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Writing crossing with Real Life
May. 26th, 2009 06:44 pmSo, as I'm sure most of the world knows by now, thanks to Twitter and various news agencies:
California Supreme Court Upholds Proposition 8
This, actually, got me thinking about my writing.
Disclaimer: I do not live in California, nor am I a lesbian.
However, I do believe this will effect all of us in some way shape or form. We need to pay attention because it can come back around to haunt all of us.
(I swear, I will rein this around to my writing in a moment.)
This resolution, from the California Supreme Court sets a standard I am not comfortable with. I know other states have banned same sex marriage, but they are not very high on my like list either.
How this ties into my writing:
Mostly, I have noticed a trend in my writing.
When I was younger, and wrote depressingly Mary Sue thinly veiled 'original' fiction, I never even gave a thought to anything beyond male/female relationships. Homosexual relationships didn't even blip on my radar and the first time I ran across them, I really went O_O a lot. And when I was informed by my brother that he was homosexual, I was really shocked.
However, after a lot of soul searching and brain storming, I figured out that I didn't really care.
This has become incorporated into my writing. KoO contains one same sex couple with the potential for more in the offing later. Another of my projects contains a woman who is polyamorous and bisexual. Again, ten, fifteen years ago, this never would've crossed my mind to have.
Now, I keep looking at them, wondering if I'm really portraying them correctly, and hope they are not descending into stereotypes. But then, I remember that these are people first. Sure, they're imaginary people, but people.
That means that everything -- their likes/dislikes, their fashion sense or lack of one, everything -- makes them who they are, including their sexuality. So, if they're gay? So what? That's not the whole of their personality, not if I write them correctly. I don't even have to mention it, save once or twice, and that only as an aside, like when they're introducing their spouse/SO.
It's something to keep in mind. I always ask myself "Would I harp on this with anyone else?" when coming up with a personality trait. The answer is often surprising. Unless it is such a large part of their personality, it's much better to let the writing around the character reflect it, rather than stating it outright.
Really, this is just a long winded way to tie in "Screw you California!" into my writing. But it also helps for me to see this here, when my brain isn't working quite right.
California Supreme Court Upholds Proposition 8
This, actually, got me thinking about my writing.
Disclaimer: I do not live in California, nor am I a lesbian.
However, I do believe this will effect all of us in some way shape or form. We need to pay attention because it can come back around to haunt all of us.
(I swear, I will rein this around to my writing in a moment.)
This resolution, from the California Supreme Court sets a standard I am not comfortable with. I know other states have banned same sex marriage, but they are not very high on my like list either.
How this ties into my writing:
Mostly, I have noticed a trend in my writing.
When I was younger, and wrote depressingly Mary Sue thinly veiled 'original' fiction, I never even gave a thought to anything beyond male/female relationships. Homosexual relationships didn't even blip on my radar and the first time I ran across them, I really went O_O a lot. And when I was informed by my brother that he was homosexual, I was really shocked.
However, after a lot of soul searching and brain storming, I figured out that I didn't really care.
This has become incorporated into my writing. KoO contains one same sex couple with the potential for more in the offing later. Another of my projects contains a woman who is polyamorous and bisexual. Again, ten, fifteen years ago, this never would've crossed my mind to have.
Now, I keep looking at them, wondering if I'm really portraying them correctly, and hope they are not descending into stereotypes. But then, I remember that these are people first. Sure, they're imaginary people, but people.
That means that everything -- their likes/dislikes, their fashion sense or lack of one, everything -- makes them who they are, including their sexuality. So, if they're gay? So what? That's not the whole of their personality, not if I write them correctly. I don't even have to mention it, save once or twice, and that only as an aside, like when they're introducing their spouse/SO.
It's something to keep in mind. I always ask myself "Would I harp on this with anyone else?" when coming up with a personality trait. The answer is often surprising. Unless it is such a large part of their personality, it's much better to let the writing around the character reflect it, rather than stating it outright.
Really, this is just a long winded way to tie in "Screw you California!" into my writing. But it also helps for me to see this here, when my brain isn't working quite right.
