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Tue May 06, 2014 10:50 pm
lakegirls says...



Hey guys!

So I'm working on the prologue of my novel and I've run into a bit of an issue... The prologue centers around two characters, a girl and her friend. This is simple enough but I don't want people to know the gender of said friend, my real problem is finding a word to describe the friend that is compatible with his/her and he/she.

This is a sentence from my prologue where said issue takes place:

Her friend sniffled and she looked up watching as tears made a steady path down THEIR? already tear stained cheeks.

A broken sob escaped her friend and she blinked away the tears that were forming in her eyes. Her vision needed to be clear, she had to stay focused. She watched as her friend opened THEIR? mouth, lips parting before slipping the gun between them.


Please, please if anyone has any suggestions let me know! I really don't want to give the gender of the friend as it will be ruin the ending of book.

-Nicole
Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don't feel I should be doing something else.
-Gloria Steinem
  





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Tue May 06, 2014 11:03 pm
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Morrigan says...



You can avoid using a gender specific pronoun altogether. Try this:
Her friend sniffled, and she looked up, watching as tears made a steady path down already tear stained cheeks.

That works grammatically. Now let's look at the next; this one's a bit more difficult.

A broken sob escaped her friend and she blinked away the tears that were forming in her eyes. Her vision needed to be clear; she had to stay focused. She watched, horrified. The gun fit so neatly between those lips.

The style might be a bit different than yours, but if you reword sentences enough, you can avoid using gender specific pronouns.

I hope this helped!
"So many poems growing outta them they're practically a poet-tree"
Gringoamericano
  





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Tue May 06, 2014 11:06 pm
eldEr says...



Well, if the friend isn't a non-binary gender, I wouldn't use other gender-neutral pronouns. If that friend is non-binary, there are tons and tons of pronouns available for their use (also, if they are N-B, revealing their sex is kind of not recommendable). And if you have no idea what a non-binary gender is, I refer you to this article.

If they are not non-binary, then there's another gender neutral pronoun that works for either a N-B person or just to withhold the sex of the character for the sake of suspense or whatever it is you're trying to do. And you've already done that!

It's singular "they". "They"/"them"/"theirs"/"themself" is grammatically correct used in a singular connotation, too. So what you have in your prologue actually works just fine ;)

Hope this helps,
~Ish
Guuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurl.

got trans?
  








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