Fellow transfem writers?

[TransPunkPrincess]

Hey y'all, transgender woman (she/her) here. I *love* reading smut about girls like me, but most of what I've found here is written by (and for) cis dudes who have no idea how our bodies work or what our lives are like. I'd like to talk to other transfeminine folx who write erotic fiction, and to catch y'all's story recommendations.

Right now, my current work-in-progress is a v. romantic piece about two trans women, and it's getting to be fairly culturally insular; reading back over it, I was like, "Wow, most of this is probably unintelligible to the majority of people who would consume this stuff." lol

 

[LeandraNyx]

Deleted

 

[TransPunkPrincess]

Thanks, friend. <3

I feel like mostly it's the little things and minor details. Like, even if cis folx do pick up on using "pass," "clock," and "stealth" as verbs, they still might not understand why it's perfectly normal that my MC has a pile of empty pickle jars in her living room. And it's a neat new intellectual challenge to come up with exposition that won't take the reader out of the story.

 

[LeandraNyx]

Deleted

 

[Handley_Page]

Hey y'all, transgender woman (she/her) here. I *love* reading smut about girls like me, but most of what I've found here is written by (and for) cis dudes who have no idea how our bodies work or what our lives are like. I'd like to talk to other transfeminine folx who write erotic fiction, and to catch y'all's story recommendations.

Right now, my current work-in-progress is a v. romantic piece about two trans women, and it's getting to be fairly culturally insular; reading back over it, I was like, "Wow, most of this is probably unintelligible to the majority of people who would consume this stuff." lol

I feel like mostly it's the little things and minor details. Like, even if cis folx do pick up on using "pass," "clock," and "stealth" as verbs, they still might not understand why it's perfectly normal that my MC has a pile of empty pickle jars in her living room. And it's a neat new intellectual challenge to come up with exposition that won't take the reader out of the story.

Welcome to chaos, aka the Hangout.
I really do hope that when you review your story, you do not insist upon using short-hand words and phases used by the trans community, but include the thorough meaning as well. [cis folx ????]

I read my first 'trans ' romance the other evening.
It was very sensitively written.

 

[LeandraNyx]

Deleted

 

[TransPunkPrincess]

Yeah, "cis" is just short for "cisgender," and all that means is somebody who isn't trans.

I think LeandraNyx is on point here. I feel like going out of your way to tone down precise and correct language in order to avoid explaining things is just not good writing; it would be a really poor representation of the material being written about. And dumping a big ol' pile of exposition is also not very good writing. World-building should be genuine, and anything not commonly understood should be made clear through context clues.
Like, one thing I've been spending a lot of time with is historical fiction, and I feel it's a mistake to talk, for instance, about the Gokturk "king" or the Persian "king" because those peoples didn't have kings, they would've had a Kaghan and a Shah, respectively; using the right words in a natural sort of way is important for telling a story genuinely, but also they should be used in such a way that the reader doesn't have to work to figure out what they mean.

Plus, there's just something a bit off-putting about asking a trans writer to pander to cis-gender folks; we already have plenty of books that pander to our demographic, we don't need to co-opt those being written by minority groups, too. Let them have their voice.

^^ t h a n k
y o u

 

[Handley_Page]

With the lack of understanding and the rise of publicity in some quarters,
it should be a relatively simple matter to 'translate' a few of the pertinent expressions.
After all, it done when an author quotes a foreign speaker, ain't it?
And the author would be depriving him/her -self of a few more readers, no ?

 

[ElectricBlue]

I think LeandraNyx is on point here. I feel like going out of your way to tone down precise and correct language in order to avoid explaining things is just not good writing; it would be a really poor representation of the material being written about. And dumping a big ol' pile of exposition is also not very good writing. World-building should be genuine, and anything not commonly understood should be made clear through context clues.

Agree this. Stories flow best if the language used is natural to its context.

How hard is it to open up an urban dictionary to find current day meanings of words being used, particularly in a scene that's not your own? Not hard at all.

 

[ElectricBlue]

After all, it done when an author quotes a foreign speaker, ain't it?

Rarely, I would have thought. Writing something in French and then adding the translation is just clunky, I reckon. I've seen it done occasionally, but not that often. Mind you, we're not talking Ezra Pound here (loves his Italian, old Ezra).

 

[TransPunkPrincess]

With the lack of understanding and the rise of publicity in some quarters,
it should be a relatively simple matter to 'translate' a few of the pertinent expressions.
After all, it done when an author quotes a foreign speaker, ain't it?
And the author would be depriving him/her -self of a few more readers, no ?

Yeah, I can't think of anyplace I've ever seen it done that way. Not even Tolkien.

 

[Kantarii]

WelcomeAlways nice to meet a new writer. Kant

 

[Bramblethorn]

Not the OP, but "cis-gender" folks are those who identify with the gender typically associated with their biological sex (i.e. the genitals they were born with), while "trans-gender" folks are those who do not.

^^that.

"Trans-" comes from Latin and "cis-" is its Latin antonym; "trans" means "across" and "cis" means "on the same side". For example, to the Romans, Gallia Transalpina was the bit of Gaul over on the other side of the Alps (from Rome) and Gallia Cisalpina was the bit of Gaul on the near (Roman) side.

English inherited both "trans" and "cis" from Latin and has been using them as antonyms for a long time. In astronomy "cislunar" means something on our side of the moon, "translunar" is on the other side. "cisatlantic" is a counterpart to "transatlantic" and so on. "Cis" and "trans" are especially important in organic chemistry, where they're used to distinguish between molecules that have the same composition but different structures.

I've seen some weird fake etymologies for "cis" like "comfortable in skin" but nah, it's just the natural companion to "trans" going back 2000 years.

With the lack of understanding and the rise of publicity in some quarters,
it should be a relatively simple matter to 'translate' a few of the pertinent expressions.
After all, it done when an author quotes a foreign speaker, ain't it?

Quite often no. I've read plenty of English-language authors (e.g. Dorothy L. Sayers) who assumed that their readers were comfortable with Greek, Latin, and/or French. Others assume that everybody knows the difference between a carburetter and a manifold, or a Luger and a .338 Lapua.

I agree with Leandra here - where possible, it's best to write so that the meaning becomes apparent from context. Where that's not possible, sometimes you have to choose between translating for people who don't have that background, and catering to an under-served audience who don't have as much opportunity to see themselves in fiction.

 

[TransPunkPrincess]

Where that's not possible, sometimes you have to choose between translating for people who don't have that background, and catering to an under-served audience who don't have as much opportunity to see themselves in fiction.

^ Yeah, that. Like, I'm not going to use obtuse subcultural jargon with no explanations or context--that's just bad writing--but I'm also not interested in pandering to cis people just 'cause there's more of them.

 

[LeandraNyx]

Deleted

 

[TransPunkPrincess]

A Clockwork Orange[/I], which is written entirely in a future vernacular made up by the author; it only took me a chapter of diligence to figure it out and the rest read smoothly. I don't think I've ever being reading along, saw a word or reference I didn't understand, and think, "Why that motherfucker; how dare they!"

Yeah, my favorite author of all time is Professor Tolkien so this is really just par for the course

 

[AwkwardMD]

First, a large part of my catalog includes trans characters of one sort or another. Typically the main character.

Second, I have a story where two of the characters speak Spanish to each other when they think they're alone. The reaction from readers at having untranslated Spanish was mostly negative, but a few saw the way I used it (as a mechanic to show how the protagonist was an outsider) and really liked it.

Third, welcome!