- have most characters be non-minors, around the same age range. this is mostly to minimize underage nonsense.
- while family relationships are important, save them as background elements, explored every now and then. focus mainly on the bonds of non-related characters and how their different backgrounds play off each other.
- limit the overly edgy tone, where pain and suffering are near-romanticized. try to emphasize wholesomeness, health, and the various ways characters can have good relationships despite their differences. a lot of nintendo franchises are good examples.
- avoid creating significant characters who are utterly irredeemable with harmful ethics. (for me personally, i limit elements such as abuse and discrimination for background conflicts while presenting more interesting, morally gray arguments, where either side is right/flawed) if you’re going to have a villain, either make them team rocket goofy or classic disney fun.
- just. try not to have characters + relationships rely on racial tropes. if you overly rely on a tough dark-skinned / dainty light-skinned formula, you’re going to see some racist shipping. mix it up. round ‘em out.
- same goes for gendered tropes. if a dude is downright violent and irresponsible and a level-headed girl has to put up with his flaws without him facing consequence, that’s a downright unbalanced relationship. and do keep in mind that if two boys utterly despise each other, people will absolutely take that a certain way. again, with #3, try to play off disdain as comedic or with exception rather than constant seething hatred.
obviously these aren’t hard and fast rules, and what/how you create will vary. but it’s how i generally approach my work
I am legitimately amazed that tumblr’s weird obsession with Never Have Anything Unwholesome writing advice has now reached the point of:
– Don’t have children in your work,
– Don’t have families in your work.
– Don’t have any themes or ideas darker than Nintendo, because that’s romanticising suffering.
– Don’t have villains unless they’re in the relatively simplistic, child-friendly mould of Disney or Pokemon, and don’t try to deal with any difficult themes.
– Don’t have characters dislike each other.
The idea that you should build your work – because these are all fundamental aspects of a story – around preventative measures against ‘gross shipping,’ and that coincidentally all those measures boil down to “Have as little nuance, conflict, or difficult and unpleasant things as possible,” is kind of creepy.
‘Next on Writing Stories: Don’t.’
Literally nothing can be done to prevent gross shipping short of never creating anything ever.
Like, here’s an extra rule for you, ‘make sure that this world has no non-human animals in it. It’s the only way to stop bestiality fan works.’
It’s the only way to prevent it.
You admit that dogs, or horses or any kind of monster exists in your world and bam! you have created the environment for bestiality.
And you have to live with that.
Yeah, this is the thing: You can’t stop people being gross. You can’t stop those people reading your work and liking it. And you can’t stop them from then potentially making fanworks on it. Nobody’s asking you to like it, I sure as hell wouldn’t, but that’s not something in your control.
(Case in point: No amount of wholesomeness saved My Little Pony from becoming a rallying point for weird, hentai-obsessed alt-righters. That was not something that anybody on that creative team could have realistically foreseen.)
And I don’t think it’s a coincidence that a lot of this advice is geared towards “it’s better if you don’t do anything that might introduce doubt or discomfort into your work.” Like ‘don’t write about bigotry or discrimination,’ ‘don’t have serious conflict between characters,’ ‘emphasise wholesomeness.’
It’s quasi-Victorian, quasi-Puritan anxieties about fiction corrupting people, except it’s wearing a fandom hat. It’s Mervyn Griffith-Jones sniffing “Would you wish that your wife or your servants read this novel?” except he’s wearing a Steven Universe t-shirt under his prosecutor’s robe.
JFC, this is getting as crazy as Christian publishing or the comics code.
I never want to read a single story that follows these guidelines
Sammy was a nice white boy born on June 26, 1988. This made him thirty years old. He was kind and always happy. Today he was going to his favorite group activity with his no-conflict friends, circle-hugging. He walked down the sidewalk, careful not to wander into the road where the cars were, though of course cars in his nice town would always stop for a pedestrian.
Once he got to the library, he found his friend Jordan hanging out checking out books. Jordan was smart and one could never catch him without a smile. Jordan was also thirty years old and also born on June 26, 1988 and was also nice and white. The two of them hugged and waited for more friends to arrive, careful to hug in a way that did not block any of the aisles of books.
Hunter (just his name, he was not into anything involving guns), Michael, Grant, Bill, Terry, Steve, and Martin arrived. All of them were also born on June 26, 1988, making them thirty-year-old full grown adults. They were all white too, so that none of them could take advantage of each other’s race. They were even all of English (specifically London middle class and having moved to America in 1826) heritage so they couldn’t take advantage of any ethnic squabbles within Europe.
“Oh boy,” said Sammy. He was happy all his friends were here. None of them had any other commitments. “Let’s get hugging!”
The nine of them formed a small circle and put their arms around each other and squeezed firmly but not too firmly, their arms staying up high on each other’s chests. This activity gave all of them a sensible amount of happiness.
Terry peered outside. “Wow, another sunny day.”
“Sure is. Sunshine makes me happy,” said Martin. The circle of huggers rotated so all of them could see a window and the nice sunshine outside.
“I like sunshine,” said Sammy.
“Sunshine is almost as good as being around all my good friends here who I enjoy spending time with,” said Bill. They all nodded at Bill’s insight and gave a little squeeze in their hugs.
“You are so right, Bill,” said Hunter, “being friends with all of you is great.”
The conversation continued in that vein for the next four hours before they all had to go back to their houses where they all lived alone. They all put on sunscreen before they left so that the glorious sun wouldn’t hurt them. It was another great day.
this ‘advice’ condensed:
just. try not to have characters
general techniques to avoid gross shipping of your characters
Published
Gay Hell 