Last
week’s post was about arguments against diversifying from the ‘straight,
white man’ hero, so this week’s post is about what to expect when you don’t use
the standard hero in your stories, but go for someone from another social
group. People will complain - which probably isn’t a surprise to you. Some will
simply complain about you not using the kind of character they expect. Others
will complain that your character isn’t all they should be. Those are the ones
I want to talk about most.
It’s easy enough to
deal with those who complain that your character isn’t what they expected.
Expectations not being met happens on a daily basis, after all. Simply pointing
out that to you the character you used was more fitting should be sufficient -
if you want to address that complaint at all.
The ones which are far
more difficult to deal with are those who claim that the character isn’t
different enough - you know, it’s not enough to have a female hero, she needs
to be black, queer, have two disabilities, and whatnot. The basic argument
seems to be that if you don’t use the standard, you need to make your character
represent everyone else - which is simply not possible, of course.
It’s a simple way for
people who don’t like it when a main character doesn’t meet their expectations
to keep people from repeating that ‘mistake.’ If authors face a lot of
seemingly justified criticism over their main characters, they might want to
revert to standard - others might never stop using the standard straight, white
man. As a matter of fact, I have seen people in comment sections of articles
about diversity in writing who say that they don’t use any unusual heroes
because they don’t want to deal with that kind of thing. My suggestion? Don’t
let others make you nervous there. Instead, you need to learn to discern
between justified criticism - which can be very helpful - and criticism not
worth your time - which is very common by now, too, unfortunately.
Personally, I write
characters the way they are, because that’s the way they should be. Jane Browne
came about when I wanted to write a secret agent who was female, but not the
regular femme fatale. So I basically tried to make the regular image of a
secret agent female. I later on removed the ‘ever-changing boyfriends’ topic
when I gave her a steady one, but that wasn’t so much me thinking she should go
steady than me being tired of trying to come up with new boyfriends. Besides,
flipping the ‘hero with a caring partner’ idea also was nice and I like how
Jane and Cedric have turned out together.
I like exploring how
to tell a story with characters which are unusual. I like throwing my
characters into a plot and see how they master it. Part of that is, of course,
me being a discovery writer who never knows precisely what will happen in her
next novel. Part of it is simply that I like to develop my characters instead
of my plot in advance (because if I try to pin down the plot before writing, there
will be no writing).
What you should really
check your characters for, is not if they represent as many different groups as
possible, but how well they represent the groups they’re part of (we all are
part of several groups in real life). Not only ethnicity, gender, or sexual
orientation matter. Nor are possible disabilities the only thing to look at.
We’re not defined merely by being ‘a woman,’ ‘a lesbian,’ or ‘someone with
ancestors from Asia Minor.’ There are many things which define a human and a
well-rounded character will have them all.
Even if you look at a
character as old as Sherlock Holmes, you will see that he’s not just a
detective. He’s hard to live with, as is obvious from his troubles finding a
flatmate in “A Study in Scarlet.” He loves art, not just music (as is evident
by his own mastery of the violin), but also painting and acting - there are
several stories in which he mentions visiting galleries, but also concerts and theatres.
He can fall into something akin to depression when there’s nothing to do and he
mistreats his body when there’s a good case to follow, not eating or sleeping
nearly as much as he should. He’s addicted to cocaine, but only when the
depression has him (at his time, the use of cocaine wasn’t considered
criminal). He is brusque and has little patience with stupidity, yet he can
also deal very well with people in distress, including women of all ages,
despite having nor romantic and, presumably, sexual interest in them. Doyle has
given him a complete character, even thought the actual stories focus on his
work as a detective.
If someone criticises
your character, look at that character and ask yourself if they are a real
person, if they have weaknesses and strengths, if they have more talents than
just those focused on the work they do (remember that, according to the “Hitman”
soft reboot of 2016, Agent 47 is a good drummer and capable of giving yoga
lessons). Look at how certain situations might play out differently, because
they are not the standard straight, white dude. Of course, if you’re working
with Fantasy or Science Fiction scenarios, you might have different situations
in which different groups will have a different experience. While creating a
world there, make sure to wonder how living in it will be for different groups
of people - depending on the setting, there might be little or big differences.
In a medieval-style fantasy world, women, poor people, or people with specific
ethnicities might be cut off from certain professions (but you can also turn
that around, there might be professions which only these groups are allowed to
have). In a science fiction scenario in a far future, an egalitarian society
might give everyone the same rights and duties, no matter the gender,
ethnicity, or other factors, but then try to show it (looking at you, “Star
Trek” reboot and your ‘coincidentally all male’ leadership). It depends.
The best way to react to
criticism of any kind is to look at whether or not it’s justified. Then try to
incorporate justified criticism and just ignore the unjustified. It’s not easy,
but unless you want to completely forego any heroes out of the regular, you
will need to master that. And, honestly, those irregular heroes are often a lot
more fun to write, so you shouldn’t simply abandon them.
No comments:
Post a Comment