Writing gay and lesbian characters

[elaby]

This is an issue that seems to be popping up everywhere right now, so I wrote a post over on my blog, Tea Under the Pine Boughs.

There have been a whole bunch of cool resources making the rounds on Tumblr lately on writing outside of your own identity experience, particularly on writing LGBTQ characters if you’re straight and/or cisgendered. I think it’s awesome that people are writing these – queer* authors aren’t the only people who can write queer characters! We need all of the queer characters we can get! – but I keep running across a particular piece of advice on writing gay and lesbian characters that, while I consider it valid, needs more exploration and expansion.

Read the rest at Tea Under the Pine Boughs...

Comments

[eglantine-br.livejournal.com]

I am so glad that you posted this. I have been thinking about just these things.

I am writing a story about Christofer Marlowe. He is in some ways unlike me. He was a gay man, who was also a genius poet and a spy! And he has been dead for 400 plus years. I am none of those things.

There is a lot I will never know. I don't know how sex feels in a bosy unlike my own. That is one thing.

But CM is very like me in some ways. He falls in love, he gets dumped, he tries to do the things he thinks are right. He worries about the future. He misses his parents. He worries about the people he loves.

I think, if we are writing about a life, and a being very different from ourselves, the things we do understand can make it seem more real.

At least, that is my hope.

[elaby.livejournal.com]

I think you're absolutely right. Bringing your personal experience to writing about someone whose life was different than yours will add an additional level of reality, because you can really accurately describe those feelings. I also think that research into what it was like to live as a poet and a spy and a man with romantic interest in other men in the late 1500s gives you valuable understanding as well.

Also, Marlowe FOR THE WIN. I adore Marlowe and am fascinated by his life and work, so it's super awesome that you're writing a story about him :D

[eglantine-br.livejournal.com]

Thanks. The story is about him and Thomas Kyd. The begining parts are up on my journal. Also there is tons of Horatio Hornblower fanfic.

I really believe that anyone we write has to have bits of ourselves. That is why writing can hurt, and make us think. I have a hard time writing 'bad guys.' Thaey are bits of me too.

[svenskakj.livejournal.com]

I love this. To ignore the discrimination and disenfranchising societal messaged faced is to ignore a complete facet of the character's experience.

[elaby.livejournal.com]

Yes, so much this! Thank you :)

[ketsuki.livejournal.com]

You brought up a lot of good points and I'm glad you posted this! This and your previous entry on that blog (about Victorians) are quite pertinent to the novel I've been working on for the last few months. One of the secondary main characters is a strong woman born in Victorian England and a lesbian. And I've been increasingly becoming aware that I think my main character is gay as well.

[elaby.livejournal.com]

That's awesome! I'm glad you found it useful :) Victorian lesbians are very relevant to my interests! :D

[coastal-spirit.livejournal.com]

I've been meaning to comment on this ever since I read it. I echo the other comments that have been made. This is an excellent and well-thought-out article. *snuggles*

[elaby.livejournal.com]

:D Thank you, Mama! I'm really glad you think so :)