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miscelunaaa · 2 years

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hey em !

i am still new to writing reader insert fics. i like to keep descriptions as neutral as possible. the only thing i describe are the clothes, which are not of a particular shape (because every body shape is beautiful and no one should feel ashamed). can you give me tips on how to write while making sure the readers see them in the fic?

First off, I want to preface everything I’m about to say with this: I’m just one person with a lot of opinions mostly fueled by caffeine and hot air. I’m not an expert, I just care a lot and think about this probably too much. I’m a fat white woman with a lot of feelings, and I’m still learning a lot about how to create inclusive environments. This is a process that will never end, and that’s important to recognize from the start. There’s always more to educate oneself on.

With that in mind, here are my thoughts.

I think the first thing to realize is that not everyone is going to be able to see themselves in any given fic. This could be for any number of reasons, from a character not meshing with their own personality to something like not enjoying the relationship depicted, etc. When we write reader insert characters, I want to caution against creating characters that have no depth of personality. Your OCs or Y/Ns or Readers, whatever you want to call them, should still be characters. They have their own thoughts and emotions, they have a history in the world you create, and you’re rendering that into a second person narrative. With that in mind, there’s an extent to which some characters will just not vibe with an actual reader’s personality or life story. That happens! It just is what it is.

For this same reason, it’s going to be really hard to please everyone when we write any physical description, simply because everyone is different beyond just body size, skin color, etc. For example, I often talk about an OC’s soft textured flesh, but I don’t often talk about an OC having soft skin. This is because I’ve got a medical condition called psoriasis and I don’t have super soft skin a lot of the time because of it. Sometimes when I’m reading a fic, I’ll be put off by a description of smooth or soft skin because, well, that’s not how my own lived experience has been. That’s not the writer’s fault!! I’m not saying that we should stop describing skin at all. I AM saying that there’s an extent to which we will never be able to please anyone when we try to make accommodations.

That said, there are obvious things we should accommodate when we write what we call “Neutral Reader Insert Characters.” The big ones are skin color, hair texture, and body size. Frankly, these are all pretty easy. To start, I just don’t mention hair at all if I can avoid it. Nothing about styles or anything, nothing about color or softness, etc. Just leave it out 🤷🏻‍♀️ it’s not a big deal to do that. When it comes to skin color, I think the most obvious one is talking about what happens to a characters when they’re embarrassed. Making the switch to saying a character’s face heats, rather than flushes red, is a really easy change. It’s small details like that that make a huge difference. Staying away from descriptions of a character being rosy or pale also matter. There are so many other ways to describe heated or high emotions; embracing that can make you more creative, effective, and inclusive with your depictions. It's a worthwhile thing to work on.

Body size is kind of my baby, so it’s the one I’ve got a little more to say about. Remaining vague about outfits, like you’ve mentioned, is a good place to start! Avoiding comparisons of size to other characters is also important, as with the anon who wrote in earlier about being insert characters being tiny. Perhaps most important is keeping in mind that there are physical limitations to what can happen larger or taller bodies. A fat person is not likely to be tossed around or picked up in smut scenes or otherwise, and a tall person is not going to necessarily look up into the eyes of another character. A larger person is not going to be able to borrow clothes from another character unless they’re also large. Namjoon or Jin could wear extra large tees that they’ll swim in, but if I put the shirt on, it’s going to be tight across my belly and probably look really fucking weird, and I’m a size 18 or so for most dresses. There are people bigger than me in the world, just as there are people who are smaller. Even the idea of having lacy underthings can take someone out of a fic, tbh, because they are simply not an option for so many bodies.

Now, this is going to be annoying of me, but confronting these issues is more of a matter of mindset, I think. You have to allow yourself to set the scene in a different way, without relying on detailed descriptions of what’s happening to the Reader with regards to their appearance. Focusing on how they’re feeling in what they’re wearing for example, or what emotions they’re experiencing as they go through the world you’ve built, the emotions they feel about the people they’re interacting with, etc. Deemphasizing the physical and moving into the emotional … like idk that’s really the best advice I’ve got. In all honesty, I think it forces us to write better characters, and that’s absolutely not a bad thing.

All of that said, it helps to read a lot of fics and PAY ATTENTION while reading. You’ll start picking up on exclusive language if you’re willing to keep an eye out for it. Now, this isn’t license to start going and picking on people for not writing inclusively. Far from it! Don’t do that!! Not when you’re trying to learn how to be a better writer, and really, like you don’t need to be the person to bring someone else down. Talking to someone about being inclusive is something that should happen before posting. It happens with beta-reading, it happens with drafting a story, it happens with self-education before a writer even puts fingers to a keyboard. It’s a process, and it takes practice.

As I said at the beginning, this process is unlikely to ever be finished. I think frequently about the disabled folks that read fics, and wonder how I might start to accommodate them as well, for example. The reality is that not everyone will be able to sink into a fic, and that’s just how it is. That’s why we should encourage more people to write when they feel the urge, so that some part of their life may be represented to others, so that we can all learn from each other. I think that’s very valuable. I really want to, but I will never be able to accommodate the great expanse of human experience when I write reader insert fics. And maybe that’s hyperbolic or foolhardy to say, but I think that’s why writing from one’s experience is so important. Sharing a part of yourself like that is a gift, and fics are a perfect medium for that. They don’t ask to be considered high art or something worthy of deep analysis, even if they’d hold up to it. They just ask for a bit of your time.

Now, okay, I’ve written a lot and there’s still so much more I could talk about. I’ve said nothing about what issues there are with the depiction of the members of BTS and the actual world building at play when we write, both of which can also pull readers out of fics. I’m going to link a few things that’ll hopefully help with this, below but I’ve got a few lingering thoughts I want to mention before I wrap this up:

Do your due diligence when it comes to your setting. A member is not going to refer to himself as Min Yoongi if he’s in the United States. It’s going to be Yoongi Min. Fraternities don’t exist outside of the US, and city transit looks radically different in different parts of the world as well. Things like that can really show whether or not you actually did any basic research about what you’re writing and they make a difference. Really, that’s all what that comes down to; we have to actually make sure we educate ourselves and keep an open mind so that we’re always learning.

Maybe that’s optimistic of me, or naive; I’d rather be ready to learn and sit with shit as needed than be stuck and stagnant. Is it such a bad thing for a white writer to work to be inclusive? Some people make it seem that way, and I don’t fucking get it.

Anyway …

@vyduan has a phenomenal essay about white washing in BTS fanfics. I’ve linked the excerpt on her blog but if you’re reading this, please click through and read the whole thing on her blog. It’s fucking important. Full stop.

@btssavedmylifeblr has a list she’d compiled of writing advice asks she’s answered and they’re all amazing. She’s where I first started learning about being more inclusive with regards to writing reader inserts, so I’d definitely give her blog a look.

There may come a time where I’ve got more resources on this topic but right now it’s all a bit sparse. Reader insert fics are still niche, all things considered, even if they’re a not insignificant part of the fan fiction in this fandom. At some point, I’ll be sure to put together a better resource sheet for new writers, because, well, someone has to. I have no problem with that being me.

Thank you so much for asking this question, Mills. I appreciate your patience, I know this is a little bit long and sprawling. I hope to have something clearer and more concise at some point in the future!!

posted: 6.18.2022

#asksss #joondiary #em talks insert characters

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