Writing Advice: They/Them and Story Burden
What can you do when beta readers complain your use of singular they/them pronouns for a nonbinary character is confusing? First, find out how familiar your beta reader is with preferred pronouns and singular they/them. Is it a general discomfort with a concept they haven't had much exposure to? Are there specific moments in your work where the beta reader couldn't tell which character or characters were being reffered to? Quick Fixes Include context tags like "shakes their head" where by context "they" must be singular because a group has plural heads. To emphasize it is just one person, try "they alone. To emphasize multiple people, try "all of them" and "they both." You can use "the (adjective) ones," "the ones (prepositional phrase)," "Jim, Jose, and Sara," or "the couch sitters." Medium Effort Fixes Give the nonbinary character a very short nickname and replace most of the pronouns with ...