I have previously mentioned that I’m spinning Dad Jokes on Tik-Tok now, and rather enjoying it. There’s a sense of fun from most of the people I follow on there that’s generally missing on most other social media platforms, especially the big two-and-a-half of Twitter and Facebook/Instagram. I find myself following a lot of people telling interactive little LARP stories, spinning tales about their most recent D&D sessions, renovating old Victorian homes, or making incredibly ornate Harry Potter-style wands for other Potterverse fans.
However, I ran across one video recently by someone promoting a fantasy novel that bugged me enough to write this little blog. The video showed three characters from this person’s upcoming novel. In front of each character portrait, the video flashed a name, the character’s race, and the character’s sexual orientation. Which immediately killed any interest I had in reading this novel.
Here’s the thing about writing interesting characters: what they were born as, and what they do in bed, shouldn’t be the most interesting thing about them. Ever. Unless maybe you’re writing erotica. But other than that exception, it shouldn’t be the most important thing about any character, especially a main character, and it’s definitely not something that someone should be leading with in a promo!
This shouldn’t be taken to say that a character’s race, and orientation if you must, aren’t relevant, just that they ought not be the priority. Bilbo Baggins isn’t an interesting character because he’s a Hobbit, he’s an interesting character because he goes off and has adventures despite being a hobbit. From the D&D Universe, Drizz’t isn’t interesting because he’s a Drow, he’s interesting because he’s an unusual Drow who goes against the typical Drow stereotypes, and suffers a fair bit of personal conflict because of it.
For that matter, allow me to just reference pretty much anything Spider Robinson has written, but most specifically the marvelous Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon series. (Which I really need to re-read) There’s gay characters, polyamorous characters, bisexual characters, aliens, talking dogs, and even a few normal humans. All of which is both material to each character’s plot, because we are all influenced by our backgrounds, but none of which is the most interesting thing about any of them. Including the sentient, talking dog.
All right, rant over. I’d like to point out that I specifically avoided naming any names or linking to any videos, specifically because I don’t want to make this into a personal attack on a young writer who I think has a lot of promise. It’s just a writing challenge and reminder, one that I need to apply as well, and which I hope will help some of my fellow aspiring authors.