danyachka — Rem Writing Notes: Creating my Assi

#Writing on Tumblr 09/28/18

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Rem Writing Notes: Creating my Assi Challenging shit: biracial (half dark-skinned Hispanic, half southeast Asian), plus sized, asexual (it’ll come up later), adopted Assi is my protagonist; my eventual hero in the body of a mischievous twelve year old. It makes sense, story-wise, for her to be this. A biracial, queer girl is more likely to want to be revolutionary than a bland protagonist. A lot of protagonists don’t sound like her, unfortunately, which is where the issue comes. In Rem, Hespa is like Spain or some other Latin American country. (Its neighbor, Venezaria, is similar but the people there are more stereotyped to be farmers.) Hespish people, however, are considered the “Latin lover” stereotype. In Udotai, which is coded as Thailand and other south East Asian countries, it’s hit pretty badly with Orientalism, and Udotai women are also pretty exoticized. Assi’s little, but she knows these stereotypes. She gets mocked for her appearance by bullies, too. Her father was Hespish and her mother was Udotai, which could also go near dangerous fetishizing territory. She’s fat and bullied because of that as well. The city she lives in is the college city, so people there are often well off and don’t consider fatness a positive trait. In towns and Rem’s territories, it is an attractive trait. Assi’s aware of this, too. (This double standard’s gonna come up with Maryse later.) It’ll come up later but she’s ace. I know Hispanic women and Asian women are fetishized, but I also know about the stereotype with Asian people not being considered attractive or able to get a romantic partner. She’s adopted, her parents were killed for fighting the government, and her siblings were scattered. Classic YA fantasy/dystopia backstory, I think, but I want to do her right. I want her to have a strong relationship with her adoptive parents and brother. I want her to avenge her parents’ deaths and take up their cause. I want her to reunite and bond with her siblings. Over time, of course. Assi Pyrrh (family surname) Shoko (adoptive surname) is clever, a great planner, and takes control well. She can lie very well from her mom’s side, and can tell when others are lying from her dad’s side. She gets in VERY over her head, but digs herself out in time. TLDR: complex protags are tricky, but if I went the easy route she wouldn’t be compelling

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