I don't know how to email-post a poll

[alexseanchai]

So answer in comments please:

(1) How worried should I be about making sure every instance of Rae-PoV narration pronouns referring to Rae are ze/zir instead of she/her, given that ze's female-agender genderfluid? I keep writing zir as she/her. It's a pain.

(2) When talking about Rae before ze found out about genderqueer, should I use she/her pronouns, or (since it's present-day Rae narrating still) stick with ze/zir?

Comments

[myaibou]

I don't know how well that would work, either, from Rae's POV. "They" tends to be the gender neutral we use for generalizations rather than specific individuals, since most specific individuals have a gender pronoun that would be appropriate for them, and it seems even more awkward for someone referring to themselves.

You could always switch to first person. Then it would be "I/me" from Rae's POV and whatever pronoun other people would use when you're in their POV (a stubborn conservative father could insist on she well a friend from the queer community could use ze and it would come off more as a personality quirk for the uninitiated.)

If you're first-person adverse, not really sure. I think you just need to go with your gut. If you're in the character's head, they (see, generic they ) will speak for themselves. Go with that.

[alexseanchai]

kaberett's singular pronoun is 'they'. So I know for a fact it's a thing, if not necessarily a common thing. But then genderqueerness itself is an uncommon thing.

The thing about first person is I plan to do multiple PoVs. So if one person's PoV is in first person, either they all have to be, which opens me up to fun with distinguishing Rae scenes from Becca scenes from whoever else scenes, or I have to awkwardly switch from first to third and back, which--I can't put my finger on why I'm cringing but I'm cringing.

[alexseanchai]

Did you reply-by-email that? Because if so, I need to poke somebody about a bug in reply-by-email; the text of the comment replied to isn't supposed to show in the comment reply.

[myaibou]

Sorry about that. Hit reply on the e-mail by mistake and then I don't know what it did. Re-replied in the website with what I intended to write.

[myaibou]

Well, you know more than I do about gender queer issues, so if it's something people use and it feels right, go for it.

It is totally possible to do first person for multiple POV characters. You can give each section a subtitle to name whose POV you're in. It works if the story is very much about what's happening internally with the characters. I used it for His & Hers, switching back and forth between Danny and Sam and it worked for that story.

That said, a lot of people are first person adverse. It calls attention to itself and might not be right for your story.

[alexseanchai]

*nods*

Yeah, I know it's possible, I just haven't done it and am not sure I trust my writing skills to do it well, you know?

[myaibou]

Go with your gut. If it feels wrong, it probably is for your story.

[alexseanchai]

nods Thanks