What if it includes gay characters?

Question: What if it has gay characters?


Answer: If the story is written to appeal to a gay audience, then you would use gay or LGBT as just another audience designation, like women's, Christian, or children's fiction.

Some genres are identified by audience, others by setting (e.g. Western, Victorian, space opera, fantasy, contemporary). Others are identified by type of story (e.g. crime fiction, romance, disaster, horror), and others by how they end (tragedy, tragi-comedy)

Any of these designations can be combined to make new genres.

For instance, steam punk mixes Victorian with science fiction. You can have a children's historical novel or a young adult mystery or an LGBT Western romance.

And there are dozens of subgenres too.

Of course, a book can include gay characters without being necessarily intended for a gay audience. Lots of stories written for a general audience have minor characters who are gay, and (unfair as it may be) gay villains abound in literature and film.

There are even a few authors who write LGBT Christian fiction, though I think it's a very small subgenre.

Comments for What if it includes gay characters?

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Gay characters
by: F.EN.I.X.

I'm not exactly sure of what you're asking in your question. I don't think there is necessarily anything wrong with having homosexual characters in your novel. This can add or detract from a story depending on how you use it. I have just recently "discovered" Watchmen in my resaerch for writing a super hero-based novel and, though the movie did not imply or discuss it, the comics had three super heroes who were homosexual. Two were men who were in a relationship together and the third was a woman who was in a relationship with a non-heroic character. I'm not sure how much it is discussed in the comic itself, but this adds a little bit of depth and reallism in my opinioion. To me it made the heroes seem a little more human to know that they had skeletons in their closet and were not perfect people (not just the homosexual heroes, but all of them). I think though with a subject matter that is so controversial in our world, you have to tread a little lightly and just be careful how you use it.

Ofcourse remember that it IS your book and you should write it exactly how you percieve it in your mind. If you are happy eith what you're writing, then it will turn out a lot better than if you're trying to make someone else happy or please a certain group of people.

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