LGBTQA YA Lit?

I'm with you. x]

Whatever the genre, my stories rarely have heterosexual pairings. They're just so damn boring to write about, and I can never capture them quite right. :/

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- Formerly Lakitu. • My writing Live Journal.

Well, I am not this year. But this will be my first non-lgbtqa attempt. Last years didn't mention orientation yet, but the sequels will include the discovery of their orientations and such.

Yeah I'm writing a lesbian romance novel :) It's going to be oogles of fun!

I've never come right out and said it (or wrote it, for that matter) but I know that a few of my lingering characters are closet-dwellers. I just think that it adds a lot more...dimension (for lack of a better word) to the character.

Realized last night that my FMC is in the closet. But since she's only 14, and she has a lot going on at the moment she isn't really discovering that yet.

In the sequel though...most definitely. If I ever write it.

My Main Character's a closeted asexual, which is the central idea of the plot. Yea, I've never really heard of asexual fiction either... I can always be the first!

But her best guy friend is openly gay.

I'm going to attempt a LGBTQA plot line this year - I've had homosexual characters in stories before, but I've never made a relationship a major plot point. It's a little early, but I think one of my manipulative MC's is a lesbian and is going to try and convince one of my other MC's that she is, too. I'm basing this on a short piece that I wrote in the past, so I'm hoping it works out in novel form!

I'm doing a horror novel and the main character is a lesbian. I actually can't think of a single nano where I HAVEN'T had a GLBTQA Main Character.

Not sure yet if any of my characters will actually be gay, but there are a couple who're bisexual so far. It's very rarely I write something with only heterosexual characters in it, even if sexuality and relationships don't come up within the story.

I'm writing a young adult steampunk and a significant (although not the main) part is going to be a relatiohship between two teenage girls.

Yep, I'm in this boat, too! I'm writing about a groups of students whose main thing in common is that they all identify as queer in some way and are looking for a safe community to be in together. This will be my first attempt at YA with queer characters and my first using high school students, but it should be fun as long as I can keep it from being too autobiographical. ^_^

Another one here! My central character is a 17-year-old lesbian who's harboring a rather serious crush on her best friend.

I've been writing about this particular character since, oh, 1992, but it was only a couple of years ago that she "came out" to me in a story I was working on. It was a really odd revelation to have, but it made complete sense. "Ah! So THAT's why she and her boyfriend never quite seemed to have the right chemistry!" I love it when my characters take on personalities and wants of their own.

I love when that happens. Characters are fascinating creatures. XD

I'm so glad to see that people are working with LGBT lit--most of it's way too dry and melodramatic for my tastes. It's important, though, so I offer my applause. :) I'm not working with a gay narrator this year, but since my novel has a lot to do with the hullaballoo between race/religion/sexual identity, there's a focus on a Persian gay guy and a trailer-trash lesbian. It should be a lot of fun.

Haha, I love not being the only one.
My MC's are pretty much always gay. Like someone else said (sorry, I'm too lazy to go back and look), straight characters are boring to write about and I never seem to get them right either.
And, NaNo is the only time I write about gay boys instead of gay girls. Any other time of the year, I think about it too much.

Yes, this is exactly what I'm writing! If you don't mind, some of us could be writing buddies... I don't have many, since I'm new at this NaNo stuff, and I thought I was alone in writing YA with a homosexual MC. I certainly don't see much of that kind of talk in the Fantasy section.

I also dislike having to warn people that my story has gay in it. It's so annoying and it usually deters people from reading my work. My story doesn't completely revolve around gay, but it is prominent enough that you cannot ignore it. I mean, the MC is gay! Anyway, I'm so glad I found you guys! I feel better about this already!

Howdy, everyone! I'll also be writing about a LGBTQABCDE123 character. Well. Sorta.

I don't know yet if my protagonist is gay or not, but he's going to spend a lot of time (well, okay, the entirety of the novel) struggling with his sexuality - but not necessarily questioning it - so I think that counts. Maybe.

But yeah, generally when I write YA lit with a gay/bi/whatever character, their sexuality isn't the focus point - it's just a facet of the character. Based on the gay lit I've read, that's fairly rare. Or maybe I'm not reading the right books?

My MC's best friend is bisexual, but that's not the focus of the book by any stretch of the imagination. Like someone mentioned above, it's a character facet.

I'm wondering how many of us plan to make their sexuality the focus of the novel?

For me it's more of a subtext issue. The crush she has on a girl at school is going to throw her into the events of the novel but I've already ruled out the possibility of the two starting a romance. (The other girl is just totally straight no matter what way I look at her.)
But an overall theme of my novel is going to be teenage sexuality and morality - and weather the two clash or can work together. So I don't think I can get around NOT making it a focus for at least a little while.

Also does anyone know of some good YA GLBTQA novels? I've read Keeping You a Secret and Luna both by Julie Anne Peters and have heard good things about the Rainbow Boys books. But I'm wondering what else is out there - particularly with a focus on GBTQA females.

It's interesting to see how different people use it, for sure. I absolutely have to recommend to you David Levithan as a GLBTQA author. He is FANTASTIC. I especially recommend Boy Meets Boy, and Naomi & Ely's No Kiss List, which he wrote with Rachel Cohn.

Ahh, this makes me happy...I'm joining in the fun with a gay couple, two/three/four? lesbian couples, a transgender woman, and a lot of awesome interracial stuffs. :)

Oh, I should've checked out this board more! I didn't expect so many people to write YA with queer characters ^^ My MC is a 16 year old gay boy. And yes, it is sort of the main focus. Along with some other things.

Yep! In fact, both of my main characters are gay. The girl is in denial about it at the beginning and she's in love with the boy, which leads to some hilarity. :3 I'm going to have fun this year~

I'm still unsure as to whether mine's going to be YA or mainstream fiction yet (I guess we'll see when I start writing it!), but there is definitly a GLBT storyline in there. One of the primary narrators is bisexual and ends up falling for and ending up in a relationship with his female crush's older brother. I'm still not sure how that ended up happening, since the older brother was supposed to be EXTREMELY straight, but... *Shrug* It'll add a more interesting dimension to the story for sure!

Nah, there's no focus on the gay in my novel. Well, NO would be an over-exaggeration, but the story is not centered around it. I do find it rare for such a novel to be about anything other than the main character's sexual orientation, and while I have no problem whatsoever with those books, it does bother me that it's so rare to just have a homosexual/transgender/whathaveyou character, and not make the main focus on that. It'd be a relief to see some more of these as protagonists in a story unrelated to their coming-of-age or coming-out. I do not in the least mean this as an insult. But I think it would be a sign of a huge step forward if this did start happening more often!

I'm not sure if it's growing in nano, personally i've yet to write a novel with LGBTQA theme, however most of my friends have. and it's a great theme to work on. we need more books out there with this theme.

I was just going to post something similar to this.

This year my novel is about two young men (of high school age) who fall in love. It's more of a tragedy, really, but it's been begging to be written for five years now.

I'm not sure if it's going to fit into the YA genre, but I'm going to try. Revisiting high school is going to be scary, however!

I sort of worry about this too; are people going to not read my book because it has two gay main characters?

I would love to be writing buddies. If you'd like, you can add me. Do you have a blog, by any chance?

My novel this year is going to be LGBT themed too. While it's not exactly a discovering/coming out story, their sexuality is still a main focus, as it's a love story of sorts. I got the idea back in August, and I just can't wait to get started!

The main characters of my novel are going to be seriously gay for each other. :D One of them's already comfortable with his own sexuality, and the other one's sort of discovering it as the novel progresses. They're both around 15 or 16, I think? I'm a bit vague on this at the moment. Their relationship is definitely going to be a major part of the story.

In most of my stories, my MCs are straight, but I generally have a couple of the MC's friends be LGBT. I think it's easier to write about people who aren't straight because I personally have several friends who are struggling with their sexual orientation. A lot of my stories also have an underlying romance between the MCs that would be hard to work in if they were LGBT.