Category: Publishing

A Look at the Bechdel Test

You may have heard the term—Bechdel test—but what the heck is it?

What is the Bechdel test?

The Bechdel test is best defined by the Bechdel site:

… sometimes called the Mo Movie Measure or Bechdel Rule is a simple test which names the following three criteria: (1) it has to have at least two women in it, who (2) who talk to each other, about (3) something besides a man. The test was popularized by Alison Bechdel‘s comic Dykes to Watch Out For, in a 1985 strip called The Rule. For a nice video introduction to the subject please check out The Bechdel Test for Women in Movies on feministfrequency.com.

Okay, But What Does it Really Mean?

Films have shortchanged women for decades. How so? It’s less in the area of leads versus supporting and bit players.

If a female main character is hurt, and the female doctor character treating her has a nametag, and they discuss the main character’s injuries, voila! The film passes the Bechdel test. Make that throwaway character male, and the opportunity is lost.

The test is not necessary for cinema, and it is certainly not necessary for prose. However, it’s still a helpful gauge.

Societal Changes That Can Help

When casting directors only look at men for a doctor character, a film loses an opportunity to pass. And when writers only think of male characters for a lawyer role, a book loses an opportunity to pass. Or when a playwright decides the murderer can only be male, guess what happens?

This is not to say that every single one of these characters must be female. But consider this.

A Fer-Instance

Let’s take two aspiring actors, Kate and Dave. They each try out for a minor character, a dog walker.

But the casting director insists the character must be male, even when there’s no good reason to have this requirement. The dog walker isn’t a love interest. They’re just a minor, bit part. But with the requirement, Dave gets the part. Not Kate.

Dave also gets a SAG card, and becomes part of the union. The union helps him find more work, and for better conditions and pay. He rises through the ranks, getting juicier roles with more dialog.

Over the years, his name moves up in screen credits. And he becomes familiar to casting directors. They may even ask for him when casting an everyman.

Dave also makes friends in the industry. They don’t just make it easier to get jobs. They also make it easier to deal with a rejection, because they’ve been there, done that.

He’s not going to be a lead actor. But he will get more and better parts, and can become a character actor. He might even be the answer to a trivia question—remember that guy who played the dog walker in ___?

The Other Side of the Coin

Remember Kate? She didn’t get the part. So, she gets a job waiting tables, like so many aspiring actors before her have done. She makes okay money but will always have to have a roommate to be able to afford to live anywhere near LA.

Her pals aren’t in the industry. They’re the waitstaff and maybe some of the patrons of the café where she works.

It’s hard, exhausting work, and she often doesn’t have the time or the energy to go on auditions. With an unpredictable schedule, she loses out on some opportunities because she has to work.

So, she looks for better work. But since food service is all she knows how to really do, her job search stays in that industry.

Over the years, she takes better jobs in more upscale restaurants. And she even switches from waitress to hostess, which is a little less exhausting. But only a little.

Kate still has less time to audition, and to rehearse—and to maintain her looks and her figure. Her auditions are big cattle calls, and the older she gets (yes, Hollywood sexism is alive and well), the smaller her chances of success become.

But she makes it a few times, and eventually gets her SAG card. But she’s lost about 5, maybe even 10 years versus Dave. Acting isn’t her job; it’s a side gig. But for Dave, it’s pretty much all he does.

Flip the Script

Of course, one part for one actress isn’t going to change the industry one way or another. And it doesn’t explain how and why the industry is the way it is. But multiply this by hundreds if not thousands of roles.

If things don’t change, Kate will run into this problem throughout her career, such as it is. There will be casting calls she’ll never bother with, because of this level of exclusion.

Or, they just plain will not be worth it, particularly if she has to lose a day’s pay just to try out for a role where there are no guarantees that she would get it.

Dave, on the other hand, experiences none of this.

Kate doesn’t have to get every single part out there. But once the people doing the hiring nix the gender requirement, a door cracks open for her. Just like Dave, she can get a SAG card. Getting it earlier means she has more chances to make money and to make an impression.

And, because Hollywood ageism is also a thing, she has more chances to succeed during what are likely to be her peak earning years.

Even if she still waits tables and treats acting as a hobby or a side gig, she’ll have more opportunities, and can potentially make enough to stop needing a roommate—or fund her eventual retirement.

Now, let’s look at my own efforts herein.

Walking the Walk

Consider the following. These are bits of my prose. These are the points where my first three NaNoWriMo novels passed. First off is a sentence from the Untrustworthy book, and it is the first dialogue that anyone says. It is in the first chapter, page 1.

“Good morning, Ixalla,” Tathrelle said.

And the second one is from The Obolonk Murders. It is in the first chapter, page 3. Selkhet (who is a female robot) is speaking to the main character, Peri Martin.

“Oh, that’s nothing,” said Selkhet.

Finally, the third is from The Enigman Cave. It is in the first chapter, page 3. The speaker is the main character, Mariana Shapiro.

“Yeah, Astrid? Can you patch me through to Jazzie and Trixie?”

The Point of the Bechdel Test

I don’t pretend to always write stellar prose. Yet all three of these works pass the test. And all of them do so within chapter one. Rather than making the reader dig, I lay it all out quickly.

For other writers, though, it may be more difficult. Lewis Carroll takes longer to bring Alice together with someone female with a name. And even then, the character’s name is ‘The Red Queen’.

But does that count? Beyond the name question, does it count because Alice is a child and therefore probably would not be talking about men?

And what happens if the piece is about lesbians? If they discuss the objects of their affections, does it count? Or… not?

The Bar is Set Low

Talk about setting a low bar! The two women don’t need to be strong. They do not need to be intelligent. A film or book can pass the test if two named women discuss crocheting. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

However, my point is, passing the test doesn’t automatically turn anyone smart. Or kick ass. Or anything else. Instead, it just means two named female characters spoke, however briefly. And their subject, however briefly, was not a man.

Hell, they could even be two slaves discussing the quality of their chains.

But hey, it’s something. And it’s necessary. Good lord, is it ever. Because the last thing we need in the indie writing community is people writing about “Girl 4”.

But when two named female prisoners discuss the food in the prison, the work passes. Still, it’s not exactly feminism-friendly.

Return to Prose

Let’s go back to my three examples. The speakers in the Untrustworthy book are married to each other. The ones in The Obolonk Murders and The Enigman Cave are colleagues.

While Selkhet is subordinate to Peri Martin, and Astrid is to Mariana Shapiro Chase, they are still addressed respectfully. Just as relevant, the interactions are professional ones.

However, Mariana is more informal than Selkhet. But that is the way I write Marnie (Mariana).

Do the interactions have to be meaningful? Not really. The character Ixalla and her wife Tathrelle could be beating each other for all the reader knows. At least, given the one sentence, above.

Maybe Peri smashes Selkhet to bits right after the above statement. Maybe Mariana fires Astrid.

So the test doesn’t ‘fix’ any of that. It doesn’t guarantee heroic characters. It just guarantees names and the power of speech. And they, at least one time, don’t talk about a man.

More Issues with the Bechdel Test

The test is imperfect. It’s very hard to pass it when writing historical fiction. Of course female characters in the past could have names. They could speak of something other than men. But the time and place will dictate something else.

In the 1860s and 1880s (for example), men drive most of the action outside the home. But that’s not sexism; it’s reality. Still, since Scarlett O’Hara and Prissy discuss Melanie Hamilton Wilkes’s baby, then yes, Gone With the Wind passes. So it’s not impossible. It’s just tougher.

With The Real Hub of the Universe, Ceilidh O’Malley and Frances Miller Ashford sometimes discuss work or the like. When the action shifts to Ireland, Ceilidh and her mother, Mary, talk about finances.

So, it can be done. It helps when the women are relatives or they room or work together.

Contrast this with Time Addicts. Josie James‘s boss, Carmen D’Angelo, is female. So we’re already part-way there.  When they discuss time travel or universe changes, the story passes. Making the main antagonist female helps with this as well.

Takeaways

Creating well-realized female characters means naming them. It means having them speak. And it also means giving them more than one subject. It means giving them something, anything to do.

And it means not defining them by how others perceive or ignore them.

After all, when was the last time you thought a male character should only be discussing relationships? When was the last time you thought he shouldn’t have a name (unless the character is truly minor, seen for a paragraph or two and no more)?

And when was the last time you thought it was okay—barring any specific all-distaff settings like sororities or women’s colleges—to not see more than one of them in a piece?

If any of those are a problem for you, then you know what the Bechdel test is really about. And you know your work should easily pass it without having to tie itself in knots.

A Look at Genre Treatments in Writing

Let’s start with the most basic of questions. What are genre treatments?

Genre Treatments

When it comes to genre treatments, do you treat horror, science fiction, and romance all the same way? Or do you just stick to one genre and call it a day?

What are Literary Genres?

It might help to understand just what literary genres are. Let’s start with the short one.

Nonfiction

Narrative nonfiction tells a story. Biographies and autobiographies are often more or less subsets of this. While it’s possible to relate a biography in a non-narrative form, that’s pretty rare. Essays are a form of short nonfiction. And speech is pretty self-explanatory. Is it the truth? Then it’s not fiction. Kinda obvious there.

Fiction

But there’s a lot more here. Poetry is usually rhythmic (although it doesn’t have to be) and has evocative imagery. Drama is serious stuff, and it can be a part of theatrical performances.

Humor or Comedy?

Humor is of course the funny stuff. Don’t confuse it with comedy (although we use the terms interchangeably in common parlance). Comedy is just when the protagonist lives at the end of the piece. Contrast that with tragedy, which is where the main character dies by the end. But comedy, traditionally, does not mean something is funny.

By this definition, A Clockwork Orange is a comedy.

Fantasy or Myth?

Science fiction and fantasy are often close. While fantasy is generally more otherworldly, science fiction usually dovetails with possible science, no matter how far-fetched. Fairy tales, in contrast, are generally drawn from folklore. The more general term, folklore, goes beyond stories to songs and proverbs from long ago. Legends, on the other hand, often have a basis in fact. This can be the subject (a national hero, like El Cid) or the plot. A fable is often short, but it always contains a moral lesson. A short story is generally too brief for a subplot.

Realistic fiction is also fairly self-explanatory. It’s fiction which could be real. Historical fiction adds a historical dimension although it’s often also meant to be realistic.

Horror evokes fright and visceral reactions. Tall tales are overly exaggerated and are virtually the opposite of realistic fiction. Mythology is a traditional narrative with a religious or faith-based component. Mystery involves the solving of a crime or uncovering secrets. Finally, fiction in verse is much longer poetry which contains subplots and major themes.

What are generally not considered to be full-blown genres? Young adult, adventure, romance, etc. Hence the idea, for the most part, has more to do with length and execution than subject matter.

How Do You Treat These Genres?

First of all, consider pacing. Horror often slows down, and then speeds up. Mystery might take a while to build to a satisfactory conclusion. Furthermore, mysteries contain red herrings. Myths might contain repetition. Some of that comes from oral tradition. Humor is all about timing. Drama can often be slow and building. Traditional poetry may have a sing-song rhythm. Adventure might have a fairly straightforward line from beginning to end, continually amping up the stakes.

Your Personal Genre Treatments, and Mine

What is your particular spin? Do you use short, choppy sentence to speed up the action? Do you also choose shorter words?

One subtle trick I have learned is to use passive voice when a character is a victim. The way I see it is, if things are happening to a character without their consent, then the subject of any sentences describing that should be deemphasized.

So for me, my way to handle genres varies due to emphasis. While I mostly write in the science fiction genre, it encompasses a ton of differing emphases. A story might be funnier, or sadder. The Real Hub of the Universe is essentially historical fiction done up with science fiction clothes, with mystery thrown in. Whereas the initial Obolonk trilogy is a police procedural/mystery, again wearing the costume of science fiction.

Takeaways

Consider your genre as you write.

Genre treatments are kind of like rules. Follow them, at least to start. But don’t be afraid to break them on occasion.

A Look at Scene Setting in Writing

Don’t leave it to chance. Scene setting is important to know.

What is Scene Setting?

Basic scene setting is a fundamental skill which every writer needs to perfect. A scene is more or less a species of character. Your scene needs some care and attention—and description.

Let’s look at some ways to do it.

All the Old Familiar Places and Times

When your story takes place on Earth during the present day, you’re in luck! You can get away without going over basic information. Present-day Moscow has cars. Today in Paris, people use the metric system. Current day Kentucky has telephones.

So your really basic information is already there. Don’t waste time or pixels or reader good will by explaining any of that, unless it’s somehow important. E. g. if your Russian character was raised in the sticks, maybe they never saw a car before. If your Parisian is a transplant from the United States, she might occasionally forget that most countries use different systems for weights and measures.

And if your Kentuckian was deaf and now suddenly can hear (and also led a sheltered life) telephones might be odd things which now have a purpose they didn’t have before.

But even for a place found on Planet Earth which you think you know, you should still do some digging. And don’t just look at touristy sites! I live in Boston. It’s not all Faneuil Hall Marketplace, not by a long shot. By the way, here’s a public service announcement from me. Harvard University is in Cambridge, not Boston. And it is far from the only university in this city.

This helped to inform how I wrote Mettle. Present-day Boston has cell phones, triple decker buildings, and French fries. Just like pretty much every other present-day place does.

Familiar Place, Unfamiliar Time

Then there’s the scenario where your location is close or familiar. But the time is not now. So, what is it, the past or the future?

Forward into the Past

If it’s the past, then you need to do some research. Wikipedia is not a good final source, but it’s not a bad first one. What I mean is, you can start there, particularly if you are unsure about names or parameters. But then you need to branch out.

Hence if you are trying to determine whether there were gas lamps lighting the streets of Berlin in 1740, you might want to start with looking up gas lamps and moving on from there. If they were invented later, then that answers your question. But if they were invented earlier (I honestly don’t know), then you should be looking at other sources.

You can check footnotes, or just do some creative Googling. I have found The Library of Congress has some great old images. But you may need to spend some time looking, as not everything is logically labelled.

Scene Setting for The Real Hub of the Universe

This was the exact situation for the Real Hub… series. A lot of us think we know the Victorian Era. But we don’t necessarily. Queen Victoria reigned from 1837 to 1901. In the United States, this is a time frame from Presidents Martin Van Buren (the 8th person to hold the title) to William McKinley (the 25th). The sewing machine was invented in 1851.

In 1875, Edison applied for a patent for the light bulb. So, you can see that the time period encompasses a lot of changes. People from the first year of her reign wouldn’t recognize all the trappings of life from her reign’s last year.

One way I set the scene was to only use language which was in use at the time. Etymy Online has proven to be exceptionally valuable for this. One thing I learned is that the word faze was in use. Subtly avoiding anachronistic language helps with scene setting in the past.

Back to the Future

For the future, of course you can invent what you like (and I will get into that with another blog post). But it pays to do some research anyway. Get an idea of what’s coming. If, say, solar-powered belt buckles are being patented, then why not put them in your near-future story? However, if you are writing a deeper, later future, you might want to make them passé.

Scene Setting for the Obolonk Universe

In this universe, our planet is divided into several megalopolises. In between, Earth is mainly zoological parks, going back to the original savannas and steppes and the like it was before human habitation. The Boston Meg encompasses all of New England. Rio-Recife-Montevideo is on the eastern side of South America, and so on.

Familiar Times, Unfamiliar Places

For alien places, consider what it means if the gravity is stronger, or weaker. What happens if the atmosphere is thinner? One way to make things easier on you is to research similar locations. The Andes or the Himalayas could stand in for a planet with thinner air, for example.

Let’s Go Off-World

One way I set the scene in the Obolonks trilogy and its successor, the Time Addicts trilogy, was to adopt naming conventions. As a result, every town and landmark in the Jovian System comes from rock groups. Hence, Ankaville is the capital of Callisto. The names of famous women work for Venus.

Hence, Navratilovaville and Garland City. The naming conventions also helped tremendously when deciding on other things like the names of schools or sports teams.

One idea I got (which I love, if I do say so myself) was to decide that terraforming operations are smelly. Hence, every orb would have a signature smell. Is it pine, or a fireplace? Lemons or chestnuts?

Totally Alien

Consider not just the look, but what happens when you engage your other senses. Is the place hot? Smelly? Smoggy? Is the landscape muddy? Frozen? Sandy? Urban and loud? Do your characters have to climb? Cross rivers?

Scene Setting for Untrustworthy

For Untrustworthy, the people and the scene were both so utterly unfamiliar that I needed more familiar touchstones. This meant adding a central river which characters had to cross using bridges. It also meant creating a new form of going, the transportation sleigh. A reader even asked me if Caboss is a snowy world.

And I’m still not sure! But all these alien things have familiarity baked right in. We all know what sleighs and bridges are. This made it easier for a reader to connect to what went on in that book.

Scene Setting Takeaways

You can put the reader in the action by engaging multiple senses. Latch onto the familiar if you can. Analogize to give the reader a faster understanding of the place. Do the homework, even on the small almost throwaway scenes, so your readers won’t have to.

Scene setting is a vital skill for every writer. #amwriting