Secret Asshole
Expert in things that never, ever happened
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⚡ Thunderdomer ⚡
True & Honest Fan
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Jan 18, 2017
Its what comes down to every good character: Motivation. Backstory, personality, these things are all wound up in the motivation for a character, which is the driving force for the story. We don't know anything about the Joker except his motivations. From this, we can infer all of the above. The reader can piece it together themselves, hence show, don't tell. See the fanfic Tony Stark, the motivation is a real human connection, which explains his personality, actions and sexual preference.
A character with no motive is just there. You can see them, but they're not moving. They're solely defined by what the author tells you. So more often than not, badly written gay characters will have little to no motivation or purpose to the plot. Therefore, the author has to tell you that they're gay. Or trans. Or lesbian. Even if the purpose and setting of the story is in the LGBT community, the characters will be meaningless without motivation. They'll feel one dimensional and that their only trait is that of their sexuality. Because they serve no real purpose in the story, you can give them whatever backstory you want. It doesn't matter. There's a play called Torchsong by Harvey Firestein, which sort of describes his life. All the characters are gay, but they all have their motivations, ambitions and dreams. Their sexuality is central but at the same time its ancillary. They even go as to explain 'Why do you have to be gay all the time?' And it gives a pretty good example on why one of the characters is very flamboyant while the other is the complete opposite. Its all about the motivation.
If you give a character motive, you can define them, flesh them out. If you can't figure out what they're motive is, they shouldn't be there. That's why so many gay characters are terribly written, because they have no motives. They simply exist to be there. There's also the problem with perfection, a lot of LGBT characters are written with no flaws or particularly idealistic, with a lack of motivation which lets them stand out.
A character with no motive is just there. You can see them, but they're not moving. They're solely defined by what the author tells you. So more often than not, badly written gay characters will have little to no motivation or purpose to the plot. Therefore, the author has to tell you that they're gay. Or trans. Or lesbian. Even if the purpose and setting of the story is in the LGBT community, the characters will be meaningless without motivation. They'll feel one dimensional and that their only trait is that of their sexuality. Because they serve no real purpose in the story, you can give them whatever backstory you want. It doesn't matter. There's a play called Torchsong by Harvey Firestein, which sort of describes his life. All the characters are gay, but they all have their motivations, ambitions and dreams. Their sexuality is central but at the same time its ancillary. They even go as to explain 'Why do you have to be gay all the time?' And it gives a pretty good example on why one of the characters is very flamboyant while the other is the complete opposite. Its all about the motivation.
If you give a character motive, you can define them, flesh them out. If you can't figure out what they're motive is, they shouldn't be there. That's why so many gay characters are terribly written, because they have no motives. They simply exist to be there. There's also the problem with perfection, a lot of LGBT characters are written with no flaws or particularly idealistic, with a lack of motivation which lets them stand out.
