Gay fanfiction problem

Gay fanfiction is one life’s simple joys — but it does pose one major problem for writers. The problem is so big, in fact, that it garnered attention from actual linguists, including social media’s resident linguistic expert human If people are more than happy to write yaoi or male on male fics for people who aren't gay in cannon then I don't see the problem with writing a character straight in a story.

The Gay FanFiction Problem refers to the issue of ambiguity when more than one person is referred to by the same pronoun. Put simply, if you’re writing about two female characters, you might confuse your reader about who you’re talking about if you only use the pronoun she with no other context.

There’s the Gay Fanfiction Problem, and then there’s the Poly Fanfiction Problem, and those are two separate problems. Lauren: Yep, but when they collide it’s very complicated. The problem, though, is not that gay fanfiction exists, but how it represents and therefore affects real LGBTQ+ people in the world.) Some fanfiction is gay, some of it isn’t.

Here on Writer In A Hat , I love talking about my journey to becoming an author and about the technical parts of writing. A lot of us aspiring authors want to be great storytellers, so we seek out writing advice about character development, plot structure, themes, and motifs. Less of us are interested in when to use a comma or what a semi-colon is really for.

The Gay FanFiction Problem refers to the issue of ambiguity when more than one person is referred to by the same pronoun. The video I watched was posted by human and has a brief but interesting segment about pronouns in other languages, including pronouns that indicate social status. You can watch it below or by clicking this link. I really want to touch on one of the examples this YouTuber gives because there is a lot more to consider than pronouns.

Generally, to avoid an ambiguous pronoun, the pronoun should refer to a single, nearby antecedent. But here, we have two names preceeding the pronoun. Two antecendents.

gay fanfiction problem wikipedia

The question is: Who is smiling? Is Jack smiling or is John smiling? While the ambiguity might appear to be because of the pronoun, this is not entirely the case. Another issue is that the sentence has a comma. The comma separates the statements, which are called clauses, and this separation influences how each clause is interpreted.

Therefore the pronoun should be referring to John, because he is the nearest antecendent. This is because Jack is the subject of the first clause, and the subject preceeds the pronoun, which would suggest that the pronoun is referring to the subject — Jack. In other words, if read aloud and ignoring the comma, the sentence has a different meaning to what it does as written.

This is actually very easy. To make the pronoun refer to Jack , simply remove the comma. This is why punctuation matters. To make the sentence clearer and more concise, remove the pronoun entirely, thus getting rid of the ambiguity once and for all:. If you want John to be smiling, the easiest way is to write this as two sentences:. Or phrase the sentence differently to make it clearer. Again, make sure the pronoun is closest to the person it is referring to.

You can also use point of view. What emotion are you trying to convey? Adjust the phrasing to tell us. In order for your words to be understood, you have to write in a way that is clear to understand. It is not an issue with the English language or with gendered pronouns. It is an issue of expression.

While this can be frustrating, learning to fix errors like this will make you a great writer. Avoiding this takes practice and study and honing your craft.