Side-kicks in MTS - who's missing?

Is the character a stereotypical gay sidekick whose primary function is to provide comic relief and/or a sounding board? That's where you could run into trouble.

(Some discussion of the gay best friend trope in a different genre in this current Share Your Work thread)

If the sidekick is a three-dimensional character in his own right, with personal and professional goals and relationships aside from supporting the main character, with many individual character traits only some of which are related to sexuality, then you've got an interesting recurring character who, among other things, is gay.

Milo Sturgis in the Jonathan Kellerman's Alex Delaware novels comes to mind as an example.

She's a traditional Englishwoman, could be all, "Weird, a man for a secretary" or something.

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You said she is upper class, right?

Then you need to be careful with the above. The upper classes traditionally had men in postions of power with male secretaries. And I don't mean your typical office secretary who does the typing and makes the coffee.

If you are going to go with the upper class Englishwoman as your MC, you'll need to do your research to avoid her also being a stereotype.

Then fair enough! I shall leave you to it.

MarkEsq said:

Cornflake, I won't ignore you because I appreciate all opinions. My agent does want it to be a guy sidekick but... it could still be her secretary. She's a traditional Englishwoman, could be all, "Weird, a man for a secretary" or something.

My wife just suggested a gay man. (We're very pro gay rights and she's huge 1D fan... anyway...) Are there gay sidekicks? Thoughts on having one?!

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Yes, there are gay sidekicks, but weigh your audience carefully. You will gain some readers with a gay sidekick, and you will lose others. Perhaps enough to shift the market.

I don't think a fish out of water woman from England is going to be believable with a street wise black kid as a sidekick, and if you add gay on top of this, you're really drifting over into making a statement, and into political correctness.

There's nothing at all wrong with a novel that's intentionally written to make a statement, or to portray your beliefs, but everything affects market.

I'd go with one or the other, not both. I think the streetwise black kid is the most unbelievable, unless you give her a background that makes dealing with someone like this natural, or have something happen that forces her into making this choice.

Maybe she just likes him when she meets him? Maybe she needs someone who knows what they are doing in that place and circumstance? He will certainly be able to go to places and speak to people that she can't.