SeaFoamWrites

The problem with queer-coded villains is two-fold. First, that they were based on the idea that queer people were inherently villainous, that is, that the queerness was a part of what made them villains. But that's a function of how they're written, and you don't have to write them that way. Second, if the only campy or queer-coded or outright queer person is the villain, then again, it's saying that queerness is inherently evil. If there are more LGBTQ+ characters than just the villains, that solves that problem.

And a lot of people would rather keep it unfinished and perfect in their head than done and flawed and out there. an unfinished draft can still be anything. once you finish it, it becomes one specific thing with specific failures that specific people can point to. so you keep tweaking. you keep saying it's not ready. you go back to the beginning again.

Try to stay away from the smart/nerdy Asian stereotype. Plenty of Asian people are very smart, just like in any other race. However, stereotypical racial representation is worse than none at all. By all means, you can have an intelligent Asian character but make sure their intelligence is not the main factor of their personality.

Write more than just East and light-skinned Asians. In most cases, if an author wants to have some Asian representation they’ll throw in a Chinese or Japanese character. And while yes, there aren’t very many Chinese and Japanese characters as opposed to white, there are even less Southeast, South, and Middle Eastern Asian representation. Not all Asians have light skin, even in East Asia. There are plenty of Korean, Chinese, and Japanese people with dark skin!

 Do your research when naming Asian characters. Unless you want to end up like J.K. Rowling who’s sole Asian character was named Cho Chang. Do not just throw a last name with an ‘ong’ or an ‘ang’ at the end.

Represent plus size Asians. Asian women are stereotyped as petite, and just like white plus size women, plus size Asian women need representation in media.

Asian people don’t eat everything with chopsticks. I didn’t think that needed to be said, but here we are.

Create Asian characters with an alternative fashion sense/style. Asians with dyed hair. Asians with piercings. Asians with tattoos.

Stay away from the strict parent Asian stereotype. In fact, stay away from every stereotype, okay?

Keep in mind, stereotypes for other races aren’t the same for Asian people.

By all means, write about Asian culture. BUT MAKE SURE IT IS ACCURATE!!!

Write Asian characters who get in trouble and/or are reckless. Asians that swear. Asians that break rules. Asians that get detention.

WRITE ATHLETIC ASIANS!!!

Do not, under any circumstance, use the word ‘chinky’ to describe an Asian character. Just. Don’t.

Asian people face racism too.

Don’t fetishize or demonize Asian culture.

Asian people, feel free to add some more on! If you’re white or non-Asian POC do not comment if you reblog! (Unless it’s to say something like, oh nice tips! Or thank you, I didn’t know that!)

If you can, reblog. I haven’t seen any for Asian OCs.

-remember that guy in ATLA who helped Aang unlock his chakras? Don’t. Please, please don’t.

-please don’t write us as evil.

-if you want references to good rep, just ask (me,or any other Asian people you know.)

-if you do have Asian characters, don’t be afraid to make them queer, disabled, or anything else that’s under-represented. We are not just cishet,abled people.

-again, as op said, do Not make them a stereotype. Search up stereotypes. And avoid them. You may want to ask for sensitivity readers too

-reiterating OP’s first point, the smart/nerdy yet socially inept Asian? Don’t do that. Please.

-Asia is full of several diverse cultures and many different religions. Often times, religion becomes a part of the culture. Please, please do your research before you utterly butcher one or both of these. 

-Elaborating on the above point, I have read quite a few books where a character (mostly from Asia) who either wears a hijab or continuously uses Allah’s name, but are as far from Muslims as one can get. Its cringey and honestly sometimes just painful to see. A few words and a head scarf do not make a Muslim. (I am sure there are other religions as well as cultures who have possibly suffered a bias like this , but since I don’t know them as well as my own, I’ll refrain from commenting upon any)

True. The smart/nerdy stereotype is so annoying. I’m only good at English out of every subject (and a bit drawing, I guess) ‘cause I enjoy stuff in English, not because I like to study. Fuck that. My teachers all tried to make me do my homework and all gave up ‘cause I still aced their tests without even needing to study. Also, like everyone else, most of my class don’t like to study. We study because of our dreams and ambitions for our future. If you want to go with the ambitious Asians, go ahead. Just make sure to be clear that most of us still would rather hang out than study.

My skin is not too light or dark. Most Vietnamese still like their skin fair BUT it is because of this thing. In the old days, rich or royal females didn’t have to work on the farm so their skin was light, which has been considered as beauty, even til now. I can’t say for other Southeastern countries though. You have to ask those from other countries. All my friends, we have skin tones ranging from as light as that of a white person to as dark as that of Southern Asians.

Yup! Some female Vietnamese names you can use: Anh, Hà (River!!!), My (Beautiful!!!), Hương (Aroma!!!), Trang, Nhung, Hoa (Flower!!!), Ngọc (Gem Stone!!!), Nhi, Hạnh, Thảo, Quỳnh (The Old Guard *winks winks*), Dương (The Sun!!!), and moreee. Some have meanings, and some go with other words to have meanings 😃

Male, here are some: Minh, Hiếu, Huy, Lợi, Bách, Phong (Wind!!!), Thắng (goes with Lợi - Thắng Lợi - means Victory!!!), An (Safe!!!), Anh (yup, gender neutral, usually depends on the middle name to point out which gender is the name’s owner, but most overlook this), Lâm, Sơn (Mountain!!!), and moreeee!!!

Hell yessss! Most Vietnamese I’ve met are in reasonable weights though. We do know how to stay healthy with vegetables (it’s kinda weird not having vegetables for any meal) but we do eat meat. Kinda a lot too. Though, remember to have characters represent plus sized Asians! God knows one of ny friends almost broke down in tears once seeing an art of a plus sized girl. And not even Asian! Yet she almost broke down to see positive representation of a plus sized girl in drawing.

Chopsticks are super useful to eat! But, spoons are always present in a house! And forks too! And DO NOT with the whole hair in bun with chopsticks! Nope! I use hair ties when I put my hair in a bun. Or sometimes older women use fancy ties or ornaments or whatever they are. Chopsticks don’t belong with hair!

Awww yisssss! I, myself, do have some piercings and am intending on getting tattoos later. Half the girls in my class have more than two piercings on the earlobes. And a boy in my class has ear piercings, tongue piercing and a tattoo. A girl had a tattoo. Our parents are still against these (kinda) so we’re keeping things slow.

Also, I would like to say a bit more on myself. I love languages, I love drawing sceneries, I love rock and metal and Broadway, I enjoy writing, reading and all that. I like to think of myself as a punk rocker and would like to go to the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam. I love cute, fluffy dresses, and I love playing basketball (also, ther jerseys are so comfy wtf!?). My eyes are not like how most people stereotype Asians eyes. They are pretty big and I love them (nothing against those with smaller eyes though - I can’t remember the name of that type of eyes, sorry). I’m also an atheist and I respect your religions.

And I don’t mean that in sort of “uwu have faith in yourself! You can do it!!” kind of way. I’m not here to repeat empty affirmations–I’m saying you’ve consumed a lot of media over the years. You know what you like and what you don’t like. You have good taste. 

But if you’re like me, all that certainty goes out the window when you’re writing your own stuff. “Will the readers like that?” you think. “This is too weird. It’s unrelatable. Nobody else’s story looks like this–I must be doing something wrong.”

“This is silly,” you tell yourself. “Why do I even bother?”

And when you start doubting yourself like that, that’s the moment you stop creating. You get blocked and stressed and it gets all too easy to fall back on cliches and stereotypes. You start stripping away the things that make the story uniquely yours in order to make it look more like everyone else’s. 

Which is infinitely sad. 

You’ve lived a life no one else has seen, and you have ideas that nobody else in the world could think of. Even if the story has been ‘done’ before, there’s nobody else who can tell it like you. You can start with the most ‘cliche’ idea ever, but if you come at it with any measure of emotional honesty, it’ll still be new–because it’s being told by you. 

I just finished a draft of a book that’s probably the most painful thing I’ve written so far. It’s way out of my comfort zone, and I had to explore aspects of myself I prefer not to think about. I did a lot of second guessing, and a good bit of whimpering facedown on the floor because writing is scary and hard. 

And rereading the draft now, the absolute best parts are the bits where I gave up on convention and I wrote what I wanted exactly the way I wanted to write it. Yeah, it’s kinda silly and kinda dumb and kinda just a big load on nonsense–but it’s MY nonsense. If people like it, great. Wonderful. If they don’t like it, well–reading is a subjective experience, and maybe my work just isn’t for them. That’s okay. 

Be you. Be honestly, genuinely you. It’s a scary, vulnerable position to put yourself in, but… Even if you’re one in a million, there are 7,000 people just like you–and that’s 7,000 people who will read your work and go “this writer gets me.”

surgeonsblog

article i found this from^ (w/even more resources)

redwoods medical edge

^article where i found that

this article is short/basic/doesn’t link anywhere else, but i found it very helpful anyway

supposed to be good but to me, seemed difficult to navigate. (dp lyle)

this on the otherhand, is the jackpot (novelmalpractice)

tumblr blog centered around this topic

this is more about the common pitfalls/anachronisms of medical fiction but still helpful

writing medical scenes: useful links by paul anthony shortt

the last one im going to include is an article by a doctor about common mistakes in popular medical shows, i liked this one

It is possible to find both sapphic SFF and M/M fantasy. It is significantly harder to find, say, aro urban fantasy. Or trans romantic suspense. Or intersex mystery.

A lot of the advice above only really works for trad published or popular books and for identities/subgenres/content that aren't too niche.

So here's some advice if the advice above isn't working for you (either because you can't find books with what you want or because the books you are finding don't end up being the vibe you want), from someone who reads a few hundred books a year:

Find websites or lists dedicated to the specific thing you are looking for. They will generally have more variety and will post you to examples that don't show up in regular rec lists. (ex: aro book recs, ace book recs, intersex #ownvoices database, sapphic books). Goodreads lists can (sometimes) also be your friend.

Get comfortable reading self-published and small press books. Trad publishing has its blind spots.

Check Reddit for recommendations

Start figuring out what it is specifically that you like and then start making your searches more specific. This can be subgenre (if you want urban fantasy, you're rarely going to find it just searching "fantasy"), tropes, plot devices, vibes, etc.

Look at the "readers also bought" on Goodreads/Amazon, similar books on Storygraph, etc. if you read a book you like. Even if you don't end up reading the one you click on, it can show you similar authors (similar to looking at the blurb on a cover), especially because far fewer books have blurbs now.