Of course we're being forced to pigeonhole ourselves unwillingly. It's no different than the yellow star of David, pink triangle, or other identifiers so favored by the National Socialist camp system (the identity-centric left seems obtusely blind to the parallels). And if you try to represent diversity in your work, you're accused of ap…
Of course we're being forced to pigeonhole ourselves unwillingly. It's no different than the yellow star of David, pink triangle, or other identifiers so favored by the National Socialist camp system (the identity-centric left seems obtusely blind to the parallels). And if you try to represent diversity in your work, you're accused of appropriating something or another or not being able to accurately represent a particular character's point of view based on identify (of course no one says women shouldn't write from a male PoV, or that a writer of color shouldn't write from a white character's PoV).
I made the mistake of participating in NaNoWriMo a couple of years back, and most of the thing was a pathetic exercise in identity politics. No one seemed to care to talk about writing...it was all about the struggle of being a non-binary neurodiverse Furry or whatever label a person cared to adopt for themselves. And if you didn't play the game, you could expect to be ignored, marginalized, or even harassed.
I've commented before that it's sad to me that the arts (which flourished in a permissive society) have become such staunch censors and guardians of what they happen to believe is "right" on any particular day. And adding to the irony...who else remembers the many attempts by left-leaning organizations to ban Huck Finn?
It sucks to see writing focused communities all about censorship when writing should be about having the bravery to present challenging ideas. The diversity conundrum is a mess too - You have to represent those POVs, yet you can’t write those POVs, and it basically creates a trap where writers feel they may as well give up…
NaNo has also disappointed me over the years. They stopped legitimately treating it like a challenge and replaced their attitude with a bunch of “We’re all winners in our own way!” nonsense, which sucks as NaNo is one of the best ways someone can improve as a writer if taken seriously. And I definitely noticed the emails get all diversity-oriented, which also definitely happened at the cost of no longer receiving much practical writing advice. I love the exercise but never use the site anymore.
I try to find writing forums now that still agree to do the challenge together but actually have a writer-friendly culture. It’s hard, since they all wind up sliding off the rails in the end, but I pray that some of the forums I’m in now will have the courage to stay viewpoint neutral or at least accept not everyone shares the same philosophy.
Yeah...it's really tough. I actually did the challenge on my own (by accident really) when I was working on a project and then decided the following year to try the "official" version. BIG mistake I'm still paying for in some ways. Their closed message boards were echo-chambers of nastiness. God forbid you wrote anything other than queer speculative fantasy or the like...
The sad thing is I've found better writing communities once I left the realm of the "declared" writing forums. People who enjoy a particular TV show or fiction genre are often quite good at giving feedback, and they're nowhere near as locked into the dogma that's currently possessing parts of the fiction community. It's also fun to help them learn to get some of their own stories down...so many of the writing forums are also excessively hostile to newcomers or new writers.
Of course we're being forced to pigeonhole ourselves unwillingly. It's no different than the yellow star of David, pink triangle, or other identifiers so favored by the National Socialist camp system (the identity-centric left seems obtusely blind to the parallels). And if you try to represent diversity in your work, you're accused of appropriating something or another or not being able to accurately represent a particular character's point of view based on identify (of course no one says women shouldn't write from a male PoV, or that a writer of color shouldn't write from a white character's PoV).
I made the mistake of participating in NaNoWriMo a couple of years back, and most of the thing was a pathetic exercise in identity politics. No one seemed to care to talk about writing...it was all about the struggle of being a non-binary neurodiverse Furry or whatever label a person cared to adopt for themselves. And if you didn't play the game, you could expect to be ignored, marginalized, or even harassed.
I've commented before that it's sad to me that the arts (which flourished in a permissive society) have become such staunch censors and guardians of what they happen to believe is "right" on any particular day. And adding to the irony...who else remembers the many attempts by left-leaning organizations to ban Huck Finn?
Dang, that’s awful!
It sucks to see writing focused communities all about censorship when writing should be about having the bravery to present challenging ideas. The diversity conundrum is a mess too - You have to represent those POVs, yet you can’t write those POVs, and it basically creates a trap where writers feel they may as well give up…
NaNo has also disappointed me over the years. They stopped legitimately treating it like a challenge and replaced their attitude with a bunch of “We’re all winners in our own way!” nonsense, which sucks as NaNo is one of the best ways someone can improve as a writer if taken seriously. And I definitely noticed the emails get all diversity-oriented, which also definitely happened at the cost of no longer receiving much practical writing advice. I love the exercise but never use the site anymore.
I try to find writing forums now that still agree to do the challenge together but actually have a writer-friendly culture. It’s hard, since they all wind up sliding off the rails in the end, but I pray that some of the forums I’m in now will have the courage to stay viewpoint neutral or at least accept not everyone shares the same philosophy.
Yeah...it's really tough. I actually did the challenge on my own (by accident really) when I was working on a project and then decided the following year to try the "official" version. BIG mistake I'm still paying for in some ways. Their closed message boards were echo-chambers of nastiness. God forbid you wrote anything other than queer speculative fantasy or the like...
The sad thing is I've found better writing communities once I left the realm of the "declared" writing forums. People who enjoy a particular TV show or fiction genre are often quite good at giving feedback, and they're nowhere near as locked into the dogma that's currently possessing parts of the fiction community. It's also fun to help them learn to get some of their own stories down...so many of the writing forums are also excessively hostile to newcomers or new writers.