A nice way to add diversity to your stories is including characters that are part of the LGBTQ+ community. For advice on writing LGBTQ+ characters, check out this thread:
Help Thread: Creating LGBTQ+ Characters
There’s also this post on Shannii’s blog which you should definitely read!
How to Write LGBTQ Characters Well
Here are some tips for writing scenes with LGBTQ+ characters:
1. Coming out scenes
For coming out scenes, you have to think about whether the character is nervous to come out to that person and then use that to help you figure out how their dialogue would sound. For instance, if they’re nervous, do they beat around the bush or blurt it out really quickly? You then have to consider the reaction of the person they’ve come out to. Are they accepting or not? If they’re not, how do they respond? Do they respond rationally or irrationally?
2. Hanging out with friends
If your character is out to their friends and they’re friends are accepting or are LGBTQ+ themselves, your character’s sexual orientation or gender identity shouldn’t have much influence on these types of scenes. The only time it would affect the scene is if one of the friends is being insensitive or homophobic, which is when you have to consider how they would respond to the comment being said and if they’d get defensive or brush it off.
3. Going out on a date
There really isn’t anything too different about an open LGBTQ+ couple going on a date compared to their cisgender/heterosexual counterparts, but the one big difference would be the perception of their relationship from the people around them. However, this changes if one or both of the people in the relationship are in the closet. Depending on where they’re going, you should consider how they feel being out in public with their significant other and if they’re worried about people seeing them and what the consequences of being seen are.
These are just some tips, so if there’s anything that wasn’t discussed here that you want to know about, please don’t hesitate to ask questions.
