I did this in a novel I wrote, actually. I assigned TLA ‘names’ based on their job (ENG, PIL, etc), and any time a gender would normally be referenced in the text I used XXX - both for easy searching. I got about 70% of the way through when my beta readers rebelled - they absolutely HAD TO KNOW what gender everybody was. Sigh.
But by this time the characters’ personalities and speech patterns were well established, so I flipped a coin for each one, and continued onward. I’ll probably do this again some day and just ignore the beta readers.
I did this in a novel I wrote, actually. I assigned TLA ‘names’ based on their job (ENG, PIL, etc), and any time a gender would normally be referenced in the text I used XXX - both for easy searching. I got about 70% of the way through when my beta readers rebelled - they absolutely HAD TO KNOW what gender everybody was. Sigh.
But by this time the characters’ personalities and speech patterns were well established, so I flipped a coin for each one, and continued onward. I’ll probably do this again some day and just ignore the beta readers.