Hey, it's Ace Week!

For fun, here's a random thread of some things I've struggled with as an ace author, most of which I've done entirely to myself.

WRITING ALLO (non-ace) POV CHARACTERS - I keep doing this. It's all fine and good until suddenly they're supposed to be attracted to someone and I'm like uhhhh...oh crap.

I had my big chance to make my new protagonist ace with Rooks & Ruin! Why didn't I, you might ask?

Because my main character's deadly touch and social isolation would have made it TERRIBLE ace rep, feeding into bad stereotypes and raising confusion about whether she was only ace because of her circumstances. NOPE.

Someday...someday.

Which leads me to struggle #2: FEELING WEIRD ABOUT BEING ACE BUT NOT WRITING ACE POV CHARACTERS WHEN MORE OWNVOICES REP IS ALWAYS GOOD. Ah well! (I do finally have a bi MC in THE OBSIDIAN TOWER & its sequels, at least! (I'm also biromantic))

RECEIVING EDITORIAL FEEDBACK ABOUT ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS - OMG, this is THE WORST. Totally my fault for writing them, & I *want* feedback, but like...nothing is more terrifying than when I get some comment like "needs more sexual tension" and I'm like right cool cool HOW?!

FIGURING OUT WHO'S ACTUALLY ACE - So I kind of tend to write most of my characters vaguely like they're somewhere on the ace spectrum unless they're specifically not, because that's what comes naturally to me, but I've only put the Canonically Ace stamp on one on the page.

So does Swords & Fire have ace spec rep? Does Kathe count because he feels kinda demi to me? WHO KNOWS! I certainly wouldn't expect to see any Swords & Fire books on ace rep lists given the ambiguity, but I wish I had a good way to let my fellow aces know they're...ace-friendly?

ACTUALLY PUTTING CANONICAL ACE REP ON THE PAGE - Kessa in TOT is ace spec, and it was important to me to make that super clear, so I had to try to work in dialogue that would leave no doubt but also wouldn't be, like, totally random and awkward. It was harder than I expected!

AVOIDING CHEESY ATTRACTION TROPES - So...for those allo POV characters...all I have to go on here is cheesy tropes. I keep using them, or implementing advice on writing attraction too literally, & then getting feedback that comes down to "you're overdoing it" in drafts. Oops?

Those are the ones I do to myself! There's other stuff I struggle with that's more serious & externally imposed, but I'm in the mood to keep this lighthearted, so for today I'll leave it at that.

Happy Ace Week to all my fellow aces out there!