!animalposters

Jesus Christ, lady, I hope your book has paragraphs!

Let's chop this up a bit.

...it's in a fantasy setting, it also has a coming of age aspect to it and takes place over about 6 years, and they age from 12-18. im thinking hard about how to write them right in their early ages, like 12-14, and i feel like i'm doing it wrong. i'm putting more focus on their character and specific personalities but i'm wondering if, as a girl, maybe i'm accidentally making them too “girly” and “soft.”

i like to make them enjoy the simple things in life, like exploring and enjoying nature, and they also like to talk about their feelings and their hurts. but is that a thing boys do? im trying to make them realistic but sometimes i forget that i was never a boy and i'll never know what it is like to be a boy. and to top it all off, it's a gay romance (it takes awhile though, so they're just friends in the beginning). it just happened to be that way, i wanted a romance that wasn't straight and i felt my story didn't fit two girls (again, there's a difference but idk what it is!)

... i just want these characters to feel real and not how i “think” they're supposed to be. i can't decide if gender is just a construct and it doesn't matter if they're a boy or a girl, or if their outlook on life IS different and they should be written differently. both? what mistakes should i avoid in writing male leads when i'm not a male?

"Have you tried adding reason and accountability?"

Nah, it's a good question. Writing any type of romance you haven't been in is obviously challenging. Writing the opposite s*x requires observation skills, reading and engaging with their work (a bitter pill for moids), and a healthy imagination. You also have to be able to set aside your preconceptions about how people should work, and your desire to fix them. For example, in this case it's not just that men usually don't talk about our feelings, or that we feel uncomfortable doing so. Often, we don't want to. How do these sorts of things affect a developing gay relationship?

But as usual, /r/writing offers reassurance instead of seriously engaging with an OP who wants real answers. Many also get bogged down making very important points about gender.

It being a fantasy setting changes the answer. Boys/girls/men/women tend to be different but a lot of that is a result of the cultural environment in which they were raised. The jury is still out in exactly what elements are genetic vs environmental. But that largely doesn't matter because environment shapes how behavioural genetics do or do not manifest anyway.

Since this is your setting, gender roles and attitudes can realistically be whatever you want. If you even wanted to aim for realism in the first place. If you want boys to be soft in your setting then they are.

It's MY SETTING, and I get to pick the gender roles!!

If you were writing about two average adolescent boys growing up in Anywhere, USA, I'd say it's pretty unlikely they'd talk deeply about their feelings. Many of us aren't even taught to be aware of our feelings. There are exceptions, of course. But typically, they'd probably mull things over in the privacy of their own heads while doing some other shared activity, like dropping bigger and bigger rocks into a lake, throwing dirt clods at a hornet's nest, or building the coolest tree fort ever.

But this is learned behavior, and gender totally is a social construct. You get to decide what being "male" means in your fantasy world, and whether or not you want to make it analogous to modern western, Judeo-Christian culture.

Actual good advice to tell a story about boys erased in real time by genderslop.

Depends on what your fictional society expects of them and if your fictional society has gender roles they are expected to conform to.

In my fictional society, sexy women with big tits are expected to throw themselves at members of !bookworms and !writecel

Of course you can write a world with different social "rules." But the farther it diverges, the less it has to say about real people in our own world, and the more it has to say about the author's own desires and hangups. Might as well say some coomer's monster girl erotica is commentary about female gender roles.

Given your inspiration, I recommend you research homosexuality and pedecrasty in Sparta and Thebes. I'd also suggest looking at Afghan's Bacha Posh to explore the notion of gender vs construct.

This isn't actually out of nowhere because the full OP mentioned "The Song of Achilles," but lmao

... When writing either gender, it's easy to make characters unbelievably confident or strong in their emotions, knowledge, or physical abilities. Making a teen male emotionally literate stops you having a weakness to their character that would otherwise ring true.

Differentiate your characters from each other. Give them flaws. Let their differences and flaws produce tension. Two guys who are just soft and sensitive and slowly start touching peepees isn't a story. Even a hack writer would make one of them the emotional one and the other the moody, silent one or whatever.

A couple more people actually gave decent advice, like here, but of course low effort "You're perfect just the way you are!" advice is upvoted while interesting stuff is near the bottom.

As a straight man, I'll never understand this trend. If the men in your gay romance act like women, why make them men at all? Reading gay erotica should be a form of escapism where you can imagine loving relationships without having to deal with women. At least, that's why I read it.

⚡️BREAKING

Fars News reports that contact with the helicopter transporting the Iranian president has been lost. pic.twitter.com/3r1HLs9Huj

— Iran Observer (@IranObserver0) May 19, 2024

She's still trying to recover from a bad breakup so I'm trying to be patient with her. She definitely has autism but clearly it's not the cool high-speed/low-drag type like I have.

Above was first thread about the drama

Below is the second, bigger and older.

I will add separate comments soon :)

https://old.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/1cuedus/rasianamerican_is_outraged_at_yasuke_being_the/?sort=controversial

''all of these threads in asianamerican were astroturfed by white people...right?"

https://old.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/1cuedus/rasianamerican_is_outraged_at_yasuke_being_the/l4i988s/?context=8&sort=controversial

'im afraid that our safe space ThR SRD will be taken over by chuds, this very thread seems astroturfed'

https://old.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/1cuedus/rasianamerican_is_outraged_at_yasuke_being_the/l4iajm9/?context=8&sort=controversial

'But ghost of Tsushima exists'

https://old.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/1cuedus/rasianamerican_is_outraged_at_yasuke_being_the/l4i522f/?context=8&sort=controversial

'Asian subreddits on reddit are so shit, I fear to acknowledge that I as asian have a reddit account'

https://old.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/1cuedus/rasianamerican_is_outraged_at_yasuke_being_the/l4im1al/?context=8&sort=controversial

'Hollywood has an issue with portraying Asian male character, however this isn't a case of that..because Yasuke is very important folk hero'

https://old.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/1cuedus/rasianamerican_is_outraged_at_yasuke_being_the/l4i7r8c/?context=8&sort=controversial

' why the frick did Ubisoft make an actual historical figure a main character'

https://old.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/1cuedus/rasianamerican_is_outraged_at_yasuke_being_the/l4ia3ji/?context=8&sort=controversial

'I'm an Asian American I'm and I have an issue with this game'

'shut up, it's up to Asian males to speak up and out. To White Hollywood. Just like you guys are making a stink of this. Give the same energy to Hollywood. Let them know you need representation that's positive.

Just like Black Americans.'

https://old.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/1cuedus/rasianamerican_is_outraged_at_yasuke_being_the/l4ignf0/?context=8&sort=controversial

'true japanese don't care'

'Oh so theyre japanese when they agree with you and secretly white when they dont

Funny how that works'

https://old.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/1cuedus/rasianamerican_is_outraged_at_yasuke_being_the/l4ilqh4/?context=8&sort=controversial

Askhistorians link about Yasuke

Totally fine yet this was written after all the evidence given

'If you've read this and all my other posts and links on Yasuke and still don't believe Yasuke was a samurai, then you either a) prefer to believe your own bias over historical research or b) should post an academic level publication from a PhD level researcher arguing Yasuke wasn't a samurai so I could read it.'

https://old.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/1cusf84/im_mad_at_what_we_lost_for_the_sake_of_diversity/l4l8xua/?context=8&sort=controversial

'My assumption is that people whose culture is being put on display want the avatar experiencing their culture to be a direct representation of the average member of that culture rather than a liminal figure.'

'your assumption is wrong because japanese people don't give a shit about AC'

https://old.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/1cusf84/im_mad_at_what_we_lost_for_the_sake_of_diversity/l4la2qq/?context=8&sort=controversial

'even if asian men care, they should shut up, women are misrepresented more, black and asian' ( a known twox and srd poster Felinomancy)'

https://old.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/1cusf84/im_mad_at_what_we_lost_for_the_sake_of_diversity/l4lqmvo/?context=8&sort=controversial

CHERRY ON TOP OF THE POST

LONGEST DOWN VOTED COMMENT CHAIN

'Both sides only care about this dude, because his black, he was not that significant in Japanese history at all.

PLUS - OP, the anti chud warrior makes a comment AGAINST HOTEPS AND GETS DOWN VOTED. Only in SRD

https://old.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/1cusf84/im_mad_at_what_we_lost_for_the_sake_of_diversity/l4ksxax/?context=8&sort=controversial

To my fellow Android custom ROM enthusiasts, I highly advise you uninstall and stop supporting @projectelixiros.

It doesn't matter if this is retaliation for poking around, this is immoral and incredibly irresponsible. One bit flip could ruin your biggest sponsors. pic.twitter.com/OqATqymt9h

— JoshuaDoes for President 2024 (@TheNotesOfJosh) May 18, 2024

https://boards.4chan.org/g/thread/100546675

Finished Takagi-san, I liked it a lot and it got a proper ending. Its a very chill show, the setting in the small town is also kinda relaxing, and it doesnt have any drama for the sake of drama. Also the side characters are good. I think there is a spinoff manga where they are adults, Id watch that too if they ever adapted it.

After that I didnt really know what to watch, I started rewatching 'The World God Only Knows' which I watched properly a few years back, but it didnt really fit the mood, I also started 'My Clueless First Friend', but I dont think Ill keep watching, seems a bit too childish.

Then I started 'Kubo-san wa Mob wo Yurusanai', I only watched the first episode and am not sure if Ill keep watching. The concept of the show is that the male lead is a 'background character' in life and mostly invisible to his peers, which doesnt sound too bad, but for some reason the show takes this literally at times, like the dude is literally invisible to people standing in front of him. I dont know if I can bear to watch the whole show if they keep that dumb shit up.

I honestly dont get why the japs are so in love with stupid gimmick shows in the last few years, it feels like every second romance/romcom show has a character with a stupid gimmick, and the gimmick is always tired out after three episodes but they keep going with it for the whole show.

Anyway, after that I decided to give 'Kaguya-sama: Love Is War' another try after not liking it back when the first season came out. I was surprised that I liked it. I dont even remember what exactly put me off the first time I tried it, but I think it was mostly the narrator dude being annoying. And he still is annoying, but not that bad. The show is pretty good, though it also has the aforementioned gimmick problem, albeit to a much lesser degree. It is also enhanced by its side characters, and has a satisfying ending, even though I think the movie was a bit overdramatic out of nowhere. I have seen people online talk about a potential fourth season, but I think it is fine how it ended. Maybe another season where it focuses more on current side characters (eg Ishigami) would be nice, where it would sideline Shinomiya and Shirogane a bit, but if nothing else comes it would be fine too.

Unfortunately, now that Ive finished kaguya, I have again reached a point where I dont really know what to watch

!anime

@Aevann pin pls

Activision DEI Leaked! Plus:

- Your bonus and review depend on how hard you DEI.

- DEI Officers are installed on every dev team to ensure THE MESSAGE.

Of all the AAA Studios out there, my dev friends and contacts who have come forth tell me that @Ubisoft and @Activision are… pic.twitter.com/TDZqRn6v0o

— Grummz (@Grummz) May 16, 2024

So many slides to say nothing lol. Except they measure every employees sense of belonging with an "inclusion score"? That's some meaningless foid shit.

1. Eminem

2. J Cole

3. Logic

4. Hopsin

5. Mac Miller

6. Lil Peepeey

7. Token

8. Macklemore

9. Wali Da Great

10. KSI

5300 comments of seethe over the fact that none of these r-slurs know what a bird hotdog is.

This post has it all.

Seething burgers:

seething aussies:

Most Based Comments

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Ya'll racist as frick. (-48)

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So the joke is just racism? (-52)

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[removed] (55)

I don't know why you guys think that the premise described is outlandish. That's literally just Yasuke.Edit to add: Oh you sweet summer children. I thought we all liked facts and logic?Yasuke was a real dude. Did some cool stuff. I don't know why your first impulse is to downvote a neat historical figure. (-44)

Angriest Comments

Angriness: 😡😡😡😡😡

The assassin is a master of disguise! That hangs around the only black man in all of Japan. Whooooooo could this assassin be, I wonder. Sorry, shitty plot is shitty plot. No culture war here. (2)

Darn ! what a brilliant comeback !but id like it the other way around :The assassin is a master of disguise! that hangs around the only WHITE man in all of japan !WHOOOOOOO could this assassin be, I wonder.(its not like the assassin cant stop hanging with him 24/24h or that the enemy cant instantly know who the "anonymous master of disguise" is hanging with even without an intel or that they work separately or the reality that the assassin could blend anyway or find a disguise for his buddy so it wouldn't even matter but what am i even talking about i didnt even read anything about the game in the first place and im coming from a Twitter post made by a man-child screaming WIST HAS FALLIN ! )"B... bu...but noooooo ! its game logic and game writing you stooooopid uncultured shmuk who would care for sush a minor detail ! its all because WYT MAN BAD you filthy **** you are destroying western entertainment!"Yep , probably what we will be hearing from the "other side" , just the same argu... (1)

Angriness: 😡😡😡😡😡

Pandering to whom?And you'd have to explain the hypocrisy of including a notable historical figure who was really there. (1)

Pandering to the "woke" crowd and "minorities."And the hypocrisy lies not in including a guy that was there, but in the fact any and every time there's been a white character being portrayed where you wouldn't expect them, the same people who get up in arms are the ones that act like anyone who criticizes the same thing with a non white character is a racist and stupid etc.You used the mermaid as an example, let's go with that. First off, just write a new character into the same universe and boom, you take away any argument people have against it. It's not Ariel, it's her sister or some shit. But they changed an established character, people didn't like it, they're condemned as racists and ignorant and "it's a fictional mermaid why do you care."But I can promise you, do the same thing in reverse, let's say making Blade white, and those same exact people saying it doesn't matter you racist etc would be crying whitewash from the mountaintop. (2)

Angriness: 😡😡😡😡😡

yea just like you fricking weirdos complained about how you couldnt blend in ac valhalla because youre a fricking viking oh waitnone of you complained about it then. I wonder what the difference is this time? (3)

Same people that you wouldn't hear a word when nioh 1 came out. I hate this type of racism because it's concealed and it shows up in nasty ways I'd rather have someone just bluntly be racist than go and pull 13 random excuses outta they asses just so they can hate on a black man being the main chracter (3)

Biggest Lolcow: /u/tactical_anal_RPG

Score: 🐮🐮🐮🐮🔘

Number of comments: 11

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NEW: Subscribe to /h/miners to see untapped drama veins, ripe for mining!

autodrama: automating away the jobs of dramautists. Ping HeyMoon if there are any problems or you have a suggestion

>how reddit imagine 1/6 was

Recommend sorting by controversial.

Highlights:

>if you don't want to get killed by a cop, you should just comply

>the protests were mostly peaceful

>why don't people know the true destruction of 1/6

good game

Great seethe here

The entitlement of clowns who think they get to control what someone else does on a flight because they think they're special is insane. Life's not fair, you don't get more space for being tall or fat, go frick yourself if gonna be my response if you act like a b-word about me reclining my seat.

Have fun having my knees in your back. If youre sitting in front of a tall person you dont lean back. You change how you act based on your copmany. Do you also put your feet on bus seats? Youre a c*nt

Some amazing gigaseethe from tallcel lanklets.

If you politely ask me to go up straight I probably will. If you pitch a fit like a petulant child when I've done nothing wrong we will both be uncomfortable for quite some time. You aren't more important than anyone else on the flight.

I shouldnt have to ask. What youve done is intrude on my space that I paid for. What youve done is essentially walk onto an airplane smelling like shit.

Accusing people of being indian is a little excessive

no, you paid for a seat behind another one that reclines, just like yours does. broke b-word mindset honestly

No, I paid for the space in front of my seat. You sound like a c*nt. If you cant sit up straight you clearly dont have the brain to fly.