Writing inclusive fantasy
One thing I've decided to do in my NaNo novel is avert some of the stereotypes I don't like, especially when it comes to fantasy and the lack of diversity in a lot of novels. Tamora Pierce, one of my favorite authors, works pretty hard to avert them, and I'm sort of taking a page from her in that sense.
One thing I think are severely lacking in fantasy novels is an LGBT presence, and though Pierce has done a lot to fix this by having openly gay and trans characters it's lacking in many other books. I think a lot of authors fall into the trap of forgetting that it's a fantasy they can create pretty much from whole cloth, and include the biases right along with it. I, on the other hand, decided that it's my world, my rules, so being LGBT is not a big deal and never really has been. I currently have a married lesbian couple, one of whom is one of the country's leaders, two gay guys who eventually get together, and I decided that I'd have a transwoman and a woman who is genderqueer (though whether or not I'll get to mention that the other woman is genderqueer is another question, but at least in my head she is).
I just wrote the first scene with the transwoman, and I really, really like her. Many of my characters sort of pop into my head fully formed, and I only discover things about them as I write them. She's kind and very concerned about others but she's also snarky, and her boss is fairly uptight and stoic so they have great interaction and banter. I wound up basing parts of her on several people I know. One problem I had was that I wanted to introduce her and make it clear who she was but not have it come off as forced. I decided that she talks to another character who just arrived at this place and isn't sure if she'll be accepted, and tells her about how she was able to start her life over and live as herself, which is when the other character understands. I knew I wanted to avert dropping a Bridget since it's cheap, exploitative and lazy writing, not to mention not being true to this character's personality. Now it's possible that it wound up being too subtle, but I'd rather it go over some people's heads than come off as cheap.
And I believe this character will end up in a fairly important role later on, so I'm really excited to see what happens! (Note how I phrased that, since it seems to develop independently much of the time without input from me)
One thing I think are severely lacking in fantasy novels is an LGBT presence, and though Pierce has done a lot to fix this by having openly gay and trans characters it's lacking in many other books. I think a lot of authors fall into the trap of forgetting that it's a fantasy they can create pretty much from whole cloth, and include the biases right along with it. I, on the other hand, decided that it's my world, my rules, so being LGBT is not a big deal and never really has been. I currently have a married lesbian couple, one of whom is one of the country's leaders, two gay guys who eventually get together, and I decided that I'd have a transwoman and a woman who is genderqueer (though whether or not I'll get to mention that the other woman is genderqueer is another question, but at least in my head she is).
I just wrote the first scene with the transwoman, and I really, really like her. Many of my characters sort of pop into my head fully formed, and I only discover things about them as I write them. She's kind and very concerned about others but she's also snarky, and her boss is fairly uptight and stoic so they have great interaction and banter. I wound up basing parts of her on several people I know. One problem I had was that I wanted to introduce her and make it clear who she was but not have it come off as forced. I decided that she talks to another character who just arrived at this place and isn't sure if she'll be accepted, and tells her about how she was able to start her life over and live as herself, which is when the other character understands. I knew I wanted to avert dropping a Bridget since it's cheap, exploitative and lazy writing, not to mention not being true to this character's personality. Now it's possible that it wound up being too subtle, but I'd rather it go over some people's heads than come off as cheap.
And I believe this character will end up in a fairly important role later on, so I'm really excited to see what happens! (Note how I phrased that, since it seems to develop independently much of the time without input from me)