Along the same lines as Adrian's question about writing for the opposite sex, I wondered how everyone felt about writing for the opposite sexuality. As a hetero, do you feel awkward about writing gay story lines? If you are gay do you struggle writing straight romance? I have straight, gay and bisexual characters in my book. I found the gay characters the most difficult to make believable as I kept wandering into stereotypes. In fact, with one very gregarious character I had to develop a whole back story unrelated to his sexuality before I could take him seriously. Anyone else had difficulties adding characters outside the experience of their own sexuality? What do we think are the main pitfalls of writing outside your own experience in any context?
Dear Ritesh and A Fox,
Please let's not forget the original question that was asked by Victoria.I don't remember seeing any where that we should have a slanging match about it. I think that Victoria come up with a fantastic question that automatically leads onto other aspects of writing which some others have discussed.
This website is not about sharing your beliefs in religion, sexuality or any other matter that might just possibly start world War three.
A Fox you do seem to have a way of coming across with your answers quite abruptly. This intern is not a criticism it's obviously just the way you are and I respect that just like I respect Ritesh views on their matters of sexuality and writing.
For the experienced only would anyone consider writing a one pager on one of the subjects that are clearly out of their comfort zone. Think it could be fun and a bit of a learning experience. At the end of the day writing is about exploring the unknown.
Regards
*as a reader would like to. I would not* about
I never said I hate gay or bisexual people. I just said, I would personally not like to write about them, and that I probably wouldn't like any gay characters, personally, not because I'm against them, I prefer to have straight characters, and I said some of the best pieces, I meant the classics, that have not just appealed to certain group or small amount of people, but to nearly everybody, to the audience at large, I'm pretty confident that million's of people love Harry Potter, and those who haven't read it probably know about it. That is my goal(I guess, I just Dream too Huge) :P. Once again, I don't hate them, I didn't mention anything about things, such as they are immoral etc, I clearly stated that I do not even practically know how they behave. Never said they are things such as immoral, incapable of things, etc.
And as pointing out- once again I practically don't know how they behave, and i didn't say i hate/don't like them, just said wouldn't like the character. For example- Could you Image Harry Potter or James Bond being gay , I don't think it would have appealed to many people, if that was the case. And as many Author's tend to do they give a few character's some of their own traits- Ian Fleming did it with Bond, Christopher Paolini did it with Eragon, for certain things, and I'm pretty sure many do, I would want my piece to appeal to people at large. And I as a reader to like to relate to a few character's I find in a piece I'm reading, so maybe a few others do as well, I'm not sure. that's one of the reasons I would no write about gay/bi people, I would not be able to understand, them nor relate to them. The point is I don't despise gay or bi people, I don't like the concept of it and that is my opinion, I'm not forcing anybody to think I'm right, but I'm just me- I maybe right or wrong, but the opinion may differ from person to person, what I believe is- If you think your beliefs/opinions/thoughts are right, you should in my opinion stick to them, but trying to force others to agree you are right, is not the best thing to do. The main problem of this kind of issue, is Empathy. Only through empathy can things such as this can be truly overcome. If I offended anyone, do forgive me.
Once again, People have the right to choose things in their lives, and should do so