Views expressed therein are not necessarily those of the author…

[jl_merrow]

I write deep third/first person POV pretty much all the time.  So even the describey bits of my stories are from a character’s POV – not mine.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I can’t describe anything until I know who’s looking at it.  To take a simple example, where I might see a medium-size blue car with a baby-on-board sticker in the back window, my male character might see a three-year-old Citroen with some damage to the rear bumper. 

But what if I’m writing from the POV of a racist character? Or a homophobic one?

Should I still describe the setting, the other characters from that person’s POV, prejudices and all? 

Isn’t there a danger those prejudiced views will be ascribed to me, the author?

And in case you’re in any doubt, the answer to that is, Yes.  It’s happened.

So what do I do about it?

Comments

[ali-wilde.livejournal.com]

I made a character of mine say, "Ribbons are so gay." and the proofer suggested that we change it because it might be offensive. Our response was literally WTF!!!

The character saying it is gay, it is a gay romance. Um... I even asked a friend and he didn't see a problem. It stayed in the story.

But I totally understand where you're coming from. And I guess it could mean that it makes you a good writer, if you're able to express those views and have people believe them, even though they are not your views.

What to do about it? Other than a disclaimer, which really, you shouldn't have to do, ignore it.

I was in a fandom role playing game once and because my female character was chatting up the male hero of the piece who was already earmarked to be with the other lead male character -even though the people playing these characters swear they weren't (but they were always paired together in fandom slash) - I actually received death threats. Not my character, ME! Some fandomers are seriously insane.

[jl_merrow]

Okay, THAT is scary! That's the trouble with the internet - there's no sanity filter! ;)

Thanks for your input. :)