Tag: Character development

Editing Rant: Character Demands

Erin Penn

By West Midlands Police from West Midlands, United Kingdom – Operation Intrusive – BirminghamUploaded by palnatoke, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27889282

 

I don’t have time for this.

I was driving my 10 hour drive and the character for a flash – all set to automatically post since I am on vacation and will be away from computers for two weeks, decided he wanted a name change – then changed nationality with the name change. And made the character about 500 years older than he already was.

On the upside, once I made the fix, it will make the world better – more consistent. Drat it.

Just spent an hour fixing the flash in West Virginia rest stop with wi-fi.

It was a FLASH!

Stupid characters.

Geeking Science: Fashion Meets the Surveillance Age

Erin Penn

From the Reflectacles Kickstarter

So after writing the Dark Web Trope Editing Rant in September, my paranoia is running higher. Just a little.

Did you know that there is a whole Fashion subset to avoid the surveillance cameras everywhere?

Here are some Fashion Statements to say something about the person wearing them, either tin-hat-paranoia or they-really-are-out-to-get-you. The accessories could make for some exciting additions to a near future sci-fi or a contemporary thriller.

  1. Makeup and Hair – Asymmetrical is the key. Bright splotches of color hair. Cover or obscure the eye with spikes and decorations. Squares with high differentiation of coloring – black and white. Jewels applied randomly to the face, especially the nose and cheekbones. Gorgeous and disturbing to a species hard-programmed for symmetry. The machines also freak out a little. (See cvdazzle for examples.)
  2. Pattern Recognition Disruption Scarfs – Put on a lacy scarf with dots or mini-faces. For example, the HyperFace scarf has 1,200 facial shapes to blow the surveillance camera software to bits.
  3. Health masks – Those face masks people are wearing to prevent transmission of disease. They may be keeping other transmissions and invasions at bay. Popular among protesters around the world, especially when holding a gathering near suppressive government buildings.
  4. RFID Blocking Wallets – With the credit cards being RFID chipped now, pick up a wallet to keep someone from reading accessing the credit just by talking down the street beside you.
  5. Metallic Fabric Jackets (with or without hoodies) – But the RFID and microchips go beyond just the wallet, dogs are chipped, medical history may be on chips soon, and some medical machines already are microchipped and can be programmed for injections. Pick up a metallic jacket to keep criminals from scanning the microchips … or reprogramming them.
  6. IR Privacy Eyewear – Full infrared (IR) protection on the sunglasses prevent surveillance cameras from getting eyeshape, one of the most important aspects of facial recognition. A bonus is manufacturing the frames to be extra reflective – this makes the wearer more visible at night when crossing the street while also completely screwing with the camera’s ability to see the person’s face.
  7. Antiflash Clothing – Prismatic metallic ink which interferes when paparazzi beat on a celebrity with flashbulbs. Suddenly their greatest tool of humiliation destroys the very picture they are trying to take. Also great for those days when a politician, or ordinary citizens caught up in a mess, takes a walk of shame before proof of innocence or guilt is established. Also useful for the next company party with the open bar; no pictures, no proof.
  8. Infrared Ballcaps – The brim of the cap shines an IR light on the face, making it too bright for surveillance cameras to see. Perfect for those late night run to Walmart, and you don’t want to get dolled up in an anti-surveillance fashion statement.

Bibliography

Bacchi, Umberto and Suliman, Adela. “Face masks to decoy t-shirts: The rise of anti-surveillance fashion”. Reuters. 2019 September 26. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-tech-fashion-feature/face-masks-to-decoy-t-shirts-the-rise-of-anti-surveillance-fashion-idUSKBN1WB0HT – Last viewed 11/13/2019.

CV Dazzle. “Camouflage from face detection.” cvdazzle. 2017 August 22. https://cvdazzle.com/ – Last viewed 11/13/2019.

Dobush, Grace. “Privacy by design: How fashion combats surveillance”. The Christian Science Monitor. 2017 January 27. https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Passcode/Security-culture/2017/0127/Privacy-by-design-How-fashion-combats-surveillance – Last viewed 11/13/2019.

Hern, Alex. “The fashion line designed to trick surveillance cameras”. 2019 August 14. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/13/the-fashion-line-designed-to-trick-surveillance-cameras – Last viewed 11/13/2019.

Hu, Jane C. “When Will TJ Maxx Sell Anti-Surveillance Fashion?” Slate. 2019 August 15. https://slate.com/technology/2019/08/facial-recognition-surveillance-fashion-hong-kong.html – Last viewed 11/13/2019.

Jacobs, Bel. “How what you wear can help you avoid surveillance.” BBC. 2017 March 20. https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20170320-how-what-you-wear-can-help-you-avoid-surveillance – Last viewed 11/13/2019.

Reflectables. “IRpair & Phantom – Privacy Eyewear.” Kickstarter. 2019 November. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/reflectacles/irpair-and-phantom-privacy-eyewear – Last viewed 11/13/2019.

 

 

Writing Exercise: Genderless

Erin Penn

Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

At my first college job, I ran into my first transgender situation. It was weird. This is because at the time Transitioning or anything LGBTQA+ was all hush-hush. Since the job required secret clearances, the person transitioning sent out a public announcement to the company about the upcoming surgeries and hormone therapies. In the company, being gay or having an affair didn’t matter so much as wanting to hide being gay or an affair – because then Spies could use that to blackmail you and steal secrets. To maintain their job, the person let everyone know.

And that helped shaped my view of the community. There was nothing wrong with being who you are; be up front and open about it. In college I also ran across the concepts of living together without marriage (ever), gay and lesbian relationships, bi-sexual, and polygamy. 

Later I learned about asexual as the internet let people know they weren’t alone with that rare variation of human sexuality.

In college, I also learned about hate and racism and gender crimes and all that horror. That shook my world far more than discovering my personal sexuality didn’t match other people. I just don’t get hating a person for who they are.

Well, I do. Being on the autism spectrum (and female), I’ve been the brunt of a lot of attacks varying from microagressions to firecrackers being thrown at me.

But you can’t change being on the spectrum. Learned behavior modifications control the majority of it – but I will never be “normal”. Why would I throw stones at anyone else for something they are born with?

At the end of the year (2019), I published the flash “Dumped“. The main character is the same as in “Lost Doorknobs” (2016). I’m not sure what the order of the two stories should be yet. I would like to continue this story line and eventually have the POV character start a romance instead of the present dumpster fire with the ex-.

The story is harder to write than most because I am endeavoring to have the POV character be genderless/not gender defined. I don’t know if they were born male or female, and in the end, it doesn’t matter because their genitals do not define them.

Have you ever written something with a character from the LGBTQA+ community, one that doesn’t match your sexuality?

WRITING EXERCISE: Write a flash from the LGBTQA+ community. Preferably asexual, transitioning, or genderless/gender queer. (Romance and Urban Fantasy has given most writers a fairly good handle on Lesbian, Gay, and Bi, as well as Poly relationships. But if you haven’t explored those variations in your writing, go for it.) The main character cannot match your personal sexuality.

Have them in a normal situation. Don’t have the flash centered around a hate act. Make them a person who is just dealing with something everyone deals with. For example, an ex- who is stalking them. Maybe making a dinner and a relationship bump when one member of the couple wants a child really bad (such as is in Special Night).

Did their sexuality change the story? What did you learn about yourself writing the story?

Other Cool Blog: Mary Sue/Gary Stu

Erin Penn

Image courtesy of tawatchai at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

All I want for Christmas is no more Mary Sue manuscripts. The outpouring has been strong.

A character loved by her family, has to leave them through no fault of her own, immediately loved by the new people. Perfect in every way, but tragically sick (hence the leaving). Named after the author writing the original fiction story. A slush read rejected.

A character physics major in college, had Asperger as a child but now can go to loud parties and drinks, superpower of knowing exactly how much time has passed. Bad with words, yet gets his girl the freshman year. Freshman, yet intern to an internationally famous physicists. Skinny, yet can climb easily and run everywhere. Superpower of everything has gone right about him when he needs it to. Superpower of time travel – note only the last superpower is presented as superpower. This Gary Stu has hooked up with her perfect girl Mary Sue, tragically sick, amazing beautiful, time travel lock to help him meet his destiny. A book initially intending for pleasure reading and the inspiration for this post.

What is a Mary Sue? The term originally came from fanfic where a writer would insert an idealized version of herself into the story. We’ve all done it in daydreams, entering Twilight, Star Wars, Supernatural, and the characters fall in love with the perfect us. The problem occurs when writing out these personal fantasies and sharing them with others without adding rough edges to the idealization. Gary Stu is the male version.

The term has spread out from fandom to other formats. You know a Mary Sue/Gary Stu when you see them. Perfect people, beautiful, athletic, everyone loves them and the hottest person of appropriate gender falls in love with them at sight. They are perfectly smart, easily solving issues, never say a bad word about anyone. They are avatars of everything good wrapped up in a sentient being.

You’ve met them and hated them in visual mediums, Wesley Crusher (Star Trek: Next Generation) and Bella Swan (Twilight) being the standout examples. You’ve met them and loved them, James Bond and Nancy Drew pops into the head. If you are a writer, some of your earliest works have them. If you ever roleplayed in a Monty Hall campaign, you’ve rolled dice for some.

Some writers try to sneak by a Mary Sue/Gary Stu as a “poor puppy” with a tragic past being their flaw. Other try to pass them as an “everyman” (then reveal a thousand-year old line of wizards, or uber-fighting skill, or amazing intelligence) – one example which stuck with me is the “ordinary accountant” over six foot tall, able to throw around a werewolf, sniper level ability to guns, speaks multiple languages, and two black belts (Monster Hunter International by Larry Correia – get the preview through amazon for a taste; not going to do a link for this one, it’s on you).

It’s easy to make a Mary Sue as a writer. You just love your main character a little too much and stop torturing them and instead give them unicorns and rainbows. This downfall gets easier to avoid the longer you write; sitting in a chair forcing yourself to write every.single.day inspires you to pass on the torture. I highly recommend reading the TV tropes article listed below for learning about how Mary Sue characters evolve in writing: the poorly written character, the cliched character, the author avatar, the idealized character, the power fantasy, and the infallible character.

The biggest obstacle to prevention of Mary Sues/Gary Stus is writing a marketable manuscript often requires a likable protagonist facing amazing odds and overcoming them. Mary Sue originated from people putting themselves in a narrative, yet that is exactly what we want our readers to do: identify with the main character on some level and insert themselves into the narrative. We need the MC to be likable, even lovable, to have powers. In short, every likable protagonist is related to Mary Sue on some level.

The talisman against Mary Sues is “show don’t tell”. Don’t tell me she is lovable, show me why she is lovable. If it makes you sick showing every kitten in a tree rescue, likely you got a Mary Sue. Don’t have the gal fall immediately for the Gary Stu, show why she is attracted and moves into the male’s orbit. Why do the powers exist, given or earned? Show me.

The amulet against Gary Stu is “too much of a good thing”. List all the defining characteristics of the protagonist. If somewhere in the list you start going, “I don’t believe this character” likely your readers won’t either. Cut some of them back. Share them with the supporting characters. Look at the challenge facing the character in the plot and REMOVE the easy solution from his abilities.

Mary Sue and Gary Stu have their place. We love to love our characters, but don’t make the main characters avatars of perfection. Please. Do you think I can get my Christmas wish? I’m off to check under the slush pile.

 

Bibliography

“Is your character a Mary Sue?” – GoToQuiz, https://www.gotoquiz.com/is_your_character_a_mary_sue_2 (last viewed 12/6/2017)

“Mary Sue” – TV Tropes, https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MarySue (last viewed 12/6/2017)

“Mary Sue 101: How to Spot Her and How to STAY AWAY” – fanpop, https://www.fanpop.com/clubs/writing/articles/4391/title/mary-sue-101-how-spot-how-stay-away (last viewed 12/6/2017)

Reddit discussion “Famous Mary Sue Examples” – https://www.reddit.com/r/writing/comments/3rgk3b/famous_mary_sue_examples/#bottom-comments (last viewed 12/6/2017)

“Who are the most notable ‘Mary Sue’ characters in books and literature” by Monika Kothari – Quora – https://www.quora.com/Who-are-the-most-notable-Mary-Sue-characters-in-books-and-literature (last viewed 12/6/2017)

 

Editing Rant: The Neighbors

Erin Penn

Image courtesy of digitalart at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Previous in the story, the character talks about paying homeowner fees, before the scene where he becomes “sunlight adverse”. A temporary solution following his new condition’s onset is to put cardboard up on all the windows. He gets no reaction from the HOA even though the temporary solution ends up fairly permanent for the three weeks of the story.

Modern contemporary story. Do you have a problem with this, because I don’t believe this would happen in the real world.

The neighbors. Today I was stopped by a neighbor while I picked up my mail. This is a fairly consistent activity in my neighborhood. People are nosy, especially where they live.

If you are building a world closely related to the real world and want people to believe it, remember the neighbors.