Published Date: 24-01-2025
Word Count: ~300w
I do think original characters (and fiction in general) are a good way to experiment with things. Lives you wouldn't live, situations you wouldn't want to get into, and so on. A great sandbox for all sorts of experiments and situations.
For the longest time, my original characters were used as a way for me to experiment with gender. When I was a 13-year-old girl, I made my first male persona character. I didn't know what exactly compelled me to do this, but being able to express myself as someone different from me has always appealed to me.
Afterwards, I started experimenting with my characters' gender more, like creating transgender characters when I first learned about them, creating characters who exist outside the gender binary, tweaking and playing around with my characters' gender expression, and so on. Having some form of sandbox where I can really mess around with the concept makes this a very liberating experience for me. A lot of times, my characters may or may not reflect my current gender journey too—like how a lot of initial APCverse characters end up being agender, then soon I realized I'm agender myself.
A lot of characters' genders are based on vibes they give off to me. Sometimes they may reflect my current interests, sometimes they may reflect my current journey, or sometimes they just exist. I don't usually define it cut and clear, leaving it open to a lot of room for interpretation. (Though, there are moments where a character's gender is a vital part of their narrative.)
Oh, yeah, as controversial as this trend may be, but I like the idea of genderbend/genderswap/whatever you call it. I may get picky over the designs at times, but overall, I like the idea of reinterpreting a character into a different version of them a lot.
Maybe this is why the idea of Alternate Universes/What-if scenarios/Canon Divergence appeals to me.