Gay female lead character

[kingaling]

So. I've decided to transform a character I've had for a while from a bisexual man in his early to mid twenties into a gay woman of about the same age. I don't have it in my mind to make her one of those "lipstick lesbians", she's more along the lines of plus size, not butch but definitely tough.

Any ideas on how I could approach this? This is in first person and it's an urban fantasy. Not sure how to approach writing from this point of view.

[Enjorous]

Well given that people are people and act like people, most of the distinctions won't be clear in everyday banter. It's more important that you create her character, key word there is create. You get to decide her motivations and personality, the most important thing is to make her consistent. A consistent character is the most important element of a believable character.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

So. I've decided to transform a character I've had for a while from a bisexual man in his early to mid twenties into a gay woman of about the same age. I don't have it in my mind to make her one of those "lipstick lesbians", she's more along the lines of plus size, not butch but definitely tough.

Any ideas on how I could approach this? This is in first person and it's an urban fantasy. Not sure how to approach writing from this point of view.

The places where it will make a difference, I would expect, would boil down to a) wherever the social context it's set in treats men and women differently and b) depending on how out she is, possibly wherever her being gay will make a difference to people's reactions.  Is her sexuality going to be of major significance to this story ?

Approach it same as any other point of view; build the character from the experiences they have had.   Not sure I can say anything else useful without some notion of why you decided to change the character and what story purpose that serves.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

You get to decide her motivations and personality, the most important thing is to make her consistent. A consistent character is the most important element of a believable character.

Sort of.

Real human beings are a long way from always being consistent.

[Enjorous]

True, but that doesn't stop us from wanting and expecting people to behave predictably.

[Figging Mint]

True, but that doesn't stop us from wanting and expecting people to behave predictably.

Is this another way of saying "We the readers want the characters we read about to be more consistent than ourselves?"

 

[LizW65]

Is this another way of saying "We the readers want the characters we read about to be more consistent than ourselves?"

 

Come to think of it, we probably DO want this.  After all, writers tend to come in for a world of criticism when they make a character act OOC; whereas if we do something OOC in real life, more often than not people around us just shrug and say, "Oh, (s)he must be having an off day."

But to get back to the original question, I think the point to keep in mind is that people are people first and not necessarily defined by their sexual orientation (unless it's really, really obvious, in which case you run the risk of stereotyping...)  For example, Tanya Huff's Diana Hanson is very much an average teenage girl who just happens to be a lesbian and a powerful magic user--but you wouldn't be likely to pick up on either through casual conversation with her.

[Figging Mint]

Pigeonholes are always too small to fit real people.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Pigeonholes are always too small to fit real people.

Well, pigeons are kind of smaller than people.

[Enjorous]

Well, pigeons are kind of smaller than people.

The hell you say!!

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

The hell you say!!

Just to clarify; basically I have nothing against pigeons; they taste too good for that.

[Enjorous]

You eat pigeon? I've heard of people eating crow, but never pigeon. Do they taste like chicken?

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

You eat pigeon? I've heard of people eating crow, but never pigeon. Do they taste like chicken?

Much gamier.  it's not your supermarket-common meat around here, but it's not notably harder to get than red deer or wild boar.

[Snowleopard]

Much gamier.  it's not your supermarket-common meat around here, but it's not notably harder to get than red deer or wild boar.

Pigeon aka Squab.

[Thrythlind]

Okay, in response to what has already been posted:

Stereotypes and Archetypes
Try to be Predictable and Surprising
Maintain Consistency, Especially When Being Inconsistent
"Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities."

The third could be better written, bleh.

Anyway, minor spoiler here.  Lucretia, the main character of my novel Bystander, is bisexual and her love interest, Sightseer, is gay.  This is not something I come right out and say in the first book for a couple of reasons:

a) it is one of those controversial traits that dominates a character once its revealed and it is not what I want Lucretia or Sightseer to be defined as until they've been thoroughly characterized around other traits

b) Lucretia behaves in ways that resemble the stereotypical "chase anything that moves" bisexuals in some movies and I'd rather not people instantly assuming that I'm saying bisexual=promiscuous

c) neither fact has ANYTHING to do with the story of the first book, and thus making a point of it is just like dancing around and yelling "look at me, I wrote a book with gay people!  I'm progressive!  Yay!"  

As such, the only clue that Lu is bi in the first book is a single come-on directed at Robles which may or may not be teasing (given that she was sober at the time, I can guarantee you that Lu had no intent to go anywhere with that flirtation) in the eyes of the reader.

The only clues that Sightseer is gay are comments from Lu that nothing she wears will "stuff [her] pants" and a conversation at the end where she's warned that their relationship would never become sexual.

The idea being to lay the foundation to show that their orientations run that way without sledgehammering it into the ground.

Incidentally, Lu's dress habits would be lipstick, her behavioral something more butch.