I didn't see a Creative Writing General: So I made one looking for advice...

I didn't see a Creative Writing General: So I made one looking for advice. For once my aim is niche enough I don't feel threatened that someone will steal my ideas. I writing a weird west dime novel style series centered around a brothel in a silver mining town. Each installment will have one of the soiled doves as the main protagonist.

One of said doves is not a prostitute but the brothel's house boy, doing the cleaning and small tasks. Orphaned at 10 she was taken in by the brothel and raised as a boy to avoid any impropriety at having a young girl raised into a life of sin. Now deep into her teens she has maintained her male persona, with the only significant problem being her hormones, gender identity, and proximity to sinful behavior as the norm, making a confusing mess of her head when she starts to crush on her best friend.

When is a good time to reveal to the readers that the character is a girl? I am two chapters in and am starting to get tired of wording her in gender neutral pronouns. I didn't start with it in the open because of the confusion between text as a female and dialog with those not privy to her secret referring to her as male. I know her secret will have to be out by the second act, so I am not even sure if it is worth trying to surprise the reader.


I am trying hard to avoid falling into the trap of making the cross-dressing/lesbian/transgendered part of the character the only interesting part of her personality

I can't offer an answer, but I like the idea and would enjoy seeing a small sample of writing.

>I am trying hard to avoid falling into the trap of making the cross-dressing/lesbian/transgendered part of the character the only interesting part of her personality

You have already ultimately failed at character creation if this is your main concern

Don't post boys like this I'm already depressed enough

I added that in at the end not as a concern but more as an
>inb4
because the last group I asked got hung up on not making the gayness or the gender the focus of the character.

The real question should had been: Do I reveal her gender in the first cutaway scene where she is by herself, or do I let the readers build an attachment for her as a boy?

the earlier you reveal it, the more you can dive into the dysphoria and the pain that could enrich the character

You could refer to them by their name for the most part, although this might be a bit tiring and difficult at places.
The end would be an interesting place to reveal it, but you'd have to continue writing the charade until then.
Establishing characters that fit the positive/negative ideals of being men and women might be a good way for the character to reflect on their personal beliefs, attitudes, and behavior.
It shouldn't really be too hard to avoid making the cross-dressing/homosexuality a total personality. I think a major problem with writers who do that is that they make over-exaggerated, hyperbolic caricature of those characteristics. Simply have them admire their love interest as anybody would, which I doubt is "she's a girl and I'm a girl and I'm a girl who likes a girl women girls women girls scissoring cunnilingus!" Have they simply refer to what style of clothing they like.
In short, don't make them reflect in melodramatic magnitudes about their sexuality and wardrobe.

The very fact you're even thinking about making the gender reveal some big twist automatically shifts the focus to it

Either make it known extremely early or don't have it in at all

Unless, of course, you want to focus on the fact that this secret is being hidden. However, you could always allude to the secret throughout the story without revealing it.

No way. It is a legitimate concern.

A common mistake in writing is to try to substitute rare or exotic identities or other "uncommon" molds for real depth of character and motivation.

This, your readers should more or less know the important bits of the character you'll be focusing on. You should only be vague if your character either isn't sure or doesn't really think about something.

Yeah, it's so easy to come up with a cool idea for a character that sometimes you forget to actually give them actual motivations or relevance.

No it's not, you're just engendering cheap shock by making it some shitty B-plot tier turnaround to make the reader go "oohhh she was a girl the whole time??? crazy! all those scenes make so much more sense now!!!"

Not trying to poke your depression, just used to punctuating my comments with pictures. She is the errand boy for a bunch of whores in an old west boom town, their face in the town and a target for bullies. She grew up fighting and came away with a few manly scars for her trouble. wouldn't fit to throw out pic related instead.

As I said 2 chapters in only referring to her by name or as 'the teen" or whatever other neutral variant fits the context has hit the tiring stage. I've written a short story where the captain of a star ship was completely ambiguously gendered, pushing this piece that far would tank it. and her gender will play a significant role once the ookie-spookie starts happening.

I'm not going for a one liner cop out or a gag. She thinks like a man, she is in love with her best friend and sees her in a position where shitty people spit on her name because of her profession. She wants to earn enough money to "take her away from this place" where they can live happily ever after with each other, and everyone will know how perfect and wonderful her crush is and no one will hold any prejudices at all. All without thinking about the other girl's feelings on the matter, if she likes her job, if she is willing to give it all up, her friends her home.

>She thinks like a man

Then she is not female

19th century dirt farmers aren't going to make that distinction, espically when meen outnunber women 100:1 and their relationship takes 2 out of the pool.

...

Sounds neat OP, good luck. If it doesn't work out you could always add more smut and release it as erotic fiction.

I am "writing" a political intrigue story about my fantasy world I have been cultivating, like most wannabe writers. I don't think it will go anywhere but I am so attached to the names and histories behind the realms that I pretend it will eventually get somewhere.

I'm interested in writing a short novel. I desperately need some form of emotional outlet for my depression. What's the best way to approach it? Do I plan all the characters and chapters out first? Or do I just start writing, making things up as I go along?

Start writing, just one page a day minimum. Your characters and setting will evolve over time so dont pigeonhole them.

"Creative writing" is just the dumb person word for writing

Yeah or it is meant to differentiate the creative process, where you can explore themes and styles without worrying about an audience or any other readers but yourself, and/or unstick the mind from righters block, from publishable material. But you know what they say "Cynicism: The intellectual cripple's substitute for intelligence"

Plus the sticky specifically calls out the board as a place for "creative writing"

>But you know what they say "Cynicism: The intellectual cripple's substitute for intelligence"

Literally nobody has ever said that.

faggot

Creative Writing is just scam where C-list writers who got lucky in the slot machine of market feedback loops recieve tenure to pretend as if their interpretation of their own process had anything do with their minor short term readership while Universities rake in thousands selling false dreams to children.

Its frankly disgusting and limited to literature as an artform, it would be as if music departments started teaching how to be a rockstar courses

My psychiatrist told me I should write a novel today and I remembered that my teachers used to tell me the same thing.
I'm thinking of making a novel with the train conductor of pic related as the MC but I have no idea of what to do, I haven't this many ideas either.
Could I get some help on making a robotcore Veeky Forums approved novel?

Do it like in the Wasp Factory, right at the end, in a fairly nonsensical way, and then just pretend that ties up everything in the plot neatly and drop all the murders and animal mutilations and all that shit. Dude is actually a chick, end of story.

Hey did you guys hear that though? THE WASP FACTORY ENDS WITH THE MC ACTUALLY BEING A GIRL!!!

A few hints for you, gentle user.
1. In English, "he" and "him" have a long history of being gender neutral to this day. Take advantage of it.
2. Occam's Razor. If it doesn't add to the story, it doesn't matter. Develop your character, let 'him' grow as you write. Make sure the reveal has actual weight to the story.
3. This is just a hunch, but try to avoid pushing an agenda too hard. HAVING one and effectively explaining it is fine - having your writing suffer as a result is not. Again, I haven't read your work, so I don't know how much this applies.
4. Look into Elements of Style by Strunk and White. Most of what I'm putting here is something from there.
5 isn't really a hint. You're awesome, and your writing is awesome! Keep practicing, and it will get even better.

Alright I got the story, after being fired from his job he becomes a serial killer.
All I need help with is why is he fired from his job?

Depends on how philosophical you want to get.

You could go into a huge thing: a man is tired of seeing death, and doesn't react when he sees it anymore. BUT THEN he sees the death of someone (stranger, loved one, doesn't matter) and it really affects him! Cue memories of those he's seen die mixed with thoughts on life, the universe, and everything.

Or you could go in the thriller direction, which you seem to be leaning towards. Perhaps he was fired for doing something heartless. Maybe he was an engineer? he wanted to make a human cyborg, and cut out a man's brain for it? Maybe he was a police officer? he valued stopping a crime over an innocent life?

Nah he was the train conductor from I've got the whole story made now just missing a few things.
I want it to be philosophical about the questions "Are some lives not worth living" and "Is it ok for a man to take another man's life if it's for his own good"

you can't get tenure for creative writing lol

Ive always written scifi/fantasy/horror and to try to stretch myself I recently tried a rom-com short story.
All my friends said it was the best thing I'd ever written. Not sure if Ive found a new niche or if my old writing was just that shit.
Or both.

Why not?

I remember reading a bunch of /x/ posts about a crew member on a day train. Not a cummuter train, it just did a 6 hour loop around the mountain, through the countryside, with a halfway stop for a picknic in a private park. As he told it there were so many ODs and hangings and suicides in the park (becausebit was well maintained but isolated, that they had to send a scout engine ahead to make sure they didn't park their coustomers in a crime scene. Your character could snap from seeing horrific and gruesome deaths, watching someone step onto the tracks and become a fine sticky mist all over the windshield.

Literally all you had to do was copy it into google.
>Russell Lynes; Yale graduate, author, art historian.

Dude what do I look like a fucking immortal who has time for that shit