How would you feel about a series where the main character became transgender or otherwise LGBT in the third or fourth installment?
I've never really seen anything where a main character was LGBT and it happened as part of a character arc that had nothing to do with the monster of the week type story. My current novel being kicked around in my brain is basically a Dresden Files type thing, only the character is an androgynous bisexual necromancer where I'm keeping the usual stereotypes out (being super effeminate, being promiscuous, being an evil corpsefucker...)
And, well, they say write what you know, and I've thought of having the character become a little more genderqueer as time goes on, and having him worry about the same transgenderish body image issues that I have, like getting older and more masculine when you'd rather stay androgynous. Generally, if you've got a character who's transgender, or even just gay, the whole plot is about that. You don't have a character who spends most of their time hunting occult serial killers and worries about looking less like a woman, or even a character who has a romantic subplot with another guy while his day job is hunting down a barghest.
But generally, the first book should be about introducing the world and the characters before shaking them up with romance and deeper personal troubles.
Posted Jun 24, 2012, 12:48 AM UTC