Gender Equality in Writing

When I think of gender equality in writing, I'm not thinking about sex politics. Or how many characters of each gender should be in a story. Or power dynamics relating to gender in a relationship. I'm simply referring to how I approach characters of a gender in my writing. Too often when I read stories or scripts, one group or another gets the short stick.

I don't like seeing agendas. Oh, this is feminist. This is rhetoric about transgender and on and on. I didn't come to your fictional piece to be preached at. Write an essay (or blog post) for that.

Having one group of people in a story be uniformly negative is usually a giveaway of a prejudice for me--whether sexist, racist, nationalist, ageist, or whatever. Just don't do it. Make each character an individual that stands by his or her own merits, not by the inclusion or exclusion of a group or social status.

You have a character who is a woman? Will she automatically be the one is hurt or rescued? The victim? Will she be the least developed character? Oh, I'm a guy--I don't know so much about girls so I'm not going to bother...blah, blah, blah.

I've seen the same thing with male characters. All the guys are all negative or barely developed. Hey, let's make all the men abusers! Psychopaths... Mindless killing machines who are driven by sex and money. Well, I know plenty of guys like that. This one time, this guy blah, blah, blah...

Yeesh.

What if you don't know you're doing this? Take a piece of current writing--any piece--and change every single character's gender identity. Do the character choices become strange now? Do you find some characters to be bland or weak now? Do you think some characters are detestable now?

Becoming aware of biases is a nice first step. Yet we'll all have this in our writing to some degree even if we are aware of it. It's just a matter of being in control of it and knowing how to subvert it and use it to maybe connect to people surprising ways.

When You Don't Know the Story

I'm developing a story that I'll be writing in April. I have no idea what it will ultimately be about. That's truly scary. Usually, I will have thought months about it in my head and worked out some scenes and characters. I don't have any characters in mind or what will happen or how this will play out.

It will all be completely made up as I go along. The development stage has been going along slowly; I've been working more on my script than this novella. Where do I start with this? Do I plot it out? Try to get a character in my head? Piece out a scene? Come up with a compelling conflict? I generally know the end, but that hasn't propelled the story into my mind as it usually does.

I wonder if that means the idea is D.O.A.

Back in the Habit

It's been a while...

Migraines and writing don't seem to go together so well, but I'm back at it. Scratching away in the sand.

I'm doing screenplays right now, in addition to noveling and short stories. I wonder how this will work out. Probably not so well either.

I have outlined a story and characters and will be doing a scene list (step outline). After that comes the rough draft. Since my momentum slows down so drastically towards the end, I've decided to write that dry wafer of an ending first. Then the flat, crunchy beginning. Lastly, the smooth and creamy delicious, delicious, middle. Just the opposite approach of an Oreo cookie.

Writing Personal Fiction

I am in the midst of not writing two short stories right now. The characters and their longings whisper in my ears every day, and I turn away from them. Every other thought turns back. Why am I fighting against writing this?

Because these stories are mine, much too much of me. My deepest fears spilled in black on a blank white page. Maybe I'm not ready yet to confront them, no matter how they haunt me and demand that I investigate their depths.

However, I've slowly been writing one story--a fear that grows stronger every day about my future. Something that looms in my mind. Something that I know writing will make clearer and more real, rather than reveal to be an apparition.

How do I face real fears?

LeFiWriMo 2012 - Day 9

Twenty-one days left.

I'm exactly halfway behind. I thought I would have plenty of time to write with the kids out of school, but my situation's been the opposite of that. I've been running, running, running. And when I have the space and time to write, my mind's so burned out that I can't do anything.

At least I got 1,000 words down yesterday while I was traveling.

3217 words out of 25000. Only 21,783 words to go. Yeesh.

LeFiWriMo 2012 - Day 3

Okay, my momentum is... nonexistent. If only I could come up with the excitement I had when I was thinking about writing this. Every other minute I come up with some other idea I think I would like to do more than what I'm doing now.

But I'm invested in this. I want to have a series of stories for my husband's blog. I want to write them. But it's just so boring. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. The research is the best part for me, going to different sites, looking up passages in my Bible. The act of writing them out, on the other hand, is like pulling duck's teeth.

I hope I find my joy in this. Soon.

I'm supposed to be at 2500 words right now. *Murder >.<*

LeFiWriMo 2012 Day 2

It's that time again! The LegendFire Writing Community is hosting another Writing Month this April as a counterpart to NaNoWriMo. The differences? Well, the word goal is 25,000 instead of 50,000; it's hosted by my favorite writing community; and it feels more cozy and close knit than the sprawling NaNo site. It's LeFiWriMo.

Hopefully, I'll do as well as I did in the previous one. This seems to be the only time that I can actually stick with my writing every day. I'm writing morality tales about how a demon (it never actually shows up) influences the people attending a church youth group.

Today is Day 2 and I've got to get my 1K words down. So far I've found ways to procrastinate.

Procrastination #1: Created my own Word Count Progress bar.

Review of Ebook "Above the Clouds" by Richard Roberts

By Richard Roberts 

8120 words

Smashwords 

Price: Free!

A Steampunk Love Story.

First I'd like to say that this is a nice cover. Almost tells the story by itself.

Red wants nothing more than Father's approval. Father is an ace airship pilot, and Red has never lived up to his standards. Red tries his best but fails while helping Father catch floating whales and battle flying sharks. That's right: space whales. He now has to prove himself when Father's squadron is assigned an actual combat mission. However, Red meets someone who changes how he feels about his world and Father.

Goal 1 Progress: January 25, 2012

Goal 1 Progress should have been
"Update Goal 1 Progress Regularly."

Day 30 - January 25, 2012

Goal: Write every day.

Purpose: To make a habit of writing.

Mini-Goals: Learn the structures to different kinds of plots: Plot 1 - Quest. Learn more about screenwriting for hubby's shows.

Actions: Wrote 2000 words for Josh Journal episode outlines, 500 words of Act 1 Quest story, and totaling 2500 words with an average of about 500 words a day (on the 5 days I wrote).

Progress: Terrible. I hardly worked on that Quest story. I think I should have planned it more so that I would know whether or not my interest in the plot would be sustained.

Goal 1 Progress: January 11, 2012

Perspective demands that my stand-in
be one-tenth of a mountain.

Day 13 - January 11, 2012


Goal: Write every day.

Purpose: To make a habit of writing.

Mini-Goal: Learn the structures to different kinds of plots: Plot 1 - Quest

Actions: Wrote 2000 words detailing an overcomplicated magic system, 500 words of backstory, and 1000 words of story totaling 3500 words with an average of about 400 words a day (on the days I wrote).

Review of Ebook "The Darkline Protocol" by John Phythyon

Short Story
By John Phythyon
4,140 words
Smashwords 
Price: Free!

This short story serves as an introduction to the character Wolf Dasher, who is the hero of the novel State of Grace. "The Darkline Protocol" follows Wolf, an agent with Shadow powers, as he tries to flush out the person responsible for leaking information to his country's enemies. The trap he lays reveals a traitor  who is the last person Wolf expected, leading him to a desperate escape.

Review of Ebook "Fire Eater" by Court Ellyn

Short Story
By Court Ellyn
8,300 words
Smashwords / Amazon Kindle
Price: $0.99 USD

Mother Mirrah is on a mission to prove that the lowly, mistreated inhabitants of New Hope prison deserve compassion and second chances. As the prison's new warden, she has appointed herself as their champion with the purpose of seeing to it that they're treated humanely, even the ones who are not so human.

Immersing Myself in eMedia

I've decided that if I'm doing this thing-- writing for web series and dedicating myself to its promotion, which takes up hours of my day-- I might as well go whole hog.

I will be reading ebooks and watching web series, hopefully in significant numbers. I will then review them on this blog. This will force me to reach out and network with other authors and writers, something that I am loathe to do. Also, it will keep me up to date about what's relevant and (blegh) trending.

First up on my Kindle (got a Kindle, ya'll!) is the short story "Fire Eater" by Court Ellyn. I'm halfway finished, and I think I can get a review up by January 5th.

Goal 1 Progress: 12/30/2011

Day 1 - December 30

Procrastination is also one of my goals.

Goal: Write every day, starting today.

Purpose: To make a habit of writing.

Mini-Goal: Learn the structures to different kinds of plots: Plot 1 - Quest

Actions: Wrote 700 words outlining three potential stories.

For the Upcoming Year

I think the focus of this blog will be my ongoing aspirations as a writer, poet, and web series producer. I've recently began thinking seriously about writing since I do so much of it, and I like doing it. Also, I help my husband out with his web series shows, and I'd like to write about what I'm figuring out.

I'll list what I'm working on, what stage I'm in, and how far I've progressed as a writer.

Here's to the New Year and new aspirations.