posted
Does it seem at points it's difficult to write a story, for fear of being "marked"? For instance, a story with primarily black characters tends to get marked out as "African-American Fiction" and set in a different part of the store--and in turn, the author is made an "African-American Writer"? And the same goes for writers who write books with female protagonists.
I think Icarus mentioned something similar, in fear of printing a story because it seemed it would mark him as a sexist writer.
Myself: I am working on a fantasy/alternate history story. There is, admittedly, sexual tension developing between the two main characters. Who are male. And neither is acknowledged as gay, though this is a strongly Muslim/Catholic society and that would be unlikely. It's not as though I usually write gay relationships. First time it's occurred, really. The trouble is, this is probably my best work as of yet. And the relationship between them really opens up new avenues in the workings of the story. But, once again--who wants to be marked as someone who writes "gay fiction", and therefore lose half the potential audience?
Have any of you noticed much of this, or had trouble because of it? How does one get aroudn this sort of thing?
Posts: 1735 | Registered: Oct 2004
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posted
It's a serious issue. I say that you write the best story you can, then deal with this battle later.
Posts: 5600 | Registered: Jul 2001
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posted
It's a difficult problem that I don't think will ever go away. I imagine that Irami is right. You write the story, then you deal with the fall-out. I don't believe it's a good thing to avoid writing something just because it could be labeled as something you, as the writer, don't necessarily think it is.
What this reminds me of more than anything is a passage in "Little Women" when one of the girls, probably Jo, says something to the effect that labels belong on pickle jars. And, I would add, pretty much nowhere else.
Posts: 2454 | Registered: Jan 2003
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posted
You won't be pegged as an author of "gay fiction" unless one of them has a domineering mother, one of them works for the government while the other one is either a painter or a poet, and one of them dies of a degenerative disease. There can be some overlap.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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posted
No no. You have to go where the story takes you. If you try to change it, and not tell the "truth" (because this IS the truth as your story has developed) your readers will smell it a mile away. And that's when they really won't like the work.
I think it's when you've put enough down on paper that the characters start to tell YOU where you're going that writing gets good. Just let it happen.
Posts: 471 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
Write your story, my friend. Write it. Be honest to the characters comprised therein and never betray them out of fear or potential social intolerance. Listen to them. They know where they need to go.
If the work is truly good, it will get notice regardless of its location in Borders.
Posts: 43 | Registered: Oct 2005
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posted
As an aside, when you say that "neither is acknowledged as gay", I take it you mean within the story. (i.e. you never specifically state that they are gay in the story either through narrator exposition nor through dialog or even interior monologue of the characters themselves). Is this right? If so, do you as the author acknowledge them as "gay" characters, or is this something else? I'm intrigued.
Posts: 6394 | Registered: Dec 1999
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posted
Don't EVEN talk to me about being 'marked'. I once wrote a story about a female-dominated society that was pretty evil (partly in response to a rash of "feminist utopia" stories in a writing group I was in) and some random guy basically email me asking for a spanky.
Which was soo not my point... I quit the online workshop and came back with a different name. Freaked me right the heck out. I also got a critique that included many terms I was not familiar with (googling nearly proved disastrous) from lesbian in my group who runs a... dungeon? If that's what you call it. O_O
The point is, people bring stuff with them to any story, and you can't help that happening. Just do the best you can, and let the rest sort itself out.
Posts: 9293 | Registered: Aug 2000
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Olivia, I remember once you said if you ever published Boyhouse it would be under a pen name.
Do you still feel that way?
The reason I ask is because I'm wondering about my own writing. I've been professionally published under my real name in the Christian/Inspirational market.
I'd like eventually to maybe write more non-fiction in that area. But, I also want to work on fiction, in my current project, a fantasy aimed at the middle-school/YA market.
I wonder if I should use a pen name for the fiction, because if I ever do come back and want to publish more inspirational nonfiction, the fact that I write kid's fantasy stories might work against me. Or maybe not. I'm not sure.
Since I'm not close to being published with any fiction work, it's not exactly a pressing issue, but it is something I've thought about.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
Yes, I think a pen name would be appropriate for Boyhouse, since it seems particularly easy for people to get the Wrong Idea about me from it's content.
Though it may just be one of those initials-plus maiden name things, or something... I may change my mind, but right now I'm leaning toward not using my real name if that one gets published.
For you, you could use a variiation of your own name for fiction, instead of an all-out penname. Lots of writers who work in different genres do that to avoid confusion.
Posts: 9293 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
Yeah, but hubby says I shouldn't. He says if it's your writing, you should want your name on it regardless. I think I hurt his feelings too when I mentioned using a different last name. There is an Adrian Ward who has published several books, though they look to be scholarly, textbook type stuff and he/she's usually listed as the editor.
My birth name is French and probably difficult for people to pronounce and would probably get misspelled a lot. Since I'm writing for youngsters (at least now I am) maybe sticking with Ward is a good idea. Would using my initials and last name be too much like jumping on a J.K. Rowling bandwagon?
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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quote: For you, you could use a variiation of your own name for fiction, instead of an all-out penname. Lots of writers who work in different genres do that to avoid confusion.
Like Iain M Banks (Sci Fi) / Iain Banks (Literary fiction).
Posts: 4393 | Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
Why don't you just write the story the way you want to, and then try to write a couple more stories and then submit the one that would mark you only after you've only been published so people would know that you don't only write that way?
Posts: 853 | Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
I don't think you need to worry too much about being marked based on one story. Unless the story is unspeakably good it probably won't get too much attention upon first publication. Now if you had multiple stories published and they all had a similar gay theme, then I would worry about being marked.
Posts: 1947 | Registered: Aug 2002
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quote:Would using my initials and last name be too much like jumping on a J.K. Rowling bandwagon?
Yea I hate the way people our doing that nowadays. Guys like J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis are such losers for copying her.
Posts: 3564 | Registered: Sep 2001
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See the reason I said Rowling was only because if someone accused me of jumping on a Lewis or Tolkien bandwagon I'd just say "Yeah, what of it?" Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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quote:Would using my initials and last name be too much like jumping on a J.K. Rowling bandwagon?
Yea I hate the way people our doing that nowadays. Guys like J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis are such losers for copying her.
jebus, that would have been even funnier if I had not heard at least 60 kids say the same thing, being completely truthful (if completely clueless), back when I was working at Barnes and Noble.
The also told me that Susan Cooper and Lloyd Alexander were good, but they owed Rowling for creating that type of fiction for kids to read. Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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quote:As an aside, when you say that "neither is acknowledged as gay", I take it you mean within the story. (i.e. you never specifically state that they are gay in the story either through narrator exposition nor through dialog or even interior monologue of the characters themselves). Is this right? If so, do you as the author acknowledge them as "gay" characters, or is this something else? I'm intrigued.
They don't live in a society in which homosexuality is acknowledged as existing. Therefore, there's no label applied to them. They simply . . . have a relationship. I don't acknowledge them as such either, and the relationship is actually fairly subtle through most of it.
And no worries, I have no plans of changing my story to accomodate people. I hate the idea of doing that. This post, I guess, was more of a rant than anything. The characters are gonna be in a relationship and people will bloody well deal with it.
Posts: 1735 | Registered: Oct 2004
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