Making Fictivity Ordinary
Oct. 24th, 2022 08:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lb_leeInspired by a conversation with monsterqueers.
Even though we came to plurality by way of soulbonding (that is, artists who talked to their characters), over the years, we got into the habit of downplaying our own fictivity.
Part of this was that local norms changed, and "fictive" grew increasingly defined by what in the soulbonding days was called being "outsourced"--that is, your headmate wasn't "your" intellectual property, but someone else's (Disney, JK Rowling, Shakespeare, etc.), which comes with its own set of stigmas and difficulties. Under the new rules, we no longer counted. Another reason was that fictives plain don't get treated well. Besides, for a decade the only fictive we had was Mac, who said two lines, offscreen, and then died. We were still writing and selling that stuff, but we thought that time of our plural life was done.
We were older. People changed. Our mind had closed, or so we thought.
Then in 2014, Mori came back. In 2015, Biff came back. In 2020, Rawlin and Bob and Grey came back. Most of these people, we hadn't even recalled that they were headmates! Our roster is roughly half fictive now, with characters ranging in importance from "nobody" to "major protagonist."
This has caused us some, shall we call it, professional difficulties. Writing about people who don't exist is different from writing about people who do. We have an ethical code that we follow for friends, relatives, and other people, and those rules do not change when the person involved lives in our head. A lot of stories had to get locked, changed, deleted, or revamped to mesh with our ethical guidelines. A lot of awkward conversations had to be had.
Mac got off lucky. His two-lines-and-die was only shared with people after he had joined us, and he had input on his fictional portrayal. Indeed, how Rogan handled his death scene gave him the closure that helped bring them together.
Rawlin, thank god, was deleted from the drafts and is never mentioned anywhere online before his return. He gets a chapter in Madgic, out of necessity, and he didn't get any input on that, because it's not worth the risk of going near him to talk about it.
Biff wasn't near so lucky. He'd been deep stealth all his life, and the moment he got here, he had to deal with the realization that total strangers on the Internet knew he was trans.
Bob and Grey had to deal with the news that they had porn written about them.
And Mori, well. Mori's had to deal with books being written about a happy future that she never got to have, with people she never got to say goodbye to.
We've had to accept that the writing project that created all of them (or was inspired BY them, the distinction is blurry) cannot be treated like any of our other fiction projects. At this point, it very well may be that Infinity Smashed will only ever be self-published ebooks and a few dozen paperbacks, made for our own satisfaction. There is no way in hell we could ever traditionally publish it now, even if we were all okay with it. We're far too emotionally involved, and have far too many motivations besides "what makes the story good."
Maybe that doesn't have to be a bad thing, though. Nobody remembers Mac as Mr. Two-Lines-And-Die; people remember him as Mr. Hubby-With-Pretty-Hair, and he says he's happier that way. We make comics about our life and experiences, and each title deals with a different thread of the tapestry, so maybe Infinity Smashed will become just another thread with a fictional gloss, the equivalent of our Popol Vuh or Iliad, which everyone knows is not to be taken at face value.
Maybe it doesn't have to be some shameful secret. Maybe we can be open about it, the way we're open with a bunch of other plural stuff.
There are a few local stores who sell our stuff, and one in particular we're on good terms with. When Rogan dropped in to sell some new titles, the employee stated that she'd read Found Wanting, AKA the Bob and Grey book. She was no fool; she asked if they were headmates, and Rogan admitted that yes, they were.
And you know what? It was fine. We had a conversation about it, the way we would other ordinary things. It got to be ordinary.
Maybe it's time for us to work at MAKING it ordinary.
monsterqueers.Even though we came to plurality by way of soulbonding (that is, artists who talked to their characters), over the years, we got into the habit of downplaying our own fictivity.
Part of this was that local norms changed, and "fictive" grew increasingly defined by what in the soulbonding days was called being "outsourced"--that is, your headmate wasn't "your" intellectual property, but someone else's (Disney, JK Rowling, Shakespeare, etc.), which comes with its own set of stigmas and difficulties. Under the new rules, we no longer counted. Another reason was that fictives plain don't get treated well. Besides, for a decade the only fictive we had was Mac, who said two lines, offscreen, and then died. We were still writing and selling that stuff, but we thought that time of our plural life was done.
We were older. People changed. Our mind had closed, or so we thought.
Then in 2014, Mori came back. In 2015, Biff came back. In 2020, Rawlin and Bob and Grey came back. Most of these people, we hadn't even recalled that they were headmates! Our roster is roughly half fictive now, with characters ranging in importance from "nobody" to "major protagonist."
This has caused us some, shall we call it, professional difficulties. Writing about people who don't exist is different from writing about people who do. We have an ethical code that we follow for friends, relatives, and other people, and those rules do not change when the person involved lives in our head. A lot of stories had to get locked, changed, deleted, or revamped to mesh with our ethical guidelines. A lot of awkward conversations had to be had.
Mac got off lucky. His two-lines-and-die was only shared with people after he had joined us, and he had input on his fictional portrayal. Indeed, how Rogan handled his death scene gave him the closure that helped bring them together.
Rawlin, thank god, was deleted from the drafts and is never mentioned anywhere online before his return. He gets a chapter in Madgic, out of necessity, and he didn't get any input on that, because it's not worth the risk of going near him to talk about it.
Biff wasn't near so lucky. He'd been deep stealth all his life, and the moment he got here, he had to deal with the realization that total strangers on the Internet knew he was trans.
Bob and Grey had to deal with the news that they had porn written about them.
And Mori, well. Mori's had to deal with books being written about a happy future that she never got to have, with people she never got to say goodbye to.
We've had to accept that the writing project that created all of them (or was inspired BY them, the distinction is blurry) cannot be treated like any of our other fiction projects. At this point, it very well may be that Infinity Smashed will only ever be self-published ebooks and a few dozen paperbacks, made for our own satisfaction. There is no way in hell we could ever traditionally publish it now, even if we were all okay with it. We're far too emotionally involved, and have far too many motivations besides "what makes the story good."
Maybe that doesn't have to be a bad thing, though. Nobody remembers Mac as Mr. Two-Lines-And-Die; people remember him as Mr. Hubby-With-Pretty-Hair, and he says he's happier that way. We make comics about our life and experiences, and each title deals with a different thread of the tapestry, so maybe Infinity Smashed will become just another thread with a fictional gloss, the equivalent of our Popol Vuh or Iliad, which everyone knows is not to be taken at face value.
Maybe it doesn't have to be some shameful secret. Maybe we can be open about it, the way we're open with a bunch of other plural stuff.
There are a few local stores who sell our stuff, and one in particular we're on good terms with. When Rogan dropped in to sell some new titles, the employee stated that she'd read Found Wanting, AKA the Bob and Grey book. She was no fool; she asked if they were headmates, and Rogan admitted that yes, they were.
And you know what? It was fine. We had a conversation about it, the way we would other ordinary things. It got to be ordinary.
Maybe it's time for us to work at MAKING it ordinary.
no subject
Date: 2022-10-30 03:13 pm (UTC)Also, a plural creator isn't required! I thought that was important, since many plural creators cannot afford to be outed, and also because many people who have what we might consider pluralish experiences may not see them the same way and be hurt at being miscategorized.
no subject
Date: 2022-10-30 11:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-10-30 11:15 pm (UTC)