@authordog / authordog.tumblr.com
To the anon with the physically weak female character: I have a similar thing going on in my story as what you have. MMC is a 6'4 soldier and FMC is a 5'7 nurse who doesn't like to fight, so he's just naturally physically stronger than she is. But then FMC is strong in a lot of ways that MMC isn't, and they're just as plot-important. There are many different ways to be Strong. Don't let a character's weakness define that character OR the plotline, (re: Twilight), and you'll be fine.
In regards to the anon with the physically weak character, I wouldn't say that's too much of a problem, as long as it's not her only defining trait. One of my own female characters lacks upper body strength, but she's fast and can run a long time due to running around after other people and keeping up with them. She's trained herself to use a gun, just in case she has to, and she's also a doctor, so in case she does end up fighting hand to hand, her knowledge of the human body comes in handy.
i was thinking of making a writing blog. would this be a good idea? ive only ever had a personal and i dont know what to do
Anon, if you want to, go for it. I almost never got around to making this blog, and I'm glad I eventually did.
I actually had this blog long before I got a personal Tumblr, so I had to learn as I went. I'm sure making a writing Tumblr would be easier if you've been on Tumblr a while, too.
(Slithers forward with advice: What if rather than physical strength, your character protects herself with another trait, like cunning? That way she'd need a boost for specific situations, while still being able to mostly get by on her own). -Evvy
Exactly what I was thinking! Thank you!
To the anon concerned about the weak female character: There's nothing inherently wrong with a female character being weak, as long as not all of your female characters are weak. The best way to avoid a character with stereotypical traits being viewed as a stereotype is to make sure that you have other characters standing in for that group, too. So as long as you have other female characters who aren't weak--heck, maybe even a male character who also happens to be weak--then it should be fine.
I wanted to ask a question and I was wondering if people could help. I have a female character that is physically weak. She's not a good fighter AT ALL. Her lover, however, is a powerful demon and thus wants (and has a need) to protect her. Is it sexist to take this approach or is it all about how I write it? I don't want it to be seen as she's weak BECAUSE she's female. She's simply just... weak.
I don't think one instance is a sexist approach - it's when all females are seen as weak because they're female that you have a problem.
To the robot anon. While I am not a human-level AI, I am a human sufferer of panic attacks. For me, it seems as if the whole room is extremely cramped and I can't move, sometimes I can't breathe, and my mind rushes with too many thoughts and sometimes I can't think at all. My heart pounds erratically and it hurts with each beat and I break out in sweats. Afterwards I feel wobbly, dizzy, and extremely tired If your AI has a "heart" than focus on how her heart feels too.
To the anon with the robot character: Hi, I had some human-level AIs I used to work with, so I thought maybe I could help. One of them had pretty bad anxiety, so... The way I wrote it was that first, I chose something all machines would be worried about (viruses and glitching) and decided that her "episodes" (not quite panic attacks) would be caused by a glitch: she'd get caught on a feedback loop and not be able to move on from whatever triggered her, and be next to useless until she did (con.)
"(Con.) So, when she got caught in the loop, it displayed half like a human, with repetitive thoughts, confusion, inability to focus, etc., and half like a glitching computer, with static leaking into her voice and vision, loss of mobility, processors getting dangerously hot as her fans sped to keep up. I guess the best advice I could give is to pick a symptom, find the equivalent system in your robot, and figure out how it would fail; mine even had coolant for blood pressure and stuff. Any help?"
This is fantastic, and much better than anything I could have thought of! Thank you so much!
starvingstarling reblogged your post ... and added:
maybe something with static/electricity? like when a magnet gets too close to a computer and stuff shorts out? and yeah,...
Ooh, that's a good one. I was wondering, in that situation, how the anxiety attacks would be induced, but magnets would be a perfect cause because I know that I've personally accidentally damaged several electronic things by playing with magnets too close to them when I was little. Great idea!
I have a bit of a conundrum on my hands and I was wondering if anybody might be able to help. One of my characters suffers from extreme anxiety and suffers from panic attacks on occasion because of it but here's the catch: she's a robot, so I'm not exactly sure how to write how it'd affect her. She's my first character of this sort, so I'm still inexperienced in this area. She's human-level AI so yeah. I was wondering if anybody might be able to offer some insight/advice.
Hmm...my first suggestion would be to have the coding in her system be prone to anxiety attacks somehow, but I have no idea how to introduce that or how that would work.
I'm curious, if one can't imitate speech in text because it gets 'too annoying' as some people put it, sometimes its also really hard to write characters of different ethnicities, because description should not be repeated every five seconds either. A lot of the books I read have diverse character but often I will have a mental of certain characters and what they might look like, despite having given a description. You can't always dictate what your readers will see either.
"ALSO: Book suggestion for those looking for writers who write really awesome ladies and also very diverse casts: Cinda WIlliam's Chima's Seven Realms series is a YA fantasy series that deals less with your typical recaes (dwarves and such) and illustrates a lot of native-like traditions in her own made up world. Just a suggestion for those looking for inspiration and good reads c:"
Here's a pet peeve, and I do this one to myself. I'll suddenly get an idea and feel so good then I realize that I've basically just re-skinned a popular video game or TV show, haha
I think that's the bane of every author's existence - the fact that everything, literally everything, has at one point been done before. It's the execution that's key. Good authors don't just come across good plots - they take something old, and turn it into something brilliantly new and unique.
- Grace
kashispuppies replied to your post: ...
I’m having trouble knowing what i am to. I seem to be only attracted to fictional men and never to a real guy. I like them to be there, but I never want them to look at me in a sexual way because I don’t to them.
That's the problem I've had for my entire life and still have sometimes. I think I fall in love with characters so often because I fall in love with their personalities (as a demisexual often does), without having to think about or do anything sexual. I had to take it very slowly with my first few real life relationships because I wasn't used to anything sexual/had no idea what I was doing and I still wasn't that attracted to my partners, so they often ended badly because the other person was impatient/didn't understand. The trick, I think, is to find someone who will fall in love with you first instead of just your body and who won't pressure you into doing anything you're not comfortable with until you're ready.
- Grace
zacharybosch replied to your post: ...
you could always just ask about on tumblr, sex workers are more common on here than you might think. do a bit of smart tag-searching and above all, ask politely and respect their choice to say no
Great advice!
this is a little off topic but how did you know you were grey-asexual/demisexual??? ive been wondering for a while and i think i might be but i have no idea how to know for sure. thanks
Growing up I can remember one time where I was flipping through a trashy magazine with some of my friends. They kept pointing at pictures and saying “that guy’s so hot!” or “I want to kiss him!”. Sure, I found some of the people aesthetically pleasing, but I never felt attracted towards them. I’d say things like “yeah, I guess he has nice shoulders”, and get stares from it. I thought there was something wrong with me, and then that I might be gay, or just a really late bloomer. But I found I was still attracted to only guys - just very, very rarely. I almost never found myself attracted to anyone right off the bat.
Then I met someone I really liked, and although I hadn’t thought him attractive at all when I first saw him (I didn’t find him unattractive, attraction just didn’t even register with me as a thing that could happen), I slowly became attracted to him as I grew closer to him emotionally. Funnily enough, it can happen with characters for me, too - at first, I won’t be attracted to a celebrity, but if I fall in love with their character onscreen, I might be attracted to them. It’s a strange process, and this is just my story, so it definitely doesn’t apply to all grey-asexual/demisexuals.
Also, remember that sexuality is fluid, and things can always change! You have to have your own experiences and explore things yourself, and only then can you know for sure. Or, you may never know for sure! It’s up to you.
- Grace
I just want to thank you for recognizing asexuals, since we are very often erased in general (even by people in the sexual/gender minorities communities). Really, you rock :)
Thank you, anon! I'm actually grey-asexual/demisexual, so I know how you feel. I'm glad I've been doing a good job so far.
- Grace
Okay, so this one is a bit awkward, but I need to write a large number of prostitute characters. What's a good way to figure out how to do that?
Can anyone help? I'm sure there are resources out there, I'm just not sure where to find them!
