Any QUILTBAG folks writing straight fiction?

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Pandora Lee

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So, rather to my surprise, I find myself writing romance... heterosexual romance. Kinky heterosexual romance, but still. My characters, they are straight. Okay, one of them is bi, but this plays very little part in the story.

In part I'm doing this because it's more marketable, but also... I don't know. These were the characters I wanted to write about. But I feel like I'm being disloyal, somehow.

Anyone else in a similar position?
 

buz

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It would be insanely unrealistic if all my characters were asexual...:D

I'm human, but most of my characters (so far) aren't.
I'm a woman, but some of my characters aren't.
I'm not a fairy who speaks only in fart noises, but, well, you get the picture, yeah? :D :D
 

Anninyn

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Yep! I'm bi, and not all my characters are. While I want (and try to write) more diversity in fiction, the characters are just who they are, sometimes.
 

Unimportant

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Yep.

Don't let yourself get browbeaten by the "you're being disloyal to the community" crowd. Write what you want, and plan your career to suit yourself.
 

Pandora Lee

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Thanks. But just to be clear, this is just my internal wibbling, not anything I'm hearing from anyone else.
 

Kim Fierce

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Yeah, right now I'm on a gay trend, but I didn't start off writing gay characters at all, so I say just go with where your characters and stories take you!
 

WritingIsHard

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Two of my main characters in my major projects are straight. One isn't. I did consider at one point going into writing straight-up to the lesbian romantic fiction market, but whatever ideas I got for that I ended up thinking "wow, that would make a great fantasy novel...". So yeah, that didn't work out :)
 

Mara

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(tongue in cheek)

To my shock and horror, it looks like two of the opposite-sex characters in my story could end up together. I'm not sure what I should do. Do you think many publishers would accept an opposite-sex couple? Maybe I should change one of their genders so it's more likely to be accepted? Will everybody think I'm straight or something if they read it?

(end of tongue in cheek)

Yep, looks like I got a straight romance coming up in my book. :)

(EDIT: Hopefully everyone has seen enough of the reverse to get the joke. And it was meant light-heartedly and humorously, not critically.)
 

Corinne Duyvis

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Yup. The last two books I wrote (including the one in my sig): queer romance. I haven't decided on my next book yet, but I think most of the ones I'm considering feature straight+cis protags. There's not necessarily a romance involved, though, and I think I'm incapable of writing a book without at least one significant queer character, even if they're not a main character.

That said, I do try to make an effort to feature underrepresented protags. Not because it's my Duty as a Queer/Disabled Person *salute*, but because clearly, not enough other people are doing it, and the world needs it, and because it makes my books more realistic.
 

Roxxsmom

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(tongue in cheek)

To my shock and horror, it looks like two of the opposite-sex characters in my story could end up together. I'm not sure what I should do. Do you think many publishers would accept an opposite-sex couple? Maybe I should change one of their genders so it's more likely to be accepted? Will everybody think I'm straight or something if they read it?

(end of tongue in cheek)

:D

This made me smile. Definitely get it.
 

fadeaccompli

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Heh. I'm bi, but married to an opposite sex partner. I get enough het in my own life! So there are sometimes het subplots in my books, but more often if I'm writing anything het with the protagonist it's because they can swap genders or something entertaining like that.
 

DiloKeith

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I'm a bi female and more attracted to women. I write erotica, and for reasons I won't try to explain, I don't like reading and writing about women having sex, regardless of the partner's sex. I love writing about kinky gay/bi men. For a story based on real events involving three women, I changed two of them to men. I had to change them back to submit it to a lesbian anthology.

I've written straight characters, but in my limited writing time, I don't do much of it. Reading and writing LBGT characters is a way for me to escape from the non-LGBT (and sometimes anti-LGBT) community I'm now living in.
 

J.S.F.

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I'm straight and just signed a contract for a book with lesbian/transgender overtones. Does that count for anything?:)

To me, gay or straight or bi matters little. If I can like the character then it really doesn't matter what his/her sexuality is or what race he/she is. Good is good, period.
 

Anna_Hedley

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Yes. I'm bi and I write gay, lesbian and het erotica. My first published short story (the one in my sig) is het erotica, my first book coming out in June is gay romance and I'm working on a lesbian steampunk novella.
 
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