Support for Indie Authors discussion

I am sure a lot of you have had this happen to you and I expected it but it still came as a shock. Judging you by the actions of your characters.
In my first novel Lost coast Rocket I had a shocked reader wondering how I could write about the way my teenage boy character could be looking at the physical attributes of a teenage girl!
Yes I am in my fifties but I still remember being a teenage boy. There aren't any sex scenes or anything. Can't imagine what it would be like if I was writing bigfoot erotica or something. Ha.
Anybody else have funny stories on this happening?

It would be even worse for me. I'm a sixty plus female that wrote the same scenario.

I'm nearly seventy five and my latest book does have sex scenes ( quite delicate ones) as it is about young people in the sixties.

Funny. OMG how do us OLD people know anything about that stuff!

Oh. And how. But you have to remember that every generation invented sex....

The oddest one was my great nephew's wife who read one of mine and enjoyed it. Then she was shocked when she found out it was me who wrote it.

'You cant' she averred 'expect me to read sex scenes written by my great aunt without getting weirded out'

I give you the twenty somethings of the twenty-first century.

Yes!
I even have a character (old white haired, Scots, and a physician but NO resemblance to the author of course) say something like
"“How would ah know? How am ah suppose ta be sae damned auld ’n’ ne’er hae bin young, once upon a time? Dae ye think ah wis born auld, ye arrogant boot pup? "

Course, the obvious point is that if we HAD NOT figured out this sex thingy, none of these young but-oh-sophisticated youngsters would be here to be weirded out.

I wouldn't mind being judged by my characters, ha! My leading ladies are fierce, independent, strong, and passionate, so please, please see me as them! I know my older sister won't read my work because she's afraid of reading any sexy scenes and doesn't want to know what's in her baby sister's mind. I call her in my mind Miss Prudy Pants as she's been like that all her life. My nieces have read my stuff and love it. My 83-year-old mother-in-law has read my first PNR book (20-somethings) and said she loved it. I now write contemporary romance and am very comfortable with love scenes. I wrote my first one at 15, as I talk about in my author bio, and it was probably from all the romance reading I had done, definitely not the experience just yet! I only enjoy writing about 30-somethings as I love the maturity aspect in how they treat each other. No head games.

Yeah, my characters are me. :)

You guys have no idea. From a heiroine junkie in the apocalypse to a dildo wielding petute female heavy, I write nothing but ecentric characters.
If my characters reflect back on me...I'm not 100% sure what they say!

My favorite character I created is a teen girl in the 60s who deals with growing up and falling in love. She copes by writing and daydreaming and sometimes does this that a younger person does (me). Another character is a girl in a musical theater group. though I modeled her after one of my favorite Broadway actress (Lea Salonga), personality-wise she can get overdramatic, likes tall-dark-handsome guys, and has a crush-bordering on obsession on actor Ramin Karimloo (90% me).

Let's try not to get after the 20s readers (says the 20s reader and writer). Nobody really wants to think about their family associated to sex and I know older folks (including family) who take offense to discussion of sex and would be horrified I am sure to read writing I had done about it.

I have four characters in my stable that are based somewhat on myself: Daniel Pellegrino, Wesley Darin, Ben Starn and Gregor Strauss. They are all full of themselves, smug and all are deeply flawed. If a reader is appalled by anything those four shits do, I take full blame. The other characters are the other characters. I just write them as they want to be written.

So far no one has been shocked that I could write any of the weird stuff I write.

I'm not knocking twenty somethings. I was one once. Nope. The point is that people get stressed by the strangest things. One of which is older people having sex.

We tend not to be so afflicted by sex among the young.

My theory is that when you are between the ages of about fifteen and thirty your body is probably the nicest it will ever be. Thinking about soggy bottoms doing sex isn't nice when your own bum is still as pert as a ripe peach.

However. To put both sides of the coin, I have an acquaintance who is actually younger than me though still not in the first flush of youth - and she is totally unable to read sex scenes of any sort. Says she can't be bothered with all that shite any more. She read one of mine and couldn't look me in the face for weeks,

And I really don't write smut.

I would love to read your Big Foot erotica. 'Hot 4 Squatch?'

That plays into my writing, even subconsciously. I know my mom and my friends are going to read what I write, so sometimes it limits me, especially since my stories usually have a romantic element.

I try not to let it psych me out, but the thought is always there.

I have a brutal murder in my second novel.

I hand several emails from readers that were shocked!

Chad wrote: "I would love to read your Big Foot erotica. 'Hot 4 Squatch?' "

When your feet look so much younger than your face...

Jane wrote: "I'm not knocking twenty somethings. I was one once. Nope. The point is that people get stressed by the strangest things. One of which is older people having sex.

We tend not to be so afflicted by ..."

I have to say I LOVED Our Souls at Night about two aging people who decide to just have sleepovers for the companionship which turns into (or tries to) other stuff. Favorite book by the late Kent Haruf. Beautiful love story that influenced a lot of my work. I sent it to my MIL also. It made me see things differently. I'd love to read more stories like that!

My goodness; old people were young once?? They too did stuff?? ;-P

Yeah, one of my books looks at a first love, and I had to get back into a teenager's head, trying to get a little brother to sleep whilst babysitting and trying to get off with a girl.
It was a grubby, awkward place to be. I was quite glad to be done with those scenes.
Wouldn't be a teenager again for all the tea in China!! :-/

Happily in the same book there's a midle aged couple.
I wanted to give the 'older' ones some action, as so many novels look at the twenty-somethings, and I thought it was a bit unfair. You know more as you get older. Just saying ;p

My husband was admittedly a bit unnerved that I had extensive knowledge of drug muling and cannibalism for what was a light humorous piece. Beyond that, eh. My characters are mostly okay. Though in my upcoming book I named the boss Mary Sue and made her the most amazing thing ever who just happens to look exactly like me.

Now, as to the underlying current of 'kids today' and 'ew old people have sex' I'm going to ask you all to refrain from making generalizations and stick to the point. I can't speak for anyone else here, but I'm old, I'm not a fan of reading *any* sex scene that is too detailed, and if I may be completely immodest for a moment, I have a body my twenty-something self could only dream of. ;P

Christina wrote: "Now, as to the underlying current of 'kids today' and 'ew old people have sex' I'm going to ask you all to refrain from making generalizations and stick to the point. I can't speak for anyone else here, but I'm old..."

No you're not. Old is eighty or better. I'm 70 myself, and I'm not old. The first guy who calls me "grandpa" gets a shiny black eye.

My characters are ... pragmatic, let's say, and think nothing of getting into fist fights or plotting to murder their foes. Moodiness aside, I'm not nearly as scary!

I'm not a fan of romance so I don't write it, and any romance I do have it's so light that blink and you'll miss it. But I do put my characters through the ringer. The first book I ever wrote and published had a teenage boy who'd had to endure severe abuse since he was five. My family and friends had been rather disturbed by it, and that's not even the worst I've put a character through. It's made them wonder about me at times.

In my first series, you'll find the devil hiding behind a man named Jack Red, and occult activities. Have I ever done these things? Um...nope, but I'm sure my family (siblings) looks at me differently now. Even my husband thought it was a little creepy. It was a story that needed to be told, not just for entertainment value. Good versus evil and all that. It was fun writing, but now no more paranormal in my stories.

Don't know about you lot, but I find I can read "sex scenes" in books, I'm just not into writing them - mostly because my family would read them

... oh I sure hope not...

I've never been judged by my characters and would probably be a surprised if anyone would. It's a story. Imagination. Simple as that, in my eyes. I would never think to judge anyone based on what they write. I'm normally impressed by the tales I read and where they can come up with things they do. It's amazing to me.

I love people's imagination:) And who I am to judge another. If it is based on real life then that's okay too:)

C.B. wrote: "... oh I sure hope not..."

Sorry CB you had me laugh there. The only thing I might think that you probably have in common with your characters is MMORPG.
BUT anyway, if it were the case, Anders is such a sweet heart. Nothing wrong with that reflecting on you. :)

Thanks GG! I will admit that I cuss about as much as Anders does in real life.

Yeah, CB says, "oh crackers," and everything! :O

Tim wrote: "I would suggest that if you've brought characters to life on the page so much so they shock your family and friends, then you have succeeded, my friends. Well done."

Shocked, or at least made them think. That's a good thing. I agree.

How much of us is in our books? I think there has to be some, somewhere, to ground the things in that reality which makes our work worthy of being read.

Without reality there can be no heart.

Where it can be disturbing is the point when our characters grow into real people on the page, and start doing stuff real people do. Without asking our permission.....

If that happens, then there can be shocks for everyone, including writers, as their characters take them to places they never imagined going when they started to write.

But it's a great white-knuckle ride

Well, all my heroines seem to have a pigheaded/stubborn/independent streak. I have no idea where they get that from!? ;)

It's mysterious to me where my characters come from. Some mix of my own character and experience, plus empathy and imagination plus magic spark. I know when I'm writing a character I'm seeing through their eyes and feeling what they feel and just trying to get that down. And yes, writing sex scenes or other scenes with strong emotional content can make me feel exposed. But we're all human! Reading and writing are both acts of empathy. I think if I wasn't feeling a bit exposed I'd be doing it wrong! This doesn't stop me getting the screaming heebie jeebies at the thought of my mum reading what I write!!

Jane wrote: "Where it can be disturbing is the point when our characters grow into real people on the page, and start doing stuff real people do. Without asking our permission..."

I love it when that happens. I want it to happen. I know I have created a compelling character when they take a life of their own. Doesn't happen often, but when it does... *confetti*

Jane wrote: "Where it can be disturbing is the point when our characters grow into real people on the page, and start doing stuff real people do. Without asking our permission.....
..."

Yeah, mine do that all the time, but usually it's confined to making use of the details within the scene, fleshing it out with thoughts and actions that didn't occur to me before I started writing the scene. Rarely do I have to rein them in so they won't wreck the story, but when I do, it's spooky.

My characters get to decide their own personalities, but my worlds are full of Easter eggs, in jokes, references to conversations I've had with others, and a whole lot of other things that nearly no one will know about, but give me a giggle. If anything, my characters might be worried that I reflect badly on them. ;P

So what would have happened if producer Steven Spielburg had allowed his characters to do their own thinking in Back to the Future III. The movie would have ended almost before it started. Most of the movie is involved with showing the trouble they're having trying to get the DeLorean up to 88 mph because a gas tank puncture had drained all the gas. But that was the DeLorean that had come to 1885 from 1955, driven by Marty. The DeLorean that was hit by lightning was still in the cave where Doc had buried it when he first arrived in 1885, with an intact gas tank full of gasoline, and it wouldn't be excavated until 1955. Doc, actually thinking for himself, would have slapped himself on the forehead, uttered, "Great Scott!" and proceeded to tell Marty that all they would have to do is transfer the gas tank, along with the gas, from the DeLorean in the cave to the DeLorean that had just arrived from 1955.

But that would probably create a time paradox that would destroy the entire universe. Or perhaps just a local part of the galaxy.

tee hee; Christina (going off topic) I just saw your name. I think I may be a carnivorous vegan too! ;-p

Given that my MCs are either genetically modified clones, human minds placed in artificial biological bodies that don't necessarily match the mind's gender identity, or bodiless heads ... I feel pretty safe from such mistaken attribution.

Micah wrote: "Given that my MCs are either genetically modified clones, human minds placed in artificial biological bodies that don't necessarily match the mind's gender identity, or bodiless heads ... I feel pr..."

You should never feel safe. There will be somebody out there who thinks you live in a tank of amniotic fluid....

Great stories! I know I am not alone. My characters tend to be morphed from real people I have known and then become alive and start taking on their own personalities that I hadn't envisioned for them to start.
Someone mentioned they would read my bigfoot erotica...eh not my genre! It has already been done and she made a pile of money on it, until Amazon cracked down on the genre.

TL Clark (author of love) wrote: "tee hee; Christina (going off topic) I just saw your name. I think I may be a carnivorous vegan too! ;-p"

:D

Told ya, I'm probably an embarrassment to my more-sane-than-me characters.

I'd be more than a tad disconcerted if I was compared to my 'leading man'. He's a career criminal!

Rachael wrote: "My characters are ... pragmatic, let's say, and think nothing of getting into fist fights or plotting to murder their foes. Moodiness aside, I'm not nearly as scary!"

So the other thing Mom always said was "Write what you know."
So whom do we know better than ourselves?

ps: I promise that's the last Mom reference

I prefer projecting into my side characters, some. I'm writing a novel now where I identify with a side character that's independent and kind of greedy- oops!

Samantha wrote: "My favorite character I created is a teen girl in the 60s who deals with growing up and falling in love. She copes by writing and daydreaming and sometimes does this that a younger person does (me)..."

If I could not figure them out in the 60's I doubt I can do much better now

One of my characters used profanity. When a friend of mine told me how disappointed he was in me that I would use such language I said, "It wasn't me, it was Johnny Lee." (the name of the character).
He claimed I was the one who wrote him to do it, so it was just like I had done it.
I told him, you shouldn't read my last story then, because one of my characters killed another. He said that was different.

I think there are two things that make my Jane what she is. The first is her attitude, "Don't tell me I have to follow rules I never agreed to." The second is the realisation that having survived the original kidnapping, and having lived through the incident that killed the only man who wanted to marry her, every day is one more day of life than she expected, and she intends to get the most out of it.

She won't show respect to anyone unless they deserve it. Even God gets an earbashing from time to time:

Dear God, if you're listening, I know I've been furious with you since you let Alan die. I haven't forgiven you for that, and perhaps I never will, but please, can you let me think of something that I can do to stop the killing?

Coupled with this is her idea that, being a woman, she has a right to defend her person and her honour. Her idea of defending herself can run to nuclear capability in extreme cases.

I of course get no respect from her at all. She edits my outlines, criticises my morality and generally gives me a really hard time. She causes me a lot of anguish, but I love her dearly.

From this I think you can tell that I've been married for a very long time...

L. wrote: "One of my characters used profanity. When a friend of mine told me how disappointed he was in me that I would use such language I said, "It wasn't me, it was Johnny Lee." (the name of the character..."
That is one of the strange ones to me. Can't have sex or swearing but blood, gore and body counts are fine even if gratuitous.