Queer Writing Prompts!

always human is scifi and very gay

honey and venom is about a gay goddess in a modern world

eerie crests hasn’t really started yet but it looks really good and gay

tripping over you is about a queer couple

o human star is scifi and gay and one of the mcs is trans

go get a roomie is a comc made up of four page strips and it’s so good (the first like 3 chapters are mostly lesbian sex jokes but eventually there’s a plot)

super cakes is about a superhero couple

milkshakes is short and cute

lady of the shard is incredible and gay and takes place in SPACE

monster pop is honestly precious

14 nights is queer and nsfw and the art is soooooo good

the epic adventures of tj and amal: gay roadtrip (nsfw in places)

the witches bakery is adorable although it hasn’t been updated in a while

bad bad things is an apocalypse comic with all queer main characters

desert rose is about a trans boy and is fantasy

goth western is about a lady couple, one of whom necromanced the other back to life

heavy horns  is pretty gay

Sharp Zero is p gay and with lots of superheroes and just-so inclusive and good! 

Rock and Riot pastel gays in the 50s and it’s wonderful

Griefer Belt a criminal slice of life (p violent but also so fluffy and nsfw in some places) 

HotBlood! a centaur and his boyfriend in the old american west

Princess Princess this! is! just! so! cute!

George and Johnny super gay and super cute

Les Normaux the love lives of modern monsters in paris

(Kat, the deuteroganist of Gunnerkrigg Court, is bi and has a girlfrield, Zimmy and Gamma are girls in a relationship, and Shadow and Robot are male-IDing… well, a shadow and a robot who are also in a very sweet relationship. For QC, Claire, the girlfriend of the main character, is a bi trans girl, one of the other main characters, Dora, is bi and her girlfriend is a lesbian, and the main character’s father is gay, and he and his now-husband’s wedding is shown.)

The question I get the most is how I write characters that feel like real people. 

Generally when I’m designing a human being, I deconstruct them into 7 major categories:

1. Primary Drive 2. Fear: Major and Secondary 3. Physical Desires 4. Style of self expression 5. How they express affection 6. What controls them (what they are weak for) 7. What part of them will change.

1. Primary Drive: This is generally related to the plot. What are their plot related goals? How are they pulling the plot forward? how do they make decisions? What do they think they’re doing and how do they justify doing it. 2. Fear: First, what is their deep fear? Abandonment? being consumed by power? etc. Second: tiny fears. Spiders. someone licking their neck. Small things that bother them. At least 4. 3. Physical desires. How they feel about touch. What is their perceived sexual/romantic orientation. Do their physical desires match up with their psychological desires.

4. Style of self expression: How they talk. Are they shy? Do they like to joke around and if so, how? Are they anxious or confident internally and how do they express that externally. What do words mean to them? More or less than actions? Does their socioeconomic background affect the way they present themselves socially?  5. How they express affection: Do they express affection through actions or words. Is expressing affection easy for them or not. How quickly do they open up to someone they like. Does their affection match up with their physical desires. how does the way they show their friends that they love them differ from how they show a potential love interest that they love them. is affection something they struggle with?

6. What controls them (what they are weak for): what are they almost entirely helpless against. What is something that influences them regardless of their own moral code. What– if driven to the end of the wire— would they reject sacrificing. What/who would they cut off their own finger for.  What would they kill for, if pushed. What makes them want to curl up and never go outside again from pain. What makes them sink to their knees from weakness or relief. What would make them weep tears of joy regardless where they were and who they were in front of. 

7. WHAT PART OF THEM WILL CHANGE: people develop over time. At least two of the above six categories will be altered by the storyline–either to an extreme or whittled down to nothing. When a person experiences trauma, their primary fear may change, or how they express affection may change, etc. By the time your book is over, they should have developed. And its important to decide which parts of them will be the ones that slowly get altered so you can work on monitoring it as you write. making it congruent with the plot instead of just a reaction to the plot. 

That’s it.

But most of all, you have to treat this like you’re developing a human being. Not a “character” a living breathing person. When you talk, you use their voice. If you want them to say something and it doesn’t seem like (based on the seven characteristics above) that they would say it, what would they say instead?

If they must do something that’s forced by the plot, that they wouldn’t do based on their seven options, they can still do the thing, but how would they feel internally about doing it?

How do their seven characteristics meet/ meld with someone else’s seven and how will they change each other?

Once you can come up with all the answers to all of these questions, you begin to know your character like you’d know one of your friends. When you can place them in any AU and know how they would react.

Queer moodboard: Aromantic witch