Character progression assistance

[ConcubusBunny]

Hello enby pals, guys and gals.
So I have a certain problem with my night and mother of the sisters.
So I wanted to make the knight an aro lesbian and the mother aceflux bisexual.

For further understanding, the human kingdom where they've been apart of until recent, saw this sorta thing as taboo till a certain event allowed them to experience such things in the monster cities within the forest behind the village.

Edit: For a little more info mostly on the knight rather than the mother cause when this is brought up much of her character isn't explored she's just pretty ignorant about how these things work, the mother on the other hand thought she was doing her womanly duties serving a strong man instead of not really caring too much for that sorts stuff that I'll highlight further in the story.

So for the knight I'll make it known earlier on that she has a secret thing for girls that she represses and thinks that she has a weak and fragile sould corrupted by demons as told you her by the church, but she also doesn't see herself having a relationship with them, which gets her in close relationships with some guy knights even though she is disgusted by their advances and makes her distant herself from the girls due to her mentality, which gets knocked out of her upon seeing some queer relationships in the monster cities in the forest.

I don't want their characters to be centered on it, focus on it too much or be preachy about the matter.

Any advice on this matter would be appreciated.

 

[Zirrboy]

View attachment 10473
Hello enby pals, guys and gals.
So I have a certain problem with my night and mother of the sisters.
So I wanted to make the knight an aro lesbian and the mother aceflux bisexual.

For further understanding, the human kingdom where they've been apart of until recent, saw this sorta thing as taboo till a certain event allowed them to experience such things in the monster cities within the forest behind the village.

I don't want their characters to be centered on it, focus on it too much or be preachy about the matter.

Any advice on this matter would be appreciated.

I don't think focusing on the sexuality of characters in a smut novel is necessarily wrong.

But if you don't want to, it might be helpful to give us information about them besides that.

 

[Daitengu]

Really depends on where they live. If society is antagonistic it's gonna be a rather central issue if caught.

They'll need discussion, time to think about how they feel, and how they plan to act in public.

To me, it sounds like a character arc, then moves to the background as just a character trait once they are secure in themselves.

It doesn't have to go on for ages, but it seems like the self discovery is rather important character development.

 

[RepresentingCaution]

Write it and get a beta reader.

 

[atgongumerki]

if it neither focuses on that aspect of them nor wants to be preachy about it, I would try to avoid using the terms in the novel.
assuming it focusses on relations: the way you can do that is very simple by making the reader aware of who they dated and how the relationships day to day looks like (looked like)
you can bring in previous SOs and unravel the relationship they had and why it broke down

if it is action-focused, you can still explain attractions and how those play out, e.g. your girl having trouble gutting another girl due to some kind of non-sexual attraction; because it would be a shame for the world to lose such beauty or what have you

 

[ConcubusBunny]

if it neither focuses on that aspect of them nor wants to be preachy about it, I would try to avoid using the terms in the novel.
assuming it focusses on relations: the way you can do that is very simple by making the reader aware of who they dated and how the relationships day to day looks like (looked like)
you can bring in previous SOs and unravel the relationship they had and why it broke down

if it is action-focused, you can still explain attractions and how those play out, e.g. your girl having trouble gutting another girl due to some kind of non-sexual attraction; because it would be a shame for the world to lose such beauty or what have you

Yeah it's action slice of life Smit focused more on the character arcs and relation.
The not killing a girl for any other than there being no need to or against a characters morale code is dumb in my book so I won't be doing that.
I'm obviously not stating their gender/romantic/sexual identities within canon unless such issues are brought up, most known way to bring this is up is how the characters will great these feelings in their daily lives that won't come up too often.

 

[Zirrboy]

if it is action-focused, you can still explain attractions and how those play out, e.g. your girl having trouble gutting another girl due to some kind of non-sexual attraction; because it would be a shame for the world to lose such beauty or what have you

Yeah, I'm with Bawdy on this one. Gutting is a most beautiful thing and only gets better when you are drawn to the target.

 

[LunaSoltaer]

One way to think about it is; throw yourself into the headspace of your character, and, well, how much does it come up in their life?

If you can imagine your character as a living breathing entity, they will likely have an opinion of various subjects, including how relevant certain ones are or aren't.

If you throw your knight into a romantic proposal, play that out in your mind and write that. Whatever happens, happens.

This can also be used to discover rebellion in your characters. What I mean is, I had a character in a piece I was writing who was going to be the jackass who eventually does something REALLY REALLY BAD later on. I projected ahead, on my nonexistent roadmap, played the scene out, and it turned out that it was a different character entirely who did the Bad Thing. I ended up accepting this, because I felt that I had gained some depth out of it.

The other other thing is that your labels should NEVER be prescriptive. You mention an aro lesbian, and I trust that you know your characters, but you shouldn't have in your mind "This character is aromantic therefore MUST reject all romantic advances WITH PREJUDICE!" I think the common saying in the trans community goes "love is love" or some similar fucking tautology.

.... Labels are descriptive and are attempts to describe what is going on. So what makes your character a [label] is really a summation of everything the character is and does, and you being like "Yeaaah this fits". (Or better yet asking your character what she thinks, if your characters talk to you). They should never prescribe, or limit, what you do. If you ever find yourself thinking "I can't do this with this character otherwise they aren't [label]", you've hit revision time, and you're either revising your own view on [label], whether you apply [label] to your character, or how your character behaves.

Echoing Rakitan, def get a beta reader, if you can. Beta readers are amazing.
Echoing Daitengu, you have a lovely character arc in your hands. And if you have action bits, you can translate self-awareness and self-confidence into increased knightly asskicking powers (If your novel does that)

And Atgon has a very good point about the terms. Even if your world has these terms as common, your character should be able to describe herself WITHOUT using LGBT terminology or any of their synonyms.

Wait. let me step back.

YOU should be able to describe your character without falling back on LGBT parlance. If you cannot, that is a major sign you're using the term for rainbow points and not as a real thing. Your Character, on the other hand, can very much fail to describe herself - at first. She needs some good ol' fashioned Character Development to get over that hurdle.

I hope any of this helps.

 

[ConcubusBunny]

One way to think about it is; throw yourself into the headspace of your character, and, well, how much does it come up in their life?

If you can imagine your character as a living breathing entity, they will likely have an opinion of various subjects, including how relevant certain ones are or aren't.

If you throw your knight into a romantic proposal, play that out in your mind and write that. Whatever happens, happens.

This can also be used to discover rebellion in your characters. What I mean is, I had a character in a piece I was writing who was going to be the jackass who eventually does something REALLY REALLY BAD later on. I projected ahead, on my nonexistent roadmap, played the scene out, and it turned out that it was a different character entirely who did the Bad Thing. I ended up accepting this, because I felt that I had gained some depth out of it.

The other other thing is that your labels should NEVER be prescriptive. You mention an aro lesbian, and I trust that you know your characters, but you shouldn't have in your mind "This character is aromantic therefore MUST reject all romantic advances WITH PREJUDICE!" I think the common saying in the trans community goes "love is love" or some similar fucking tautology.

.... Labels are descriptive and are attempts to describe what is going on. So what makes your character a [label] is really a summation of everything the character is and does, and you being like "Yeaaah this fits". (Or better yet asking your character what she thinks, if your characters talk to you). They should never prescribe, or limit, what you do. If you ever find yourself thinking "I can't do this with this character otherwise they aren't [label]", you've hit revision time, and you're either revising your own view on [label], whether you apply [label] to your character, or how your character behaves.

Echoing Rakitan, def get a beta reader, if you can. Beta readers are amazing.
Echoing Daitengu, you have a lovely character arc in your hands. And if you have action bits, you can translate self-awareness and self-confidence into increased knightly asskicking powers (If your novel does that)

And Atgon has a very good point about the terms. Even if your world has these terms as common, your character should be able to describe herself WITHOUT using LGBT terminology or any of their synonyms.

Wait. let me step back.

YOU should be able to describe your character without falling back on LGBT parlance. If you cannot, that is a major sign you're using the term for rainbow points and not as a real thing. Your Character, on the other hand, can very much fail to describe herself - at first. She needs some good ol' fashioned Character Development to get over that hurdle.

I hope any of this helps.

Thanks this helps a lot, but there's something I noticed.
You seem to think I did this for A) LGBT rep sake which isn't true, more like I just wanted lgbt rep in my story.
B) limiting them to a label when not really, I picked this cause it's what I felt fit how I draft the characters romantic and sexual identity and less of me slapping some cool labels on a character and like I stated before LGBT labels aren't a thing most people spout irl so it's more trying to explain what people that identify these will go through how they accept themselves, express themselves and interact with others with different attractions.

 

[LunaSoltaer]

Thanks this helps a lot, but there's something I noticed.
You seem to think I did this for A) LGBT rep sake which isn't true, more like I just wanted lgbt rep in my story.
B) limiting them to a label when not really, I picked this cause it's what I felt fit how I draft the characters romantic and sexual identity and less of me slapping some cool labels on a character and like I stated before LGBT labels aren't a thing most people spout irl so it's more trying to explain what people that identify these will go through how they accept themselves, express themselves and interact with others with different attractions.

Sounds like you have a decent handle of things. Self-exploration is a wonderful, noble feeling and you seem to have baked that into the core of your work. Which novel is this for? The "Din World" in your signature? I think I'd like to take a gander at what you're writing. :)

 

[ConcubusBunny]

Sounds like you have a decent handle of things. Self-exploration is a wonderful, noble feeling and you seem to have baked that into the core of your work. Which novel is this for? The "Din World" in your signature? I think I'd like to take a gander at what you're writing. :)

It's not Din world it's the second one I'm writing that I didn't put in my signature, Din world is in a time frame where such things are moralized, so having a character with a sexual/romantic dilemma where it's not focused on that would be pointless.
It's actually on a second series I've been working on and ironing some plotlines as I go along do as to not make any half assed plot due to ignorance.

Also if you check it out beware there will be a lot of sex scenes well not for some time I think maybe in the next chapter or the one after that as for the second it's a sex scene right off the bat.
Do be warned of you are not into that sorta thing.

 

[atgongumerki]

he not killing a girl for any other

I did not say she ought not kill the other girl, I said she could have trouble doing it, which is a thought you have while or after doing it (for me)