astridv

sholio

Last year I read about the snowflake method, where you start with a one-sentence description of the plot, then expand it into a paragraph, then expand each sentence of the paragraph into a new paragraph, and so on. I kinda wanted to try it on something, and decided to use my SGA Santa story, because I had NO IDEA what to write about, and I figured that it would be a good idea to put it into practice.Since I kept all my notes, I basically have the whole process documented, so why don't I share it?

jimhines

rawles

The erasure of female characters from a narrative is never feminist. Period. The end.

If you're only interested in writing about dudes, go ahead, and work out how you feel about that with yourself. But please stop pretending you're doing this all for the ladies.

impertinence

White men are cultural blank slates, of course. Buddy cops, the anti-hero, the odd couple...they're all white guys. All of those dynamics fandom likes, and turns into fandom-specific tropes, can be traced back to wider cultural tropes. And they're coded as being for white men. Obviously, I think that's part of it. But I think the other part requires being critical of fandom itself.

Here's the thing: what we do isn't just transformative. It's really heavily derivative, both of the source material (obviously) and of other fanworks. [...]

Stepping out of that mold takes EFFORT.

ar

For him to write that 40th symphony, though, he first had to write his 4th. And just there's no shame in young Mozart writing some derivative stuff that sounds cool while he's working his way to writing really original stuff that also sounds cool, there's no shame in writing female characters (or any characters, for that matter, but the discussion hasn't been about writing Gary Stus) who might not be entirely plausible. You should totally write stuff that sounds cool to you, and you should write a lot of it--and the more you write (and the more you read!), the more you'll figure out how to make your characters plausible even as they're awesome. Same with your descriptions, your plots, your everything.

Calling "Mary Sue" in this environment is shaming women for empowering themselves.

There is no substantive harm in writing a "Mary Sue" -- there is no substantive harm in creating a character, original or otherwise, who "warps the world around them", who is "adored by all for no particular reason", who wins the day.

There is substantive harm in bullying and shaming real people for empowering themselves through their writing. Words have power. Words cause harm. Words hurt, and the wounds they leave are deeper and longer-lasting than many physical wounds. I nearly stopped writing entirely, as a teen, after having my work and my OC called "Mary Sue". I have friends who did stop writing because of it.

Before anyone says: "Oh, they/you should just have sucked it up and grown a thicker skin! Learn to accept criticism!"

Think.

You are blaming the victims of bullying for their bullies' behavior.

That is Not. Okay. Ever.

Because when I was a 13-year-old getting indoctrinated into fanfic, it seemed to me that the takeaway lesson wasn't "write nuanced characters that make sense in their environment". It was, "don't write about women being awesome"

Mary Sue these days isn't a criticism of skill. It isn't a criticism of writing ability. It doesn't teach the writer how to build convincing character detail. It teaches her to reduce her expectations for her characters.

When she sits down to write, she thinks, "I can't have this character be too awesome. I can't have her achieve too much. I need her to fail, just a little bit, so people don't yell at me."

And then she never learns how to take risks as a writer, and eventually succeed. And she doesn't gain the skills or the confidence to eventually write a woman who kicks ass, takes names, and is a real, full-bodied character while she's at it.

I'm a fan of realistic characterisation but as much as I am one, I am NOT simultaneously a fan of hurting other people, of tearing them down, of saying, you are a silly and overwrought woman who needs to learn her place in life, you shouldn't have dared to even daydream about better.

Life's too short to read bad writing; it's also far too short for me to spend time and energy enforcing attitudes about writing that are on their very best days still deeply tinged with misogyny.