: Re: Dropping subtle hints about a character's sexuality I have a character who is assumed to be straight, but after a few months reveals herself to be bisexual. I don't want her to just come

1. Research! If you don't feel you can authentically write this character out of personal experience, do some research first. Interview someone similar to your character, or read memoirs, or do something to make sure you aren't just relying on your personal stereotypes.

2. Iceberg: Take what I usually call the Delany/Sturgeon approach, but which I recently learned is also called the "iceberg" approach (from Hemingway, because an iceberg is mostly under the surface). In this case, it means you create a lot fully-developed backstory on your character's sexuality, but where the only details that make it into the final story are the ones that the POV character would legitimately notice.

I have a similar situation in my current book project, where two characters develop a same-gender romance. I knew that was their arc from the start, and wrote with that in mind. From my point of view this resulted in several fairly obvious clues, but since my POV character never notices, neither did any of my beta readers.

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: I could be wrong but if you're going to avoid telling the audience in an aggravating info-dump you can't introduce a rich complex setting in one chapter, you have to bring in specific details

@Kevin153

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: How alien can my aliens be if I want them to demonstrate how alien a human character is? Using non-humans to show human failings is a mainstay of Science Fiction but is there a limit to

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: What are some examples of an inciting incident that would force a character to go on a quest or adventure? I've noticed that my novel is missing a really strong inciting incident and I can't

@Kevin153

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: Scrivener is the writer's go to tool. I use it for my writing, and it stores everything about my worlds, from characters, to maps, to the things in the world, their descriptions, etc. I

: Re: Dropping subtle hints about a character's sexuality I have a character who is assumed to be straight, but after a few months reveals herself to be bisexual. I don't want her to just come

More posts by @Kevin153

: I could be wrong but if you're going to avoid telling the audience in an aggravating info-dump you can't introduce a rich complex setting in one chapter, you have to bring in specific details

: How alien can my aliens be if I want them to demonstrate how alien a human character is? Using non-humans to show human failings is a mainstay of Science Fiction but is there a limit to

: What are some examples of an inciting incident that would force a character to go on a quest or adventure? I've noticed that my novel is missing a really strong inciting incident and I can't

: Scrivener is the writer's go to tool. I use it for my writing, and it stores everything about my worlds, from characters, to maps, to the things in the world, their descriptions, etc. I

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