whicgh stereotypes do you most hard to shift when you are writing? I find colours quite complex to use because for example Red signifies danger but then it is also linked to the 'redlight District' which is conflicting for me. Then Blue is usually a masculin/boy colour and Pink is a feminin/girly colour. then white/brown/pale are associated with skin colour.
I find this kind of amusing. I think in colours more than I do in words: every single person and every creative piece of work (books, films, songs, etc) has a colour associated with it in my mind. I know the majority of people associate pink with "feminine" it but when I think about my male MC I automatically think "pink". I don't think I have any problems like this with writing.
Do you understand the reason why you do think of your Main Character as pink? And are your main characters nearly always men?
what do you mean by connotative? I found this in dictionary.com do you think this quote I found a stereotype or not?
I don't have a clue! I just automatically associate things with a colour. I think of his partner as light yellow-green colour, his main client as a sky blue and two other key characters (one male, one female) are both purple. And, yes, they are.
Interesting. I cannot possibly imagine that for my characters because I see them as perfect beings/people not colours. Do you think that by chosing a sepcified gender over another as your main characters in your stories is a type of stereotype? Because for example in Hollywood films most heros/antiheros/protagonists are all men and therefore would say that in itself is a stereotype.
I see real people as colours as well - not just characters. Animals too. Even the song I'm currently listening to has a colour. Must just be how my mind works. I wouldn't, no. I may stick to male main characters yet I write in a genre where female MCs are more common: romance.
Romance takes two to tango but I see what you mean. It is the way it is done in films too , I could just try and imagine a James Bond as a lady and the all their key characters as a man figure. I mean how fun would that be to watch for me of course, from a woman's prospective that would be the icing on the cake. Nikitta the movie springs into mind. That is a female MainCharacter yet perceived as a the complete opposite of what you call common/romance. That really upsets the balance to think of a woman as that bad.
When I write romance both of my characters are usually male. Occasionally male/female but most of the time it's two men. Afraid I don't know the film.
Do you mean romance between two men? James Bond is a spy series started in the sixties. I am surprise you have not heard of James Bond. He is world famous.
Nikkita is movie adaption from a French film. It is pretty violent but well made. so do you do have a specific market for your romance stories. I have yet to come across books with two men romancing each other. That would be a first for me and would make a change from the obvious man to women.
lol, sort of selling the lenght of the Bond series short. Bond is more of a archytype then an example at this point.
I have no aims to publish these stories, so no. I have had a short story in the genre published as part of an anthology but that was in order to help raise money after the Tōhoku earthquake rather than as an aim to get my writing out there. Stereotypes are used to convey ideas quickly in order to draw in the largest possible audience and because I'm not trying to appeal to anybody I don't see any reason to stick to conventions.
I am not a fan of James Bond but you would have heard of the series although you would have never actually watched it. This is not selling short.
I think like this as well. Sometimes when I am creating characters, I will try to challenge myself by using a color I don't use very often. I keep character notes, and one of the first entries is the character's color. I know this is only sort of on-topic, but I find it interesting to explore. Do you think you associate certain types of personality or character with certain hues or shades? I wonder if this is a product of growing up with super sentai shows, where each character had a theme color. Random trivia time: until the 40's, pink was considered a color for boys. ("The generally accepted rule is pink for the boys, and blue for the girls. The reason is that pink, being a more decided and stronger color, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl." -- From an article in Earnshaw's Infants' Department, June 1918.)
Long story short, they're about teams of costumed superheroes. The team members dress in different-colored uniforms and each have a unique power or weapon or something. Like Power Rangers -- I don't know if you know what that is? And yes, it's for real. I forget where I first heard it, but I always look stuff up to make sure before I go posting it on forums and I found it on Wikipedia. Curious, eh?
Oh yes I have heard of Power Rangers. It is weird about the trivia because now it is teh exact reverse which makes no sense to me.
I'm not entirely sure. Although, having thought about it since last posting in this thread, I've realised that the character's colour and the type of role they play often follows a formula: Most of the time the MC will be pink or light green. If the protagonist is pink then the love interest will be light green or light blue with the possibility of a fling with someone who is purple. If the love interest is light green then the antagonist will be light blue or brown. If the love interest is light blue then the antagonist will be purple or brown. If the protagonist is light green then the love interest will be light blue, yellow or purple with the possibility of a fling with someone who is red. If the love interest is light blue or purple then the antagonist will be pink. If the love interest is yellow then the antagonist will be light blue or red. Darker colours and orange often apply to friends/acquaintances. I haven't written enough main characters who aren't pink or light green to know how it would work. Occasionally protagonists will come under light blue or purple but I haven't written enough characters of these colours to know how it works. ^^;
hi Yoshiko can I just ask what it your favourite colour? and ifd you were to put yourself in a story which colour would you be seen as? I am still intrigued by these floods of colours. I have never seen anything like it.
My favourite is white. I'm not able to see myself as a colour, although I do favour blue and pink when I sign my name.
Are you Japanese? Are the colour conventions the same as the USA and Europe? For example, I understand that in China red is happiness, not danger (and the current UK/US convention of pink for a girl and blue for a boy was the opposite way around a hundred years ago). And I know that white is positive in Japan (although I don't know its significance) whereas it represents mourning in China. That might be a way around colour stereotypes -- become familiar with various stereotypes from different cultures. It would be important to bring the reader along, though.
