(clawing my way out of the grave) I'M ALIIIIVE
Anyway I just wanted to join in on the x reader discussion as someone who does a lot of thinking about narrative analysis; I think the main problem is, no matter what you do, how you write, the reader's character is still always going to have some character trait. Writers try to get around this by having the reader be pushed around by other characters/the plot, but then you get the problem that another person described - everyone is spineless and never initiates! And it's so hard to write a character that even MOST people can relate to.
I do wholeheartedly agree that the problems with representing more people who aren't small & feminine can absolutely be fixed easily, by people just... not doing that, for once lol.
But I wonder if the solution to the character problem is not making the fic as relatable as possible, because that's not going to happen. I see visual novels that often strongly characterize the player character even if they let you customize them with your name/appearance - I wonder if doing something like that would lead to a far more enjoyable experience than people trying to make their characters too relatable and thus, really bland.
It's something to think about. :D I might try something like this!
YOU'RE ALIVE!!!!!!!!!! 💗💗💗
Fox, my beloved!!!!! i've missed you!!!!!
and i am so glad that you've chimed in on this...
i think you're ONTO something!!!!!
i never really thought about it in that way, the reader being pushed around by the rest of the story as a way of attempting to keep it relatable, but it makes sense! and that works for some people, because that's just how their actual personality type is, but for a lot of people, they're much more involved and would thus be much more involved in the story and with the characters.
so! heavily characterizing the reader could really lead to more people being able to identify with it, because the more aspects of this reader that are shown, the more likely it is that the person actually reading it will be able to identify with a decent amount of them. they'd almost be relatable because the writer wasn't trying too hard to be relatable. and even if it doesn't apply to everyone reading it, because that's just not possible, i'm sure it would be nice for the people who do not feel represented in most reader inserts to see more options !!!!!
it certainly is something to think about!!! and if you do try something like this out, pretty pretty pretty please share with us!!! 💗💗💗
