Young Writers Society

Yep. I just wanted to make a twist in the story ; as in, not all gumiho have to be female, they can be male too.

Or, I could make it so that it is not male or female, which would make the story very complicated for me to write.

I'm just wondering why you think it would be very complicated to write? Part of me can see why, but I'm wondering what your take on it is.

Because, if the nine tailed fox is neither a girl or a boy, (in my opinion) I would really have to explain that to the people who might read my work in my writing to make them understand clearly what this fox is. The problem is, I'm not even sure of the concept myself. :3

Okay, so I'm going to explain this concept to you!

If you didn't make the fox a boy or a girl, then you have what is known as a non-binary individual. This does not necessarily affect their gender presentation (how people perceive them to look), and is not necessarily their biological sex (which can be male, female, or intersex, a mix of the two).

Basically, a person's identity is broken up into three aspects:

Sex- Biology
Gender- What they feel they are
Presentation- How they show it

We're dealing with the last two. Just as an aside, if you meet somebody non-binary, it's really rude to ask them their biological sex.

You can have somebody agender, genderqueer, or genderfluid.

Agender= No gender at all; the space between boys and girls. Can be any presentation.
Genderqueer= Not cisgender (cisgender= you feel like your biological sex), and not transgender (transgender= you feel like the opposite sex). Instead they're a mix and there isn't really a name for it. Again, this doesn't necessarily affect their presentation, although some do try to look like both in varying amounts.
Genderfluid= They go between any and all genders, so sometimes they feel like a girl, other times a guy, and sometimes completely neutral.

Pronouns sound tricky, but there are actually a lot of gender neutral pronouns. These include:

Singular they
Ou
Xi, Xir, Xyrs
Ze, Hir, Hirs (sometimes ze, zer, zers)

Do not use "it" unless the character is supposed to be offensive. That is an object pronoun, not a people pronoun.

Now... yes, you probably will have to explain to the reader that they're not male or female. But there are a fair number of people who aren't male or female in real life, and they have to explain it, too. But you can just leave it as how they're not a boy or a girl. This is especially true if it's not in the character's nature to say exactly what they are. Not everybody is willing to explain, and just want people to take them at face value.

Wow, your explanation was simply amazing! I never saw anyone who could explain something so clearly. Thank you so much, I feel like I understand now.

Oh, one thing I forgot to mention... some people have rather strict pronoun preferences, others are in the "whatever you feel fits best so long as it's not 'it'" boat. There are a lot of varying attitudes towards being a non-binary individual so how your character feels about it is really important to figure out.

I think that it's an interesting twist for you to make since we're so used to Gumihos being female. The neither male or female character sounds even more sounds interesting but I'm not sure as a reader I could relate to it unless you spent basically a whole chapter explaining what Rosey just did.

Hmm yeah, I'm worried that most people might not be able to relate to it.

You don't have to spend a whole chapter explaining it. In fact, I'd suggest you don't, because that is what we call a forced infodump and those aren't good.

Would you spend a whole chapter explaining something like bisexuality? Or would you simply have the character be attracted to multiple genders? I'm guessing the latter. Would you go on massive rambles about how "this character is male this means he's XYZ and not a girl"? No.

Treat the character being non-binary like you would every single other trait you give the person: like a small part of their personality that is just there.

Do not treat them as extra special for having that trait. Maybe have them not care about what pronouns are used, or what gender people identify them as. Maybe have them correct the person's pronouns to whatever pronoun they want. Or not. Maybe have them change presentation depending on mood. Or not. Whatever.

Do not make the character only the fact they are a non-binary individual. Make them a truly fleshed out character, who has hopes, dreams, fears, ambitions, desires, points of pride, points of shame. They just so happen to be a non binary person.

Spending too much time on a trait turns them into a cardboard stereotype of that trait. It robs them of their humanity. Yes, it's a bit odd, but if you treat it as something normal, then people will start to realize it's normal to not be a boy or a girl. You will help people who are non-binary individuals live in a world that accepts them for who they are.

Also, remember to keep the character in character. If they aren't one to explain things like their gender (and it sounds like this character is not going to do that by a mile), then they aren't going to explain it. Simple as that.

You do not have to explain everything in the story for the story to be relatable. You simply do not. In fact, sometimes it's better that some things are left unsaid. Assumed to work a certain way. Something you just look at, shrug, and move on.

If you're a girl, you relate to male protagonists just fine. If you're a boy, once you get over the cultural hurdle of reading 'girl books', you relate to female protagonists just fine. Non-binary readers relate to cis protagonists just fine. A non-binary protagonist would be just as relatable to somebody cis as somebody non-binary.

It might be a little different at first, yes.

But it won't stop being a little different until non-binary individuals get some representation in media.

Yes, you are right. You give me so much tips, I feel like I'm learning writing all over again in a better way