Advice needed please

[Random_Guy]

Uhh, let me just...

Aromantic Stuff | Tapas

In case you intend to write anything on Aros I think my work there could be a good resource.

Either way, I'd say treat it with the same amount of respect you would talking about, say... race.
I think that's a good correlation.

[magnavarra]

Best advice I can gieve is to write about something that you know well. I mean lgbt is not even the top 10 popular genres... It may seems popular to you -cause you read it, search for it and targeting seo gives them to you on every media.

So If you are not lgbt yourself and you personally do not know such people, your story will be more of a guessing or cliche or retelling other stories which you like. SO aside of the fact thay your cast is lgbt - be sure to put them into compelling evironment and actuall story - with plot , with conflicts etc, I mean if you make a story about two school boys who bumped into each other in the toilet and suddenly dicided to have smexx it won't be fun , unless you draw it in a godlike style .
And if your story is good - the fact that it's lgbt won't be a problem - cause the stroy will drive your caraters and you will eventually develop them to fit in. You just need to figure out if them being lgbt actually matters to the plot. Otherwise you should try doing short strips or single art if you just want to draw pretty boys/girls kissing

Also figure out your target auditory - cause you know there are yaoi for the girls. and there is bara for actual gays. If you compare the themes and visuals you can guess the difference.

[Panqiuyan]

thank you so much......

[Iris-Grimoire]

Two main things - research, and just being natural about it. Research is more about the struggles, being informed about the terms, and avoiding stereotypes that the LGBT+ community dislikes (some easier to fall into than others), but being natural is good to see in stories from these authors. Unless the story is about the struggles of being in the community or in a world where that must be displayed, sometimes you can just... Have the characters the same way as all the others. No need to "prove" someone is trans or likes the same gender at every turn, it's just as refreshing to have that mentioned in a conversation and be one part of the character, not their whole.

[elyss]

I personally don't think you need to be LGBT to write it.

Go on Twitter, there's a ton of threads where people are like "I'm gay/bi/etc but I don't..." and people will finish the sentence. It's a fun and interesting way to learn about certain groups.

[Panqiuyan]

i don't understand how to use twitter

[elyss]

No better time to learn than in quarentine

[Panqiuyan]

what is the point of #?

[elyss]

Maybe this will help with searching

[martinadenatale]

I am a straight girl and I'm writing a BL story

[Panqiuyan]

oh ok thanks.........

[Panqiuyan]

do you have any suggestion on how to write LGBTQ stories?

[martinadenatale]

I think it depends on what you want to deal with. If you want to talk about the problems regarding LGBT community, I advise you to get very close to it and make many friends Knowing people and joining their world is the best way to understand how they deal with things and how they see themselves. If you want to tell a love story, well feelings we are all the same for everyone I think
Also I recommend you to read Heartstopper, here on Tapas. I recently discovered it thanks to this forum and it's simply delicious, super intimate and delicate. It obviously speaks about LGBT love

[Panqiuyan]

ok thanks...........

[SleepingPoppy]

@Panqiuyan what I suggest is to start by reading stories about LGBT+ people by LGBT+ people!

There's no concise answer to such a broad question. You should read their stories, follow LGBT+ communities, news, topics, and use common sense.

To start you off:

I saw a similar thread not that long ago asking about LGBT stories, but I wanted to make one for specifically LGBT authors to share their work since we know our experiences better than non LGBT authors and also I want to be able to support fellow LGBT creators! So if you are part of the LGBT community and have a webcomic or novel that features LGBT characters please share it here and I'll be sure to check it out! And I encourage others to as well! If you're not a part of the community I strongly…

[unknown_user]

Best advice I can gieve is to write about something that you know well. I mean lgbt is not even the top 10 popular genres... It may seems popular to you -cause you read it, search for it and targeting seo gives them to you on every media.

So If you are not lgbt yourself and you personally do not know such people, your story will be more of a guessing or cliche or retelling other stories which you like.

Hmmmm... I'm not agree here.
If we'll follow this logic, than, for example, people, who never were in army, should not create action movies/comics with combat stuff. Which is ridiculous.
In reality, consultations with people, who know about particular stuff and reading/watching what they recommend for a reference, is enough to write a good thing. You don't need to experience everything yourself IRL to write/draw it properly. You can use other people's experience and knowledge and common sense.

[magnavarra]

Thats' tottaly true. i just wanted to state that you should try to know the topic a bit more that remaking same lgbt comics all over just because you want to make it.

[Kiweevil]

You're golden. It's pretty hard to mess up unless you're blatantly trying to be offensive, such as giving them all AIDS, making them wear c​ckring necklaces, damning them to hell, etc. LGBT+ people are just like anybody else in a relationship, in that there's no one size fits all. Some are playboys and some are cuddly softies. Some are monogamous and some are polyamorous. As someone who has no gender preference when it comes to attraction, I can tell you I feel the same way and approach the relationship no matter if they are the same or different gender as me. For most LGBT+ it is the same as and straight relationships, just swapping out for a different gender. There's no one way to write it, because every LGBT+ relationship is different just like every straight relationship.

[Dark_Faeire]

My suggestion is to do research or actually pick up an LGBT+ published novels. I honestly can give you a list if you would like to read them. Being able to read and learn and understand on the LGBT+ topic helps a lot on your writing! if you don't want to read then watch movies or learning videos on youtube.

My Tapas novel is BL and it involves with my main character who is gay falling in love with a person who is straight and within time that person was able to return their affection. It also involves about coming-out to their family and friends. I say write how you want your story to be told and its all up to you if you think your story is being told right. I'm bisexual so I dramatically add in my own experience into my story so if you want to do the same then your connecting more to your own story.

[Lillumae]

I guess it depends on what you want your story to be about and what kind of information you need for it to be believable. In a fantasy setting, I don't think any research is really needed, unless you want to include struggles of discrimination?

In my own stories (unwritten), it's a non-issue. I just treat it as "normal," but then normal is different for different people; but I like fantasy to escape the real world.

I think as a general rule, remember that people are people and just, treat them like people.