Back for yet another round of talking about writing a novel in November. Here is my post from yesterday in which I touched on the same topic. In rereading the last post, I realized that I didn’t write about writing at all. That’s hilarious, but so true to my heart.
Jerks like to complain about ‘woke’ characters in pop culture. It happens a lot in video games, and I see it in other mediums, too. If the main character of a video game isn’t a cishetwhiteman, then, it’s pandering to the ‘woke’ crowd. Including pronouns in the game? WOKE. Nonbinary as a gender? WOKE. I’ve told this before, but there’s a document floating around the internet that is a list of all ‘woke’ video games. What makes a ‘woke’ video game? (And, yes, I’m going to keep putting ‘woke’ in quotes because as long as it amuses me).) According to this doc, a Pride flag made a game ‘woke’. Any major character being anything other than a cishetwhitedood was ‘woke’. Of course, anything LGBTQ+ was ‘woke’.
I’ve heard this whining for so long. It was called affirmative action in the nineties/aughts, and my god, cishetwhitemen like this are so goddamn fragile. They like to call us special snowflakes, but they are the ones who are sniveling and whining when a game’s protag is anything but (say it with me), a cishetwhiteman.
Bro. Brah. My dude.
Do you know how many video games star a cishetwhitedude? Even with all the diversity that has floated into games (and I, for one, am very pleased about it), I would guess that 75% of games (and I’m being conservative here (the only time I will be conservative)) star a cishetwhitedude. If you want to play as a cishetwhitedude, you have SO many options!
Also. I just need to point out that women (and, I’m assuming women-adjacent people) make up nearly fifty percent of gamers. In some countries, they (we) are in the majority of gamers. In other words, by putting more so-called diversity into games, developers are acttually making the games more realistic than they were before.
I’m Asian, AFAB, agender, areligious, queer, not married, and no children. That’s my life. That’s who I am. I’m not a made up character; I’m living a so-called ‘woke’ life. I’m environmentally conscious, pro-choice, an anarchist, and I would be a small-l libertarian if it weren’t such a dirty word. I believe in the collective and lifting up each other.
None of that is fake or an affect; it’s simply who I am. And there are a lot of people like me. We’re not trying to be weirdos or out there or ‘woke’. We just are. I know it’s hard for some people to believe, but we are not who we are AT them; we. just. are. Are some of a bit extra because of them? Hell, yes, but that’s a pretty normal reaction.
I know it’s childish to say, “They started it!”, but they did. Most of us would be more than happy just to live our lives without notice, but they won’t allow it. I have no idea why we’re so threatening to them, but it’s them–not us.
I can’t write something without including these issues because they are relevant to who I am. They are the core of my being, and to leave them out would be doing an injustice to me and my people. It’s like when queer people started to be recognized by society, and there was the clash over marriage equality. Sooooo many straight people were sniffing through their noses how it’s fine to be gay, but did the queers have to be so obvious about it? Actually, that was the mentality for a decade leading up to the marriage equality fight–why didn’t ‘the gays’ just keep it to themselves?
What did they think was flaunting it? Mentioning a same-gender partner; holding hands; having a picture of a same-gender partner; anything that hinted that someone was anything but straight. This is how the troglodytes are actting now. If the world does not 100% reflect them back to themselves, then they’re being oppressed.
I will say this. I don’t watch movies and TV in general, and if there isn’t a non cishetwhitemale cast member in the first five listed/shown, then I am not interested. I don’t moan about it, though; I just don’t want.
I also like to start my novels making it very clear what is contained within. My main character will be Asian, queer, and into martial arts. Yes, I base the main character on me because why the hell not?
I have the first chapter written in my mind. Or rather, the intro to the first chapter. I know how I want the story to go, in general, and I have the three main characters shaped and formed. One butch white lesbian; one femme nonbinary person with she/they pronouns (they are Indian from India); and the main character, who is agender, Taiwanese American, and tired as all get out.
The first person is in her mid-sixties; the second character is is her late forties; whereas the third character is fifty-four. I think the first thing I will do is write a one-page bio for each. It’s interesting that each has sprung almost fully formed in my brain. They immediately feel like real people to me, which is something that has happened all my life.
It’s not as if I can’t tell reality from fantasty; it’s more that I prefer fantasy to reality. I know which is which; I just don’t care for the current timeline.
I think at this point, I’m going to do a brainstorm/dump for the basic outline of my novel. I don’t do standard outlines so I probably will forgo that. I have an idea who the vic is, but I’m not sure about the perp.
Here’s something interesting about my writing. A few years before my medical crisis, I was writing two trilogies. In one of them, one of the main characters was nonbinary. This was about the time when nonbinary started to become more visible in mainstream society. The number of times I unconsciously put a binary pronoun (the same one every time) for this character was very high.
Now, I think I would have much less issue with it. I will admit that I haven’t quite incorporated agender identities as well because it’s harder. There is no pronoun to use for them, so I have to find ways to craft the sentences that aren’t as awkward or stiff. I keep making the mistake with myself, calling me ‘she’ because it’s what I’m used to.
I prefer people not to use pronouns for me, but I’m not that fussed if they call me she. Or if they want to call me sister as a way of bonding. I can recognize the intent behind the term of affection, and I do not take offense. There are times when I will raise it, but in general, it’s not important for me to focus on it. I wouldn’t think of it at all if it wasn’t such a big deal in society in general.
That’s all for today; I’ll write more tomorrow.