Okay, so that title is a *little* misleading. I'm not talking about actual blood. Unless you're like me and tend to have random nosebleeds. Not good for your keyboard. No, the hurt I'm referring to is more emotional than physical. But how so? You've no doubt come across the adage to 'write what you know' and likely… Continue reading Blood on the Keyboard: Writing When it Hurts
Category: Characters
Writing a Healthy Romance
Romance novels often get blown off by the wider reading community (and especially the literary) as frivolous emotional porn (and sometimes actual porn) lacking any real substance or plot. This couldn’t be further from the truth. However, like all genres, romance does have some troublesome tropes. Some of these tropes are perpetuated in common advice… Continue reading Writing a Healthy Romance
Going Over the Rainbow: The Diversity Dilema
Writing with diversity is something that every author should strive for. Yet there still seems to be a lot of confusion about what it means and how to go about it.
Going Over the Rainbow: Gay Male Characters
With the end of a tumultuous and tragic Pride month there are more concerns than ever about how gay men are represented in media. So how can you, as a responsible author, help dispel many of the harmful stereotypes that lead people to commit horrible atrocities? By accurately and sensitively writing gay men. Please allow… Continue reading Going Over the Rainbow: Gay Male Characters
Going Over the Rainbow: Lesbians
It's been a rough year for fictional lesbians and not a great one for the rest of the MOGAI population either. I don't have any new words to say about Orlando that haven't already been spoken. I can only move forward and hope this series inspires you to write even more queer characters so that… Continue reading Going Over the Rainbow: Lesbians
Going Over the Rainbow: Writing a Character Who is Transgender
Transgender issues have been in the spotlight lately with Target's new policy and North Carolina's anti-LGBT legislation. Neither of these news items tell us much about just what it is like to be a trans person, other than that going to the bathroom in public places can be like playing Russian roulette where all the… Continue reading Going Over the Rainbow: Writing a Character Who is Transgender
Going Over the Rainbow: What is Gender Dysphoria?
Yesterday on Tumblr I had an anon ask an excellent question about gender dysphoria and what having an episode feels like. So I thought I would share it with you all here as well. This is one of those things that unless you experience it yourself it can be difficult to comprehend. I did my… Continue reading Going Over the Rainbow: What is Gender Dysphoria?
Going Over the Rainbow: Writing an Asexual Character Part 2
I apologize for this post being late, but I spent some extra time to make sure I covered as many topics as possible. For the last couple of weeks we've been looking at the asexuality spectrum and how to write asexual characters. Last week we discussed more about the spectrum and went over some terminology… Continue reading Going Over the Rainbow: Writing an Asexual Character Part 2
Going Over the Rainbow: Writing an Asexual Character
Last week we discussed what asexuality is and the challenges faced by many asexuals. We really only dipped our toe in the water though, there is a lot more to being asexual than what I can cover in a couple of blog posts, so I very much encourage you to click through the links and… Continue reading Going Over the Rainbow: Writing an Asexual Character
Going Over the Rainbow: The Asexuality Spectrum
For this month's Going Over the Rainbow post we are going to look at one of the more misunderstood orientations—asexuality. I've broken this post up across two weeks because there are a lot of misconceptions as to what being asexual is and I want to address those before getting into actually writing an asexual character. So what… Continue reading Going Over the Rainbow: The Asexuality Spectrum