On July 20, 2011, Jenna Royal wrote, quoting, but I no longer know where the quote came from: “Are there parts that might offend someone? Did you tiptoe around those aspects of the story even without realizing it?”
\n How do you handle this situation? It\u2019s something I worry about often enough. The story might need the element, but is it worth the risk of offending someone?<\/i>
\nAnd along similar lines, welliewalks wrote, My question has something to do with Jenna R’s. Most of my characters, especially my MCs(!), are like me, in their skin color and build (white and really thin). I’m afraid that I’ll end up insulting someone- like what if they read my stuff and think \u201cShe obviously doesn’t like people of other races or overweight people, because none of her characters are ever those.\u201d Because it’s NOT true (my sister is adopted and 50% of my friends are of different race, from Indian to Chinese). I just use those characteristics because it comes naturally to me and I feel so comfortable with these. Do I need to change things up and use different races and builds? Oh, and I never write anything against the characteristics of build and race.<\/i><\/p>\n
If you are lucky enough to be widely read, you will offend someone, guaranteed, no matter how hard you try not to. Someone may even be annoyed that your work is too bland, that you seem to take too much trouble not to offend. Some people – I\u2019ll bet you know one or two – look for reasons to be affronted, aren\u2019t satisfied until they find a cause for righteous anger. You will never escape their fault-finding no matter how hard you try.<\/p>\n
In Princess Sonora and the Long Sleep<\/i>, Sonora, who talks in sentences soon after she\u2019s born, tells her mother she doesn\u2019t want to be breast fed and calls the practice cannibalism. I got into trouble with a few people for that. In fact, I favor breast feeding or whatever is best for a particular baby, but my character opposed it for herself. In another instance, somebody was mad at me for making Hattie and Olive plump and for giving Hattie thin hair, which surprised me because I have thin hair and I struggled with my weight all through my childhood and into my twenties.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s worthy to provoke thought. Ideas change, and you can be the instrument of that change. Some beliefs that are accepted today were on the fringe or even despised in the past. The arts are at the forefront of the growth of a society. Impressionist paintings, beloved today, were derided in the beginning. Same thing for rock music. My husband\u2019s grandfather used to say, \u201cWhen I\u2019m hearing rock and roll I\u2019m being annoyed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Think of racial equality and women\u2019s rights. Important books helped change opinion in both cases. Louisa May Alcott, for instance, showed women (sometimes) as more independent than was widely accepted in her day. Her ideas about education were also very new. Through Black Beauty<\/i>, Anna Sewell ended the use of the bearing rein or checkrein on horses that had been widespread – and painful. Even the notion in Ella Enchanted<\/i> that obedience is a curse goes against some people\u2019s and some culture\u2019s convictions.<\/p>\n
If you do tiptoe around everything that might be the slightest bit controversial, you risk your originality, and originality is one of the pillars of art (I\u2019m not sure what the other pillars are!). And you may inhibit your voice and even your ability to keep going. So I think you should push through your worries and write what you want or what your story demands. In fact, I think the inner voice of censorship may just be part of the internal chorus of self-criticism that most of us hear (I do) sometimes when we\u2019re creating.
\n
\nIn general, I\u2019m not crazy about preachy books, books that push a point of view, even if it\u2019s a point of view I endorse. I don\u2019t go to fiction to be lectured to. I want a good story. But if, wound into that good story, are snippets of history or surprising facts or an exploration of complex ideas, or all three, I\u2019m triply entertained.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t mean writers should push buttons just to push them. I think I\u2019ve written on the blog that I put the \u201cN-word\u201d in the original manuscript of Dave at Night<\/i>. The usage was in dialogue and was appropriate for the situation, but I took it out. The book didn\u2019t hinge on the word; I didn\u2019t need it, and it\u2019s hurtful, so it went. I had a little queasy feeling that I was censoring myself, but I think I made the right decision.<\/p>\n
welliwalks, I\u2019ve thought about your question in my fairy tale books, which come out of a European tradition. Originally, in the classics like \u201cSnow White\u201d and \u201cCinderella\u201d the characters would have been white and the readers or listeners would have been too. But in my adaptations there is no Europe. The kingdoms are invented, so I decided people can be light-skinned and dark, and there needn\u2019t be racial disharmony. Some of my characters are light, some dark, but without the usual connotations of race. Skin color is merely a characteristic, like height or hair color and no more significant. One reason for including dark-skinned characters is that I want to be inclusive. I don\u2019t want to raise obstacles that will keep readers from feeling they can enter my stories.<\/p>\n
More challenging for me than skin color is height. I\u2019m very short. I like to imagine being tall, so I enjoy writing tall characters, but it\u2019s a stretch (hah!). I suggest you take the challenge of inventing characters whose body type is different from your own. You\u2019ve said you\u2019re thin. You could deliberately write an overweight character and you could decide what attitude your character has about his weight, from untroubled to very troubled. Think about how being thin has affected you and speculate on what the effects would be of being fat. You can decide how heavy this character is, could be a little or a lot. To make yourself comfortable, you could try making this a kind character, someone who won\u2019t mind how you portray him. Or make him female and just like you in every way except for this one thing. It\u2019s often good to push out of the comfort zone.<\/p>\n
Here are two prompts:<\/p>\n
\u2219 Take one or more of these widely held ideas\u2013
\n talking is good for a relationship;
\n people should think before acting;
\n selfishness is bad;
\n dogs love people\u2013
\nand examine it from every angle. Then base a story on the opposite of the idea or on a new interpretation of it.<\/p>\n
\u2219 Give a character in a new story or in one already in progress a prominent physical characteristic you\u2019ve never tried before. Let that characteristic affect the character\u2019s behavior. A fabulous example of this is the play Cyrano de Bergerac<\/i> by Edmond Rostand. The modern movie adaptation, Roxanne<\/i> with Steve Martin, is also great.<\/p>\n
Have fun, and save what you write!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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