Hey everyone.
Recently I’ve been thinking, I write a lot of stuff with a white, straight, female lead. I also read a lot of similar stuff. Sometimes I want to put something else into my stories, but I don’t want to force it.
Most people are likely to write about something they’re familiar with. This doesn’t mean you have to stick solely with that. Nor does it mean you absolutely have to try and put more diversity in. The absolute last thing you want to do is try and write what everyone else is writing. Cultural views are always changing, and no matter what you write you can’t please everyone.
Even if you yourself aren’t the norm, it doesn’t mean your characters have to be. You should write what feels natural for your characters. Of course, if you are writing with LGBTI+ or dark characters as one of the main themes of your book, then you’re likely to have many of characters like this, but you’re also likely to find this will fit naturally with your story.
LGBTI+ relationships come under a lot of controversies, but this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t write about them. Media is often the first step to opinions changing. In Tallstar’s Revenge by Erin Hunter, the gay relationship between Tallstar and Jake gets some of the most love in the fandom. It also gets some of the most hate. Like I said though, ‘you can’t please everyone’. The reason this relationship woks though, is it feels natural and organic. It’s not forced or layered on really thick. Emotional scenes are emotional. Friendly scenes are friendly. You could make one of the charters friendly and it would feel the same.
In romance, not everyone writes the classic ‘boy meets girl and ends up with girl’. There are plenty of ‘girl meets girl and ends up with girl’ stories out there too. The important thing is to write what is natural. Have characters the same or different to you, and don’t force them to be something they’re not.
As an author, I sometimes feel guilty about the strain I could put on the environment with my work. I write my blogs on a computer, which uses power. I write a lot of my ideas and drafts I notebooks, which mean trees mulched to use paper. Research is done partly online, and somewhere else that means huge amounts of power are being used for the internet. Unfortunately, to an extent at least, these issues can’t be helped, but they can be reduced.
For most of my drafts, I use my old school books. I’ve removed all the pages I used during my schooling, and have a whole draw full of them. Many of them have several pages yet. It’s also cheaper as I won’t have to buy new notebooks for writing in for a while.
I’m still living with my parents and will probably be renting later, so it will be a while before I can have much of a say in where my power comes from. However, a lot of people are investing in solar panels on their roof now. My house has some that feedback into the grid. As well as providing clean energy, it also lowers the cost of our power bill.
Finally, in terms of the internet, there are a number of browsers and programs to choose from. Many offer environmentally conscious options. I use Ecosia, which plants trees for each internet search made. It has app options for smartphones and tablets and has plugin options for web browsers on computers. There are there options available, so you can find one that works for you if you want to be environmentally conscious in your writing.
Also, this blog is funded entirely by my Patreon account. Patrons will be able to see their name in the sidebar and get early updates to see blog posts. If you can’t become a patron though, that’s okay. Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy this blog.
Do what works for you,
Teen Fantasy Author
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