The Author Stereotype

I'm writing this so I can tell people how I feel about the site and it's community. Please do not attack me for my opinions.

Note that this also contains some things that could be taken as offensive to a lot of Mibbians. Please don't rip me apart.


Okay, so something I've noticed about Mibba is that the site is mostly made up of women. Another thing I've noticed is that another good majority of the site suffers from mental illness and/or is gay/bi/pans. Now, I'm not saying that these are bad things, I am pretty sure I'm gay, but I think it says something really big about authors as a whole group. I think that a lot of people on here do write to vent their feelings and use it as a sort-of coping method, but I think that since the majority of aspiring authors do that, or a lot of authors who vocalize about their writing do, that the stereotype for an author is as follows:

1. Has some sort of mental issue such as depression.

2. Has some sort of attraction to their own gender.

3. Is feminine/is a woman.

4. Everything in every story they've written relates to something in their life.

There are probably a lot of other components to the author stereotype, but this is what I've discovered through observing Mibbians and what I've encountered in real life as well. I think that this says a great deal about what society thinks about authors, what authors think is cool or what they want to be like, and what (specifically unpublished) literature is about.

Not all of these components to the stereotype are bad things in my opinion, but I just think that, if someone who's never been interested in writing got on Mibba and took a look at the community, they'd think we're a bunch of crazies. Like, you have teenage girls writing about grown famous men having sex with each other, scene girls self-diagnosing depression and 'coping' with it through angsty poetry, a bunch of sexually-confused teens, and a lot of people discussing suicide. Mibba is quickly becoming one of the leading Creative Writing sites, behind Wattpad and others, and you've probably seen the community's attitude toward them; they say that it's all just crappy fan fiction written by angsty scene teens who don't know the English language enough to be considered an English-speaker... I mean, I'm an aspiring author, what I want to do in life is write, simply because it's what I'm best at (granted I'm not good at many things) and how would this stereotype affect me and my ability to get published? How would it affect my ability to get readers if they know that I am a part of this community of angsty, fan-girling teens?

I personally think that it's a stigma to think everyone will have a negative look on us through our stereotype, but it's also a stigma to say everyone won't have a bias if they see that someone who was a member of such a large and pretty messed up community got a book published. It's kinda difficult to say that someone who's a published author but is also openly advocating a site such as Mibba and that they are on here would negatively affect how their readers perceive them or any assumptions they have about their work.

What I'm trying to say is; people have biases and their opinions. These biases and opinions affect how they view certain things (most Christians with homosexuality, for example). If there is this whole stereotype that quite-possibly can be viewed as negative by the masses, it can negatively affect a member of a community such as this one's chance to become a well-known, respected author. I think that a lot of people look at us, as Mibbians, and see angsty and confused teenagers and think we're amateur and will grow out of writing. I'm saying that this could affect everyone's ability of getting published/read/popular. It's kinda confusing, I know, and I'm not exactly the best at being eloquent but that's that.

Thoughts? Opinions? Questions?
October 16th, 2013 at 03:44am