Shiloh Skye

@Shilohskye

He/Him
www.furaffinity.net/user/skyewriter

Check out my writing on my FA! Link above!

Shiloh Skye @Shilohskye7/18/2023, 1:35 PM

Need Nonbinary Dialogue Advice

Hey all,

I'm writing a short story that includes a conversation between two nonbinary characters. I'm looking for a replacement for the sentiment "man to man". Something casual the characters say to build rapport by mentioning they're the same demographic. Any suggestions?

Currently, the dialogue is "Tell me, mix to mix, how'd you get roped into that?" Which seems too derivative of gender conforming language, and I'm guessing it's something nb people wouldn't say, and possibly cringed when they read it just now.

Edit: thanks for all the advice so far. I really appreciate it.

#nonbinary #lgbtq+#gender #furry #writing #creative writing #fiction

You must log in to comment.

in reply to @Shilohskye's post:

PronghornPunk @PronghornPunk7/18/2023, 1:38 PM

"Heart to Heart"
"Be Real"
Or maybe just
"Tell me, Honestly"

@bobthebob7/18/2023, 2:30 PM

id honestly still probably just say man to man but that probably says more about my own relationship with gender identity than anything else, mix to mix is super weird i definitely would not do that
"they to they" is something i might say as a joke i guess? probably not good my humour sucks
but in general i don't think an equivalent quite exists, nonbinary isn't a third gender, it's outside the gender binary, so i don't think there's a single term that most people would use in place of "man" here

Shiloh Skye @Shilohskye7/18/2023, 2:45 PM

Thanks for the advice. Very helpful. It doesn't have to be derivative of "man to man". It could also just be another casual way of saying the same thing. I'm not sure how a lot of nonbinary people would express that though.

Glad to hear I guessed correctly that "mix to mix" was super weird. More of a placeholder than anything, at the moment. Lol.

@bobthebob7/18/2023, 3:00 PM

i think your ideal would be to use terms that validate these characters' gender identities in particular, for instance i generally don't like being called a man, but guy or boy (or fem stuff) is ok, maybe some people would wanna be called an enby, i don't mind it but wouldn't be the first thing id go for, and some people just wouldn't want to be termed with anything in relation to their gender. being nonbinary is a whole system outside of the binary as i said so you've really gotta look at the individuals rather than just broad gender strokes

Shiloh Skye @Shilohskye7/18/2023, 3:01 PM

Ah, that's important perspective to know. Thank you. I'll consider that especially.

Joey/Nub ΘΔ @JoeyBuckaroo7/18/2023, 2:32 PM

person to person?
one on one?

mix to mix would definitely not work for me, but that's also because personally I hate honorifics in general.

Shiloh Skye @Shilohskye7/18/2023, 2:49 PM

It seems like everyone hates "mix to mix", which I anticipated. Lol. I wanted to make this dialogue moment an acknowledgement of the two being nonbinary, and that they can relate to each other because of that. The gender neutral "person to person" might work, because it sounds different enough to bring attention to the gender neutrality of the language, but is it something nb people would actually say?

Joey/Nub ΘΔ @JoeyBuckaroo7/18/2023, 2:53 PM

I dunno, maybe it's because I am non-native but I feel like there's nothing wrong or clunky about saying person to person. You can, if you -really- wanna draw attention to the fact that there's two non-binary people talking to each other where the shared gender identity experience is an important part of the conversation, just go for the wordy but natural and clearly-intended "from one non-binary person to another"

Shiloh Skye @Shilohskye7/18/2023, 2:58 PM

Sounds good. I was looking for a bit more of a casual way of saying it because the character is casual and authoratative, but I might have to either use one of those or scrap it.

It's me, Moodle!@MoodleMcDoodle7/22/2023, 5:09 AM

Yeahhh I’m already not a fan at all of Mx as the gender neutral title equivalent of Mr/Miss (just seems like a huge copout to throw an x in there and not give us an actual word that makes sense!!! But that might just be me) so “mix to mix” is very baffling to me. I think if you really want to have it be an acknowledgement of both characters being non-binary in there I’d go with one of the other commenter’s suggestion of “from one non-binary person to another” and if that’s too formal you can easily replace “non-binary person” in that sentence with with something similar like “genderqueer” or more casual like “enby” or even something silly and jokey like “gender weirdo”!

Shiloh Skye @Shilohskye7/25/2023, 5:01 PM

Thanks for that! The term "enby" seems to be winning out amongst all the people I've asked. I only came across one lone soul who liked "mix to mix". Lol.

Pinned Tags