How do you like it?

[bel08]

Hi there everyone,

I need your help!

I want to know what makes you happy, sad and angry when you read about gay characters in a science fiction book. How gay is too gay? And what things are critical in creating a believable hero that's also gay?

My aim for my next few stories is to promote homosexuality, not so much in a 'we're queer, we're here- get used to it' way but to create a world where gay people are just people and thier sexuality is not a big deal.

For now please give me some ideas, hints, tips or anything that might be helpful on what a good gay science fiction should be like.

 

Oh yes the story line... Travis Tori is a callous hard arse of a soldier, he's good at killing and revels in it. He grew up on a breeding planet where love is strictly between opposite genders. He joins the evil forces to try and find purpose in his life, but what he finds is Glendalough a fragile man on the brink of despair. Glen is a healer and has grown up where love was free, he cannot understand the joy of killing or the point of segregation.

They soon teach each other many things about the world and how it works, both realising they had fairly one sided views. With that comes the discovery of the evil behind the army, they desert, trying to find a way to stop what is about to be the biggest destructive event the world has ever known.

 

Oh and I can't include explixit sex scenes in there (I know they can be fun but my publisher is anti-smut and if I'm writing it then it will be SMUT)

 

Thanks in advance for your help!!! I can't wait to see what people think!

[Cia]

The best way to make a gay character seem 'not gay' is just to make the entire situation a PART of who he is, not all of who he is. Honestly, sexuality is not who we are, though it is fundamental to our psyche. I think that a good fantasy story can involve a good amount of discussion about sexuality, through dialogue and portrayal of the societies the characters are from/live in, but it should not be the main focus of the story. Modern coming of age/coming out stories really fill that niche. I like stories where there is a strong plot with a wide cast of characters to round out the world the author creates. It needs to have a rich background and culture and a gripping conflict. The challenge is to do all that and still make the story plausible. It's hard for readers to adjust to a world in a story that is completely unfamiliar or too overwhelmingly different. Mixing sexualities, personalities, societies, providing characters a reader can relate to, keeping the explanation from being pedantic... those are all very important. The world/plot HAS to be the main focus, not the sexuality.

 

Some characters in published books are portrayed as gay without ever really saying it as such, as in the dragonriders from Anne McCaffrey's Pern books. In turn DanK created a fanfic story to highlight that aspect of the community, yet the story, while making the gay/mm relationship more central to the story kept a wider plot that held it true to the style the author wrote in and the world she had created. Archangel of Pain's story, The Silent Dance, has a very interesting society where sexuality isn't so much the issue as a matriarchal society where men are 'lesser' with a very sub/dominant vibe (very much a m/m story though). It has a strong plot involving other worlds, dimensional beings, and over-reaching conflict. Those are just a few of the examples I could highlight.

 

Honestly, this doesn't really just hold true for science fiction but for any fiction story. Having gay characters, or a 'gay society', or a conflict based on sexuality doesn't mean that you can't or shouldn't make sure that you have so much more than that in a story. Those are the ones that will draw my interest every time because really, how many times can I read that Tommy, Ptereal, subject 2344, or 'boy' is scared because he likes other guys and bad things might happen to him because of it and then oh no, they do and yet another god in all his male splendor saves him and they live happily every after boinking each other every day?

[Tipdin]

I'm confused about how to answer your question. First of all, I very rarely read sci-fi, it just doesn't interest me, however, your synopsis caught me and I thought it would make a nice read.

 

OK, thinking out loud, on the fly:

 

 

However, again, I would have said the best way to make a gay character gay without making him stand out like a lighted bulb in a dark room, is to simply not make love or love interests a focus of a story. And then I read that your story is focused on the idea of a character who came from a str8-only planet who falls for a gay character. It's hard not to bring attention to the very subject that your discussing.

 

With that said, as I've gotten older, I think I have seen a distinction in the gay world that even among gays, is not often discussed. That is, the difference between someone who is gay and someone who has a homosexual orientation. Usually, we make no distinction between the two, but I think there might be.

 

Some men have a homosexual orientation. That's all. They just happen to be attracted to men. And then other men are not simply homosexual, they are GAY. Not the screaming queens, but the in-between group. That group of men that is attracted to men and who are more socially or publicly OUT.

 

It's hard to describe. I think of myself as having a homosexual orientation, but I don't like drag, I don't like being around screaming queens, I almost never go to gay bars, I don't have naked posters and paintings on my walls, I don't own a boa or a pair of leather chaps. I'm indistinguishable from the guy nextdoor for the most part. It's subtle, but there is something that I'm not able to explain very well.

 

I don't stand out in a crowd. I don't have orgy weekends or popper-induced sexual vacations. I live my life pretty much the way my father lived his life and my brother lives his. My cousins are all straight and my house looks like theirs', (well, perhaps it is a BIT nicer...) I go the the movies, I cut the grass, and change the oil just like any other guy. It's a kind of existence that is unremarkable. A sameness that many of my gay friends use as explanation for why I'm not REALLY a gay man.

 

I hate Judy Garland songs. There's no f-ing way I'd could live with a partner who was a leather queen or a screaming queen. I'm just not that different from the average straight man who has a wife and kids. Hell, I even had the kids! I raised my nieces and nephews.

 

To make a gay character NOT stand out, I think the best way to do that is simply not make him different. His orientation is not a focus or an issue. He's just Joe Average with a husband rather than a wife.

 

I have not expressed myself well here, but this was thinking on the fly. There is some THING that separates some gay men from others that I can't put my finger on. Perhaps it would be worthy of its own thread. But there you have it, a long convoluted answer to your question.

[JamesSavik]

I want to know what makes you happy, sad and angry when you read about gay characters in a science fiction book.

 

I am happiest with gay characters and settings where gay isn't an issue and the character is just another one of the guys.

 

My aim for my next few stories is to promote homosexuality, not so much in a 'we're queer, we're here- get used to it' way but to create a world where gay people are just people and thier sexuality is not a big deal.

 

I'm no so sure that homosexuality needs or even could be promoted. Either you have a taste for the wild thang or you don't.

 

I like the idea of a setting where gay isn't an issue and characters can go about their life without having to worry about homophobic neighbors, bosses or cops. In fact, I would like to live there.

[bel08]

Thanks for all that, it's sure given me a lot to think about. I'm very much leaning towards the 'average guy' scenario. Travis is very much like that. Of course the character has never even considered sexuality before so the whole thing is new to him on many levels so I think it would be fun to explore that. More in a 'this is my first time way' than a 'i'm comig out' way if you get what I mean.

I shall get to writing soon, just waiting to see what else comes up!

Thanks again you guys for your input!

[Raijen]

A bit of a latecomer to this thread, but...

 

Personally, I like to read about relationships that challenge not only the characters, but the reader as well, to reconsider basic assumptions. For example, even though I swing toward monogamy, it would interest me to read about a polygamous relationship (assuming the writer gives us a good view into the mental world of those involved). From your brief synopsis it seems as though you are going to have a lot of opportunity to write about what it means to have a relationship, especially since the worldview of both characters are so dramatically different. A sort of savagery vs. civility, man vs. his animal nature (which would naturally lead to some sexual tension... too bad your publisher is anti-smut, that is another aspect you could explore in your story).

 

Overall, originality. Something new, something that gives one pause to think. Stimulate both intellect and emotions, and you have a book that leaves the reader saying "hot daaaayummm".

 

Good luck with writing!

[comicfan]

Some of my favorite stories involve just that a story. You find yourself involved with the situation the character is involved in. Then you learn, either through his/her eyes what they like, what is normal for their world, and what is the problem. Sometimes being gay isn't the issue but the fact that they married someone of a different race is. Being gay is just a part of it unless you are strictly doing a sex scene, and those usually just tick me off if there doesn't seem to be a reason or build up to it.