15 AM by hellomoto

Can anyone help me with a trope on MGS 4? I need someone who can give some advice to make the Deconstructor Fleet trope where I can make sound more official sounding. Please PM me.

"We are just like Irregular Data. And that applies to you too, Ri CO. And as for you, Player... your job is to correct Irregular Data."

EDIT: Just got the bot message about this forum. Is this just for writers of fiction? If so, sorry! If you could point me towards the more appropriate forum that'd be great.

I've never been much of a creator, but I've always been a consumer. Anime, video games, books, movies, tv shows — Always been a geek. As I got older, I started analyzing this things more in-depth. I became interested in really "getting" the characters, in trying to grasp the themes, etc.

I realized that perhaps by writing and the stuff I consume I could aid my own understanding. By getting my thoughts into words I'd remember my thoughts better. So I started jotting notes down in a document as I'd go through shows, games, or whatever.

For some time this writing was just for myself. Tons of documents of notes on stuff I've read and watched but most of it never reached an audience. Recently, however, I decided that with a little editing some of my writing might actually be beneficial. I thought that maybe I could be like some of the other critic / scholarly types online. Maybe I could say interesting things like they do.

I've spent weeks and weeks on this single topic. Little spurts of writing here and there, lots and lots of thinking, random thoughts popping in throughout the work day — I was hoping it would coalesce into something logical, interesting, and meaningful.

But then I maybe read someone else's thoughts on the subject and I'm seriously considering that everything I've been thinking is totally wrong.

I think maybe I'm just bad at interpreting fiction. Other people can watch a movie once and understand the characters while I'd have to watch it multiple times and still not get what they got. Other people can grasp the themes quickly. I can expend a lot of effort and still not do it well.

I'm realizing that I'm terribly insecure about my opinions and I'm not sure why. Maybe I feel a need to be smart. Maybe I feel like I'm not entitled to like something unless I can "prove" it's "good." Maybe reading other people's thoughts hurts me because I feel like I can no longer disagree unless I can argue why.

Or maybe I'm actually better at this than I think. Given that I've posted virtually nothing, I guess I maybe haven't even gotten enough feedback to know whether or not these negative feelings are just in my mind. Maybe I'm shooting myself in the foot before the game begins.

It's like I want to post stuff but I'm also sick of being wrong.

For those of you who write reviews and essays and so forth: do you struggle with anything resembling this? This insecurity? This frustration?

EDIT TWO: I actually wrote this post up in one go with no real effort. So writing is pretty easy for me when I'm just venting stuff about myself, I guess.

edited 27th Mar '16 11:26:11 AM by ArbitraryValues

Never thought Cupid could look like this.◊

This subforum is not just for writers. It is primarily for writers. I, myself, for example am an editor more than a writer. You can join any thread you can meaningfully contribute to. (Keep in mind this is a slower forum here.)

I would be remiss to not say that the vast majority of this site is for your kind of writing. But yes, this area is about fiction writing.

Most of what you wrote there would not be out of place in the Insecurity, Sadness, Anxiety thread. I will say this: I never do anything that I do not already know I can do well. Anyway, good luck finding other people who feel like you do.

@Arbitrary Values: I don't know you, or the sources of the issues that you've described, or what's best for you; as a result, please take my thoughts below with a significant dose of salt.

It is possible that you're wrong, but it's also possible that they're wrong. If we're discussing the interpretation of works of fiction, then in some cases it may even be that neither of you is incorrect, but rather that you take different things from a given work.

Reviews in particular are highly subjective, I believe.

I think that it may well be worth posting your thoughts somewhere and seeing what others think of them. You say that you're sick of being wrong, but how do you know that you are wrong?

However, let's presume for a moment that you are incorrect in your views. If you post those views and others argue against them, it's possible that you'll start to learn where your mistakes were made, and thus, perhaps, improve your future efforts.

My Games & Writing

Dear TV people - I understand that most people can't tell the difference between a Mark II spitfire and the later marks, and you have to use what ever you can get, but unless your drama is set between June and December 1944, at least paint the Invasion Stripes out.

Frankly the people supplying the planes should know this, and ensure the aircraft is period ready. I realise that changing the propeller (from 4 to 3 blades) might be a faff, but unless the engine HAS to run cover up the 6 exhausts with a fake 3 exhaust cover.

You sure - I think they may be broken down in a corner crying!

edited 3rd Apr '16 4:38:54 PM by Last_Hussar

I'm sure the TV people will live.

I've been wondering... How should a writer go about writing a story in which a non-original character's personality would be radically altered just as a required consequence of the premise itself?

Personal example:

Premise: What If? Shinji Ikari, Asuka Langley Sohryu, and some other characters from the same anime were (re)born as Xenomorphs in an Alien Versus Predator-style story? (Clarification: They would be non-generic, in the same way that Specimen 6 from the 2010 Aliens vs. Predator game is.)

Problem: A Xenomorph character would not be such without being a hyperaggressive predatory murder machine that has a penchant for gruesome sadism. Using the aforementioned Shinji Ikari as an example, this would present compatibility problems with how his character revolves around him being quite shy, socially awkward, low on self-esteem and generally averse to "going against the flow" or confrontations of any kind (physical or social)... though he also proves to be more than capable of terrifying violence when pushed beyond his limits, whether out of self-preserving fear for his life or Unstoppable Rage.

Possible solution:

• Invoke Alternate Character Interpretation and Character Development on the entire Xenomorph species. Have it that non-generic Xenomorphs can vary in the degree of their bloodthirst and sadism, and can occasionally decide to spare individual potential-prey if they have "sufficient reason" to do such a thing. Also, they do have other things in their life beyond "kill, maim, devour, harvest for breeding"; play-fights, play-chasing, and collecting "exotic" objects that catch their attention are common pastimes for them, as are experimenting with odd stuff that they may find. It's just that they really like killing and psychological warfare (sadism is a kinda-universally built-in trait for them), cleave to a Blue-and-Orange Morality way of thinking, and thus have difficulty empathizing with non-Xenomorphs (though it's possible).
• Example of "sufficient reason": A scientist protests his colleagues' unnecessary cruelty to captive Xenomorphs in the name of science, and whenever he's on shift while the others are gone he makes damn sure the Big Red Button that's used for electrocuting/liquid-nitrogen-spraying the aliens is locked up behind its glass casing; cue Xenomorphs breaking out later and slaughtering/harvesting all of the scientists except that guy, because of his prior gestures of kindness and respect.
• My idea of how the method's would be applied: The Xenomorph version of Shinji is rather averse to committing unprovoked attacks, and generally tends to focus on maintaining his Queen's hive, staring at the starry sky (if he has a good spot to do so), and generally following the lead of Xenomorph!Asuka whenever he doesn't have anything else to do. As a consequence, he's considerably easier to "condition" into obedience by unscrupulous scientists, especially if they implement the "disobey us, and we will punish your friends/siblings as well" approach. If ordered to by his Queen, or his hive-mates are killed, or he gets free from captivity after he and/or his hive-mates were repeatedly tormented, then you will have unleashed a nightmarish berserker that will hunt you down no matter where you are or how far you run. But if you treat him kindly? Well, you've earned yourself second place in his Undying Loyalty ladder (first place goes to his hive, naturally).

So... What do you guys think?

edited 4th Apr '16 2:50:55 AM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

For starters, explaining the premise would help attract just the readers who like the premise enough to accept it.

... Isn't that what I just did in the Premise entry above?

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Sorry to interrupt the flow here, but I've got a question that doesn't really warrant its own thread.

Long story short, I've been toying with the idea of drawing centaurs with skin coloration on the upper half that corresponds to their coats. Bay centaurs have darker skintones, palaminos are paler, roans are heavily freckled and piebalds/paints have patches of darker color similar to vitiligo.

Would this come off insensitive or step on any toes? I don't really want to bring up real world race relations (the centaurs have their own independent culture and their color genetics are more like those of horses than humans), and I worry a visual quirk for a fantasy story isn't worth offending people over.

The literal colors of your centaurs could matter a bit more if you use Fantasy Counterpart Culture s, or play out racial stereotypes, or other parallels to real-world races.

Since you don't, it's not really a problem. Readers will quickly catch on that the literal colors are purely aesthetic, and match their horse-half colors. It'll be much more worrying if all the centaurs were of one skin color. As far as I can see, you're doing the exact opposite on stepping on toes!

edited 23rd Apr '16 11:01:22 PM by hellomoto

Well normally that question would go on the random questions thread, but okay.

On a first read it doesn't sound racist in the slightest. Racism doesn't even really have any thing to do with skin colour in the slightest. I bet if no one in your cast talks about it or really notices, then neither is your audience. Yeah, there will be one or two people who are going to guess that the skin colour choices are some kind of allegory. I wouldn't worry about it. This is pretty safe. People do far worse in mainstream fiction without getting called out all the time.

'd

edited 23rd Apr '16 11:58:57 PM by war877

@Marq: I think it would be very hard to do that without it coming across as comedic.Reading your description again, it just sounds funny. A shy, socially awkward xenomorph? Lol.

He's "shy" and "socially awkward" for a Xenomorph, and not necessarily by human standards. A human character who isn't inquisitive enough to bother trying to look past appearances wouldn't describe him as such, primarily because the overwhelming majority of sightings of him by such characters fall under one of two situation types: Either he's being sent alongside hive-mates to gather food and/or hosts, or he's defending the hive against a hostile incursion. Both situations are ones that aren't conducive to noticing much of his behavioral differences, and thus what little that may be noticed would be chalked off as "he's rather slow-minded" and/or "his hyperaggressiveness is somewhat less 'hyper' in comparison to the baseline, probably due to genetic quirks".

edited 24th Apr '16 6:21:54 AM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.