Straight Characters Naturally Becoming Bisexual (against the author's plans)

This reminded me of Goodreads.

To the OP (and anyone who's interested): If you check readers' comments on fantasy books with queer / LGBT themes, you might get an inkling of how a wider audience feels about such books.

 

You are the writer, and your characters are your creations. It is therefore not possible for them to go in a direction that you don't want them to go. What is really happening - and this is the normal process of the evolution of characters - is that as your story unfolds, new ideas occur to you that were not present when you initially conceived the story. This is why outlines should be loosely constructed. It's also why skipping ahead to a later part of the story when you're stuck on an earlier part sometimes creates more problems than it solves - when you go back to write up to the later segment, you find it doesn't quite fit because of subtle changes that have occurred to the character.

What is possible is that new ideas can occur to you with which you are not comfortable, especially if the new ideas represent a radical departure from the kind of character you had initially planned. In such a case, you can choose to reject the new idea as too alien to the character that you had in mind, or you can change the initial concept of the character to accommodate the new idea. But please do not fall victim to the romanticized notion that the choice is somehow beyond your control.

 

Pretty much. Bisexual invisibility is a problem in society generally though.

Is that really a "wider audience" or is it "Those people who are willing to comment on things"? The latter is generally more negative.

 

I think it's wider than this forum. Earlier someone pointed out that this forum isn't necessarily the best source to find out how bisexuality would be received in general. There's less traffic here than in e.g. Good Reads and Amazon.

 

It's possible that its just different circles, however with your examples (e.g. too long, romance, fantasy etc) i think that comes down to preference of content/genre rather than preference of character. When i read a book I imagine I'm in the world, i might even imagine being the MC and experiencing the whole thing especially if as the reader we have access to his/her thoughts. If something, rightly or wrongly jolts me out of that immersion then i lose interest.

I'm accepting of all types of sexuality, however i dont understand them all. I cant visualize being bisexual, it just doesn't work for me.

 

Right or wrong, I think a lot of readers would be put off if a character they are following and perhaps empathising with begins to demonstrate sexual tastes that differ from his or her original default. If the character is not really the main or central actor in the story, then the problem lessens.

However, if the indications were there from nearly the beginning and it was just that the character was never in a situation to act on his desires/leanings until mid way in the story, then I think those who liked the character in the first place wouldn't be upset or disturbed.