... Actually a lot of "LGBT stories we wish we could see" lists that I've found feature "two same-sex gay friends who are not even remotely interested in each other" pretty high up.
Yes, and with tweaking I probably could make them platonic. I think that—as either gender—if they are homosexual & homoromantic, their friendship makes more sense to evolve into romance The two are much too intense for true platonic—so they either have to tone down a lot (which is where the story is right now) or they should just end up together already
Yes cause a burned bald Marckus with tits would change the story. (Might spark up Gas-Mask Fetish flash-fic though). Graxis with boobs, might affect his swordsmanship. Also it would not change the character all the much beyond the ability to wield a sword. (There are plenty of mammary wielding reptilians in the story as it is.) As for Corlixia. Well that is a bag of cats that would change the thoughts of the character in many ways. And ruin a good portion of the already written narrative.
I don't know Obviously you do what you want, but the straight man and woman in my own book are Platonic Life Partners who love each other as friends more than either of them have ever loved a boyfriend or girlfriend (and no, the guy they raped in high school does not count as "a three-way")
And that is beautiful, and I definitely believe in that sort of bond between same & opposite sex friends (I have it with my female absolute best friend and our newer & less intimate male best friend, though our intimacy with him has been increasing steadily over time). This particular story unfortunately is not about platonic relations: It's intended as a present for the actual platonic love of my life (and I adore her more than anyone or anything, and she cherishes me beyond what I ever expected from anyone), and she just so happens to have very specific tastes in fiction. She likes over the top romances and romantic dramas, and that is the main focus of the story for both the female protagonists. She gave me specific requirements she wanted for this story, and with what was already determined as the direction of the story, it was a foregone conclusion that the girls' relationship was at an unhealthy level and they needed to let go of one another (although they still love each other, but no longer as means of selfish enabling) While I did get slightly upset with the direction (you can't miss the irony in writing a story about two best friends fighting to be together only to have to admit their relationship is harmful and they need to separate as a present to my best friend), I eventually (after a month or two) settled down and just accepted it. Most of the stories I wrote for her with two female protagonists (initially because her favourite genre otome heroine's require a female foil or else a lesbian route, which I tried to follow but then just branched off into my current habit of two best friend equal MCs) are incredibly reflective of our own intimate, platonic relationship. I figured one story going an unusual and unexpected route was okay just this once. Even if these stories are only intended for a singular person's entertainment, I don't want to get complacent in writing the same old story in new trappings.
Interesting question, particularly since we've been having a spirited discussion in Word Mechanics on gendered vs. genderless characters, and the impact of gender on a character. My mc is a depressed, sullen, isolated 13-year-old girl named Rosa whom we only ever know through the eyes of the narrator, Kevin, a 13-year-old boy. As they at one point become romantically involved, if I were to flip one, I'd have to flip the other (yes, yes, I know, I could always make them gay, but other elements of the story would render that nearly impossible - for one thing, Rosa's mother from the beginning of their friendship is thrilled with Kevin's attentions to Rosa and openly encourages them). Rosa is completely isolated from her classmates - it's a defense mechanism for her. As an outsider who is ethnically different from the rest of the class, Kevin is also initially isolated but his athletic prowess helps him overcome that. Flipping their genders would mean that the now-female Kevin character would need some other means to overcome that initial isolation, from a group of 13-year-old girls instead of boys. And aloofness for a now-male Rosa character certainly wouldn't work - such an attitude would encourage endless harassment and he would ultimately be drawn into fights.
Lol at Neutral Good INTJ Wow meets Jung Umm, well my recent novel is a female character flipped from a male. I had to slow down certain plot points and speed others up. She actually does better in a fight scene cuz she has stronger resolve, deeper thought, more to lose. She does better when it comes to conviction and taking on the problems head on cuz she has a more developed sense of social mechanics. What she is slower on, and what she lacks is the large scale grounded intellectual formidability the MC had. Not to say she isn't formidable, I think shes stronger than the male counterpart, it is just that I consider his weakness to be deceptively useful.
Given that the setting of my WIP is a society where gender stereotypes don't exist, not much. My MC would still probably be a flirty, greedy git.
Yeah, I'm thinking that when Amy started out as a serial killer (a couple of years before my book starts), she was more of a Rogue than a Fighter: using her "feminine wiles" to get her victims' guard down, then dazing them with something blunt before cutting them open once they're helpless. That would not work as well if she were a James instead. After about a year of doing it like this, she hires herself out as muscle for Charlie's up-and-coming cocaine ring, and she loves working with the other enforcers in a more paramilitary fashion that allows her to use firearms and teamwork instead of having to rely on stealth and solo for everything. My first book is about her and her friends discovering the existence of magic, and after she becomes proficient – over the course of the series – in spells of strength, toughness, and control over metal, I'm thinking that she's going to have a lot of fun beating down gunmen with medieval weaponry That part would work if she were a James, but it would still rely too much on the earlier parts that wouldn't work. I think that the popularity of MyersBriggs has actually started to work down the stereotype that men have to be T and women have to be F (there are a lot of the inverse on the personality forum I go to the most), but yes, it would still come up here and there. Charlie in particular (the ISTJ) probably had some trouble getting some of the guys in her cocaine operation to do what she told them to do (when a man is in charge and focused on his employees doing their jobs, he's "The Boss," and when a woman is in charge and focused on her employees doing their jobs, she's "Bossy" ). At least until it was made clear to everybody that a) Amy was loyal to Charlie, despite being extremely Chaotic Evil, and more comfortable with violence than any of them were, and b) Charlie was better at running the business than any of them would've been. The female INTJ in my same story, for example, is a vampire who wants to commit such extraordinary crimes in the present day that she'll be able to read books that people are still writing about her own exploits 100 years from now (my story also raises the possibility that she was the Zodiac Killer). I haven't come up with any scenes where she's specifically pointed out as being counter-stereotypical for a woman, but largely because my narrator (Alec, Lawful Evil ESFP) is already so used to his friend Charlie being the same way. The vampire could potentially work as a male, but then nobody would be able to read his evil monologues in anything other than Heath Ledger's voice
My protagonist is obsessed with a woman to the point where he desires to be just like her. He begins dressing in women's clothing, does his make-up the same way she does, etc. I feel like if he were female then it just wouldn't have the same impact.
I don't know, there was an episode of Castle where a side character of the week spent the episode dressing up as Kate Beckett, and I remember everybody involved finding it disturbing
I think "vampire" may be enough of a step-outside-the-box that a lot of the more traditional reactions to her wouldn't really apply!
No part of my story still works if I change the sex of the protagonist. Am I the only one in that situation?
I came pretty close: my Doctor Who fanfic had 5 lead protagonists, my Urban Fantasy WIP has 4, and I could only genderbend one of each easily: What are your own characters like, and how would genderbending any of them not work?
> What are your own characters like, and how would genderbending any of them not work? They're men and women, and they inhabit a world in which men and women are treated differently. I'm... 9000 words in? ...And already I have half a dozen plot elements that simply do not work if you swap them around--even if I assume you're swapping the male lead to female at the same time as you swap the female lead to male.
I wouldn't have the same conflict in my story if my protagonist was the opposite sex. Then again, my protagonist lives in a world of gender stereotypes.
Well, it's not even necessarily about stereotypes. One of the early plot points in my story is that the protagonist gets some help from someone when a door closes in her face. Odds of the protagonist receiving that kind of help if she were a he are about zero, because no one gives a fuck if a man loses an opportunity.
For the book I'm currently shopping around to agents, I'd probably have to change the title. "Sister Blades" suddenly makes a lot less sense. Younger sister character wouldn't really change at all, though another character would be very romantically interested in a male version of her. Older sister is a huge flirt; assuming I didn't make her(well, "him" now) gay, I'd have to be careful not to make her attitude towards casual sex predatory in nature. My current WIP, the main character is an older woman in the diiiiiiiiiiiiiistant future, where gender is somewhat irrelevant, and mankind has shifted towards a different list of traits to discrimate/judge people over.
I've found that a good way to avoid that problem is to have multiple LGBT+ characters, some of whom might be more flirty/promiscuous but others of whom are definitely less so
Last MC I wrote was a man trying to hide his ethnic origins in a highly anti-Semitic community. One of the major plot points was trying to hide his circumcision in the showers every night at his job in a coal mine. I'm not exactly sure how that would transfer to a female protagonist.
Haha, the character is currently very flirtatious with guys, and I meant that should she be gender-flipped, I'd have to be careful with writing a male character who sleeps around casually, without making him sleezy/predatorial.
