Writing Trans: Writing with Euphoria

waystoraise:

As something of a companion to last week’s article I’ll be talking about writing with gender euphoria today.

Gender Euphoria is the counterpart to dysphoria and comes in many flavors, some of which have to do with our bodies and some of which don’t. It tends to be talked about more rarely, especially with how trans stories are so often framed almost completely by our difficulties and suffering. But that isn’t all we are. Euphoria is unique to every trans person, but in essence it is a vital enjoyment of ourselves, a feeling of completeness, of resonance with our bodies, our identities. As such, even at its simplest, it can be just as complicated to write with as dysphoria, and similar, in many ways.

Just as you should when writing about any part of the experience of a marginalized group, be respectful and don’t write or speak for experiences if they aren’t yours. For a slightly more detailed explanation, feel free to look back at last week’s article where I expanded a little more on this idea. You can also look through our gender euphoria tag to see different ways people view their euphoria and how they talk about it.

Clarity is also just as important when dealing with euphoria as it is with dysphoria, though writing about euphoria is somewhat different. It is written about less, and so there isn’t as much baggage as there is associated with dysphoria in traditional narratives, coloring how your readers will approach your characters . At the same time, it is written about less, there isn’t nearly as much to draw on or write against; you cannot say if an experience is different than how it is commonly thought of, if it isn’t commonly thought of. Each character’s experience, and relation to their gender and euphoria, needs to be built from scratch. Requiring you to write clearly, emphatically. Don’t obscure what you mean, and don’t feel the need to alter it for cis readers to understand. Give them something to learn.

Probably the most important thing to keep in mind here is that trans and nonbinary individuals are possesed of complete and unique experiences. We are not wholely dysphoric, or euphoric, or ambivalent – feeling any of those isn’t a requirement of being trans. Just like relationships with our bodies, the relationships trans and nonbinaru individuals have with their gender is nuanced, it isn’t one dimensional. And it shouldn’t be written as such.

In short

• Gender Euphoria is complex, and unique to each trans individual, but at its root is the positive counterpart to dysphoria; feelings of joy, completeness, a sense of being whole in relation to your gender and person.
• Don’t write the experience of any marginalized group if you don’t belong to it.
• Do write characters who have complete feelings and experiences, both related to their gender and regarding everything else.
• Write clearly, write trans.

Please feel free to send us your favorite trans authors, a little bit about your favorite trans characters, or any questions or topics you’d like to see me address, too. For some of our new followers, you can find past Writing Trans articles here in the tag.

-Chris