alexseanchai | (no subject)

Camp NaNo overall goal: 10K. Daily goal: 334. Words accomplished Apr 1 (bc I have not bed yet therefore it is still Apr 1): 206. Total words accomplished: 206.

(I'm not bothering to use the official word tracker.)

POLL: writing about a trans girl, from the point of view of someone who only knows her as an assumed-cis boy. (a misperception to be corrected in a speedy fashion, bc I want to flashy neon signs SHE'S TRANS, but meanwhile.)

what's the most sensible from a reader's perspective here? identify the girl by full first deadname (for example, "Michael") or by first deadinitial and an em-dash or two (like "M—" or "M——")?

bc I bet the em-dashes would confuse readers, and thus it makes sense to use the deadname, but it also makes sense (from a "respecting gender identity preempts many other considerations" pov) to just decline to present the deadname altogether.

and, like, I could switch from the one cis girl's pov to the trans girl's pov, and that solves that, bc I could dodge the issue of the trans girl's deadname and pronouns until after all four pov characters knew her real name and actual pronouns? but that wouldn't dodge the pronouns issue for the genderqueer individual, and the deadname issue would probably rise again anyway...

I am probably too sleeps for this. Fuck it.

ETA: after consultation with a writer friend who is a trans woman, I'm going the "Michael" route. Though I may, when actually in this character's PoV, go "M——" anyway, to illustrate how she reacts to being deadnamed.

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You could go for a gender neutral name - Robin, Mika etc - if you want to retain some initial confusion as to gender.

I could, but I don't want to.

Which is a perfectly reasonable answer!

It's just. If I wanted the genderqueer character to choose emself a gender-neutral name, I could totally do that? (I might, too. Not yet, though.) But this character, I want it in flashy yard-high neon that she's trans. It's just, how do I negotiate that, given that she is the only one of the four PoV characters who knows this at the outset?

...or, hey. They're sixteen at the outset, in 2016. They probably all have Tumblr accounts or something, and the trans girl and the genderqueer individual might well have met online. But neither would have enough information to connect the other one's out-trans online persona with "that quiet kid in my math class" (which describes both of them from the other's pov, tbh) at the outset, so.

I think it might actually be interesting to have the POV of the cis girl refer to the trans girl by her deadname and wrong pronouns as long as she doesn't know, and to have her switch when she finds out/is told (and have her deal having to switch).
Unless the POC are reflecting on past events, in which case, correct pronouns and names all the way, with maybe a mention the first time that "at the time, I have no idea she was trans, assigned male at birth" or something.

Yes, but that doesn't answer the question I asked. I'm going to have the PoV character refer to the trans girl with he/him pronouns and either first deadname or first-deadinitial-and-an-em-dash-or-two until the PoV character learns better (and a bit beyond that, tbh, bc PoV char has some transphobia to deal with). The question is, formatting like "Michael" is probably less confusing to the readers than formatting like "M——", but "M——" is probably more respectful to the character and to trans readers than "Michael"; which do I prioritize?

Oh, right, I hadn't understood the question.

I think, since the fact that she's trans doesn't seem to be a plot point, that going with the first-deadinitial version would probably be better, with maybe a note in the beginning explaining that you made that choice to avoid referring to her by a full deadname because that would be disrespectful.

In terms of formatting, I actually prefer "M-" over "M——" or "M--" because I find it easier to parse.

It's not a plot point per se, or at least at this point I don't think it is. But I do want it in flashing neon, you know?

*nod* Thanks!

Hmm, that is tricky! I only have one thought that may potentially be helpful: how deep is the POV? The deeper the POV (no reflection, no authorial intrusion, etc.), the more I think you have to actually go with the name that the POV character is aware of.

But that's a cis author's perspective, and I don't have the experience of having the wrong name used for me in a hurtful way, so I don't know how painful this would be to those with that experience.

*nod* Thanks.

I'm not sure I have anything to contribute, but a way I can think of dodging the issue is to make the character a fan of serial stories of the past, the kind that might refer to a Mr. Filby as the narrator, but Mr. Z- and Miss N- out of respect for the privacy of others.