(This is sort of a complex and long post and I am sorry I have no one else to ask !)
I've googled a few topics on this and gotten a wide variety of answers that were all very insightful, but nothing really specific to my question so I thought why not? My question is does anyone have any advice on how to help readers connect with my character without specifying sex or gender? I'm worried the changing pronouns may confuse and turn off some readers and that's really not my intention! Is personality and name enough to connect someone to a character? The character was born with one specific gender and sex but their abilities mean they never stay in one form for too long.
The characters very nature means they shift from one sex/gender to the other (they're a shape shifter) at will and when they do so they become that gender/sex or creature and I refer to them as such within the course of the story (example, at one point the MC is a female lemur and I call them she, then the MC shifts into the form of a male house cat and becomes he, whilst keeping the same name.) The theme behind it is discovering who you really are, the character (whose name is Gabe) is trying to find their father after their Mothers murder, because of hint that they will discover who the murder was and what happened to her if they find their real birth Father. As the story goes on it becomes a quest of the mc discovering and figuring out who they're meant to be/who they really are as a person. As Gabe has never known a father, the logic is "If I find out who my real father is I'll figure out who I am!" Of course as the story goes on and the real father is revealed (with much surprise, and dissapointment and shock) Gabe figures that you don't need anyone else but yourself to decide who you should be so at that point, gender and pronouns solidify.
But to get to this point there's a lot of going back and forth, and I think I may turn readers off...should I just refer to the Main Charater by the gender/sex they become at the end of the story? Or should I use the one they were born with? (which: SPOILER, the MC decides to stay the gender/sex they were born with) Or should I do what I originally planned shift back and forth as the narration goes along? Did I make any sense with this post?
I've googled a few topics on this and gotten a wide variety of answers that were all very insightful, but nothing really specific to my question so I thought why not? My question is does anyone have any advice on how to help readers connect with my character without specifying sex or gender? I'm worried the changing pronouns may confuse and turn off some readers and that's really not my intention! Is personality and name enough to connect someone to a character? The character was born with one specific gender and sex but their abilities mean they never stay in one form for too long.
The characters very nature means they shift from one sex/gender to the other (they're a shape shifter) at will and when they do so they become that gender/sex or creature and I refer to them as such within the course of the story (example, at one point the MC is a female lemur and I call them she, then the MC shifts into the form of a male house cat and becomes he, whilst keeping the same name.) The theme behind it is discovering who you really are, the character (whose name is Gabe) is trying to find their father after their Mothers murder, because of hint that they will discover who the murder was and what happened to her if they find their real birth Father. As the story goes on it becomes a quest of the mc discovering and figuring out who they're meant to be/who they really are as a person. As Gabe has never known a father, the logic is "If I find out who my real father is I'll figure out who I am!" Of course as the story goes on and the real father is revealed (with much surprise, and dissapointment and shock) Gabe figures that you don't need anyone else but yourself to decide who you should be so at that point, gender and pronouns solidify.
But to get to this point there's a lot of going back and forth, and I think I may turn readers off...should I just refer to the Main Charater by the gender/sex they become at the end of the story? Or should I use the one they were born with? (which: SPOILER, the MC decides to stay the gender/sex they were born with) Or should I do what I originally planned shift back and forth as the narration goes along? Did I make any sense with this post?
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