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bonefall · 5 months

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post/734733274896809984/do-you-ever-worry-your-own-writing-might-come-off that makes sense. i was asking because i'm afraid of accidentally writing misogyny myself and i kind of admire what you do

Hmm... I wish I had better advice to give you on this front, but honestly, the only thing I can tell you is to consider the perspective of your female characters.

Women are people. They have thoughts and feelings of their own, so like... just let them have their own arcs. A lot of the worst misogyny in WC comes from the way that the writers just don't care about their girls (or, in the case of tall shadow, actually get undermined and forced to rewrite entire chapters), so they're not curious about their lives, or WHY they feel the way they do or what they want, or any direction for their character arcs.

Turtle Tail as an example. She'll often just end up feeling whatever Gray Wing's plot demands. She's gotta leave when Storm dumps him to make him feel lonely. She shows up again to love him in the next book. Lets her best friend Bumble get dragged back to Tom the Wifebeater, but is sad enough about her death to be "unreasonably angry" with Clear Sky, and then calms down and accept Gray Wing is right all along.

And then she dies, so he can have his very own fridge wife.

In this way, Turtle Tail's just being used to tell Gray Wing's story. They're not interested in why she would turn on Bumble, or god forbid any lingering negative feelings for how she didn't help her, or even resentment towards Clear Sky for killing her or Gray Wing for jumping to his defense. She isn't really going through her own character arc.

She does have personality traits of her own, don't misunderstand my criticism, but as a character she revolves around Gray Wing.

So, zoom out every now and then, and just ask yourself; "Whose story is being told by what I wrote? Do my female characters have goals, wants, and agency, or are they just supporting men? How do their choices impact the narrative?"

But that's already kinda assuming that you already have characters like Turtle Tail who DO have personalities and potential of their own. Here's some super simple and practical advice that helped me;

Tally the genders in your cast. How many are boys, how many are girls, how many are others?

And take stock of how many of those characters are just in the supporting cast, and compare that to the amount you have in the main cast.

If you have a significant imbalance, ESPECIALLY in the main cast, fire the Woman Beam.

It's a really simple trick to just write a male character, and then change its gender while keeping it the same. I promise women are really not fundamentally different from men lmao. You can consider how your in-universe gender roles affect them later, if you'd like, but when you're just starting to wean yourself off a "boy bias" this trick works like a charm.

Also you're not allowed to change the body type of any girl you Woman Beam because I said so. PLEASE allow your girls to have muscles, or be fat, or be old, or have lots of scars. Do NOT do what a cowardly Triple A studio does, where the women all have the same cute or sexy face and curvy body while they're standing next to dwarves, robots, and a gorilla.

Or this shit,

If you do this I will GET you. If you're ever possessed by the dark urge, you will see my face appear in the clouds like Mufasa himself to guide you away from the path of evil.

Anyway, you get better at just making characters girls to begin with as time goes on and you practice it. It's really not as big of a deal as your brain might think it is.

Take a legitimate interest in female characters and try not to disproportionately hit them with parental/romance plots as opposed to the male cast, and you'll be fine. Don't think of them as "SPECIAL WOMEN CHARACTERS" just make a character and then let her be a girl, occasionally checking your tally and doing some critical thinking about their use in the story.

(Also remember I'm not a professional or anything, I'm just trying to give advice)

#I wish I had more succinct and practical advice to give you besides the woman beam trick #Honestly I just kinda feel it out because I like telling stories about girls #I made it fun for myself by clapping and cheering and whooping and hollering whenever a girl does something #because it's not fun to write like a monk in a monastery #With the spectre of Brother Smockbimble looming over your shoulder telling you to Write Perfectly Every Time #Characters aren't real people. You can just fix it if you happen to fuck up or do better next time with what you learned.#Making mistakes is just part of acquiring skill #and writing is an art just like painting or drawing.#So don't make a fun OC project into homework! You should be enjoying making your own art! Express yourself!#Please understand that when I'm ripping into the series I'm being so harsh because it's bestselling corporate media #Read by HUNDREDS of thousands of kids worldwide #Raking in millions of dollars a year. Written by a TEAM of professionals.#So I have higher expectations of it than of a fandom rando on the internet. Or even a self-published author who's just One Guy.#Hence why I'm infinitely more charitable to Ratha than I am to Battle Cats #bones gives advice

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theramblingsofadork · 3 months

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📘 Starpoint AU Fanfic: Deciding On A Team Name

It’s been about a week into the competition. Up until now, Starline and the others haven’t been able to decide on a team name because the group have been at such conflicting odds with each other, thanks to Starline’s failed attempts to control everything.

They’ve been ruthlessly teased for it too by another team who are shaping up to be their immediate rivals. “Not much of a team if you can’t even decide on a name! HA HA!”

So after Starline talks with Rivet and Charge and changes his tactics to allow everyone to be involved, they finally mellow out enough to come together and decide on something.

—

Mood Music: World Trigger - 31/40

“As you all know, today’s the last day to submit our team name,” Starline told the group huddled around in a comfortable circle, with some standing, and some sitting on the couches and chairs. He himself had chosen to stand.

“I realize we got off to a rough start. Simply put… this last week has been a disaster. But now that we’re all somewhat on the same page, we need to figure something out now.”

Starline then pressed his fingers together and glanced around. “So—in order to show my good will and that I’m serious about listening to what you all have to say, I have decided to open up the floor to whatever suggestions you may have.”

There was a tangible pause as the group weighed the sincerity of his words, debating who was going to test that theory and speak up first.

Surprisingly, Hex was the one to take first crack at it, raising his gloved hand into the air.

Starline nodded to him. “Yes, Hex?”

“Um.. How about ‘Misfits?’” The small purple rat suggested, dropping his arm and dangling it with his other one over the back of the rolling chair he was occupying. “You know, because we’re all kind of a band of misfits working together?”

“That would make sense,” Rivet agreed, pointing to herself, then to her brother who was lounging next to her on the couch. “I mean, Charge and I grew up in an isolated village without any technology—“ She then pointed across the circle to Cello. “Cello’s a hardcore chemist in a family of strict miners, Starline does multiple fields of study, Hex is a kid genius who could probably outcode the sun if he wanted to, and Lug—“

The lavender cat paused, as if suddenly realizing the bulldog didn’t really have anything noteworthy about himself to speak of. “…Well, Lug is Lug!”

Starline sighed as he crossed his arms, rubbing the bridge of his bill. Not… off to a great start.. “We are not going with Misfits,” he stated firmly. “A team name is supposed to inspire confidence, not make us sound as if we have no idea what we’re doing.” He shook his head haughtily.

“Well, how about ‘Intellects’ then?” Cello suggested next, her deadpanned expression unwavering as she adjusted her round, large framed glasses. “To show that we’re the opposite?”

“That’s too obvious though,” Charge pointed out, draping his arms across the couch’s back. His yellow ears flicked to the side. “And.. it kinda makes us sound like a bunch of know-it-alls. Not really a good look.”

The firefly crossed her arms and grumpily glowered over at the goofball of the group. “Well then, do YOU have any better ideas?” Cello pointedly asked him.

Charge debated for a moment, sticking his tongue out and closing one eye as he looked to the ceiling. His ears cocked with the movement, before he resumed his normal expression. “…How about ‘The Hex Squad’? Y’know, cuz there’s six of us—a hex bolt has six points—and we’re working on constructing robots and such?”

“I’ll confess that is a clever... utilization of that word…” Starline started, slightly impressed he had come up with that on the fly. “But I think the problem with that one should be fairly obvious.”

“Oh?” Charge blinked cluelessly.

Hex cleared his throat as he rose his hand again.

“…Oh, right—“ The cat chuckled after a moment, scratching sheepishly at his face. “Guess we shouldn’t use the name of one of our teammates, huh?”

“I mean, it’s not that I wouldn’t mind my nickname being part of the team name,” Hex started, rubbing the back of his visor-clad head. “Honestly I’d be kind of flattered really… But if we go with that, then everyone might think I’m the leader.” He shuddered in cold fear. “And I don’t think I could deal with the stress of that…”

“Yeah, you have a point there,” Charge agreed before sliding further down the couch, hiding his mouth in the crook of his scarf. “I just thought it might sound cool.”

The cat then blinked and side glanced at Rivet. “How about you, sis? You’re good at coming up with names. Got anything cooking in that nogin of yours?”

“Mmm.. sorry to say it, but no, not really,“ Rivet sighed in frustration as she crossed her arms. “Most of the ones I thought of were already taken by the other groups early on. And it’s kind of hard to encompass so many people with so many different talents under one name.” She shifted her weight and frowned. “Honestly, the best I’ve got at this moment would be something like ‘Team Vision’ or ‘Team Innovation’.”

The group grumbled and collectively deflated with a sigh.

“I mean, yeah, I guess those would technically work, but they are pretty bland and generic…” Hex stated with a weak chuckle.

“Which is precisely why I didn’t bring them up...”

Starline rubbed his face as each of their ideas came up short. This was shaping up to be a bigger disappointment than the platypus had originally hoped. After all their insistance to be involved and work as a team, he had hoped they might be able to surprise him a bit and prove they were deserving of the voice he was giving to them. But so far, things were playing out just the way he thought they would.

The platypus huffed a bit, deciding it best to take control again. “Well then… unless you all can come up with something respectably appropriate by this evening, then I’m afraid we’ll have no choice but to fall back on the name that I chose earlier.”

“Oh please no,” Hex groaned, putting his face into his hands. “Not that one.”

“Yeah, I’m not exactly thrilled about being called ‘Dr. Starline and his Minions’ either,” Rivet admitted with a frown.

Starline scoffed and stuck his bill in the air. “It is a perfectly acceptable name!”

“Yeah, for you maybe!!” Cello ground her teeth together like a dog ready to chomp on his head. “I don’t much appreciate being called a ‘minion’. And if Hex can’t have his name be part of the team one, then why can you? Like? Ego much?”

Starline blanched and glowered over at the firefly. “We’ve been over this already, Cello!” He argued, clenching a fist in annoyance. “I can do whatever I please because I AM the leader!”

As the two began to bicker back and forth, Rivet chuckled weakly to herself. “Well, there they go again...”

“Honestly…” Charge grumbled in agreement. “The Doc does have a point though. None of our ideas are really working, and we’re almost out of time.”

“If only we hadn’t spent so much time fighting this last week…” Rivet sighed as she rubbed the back of her head.

Hex made a thoughtful noise, then glanced over to the bulldog sitting wide stanced in the couch chair besides him, twiddling his big gloved thumbs. “…Lug? What about you? You’ve been pretty quiet this whole time. Do you have any ideas?”

“Huh?” Lug glanced over at his best friend, before shrugging his shoulders at being addressed. “Oh, well, I mean—I do have one, but it’s probably not that good.”

“Aha—dear boy, I don’t think it can be any worse than anything we’ve heard already,” Starline scoffed, breaking off from listening to Cello’s flaming remarks and earning a dirty look from her and the others in the process.

Lug debated that silently for a moment, then his ears perked as he decided to just shoot his shot. “Well then, how about… ‘Starpoint’?”

The air of the group suddenly shifted as tensions dropped and everyone looked to him with complete confusion.

“‘Starpoint’?” Rivet echoed, tilting her head a bit in bewilderment.

“Yeah!” The bulldog looked around at the collective group. “I mean— we are all here to prove something, right? To show that… we’re something more than what they say we are?”

Hex and Starline’s eyes widened.

“That we can be better versions of ourselves, and make a real difference?”

Rivet and Cello exchanged a thoughtful glance.

‘We’re gonna ‘reach for the stars’? Fulfill our goals and all that stuff?”

Charge grinned as he let out a impressed little laugh.

Lug held out his hands like he had just told the punchline to a joke and was awaiting the audience’s response. “Ehh? Makes sense, right?”

“Starpoint..” Starline murmured thoughtfully, putting a hand to his bill in earnest contemplation as the platypus suddenly found himself genuinely surprised by the depth and insightfulness of that name.

How shocking for it to be coming from their arguably dumbest member as well.

“It does have a nice ring to it,” Rivet spoke up after a moment of thinking as well.

“Not too haughty or degrading…” Cello added as she also put a hand on her chin. “It fits our group dynamics pretty well too...”

“And it sounds rad as heck!” Charge barked out excitedly, grinning ear to ear. “Ha ha! I think it’s perfect!”

“Yeah?” Lug sat up straighter as his grin grew even wider. Almost like he didn’t expect them to like it.

“Yes..” Starline wagged a finger through the air as he weighed this new option, before glancing across to Lug with a rather impressed grin. “I do believe you might be onto something there, Lug. Well done!” A genuine compliment he did not expect to be giving.

“So, if sour face over there is behind it too, does this mean we’re going with it, or not?” Cello asked, ignoring Starline’s sharp, withering glare as her eyes darting from person to person, trying to judge the vibe of the room.

“Why not?” Rivet asked, shifting her weight to the other side. “I like it!”

“Let’s do it!” Charge agreed. “Beats the other option by a mile anyways!”

Starline grumbled, feeling his pride take two severe hits, like a flaming arrow to the heart. But the self proclaimed doctor quickly moved past it and cleared his throat to give an approving nod as well, despite his disbelief that he was doing so. “I suppose it does encapsulate our shared goals quite well... and if everyone’s in agreement with it, then I see no problem with us being the ‘Starpoint Team’.”

“SQUAD!” Hex suddenly exclaimed, raising his little hand again excitedly. “Let’s be the ‘Starpoint Squad’ like how Charge suggested instead!!” He practically leapt up onto his seat cushion with stars glowing in his eyes. “I just realized if we do that, then we’ll be JUST like my favorite heroes from Hero Mania: Mega Battle Robots VII! A team of powerful warriors using their combined skills to protect the world and make it a better place!”

“Ahah..” Starline hesitated, feeling a dip of reluctance to let that change slip through. He had already approved of Lug’s idea. Not to mention ‘Team’ sounded much more put together and professional than ‘Squad’ did. “Hex… we aren’t in a video game—“ he started to say. But the kid was too eager to let him finish.

“Awwww please???” Hex put his hands together and gave the platypus his best puppy dog look.

Lug was immediately ready to back his best friend up, giving a big ole, sad frown as he pushed to the rat’s side as if to showcase him like a car salesman. “Aww, I know you’re a big grump an’ all, Starline, but you wouldn’t say no to a face like this, ✨ would you? ✨”

“Yes, I would,” Starline said without skipping a beat, and Lug bristled like a cat being thrown into water. “WOW—SO COLD!!”

Charge laughed at their back and forth before leaning forward on his knees to glance over at Starline. “Aw, come on Doc, let the kid have his fun. You know it won’t hurt anything in the long run.”

Starline grumbled beneath his breath, suddenly feeling very bullied from all sides. Hex certainly wasn’t going to let this go, was he? And was it really worth his time and effort to argue with them on this? Especially when they were already so far behind schedule as is?

“Don’t lose sight of your goal. You’re doing this to gain Eggman’s attention…” he begrudgingly reminded himself, pressing a hand to his well-maintained bangs.

The platypus finally sighed loudly and waved a hand through the air with a dramatic reluctance as he conceeded. “…Very well, fine! If you so insist, ‘Starpoint Squad’ it is.”

“YIPPEE!!” Hex exclaimed excitedly as he quite literally jumped out of his seat in joy, and Starline couldn’t help but huff a bit and shake his head.

“See? I knew it,” Rivet’s voice caused him to look up again, just in time to see the rider smirk as she lightly punched him in the arm. “You do have a heart in there.”

Scoffing, Starline rolled his eyes as he straightened his blazer. “It has nothing to do with having a heart,” he stated as he watched Lug hoist the excited, giggling rat into the air and spin him around. “Charge is right. At the end of the day, the work we complete will be ultimately what matters.”

“Mmm.. sure, okay. Whatever you say, Doc.” Rivet hummed thoughtful. She didn’t sound like she believed a word of it.

“It’s simply strategy,” Starline thought to himself, dismissing her words. “Nothing more.”

Still… watching the laughing Hex, he did have to admit.. The boy’s energy over such a small thing was contagious.

The platypus smiled. Just a little bit.

He supposed he could deal with allowing this change.

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