Writers! Come and Talk About Writing!

Only as needed in the story. I find it better for a story to develop itself rather than hamfisting an LGBT element in it. It would be very jarring and people will notice it. I have 2 stories with LGBT as main theme though:
The first story:

Spoiler

The first story is light-hearted coming-of-age deconstruction of fairy tales:
It begins with a prince who ran away from home after his father choose to come out about his relationship with the court jester. He decides to partakes the quest that all princes must do at one point in the life - rescuing princesses! He heard of a princess locked away in a tower, guarded by a powerful witch. He attacks the witch and got his ass kicked, biiig time.

Then he was nursed back to health by the witch's daughter, who is a transgirl, and also who then asked him for an insanely large amount of money for her service of taking care of him. She has a dream of being a princess. But she is neither loyalty nor even a cisgirl, both of which is kind of required to be a princess in this fairytale world. So she has a plan of building an army and conquering a country or two, then declare herself as a princess. However that needs money, and she gotta start from somewhere.

But the prince, being a run away, got no money. So she curses him, and he has to work for her until she got her payment back for the curse to be lifted. They go to towns, taking on quests and go off for adventures for riches and profit! While the witch's daughter works his ass off, the prince also learn more about her and her personality, about her trial in life, trying to be accepted as a girl, trying to live like one. And she learns more about his struggle with accepting everything he can't yet understand around him, and his relationship with his father: he doesn't hate his father, he just wish he could have been a part of his father life. Somewhere along the way, the witch's daughter has feeling for him. (<- that was the most horrible synopsis of a char development I ever wrote, but word counts...)

Finally, after some adventures, she got the money he owe her and release the prince from the curse. The prince, growing stronger through the adventures, feeling confident that he can take on the witch again. He was wrong, and promptly get to face the nasty end of some serious attacks. And it did not help that the witch noticed him hanging out with her daughter, and she does not like the idea of her daughter associating with guys she did not approve yet. Not one bit. And so she throws at him the most powerful spells she has.

The battle does not look good for him, but then the witch's daughter appears. She calls for a time out, and then offer him aid in the battle. The prince, knowing from experience, asks what she is demanding for a payment. She asks for a kiss.

The prince was flustered and and have no idea what to say, but the witch, hearing the conversation, was mad. She resumes her attacks, ever more powerful, and the prince has no choice but to defend himself.

The witch's daughter voluntarily help him out with the battle this time though. Countering spells with spells, and giving him blessing to buff him up, she gives him an advantage, enough for him to almost land a blow on the witch. Then she blasts him off.

The prince struggle to stand up and prepare for the worst, but the witch just gives up. She let him get in the tower. She is tired of all this. She says he can go meet the princess now, but that is probably not he wants.

And up to the tower he goes. After many flights of steps, he reached the princess' room and knocked. The door opened and the princess called for the witch's name. Her face was full of happiness at first before suddenly turned into despair as she realized it was not the witch, but the prince. She cries.

The prince frantically try to calm her down. And then she told him her story: she is lesbian. She ran away from home to avoid a political marriage with a man she never met before. She met up with the witch here, whose husband has died and was living with her young daughter, and the princess was saved by the witch from the dangers of the forest around the towers. The princess begs the witch to "kidnap" her, so that she may escape from her fate. The witch obliges, and decimate all effort of "saving" her thus far. As they live together, they fall in love with each other. And then we are here.

The princess told him the princess he seek is not in this tower. She asks the prince to leave her be, and let her live with her lover in peace. The prince agrees. But he felt more lost than ever. He fought for nothing. He descends from the tower with heavy steps.

As he exits the tower, he is greeted by the witch's daughter in the sunset.

She tries to cheer him up. She talks about rumours of another princess in another castle, being guards with dragons instead, so it is unlikely she will refuse him - unless she is into dragons...

The prince look at the witch's daughter, and realized. The princess he seek for is not the ones in towers nor in castles. Not the ones that are in songs and stories that tell him to find for, to fight for, so that he can rescue them and claim them like a trophy. Love does not work that way.

The princess he is looking for is right here before him.

He hugs the witch's daughter, kiss her, and propose to her.

She promptly beats him down with spells. (Like mother, like daughter.)
She just can't believe what he is saying. She tells him she is going to hold him for ransom from his country if he is joking around.

But the prince told her his feelings. And she cries. She cries, because she finally someone accepts her as she is. Someone who knows her, someone who had witness her at her worst, someone who has seen when she is most vulnerable. And that person love her nonetheless.

She accepted his proposal.
After all, he is a prince, and if she marries him, she will be a princess at last.

They live happily ever after.

The end!
-----------------
Notes about ages for people confusing about the relationships:
Prince is about 23-25 years old. Witch's daughter is 18. Princess is about 30. Witch is about 38-40.

Also I managed to only have 3 major characters as LBT, sorry G, you are only a minor supporting char in this story. >.<

...
I think somewhere along the way I stop writing a synopsis and kind of writing out the whole story huh. There are still so many details I skipped though - mostly character development. But I guess it should serve as a skeleton description of the story i have in mind

Since it is 5 AM here, I guess I have to skip introducing the second story in details. But here is the short (really this time!) version of it:

Spoiler

It is a darker sci-fi story set in the not-so-far future where humanity discover a new life form: an alien symbiote that can bond with a male host, then use their genetic material to form a "perfect mate" for them, looking no different than a female member of the host's species, exchanging sex for protection and food. This discovery create major societal upheaval when people start commercialize them, selling them as living sex toys for guys. The story revolves around a transgirl who was accidently bonded with the alien life form due to her chromosomes, and how she handles life with a creatures that only wants to have sex with her as a male. They will eventually be a center of a revolution related to human relation with the alien symbiotes, with society's struggle with sex and women's right, and conflicting views of different groups each want to do a different thing with the symbiote.

There. Now I need to sleep. Screw grammar and spelling.

 

Always. All of my stories have some kind of queer couple/male-on-male action.
But most are erotic stories so actual issues of LGBT aren't really touched on.

However, my story 愛の風 (love's wind) will be doing so. It's basically about a sort of forbidden romance between two musicians in the Japanese underground scene, not able to show their love for each other, only behind closed doors. It touches on being LGBT in Japanese society (particularly in the music industry), as well as the transition of one of the characters (who is a male-bodied female leaning androgyne).

 

Thank you, I'm glad it interests you because if you're interested in it, others will be too and that makes it easier to justify spending so much time on it.

 

Well, webcomic now.

Speaking of which, here's some of the drawings made by my friend who will be doing the drawing of the webcomic. She doesn't upload a lot of stuff on the internet anymore, but there are some to be found.

This one's actually of two characters from the story, although it was a draft and it's old.

Spoiler

This one is one of her most recent ones and yes, she did do everything by hand, even the background.

Spoiler

Her artstyle goes really well with my stories, so we're both really looking forward to working on it.

 

Thanks guys for answering!

 

So here is a question from me:

How do you develop your characters?
I usually take a lot of time building their profiles and background to the point I can write a biography about them, then toss most of that information away because they are not relevant in the story. Does anyone self-indulge like me and waste a lot of time?

 

I primarily write historical YA and thrillers but have been known to dabble in fantasy. This July I'm scheduled to meet with two literary agents about my current series --- looking forward to throwing myself to the sharks. Ha! (In all seriousness, I'm terrified but am hoping like hell all goes well.)

I am a huge supporter of the We Need Diverse Books campaign so my characters are diverse in general, be it in race, religion, sexuality, gender, etc. Regarding LGBT themes, my current manuscript features two bisexuals and an asexual.

I do. It can help, but in the end my characters always surprise me and write themselves.

Hey NingyoBroken, I must admit "Inside of Him" and "愛の風 (Love's Wind)" both sound very intriguing to me. Regarding the latter tale, I've always enjoyed studying Asian cultures --- I even go out of my way to subtly reference the Red String of Fate in all of my works. Are you familiar with that legend?

 

I didn't wanted to post anything here, 'cause I might relapse, but today, as I was doing a backup of my junk, I heard a fragment of one story I might try to finish.

 

I do the opposite of this. I take a bare bones character (maybe name and gender, little else) and throw them into the story, shaping them only minimally by choosing their actions and reactions. The more this happens, the more they develop a personality of their own. From there I can refine their speech, appearance, and general worldview. The biography comes later if necessary, or if making a concrete profile like that will help me figure out something I need from them if the story needs it.

 

Usually not very much. The only exception would be "Love's Wind", as the two main characters are real people, both of whom I am already a huge fan of, so I already know a lot about them, including their behaviour/way of speaking and some interests.. Haha, being a creepy fanboy pays off!

---------- Post added 15th Mar 2015 at 04:04 PM ----------

Hey NingyoBroken, I must admit "Inside of Him" and "愛の風 (Love's Wind)" both sound very intriguing to me. Regarding the latter tale, I've always enjoyed studying Asian cultures --- I even go out of my way to subtly reference the Red String of Fate in all of my works. Are you familiar with that legend?[/QUOTE]

Really? Never though anyone would say they are interested in "Inside of Him". It's just a short and weird vore story. Not my best work.

"Love's Wind" though, will probably be my best yet.
Yes I know of the red string of fate

 

An amusing and, I think, fun technique is:

Think of various scenarios and situations, from the mundane to the ridiculous. To list some possible scenario/situation ideas:

- Ordering at a restaurant.
- How would they respond to being bullied?
- Who would be the absolute worst roommate for them?
- Watching a terrible movie.
- Being forced into a 48 hour car trip, with a clown, a priest, and a 14 year old suburban Goth kid, as their only companions.

Now, as the author/creator, think about what each character of yours would do and say. How would they go about these? Now, write out those scenarios/situations, in first person, from the perspective of your character. Not only does this give you practice and allows you to put a toe in the water, it grants you diversity, which can reveal any shortcomings or problem areas in character depth.

By doing this myself, I polish my cast, and it saves me from some possible headaches later on.

 

I am a writer of both original an fan fiction.

I have a fictional character based on the girl I love. Lately I've been experimenting with merging her into one of my older universes that I created when I was younger. The result is, I have taken the characters from that older universe, aged them a bit and shoved them into uni with the other character. I've also found myself mentally ripping apart my pairings and experimenting with the idea of different ones. So I suppose I've been writing fan fiction of my own original fiction? Haha.

 

I do a lot of writing, or at least I think I do. Maybe I just think about it more than actually doing it. I've written a trilogy that is unfinished and needs edited, big time. It's sci-fi. But I'm working on a new thing now that I'm writing as its own book but could go on longer. It's young adult and dystopian.

However I need to develop my self discipline and write more often without distraction. My ideas folder surely grows faster than I can keep up. Most of my ideas are just thoughts and I usually take a single idea and expand upon it later.

 

I often go into a lot of detail with my characters' pre-story biography (from birth onwards, basically), but I don't consider a waste of time. I find out a lot of stuff that way about them, and often some detail of their childhood will tie in to the actual story at some point. It also helps me understand their motivations, what's driving them at every step of the plot. Most of what I know will not end up in the novel, but it's not wasted information to me.
I do it for world-building, too, when I'm writing fantasy. I'll develop entire countries and their histories, so the world makes sense to me and hence, in the story, reactions also make sense.

(Loosely) regarding heatqueen's post, I've been writing fanfiction for almost as long as I've been writing original fic, and I write them both with the same "seriousness." I think I do it for different reasons, though. Fanfiction is exploring a world I love and reliving my favorite parts over and over again and playing with what could be. The original stuff I write is more personal, more of a release. I'm so glad I have writing. I'd probably go crazy without it.

 

Oh world-building is quite nice too, and I enjoy it a lot. In fact, you can get great stories from just writing about your world alone without a major character: The Silmarillion by J.R.R Tolkien is an example of world-building turned stand alone story that precede the whole Lord of the Ring series, and even the Hobbit.

It is like being a historian of your world, and at the same time, it's creator. It is a wonderful thing.

Character building, however, are much more focused and small scale, and sometimes I couldn't figure out how to work certain facets of a character into the story in a meaningful way, because some of them are not relevant to the on going story and writing them in feels forced.
For example, one of my character may have a certain taste for a type of tea, but throughout the whole story there are no reason to mention tea at all (they could be too busy saving the world, solving mysteries, defeating enemies, doing training montages, and falling in/out of love with a bunch of people at once), it would be just lost information that won't ever appear. Save for, of course, when you hit it big and there are fan asking you random questions about your characters. But that is a different thing.

But still, it is such an enjoyable activity, to see your character grow and fleshed out. And even lost information can be contributed and condensed into character's personalities (though I think that can be done easier by just throwing the character into the story).