Hello, everyone! Welcome to May! How does it feel?
I am excited to share that I was able to complete my goal for Camp NaNoWriMo; admittedly, I did end up changing it from 50,000 words to 45,000. But I am so proud of myself for having completed it! I was able to reach part 2 and chapter 10 of my young adult historical fiction story, about a girl experiencing bullying and a coming-of-age during the American Civil War.
Now it’s May, and what will I do next, you may ask? I took a few days break this week from the story, but now I’ve decided to dive back in. At first I was feeling quite tired and wanting to work on other stories, but then I read an interesting post on Reddit with a great quote on writing with discipline, not just waiting for motivation. So this inspired me to say – No! The story must go on! I’ve got to keep my momentum going. So that’s what I’ll be continuing work on in May.
Meanwhile, an interesting question and topic came into my mind:
When we hear of authors who may be doing something in their personal lives that we find immoral or in various ways distasteful, do we keep reading their books?
Reading controversial authors
Some people might read my question and say, duh! Obviously we stop reading them! For example, many have seen J.K. Rowling’s tweets and found them unforgivable. They refuse to read or support any of her writings or work anymore. Others say, I don’t care what she said, I love her work (we all know her for Harry Potter, let’s admit it).
But! There is a third category, and that’s the one I’m in. I don’t think J.K. Rowling’s tweets are OK, AND Harry Potter will always have a place in my heart. I was 11 years old when Harry was 11, and 12 when he was 12, and I may have even been 13 when he was 13, but I can’t remember. My point being, her books really caught me at a very impressionable age. They encouraged me on a lot of moral topics, like accepting those who may be different (Lupin the werewolf), and a lot of other great lessons in life about friendship, the power of love, and having a mentor – while remembering that mentors are real people who make mistakes, too.
So what do you do if you’re in category 1 or 2, and 1) Can’t stand to read anything else the author wrote/made, or 2) Don’t care about who the authors are or what they do, and just read their books?
I think if you’re in one of those two categories, your path forward is pretty clear cut. If you’re cutting an author out of your reading life because of something they did or said, try to find authors whose works you can support, and whose stories hopefully inspire you just as much as your ex-loved-author did.
If you’re in category 2, well, as they saying goes – ignorance is bliss! Just keep reading, and keep your head out of the news and your keyboard fingers off of Twitter. You’ll be alright.
Tackling controversy as a writer
There are a lot of topics in this day and age that are controversial. One person’s trash is another’s treasure; one person’s moral ground is another person’s bottom-of-the-barrel. Look at how domestic terrorists stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, and yet people are still arguing about what happened and why. In such a divisive world, how do we make sure we are writing about controversial topics in a sensitive manner? While also avoiding tropes and condescending pandering?
I saw some really interesting posts on Reddit recently, by two different users, but they both connect to this topic and felt connected, to me. One of them said – I’m paraphrasing here – “Please understand that racism is not just a couple comments by one character, and then pages later they see the wrong of their ways and are forgiven. Racism permeates our lives, and it effects everything from our jobs, to where we live, where we eat, what shoes we wear, etc. Please when you are writing, consider all these details, it will make your writing more relatable for those who experience racism, and improve your worldbuilding.”
The second Reddit post which I felt was connected and similar, said (and again I’m paraphrasing), “I am disabled and technically blind but I can see colors and flashes of light. Please know that not all blindness is the same; we don’t all go around with a white fancy staff like you see in many fantasy books; sunglasses; a cane. There are many types of disability and many nuances within each one – blindness, chronic illness, chronic pain etc. PLEASE do your research and write nuances in your disabled characters!”
The second thing they said, which I found very relevant as a fantasy writer, was to the effect of: “PLEASE stop healing your disabled characters! They keep getting healed by the hero etc., and meanwhile us disabled readers are never able to find characters that we can relate to.” And they noted how every time they would feel happy that there was a disabled character in a book, eventually that character would be healed. They found it disappointing, and they would have liked to see a character struggle with their disability, NOT be healed, and still triumph at the story’s end!
Research, research, research
I think it all comes down to research. Whatever you’re writing, even if it’s fantasy and you get to make up a lot, do your research. Go to museums and read books on history, if that’s what you’re writing. Maybe find someone’s grandma who can share about the Cold War, or whatever. If you’re writing a fantasy culture and want to base it off of say India, go to India and observe the culture if you can afford to, or watch videos of India, talk to people from the part of India you’re inspired by and learn about their culture, etc.
It might be the tiniest thing that no one knows about, like a little colorful powder decoration on the floor to greet an esteemed guest (India), rather than the thing everyone knows about (curry, rice, dancing in colorful clothes) that really makes your writing feel ALIVE. It is these details that those in the culture etc. can relate to. Even for those who can’t relate though, it makes your writing more alive. The living-ness is actually hidden within the details, I think. If we see a trope we’ve see ten million times in a story, we’ll just yawn and find it way less interesting (green aliens, for example), than a story that has a lots of realistic and researched details (how it feels to wear an astronaut suit).
My example, by the way, is from the Lady Astronaut trilogy by Mary Robinette Kowal. Her trilogy is about a woman scientist whose life is permanently changed when a gigantic asteroid hits the Atlantic Ocean, obliterating Washing D.C. and much of the East Coast. The trilogy documents her journey towards becoming one of the first female astronauts in the 60s; an alternate history. In order to write this book, Kowal had to do loads of research, and made a lot of friends with real astronauts and people at NASA. As a result, her trilogy is excellent and all of her scientific stuff reads so realistically. You can really get immersed in the world! I’m about to read the third book in the trilogy soon!
I know zero about astronauts and space travel, but even so, all the details in Kowal’s astronaut trilogy made it so enjoyable for me. And I’m not usually a scifi reader! Readers can tell when a lot of research has gone into a story, and when it hasn’t.
Too often I think it’s easy as a writer, especially if you write fantasy where you get to invent much of the world etc., to not research. But research is so, so vital! I always see an Acknowledgements section in fiction books, and in my experience some of the best books have some of the longest Acknowledgements page(s). So don’t just invent this or that character or culture and not do much or any research! Your story will feel fuller and more alive, and resonate with readers more, if you research. Not only that, you will be able to write about controversial topics in a sensitive – but not pandering or trope-y – manner.
Let me know what you all think in the comments!
Until next time,
Chaitanya
Typing Madly 