/lit/ - Literature

>>19398540
Open the document and get cleaned up and comfy if you have to. Lay out the things you've been thinking about and jump into a scene. Come up with a goal for the scene and see who shows up and how it turns out. It'll be fun.

>>19101490
>Bechdel Test
It's too specific and really what you should be asking is does my character only have feelings about one thing and how do I make them more well-rounded and realistic. Give them a variety of emotions, weaknesses, quirks, mannerisms etc.
The Bechdel test just helps write women realistically as being able to focus on something other than their love interest (or whichever man they obsess over). If you are writing Romance you can absolutely allow your character to obsess over a person and someone lovesick people do.

I ignore shit-tests like this out of spite. I put in characters from backgrounds that are plot relevant and make them think about things that matter. Recently I edited a scene of the protagonist's wife learning how to do something with a different male character, and only at the very end of the scene is her husband brought up because they are forced to acknowledge a dramatic irony that was brewing for a few chapters. There's also a scene where she talks with a woman in public, but not about her husband. Does this pass the test? Don't care. This character was originally a Pentecostal and raised to be submissive and traditional, which is very other from what I'm used to. Bechdel wouldn't understand this background and behavior is crucial for her motivation to connect with others and the decision she makes in the story.

Furthermore, the outline for next story I'm working on has Jews and Persians from 700 BC. Am I gonna look up shit-tests on depicting Jews? No, but I'll talk to a few Jewish theologians to get the ancient stuff right. I just want to make them likeable characters that are true to the world they lived in, not the pluralistic world we live in today.