Brian’s Big Mistake
I recently re-watched the 2017 episode of Family Guy, where Brian the dog tweeted that he was about to watch a movie. He failed to see that his post was wildly racist.
This fictional event got me thinking about my public interactions. While I do not use Twitter or Instagram, I post articles and write books. Could something I create be misinterpreted, taken out of context, or accidentally offensive? That is a real possibility because I must push boundaries so my work stands out. My controversial topics include murder, aliens, intimate relationships, deceit, theft, fraud, torture, plagiarism, working with criminals, and entrapment. Each one of these topics is a potential powder keg of public outcry.
Also, the public is bombarded by offensive noise, and they have grown to ignore it. From outlandish comedians pushing every possible boundary to news about hate crimes. It is easy to assume that a “casual” remark is acceptable. For example, two people joke around, and an author might think, “Hey, that joke was funny. Since I heard it in public, it must not be too offensive. I’m going to use it in an upcoming book.”
Could I overcome such a mistake? I cannot because my meager status as an upcoming author does not have a loud voice to overcome millions of people reading/creating slanderous posts about my mistake. What damage could this do? The best case is that my efforts to become a successful author would be put on hold for five years. The worst case is that all online markets would remove my books, and people would continue to insult me until the day I die. Yikes!
How likely is this to occur? To answer this, we must think about the Family Guy episode. Some nobody tweeted an offensive post. In real life, people tweet offensive material all day long without consequence. So, the reality is that it is unlikely that a large group will form to attack a nobody author like me.
Yet, the public is fickle. Who knows what random subject people will latch onto? Recall that all major news outlets focused 200% on the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 for six months during 2014. There were many wild theories, calls to action, pseudoscience, demands for more searches, and expert opinions. The public absolutely could not get enough.
Also, the public is bombarded by offensive noise, and they have grown to ignore it. From outlandish comedians pushing every possible boundary to news about hate crimes. It is easy to assume that a “casual” remark is acceptable. For example, two people joke around, and an author might think, “Hey, that joke was funny. Since I heard it in public, it must not be too offensive. I’m going to use it in an upcoming book.”
Could I overcome such a mistake? I cannot because my meager status as an upcoming author does not have a loud voice to overcome millions of people reading/creating slanderous posts about my mistake. What damage could this do? The best case is that my efforts to become a successful author would be put on hold for five years. The worst case is that all online markets would remove my books, and people would continue to insult me until the day I die. Yikes!
How likely is this to occur? To answer this, we must think about the Family Guy episode. Some nobody tweeted an offensive post. In real life, people tweet offensive material all day long without consequence. So, the reality is that it is unlikely that a large group will form to attack a nobody author like me.
Yet, the public is fickle. Who knows what random subject people will latch onto? Recall that all major news outlets focused 200% on the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 for six months during 2014. There were many wild theories, calls to action, pseudoscience, demands for more searches, and expert opinions. The public absolutely could not get enough.
What am I doing to prevent myself from making mistakes? My first line of defense is to write in a safe space devoid of offensive topics. For example, I would never intentionally write something racist. (I also do this for moral reasons.) To do this, I make sure my characters, while flawed, do not cross certain lines. For example, if my story involved a biker gang member, I would avoid making them racist, sexist, or a stereotypical biker. As a result, if readers were motorcycle enthusiasts, they would not give a second thought to the scene. “A hard-core biker committed a robbery. No big deal.” Now, if I made the biker out to be a bumbling idiot or a racist, then people would be offended. “Hey, not cool!”
There is a tradeoff with writing in this limited space. My range is limited, and this has consequences. For example, I have wanted to write an article about how the media portrays women poorly. The problem is that to create such an article, I would have to list examples that would offend readers, so I will never publish such an article. Bummer.
Another method to avoid controversy is heavy editing. Thus, I review each article for three weeks before posting. If I uncover anything even remotely offensive, it gets deleted. Since my writing adventure began, I have deleted three articles to keep controversy to a minimum. What were the topics? I am not falling for that one.
For my books, there is no choice but to have at least three pairs of eyes reviewing my words. I eliminate or edit the offending section if they detect anything remotely offensive.
My last line of defense is to pull an article or book if the public has a bad reaction. My second book fell into this category, and I released a second edition that corrected the problem. That was a big mistake and a hard lesson. Did this mean that my creativity was compromised? You bet.
My biggest failing in this area is not researching every sentence. For example, I enjoyed the show Leverage. There is plenty of material to discuss. After all, the show was popular and well-written. Yay!
It turns out that the show’s star, Timothy Hutton, was accused of a 1983 incident. This greatly affected his reputation, and if I had not known about this incident, I could have easily written an article praising Timothy Hutton’s character and received substantial backlash. Would the public care that much about one of my timid articles? It only takes one angry person to get the ball rolling.
What are some examples of mistakes I caught? I uncovered one last week in an upcoming book. A female main character made a mistake and then joked about her error to the male main character. It read well, but on about the fourth editing pass, I was shocked by my unintentional sexist creation. The problem was that humor is easy to misinterpret. So, I re-wrote the entire section.
My conclusion is that being an author is like walking in a minefield. Eventually, I am going to step on one or more mines. Hopefully, my minefield only contains small ones.
You’re the best -Bill
October 02, 2024
There is a tradeoff with writing in this limited space. My range is limited, and this has consequences. For example, I have wanted to write an article about how the media portrays women poorly. The problem is that to create such an article, I would have to list examples that would offend readers, so I will never publish such an article. Bummer.
Another method to avoid controversy is heavy editing. Thus, I review each article for three weeks before posting. If I uncover anything even remotely offensive, it gets deleted. Since my writing adventure began, I have deleted three articles to keep controversy to a minimum. What were the topics? I am not falling for that one.
For my books, there is no choice but to have at least three pairs of eyes reviewing my words. I eliminate or edit the offending section if they detect anything remotely offensive.
My last line of defense is to pull an article or book if the public has a bad reaction. My second book fell into this category, and I released a second edition that corrected the problem. That was a big mistake and a hard lesson. Did this mean that my creativity was compromised? You bet.
My biggest failing in this area is not researching every sentence. For example, I enjoyed the show Leverage. There is plenty of material to discuss. After all, the show was popular and well-written. Yay!
It turns out that the show’s star, Timothy Hutton, was accused of a 1983 incident. This greatly affected his reputation, and if I had not known about this incident, I could have easily written an article praising Timothy Hutton’s character and received substantial backlash. Would the public care that much about one of my timid articles? It only takes one angry person to get the ball rolling.
What are some examples of mistakes I caught? I uncovered one last week in an upcoming book. A female main character made a mistake and then joked about her error to the male main character. It read well, but on about the fourth editing pass, I was shocked by my unintentional sexist creation. The problem was that humor is easy to misinterpret. So, I re-wrote the entire section.
My conclusion is that being an author is like walking in a minefield. Eventually, I am going to step on one or more mines. Hopefully, my minefield only contains small ones.
You’re the best -Bill
October 02, 2024
