Writing Tips To Go From Fabulous To Fantastical

LGBTQ+ Characters

Happy Pride Month!

Disclaimer: these are opinions coming from someone that isn't attracted to the same gender, so take this with a grain of salt.

There are several ways to approach this. I prefer "show don't tell"--don't call a character gay and never mention it again. However, this doesn't always work with multi gender attracted identities. (Bi, pan, omni, poly) I say my character Carman is pansexual, and she's dating a woman. Dem is nonbinary, and I always refer to them with they/them pronouns, and made it clear in the first chapter they were androgynous.

Being gay isn't a personality trait, either. Their sexuality shouldn't affect who they are as person outside of relationships. It can add to them, of course, like how they view the world. I look at love differently than most of you probably do. But try to avoid the "Gay Best Friend" stereotype.

There should be diversity in every story. Only cishet white characters are boring and unrealistic. Don't be afraid to combine minorities. One artist has a Muslim lesbian OC, and that's perfectly fine. There are lesbian Muslims out there, and representation is super important. This also lines up with not being afraid to make your villains queer. It adds life to your book.

It can be hard to establish a character as LGBTQ, since you shouldn't info dump. At the same time, don't leave it up to reader interpretation. JK Rowling saying Dumbledore is gay doesn't work unless she said it in the books. Please canonically confirm your characters aren't cishet.

Here's a list of identities you can give your character. There are way more; try looking stuff up. Everything that says -sexual can also be replaced with -romantic.
- gay
- lesbian
- bisexual
- pansexual
- asexual
         - demisexual, graysexual, fraysexual, lithosexual, etc. Same for -romantic
- aromantic
- omnisexual
- polysexual
- abrosexual
- demigirl
- demiboy
- trans mtf/ftm
- nonbinary
- genderfluid
- intersex
- questioning
- and I'm 100% sure I'm missing something obvious so please let me know what it is

*please note aromantic and asexual people are not heartless, thanks

*if you get queerphobic comments, report them. At the very least correct them. Be polite and they might listen. (Or at the very least you'll escape without an argument)

If you have any questions, ask them! I'd be happy to answer.