Writing I'm looking into writing a Transgender Story; I need advice

[NixolasZinn]

So... yeah, uh so I'm planning on writing a fairly unique story... I personally believe myself to be Non-binary, even going through the whole thing for it... I'm deciding to keep a diary of sorts, partly because I want to write out my experience for myself, but also to potentially help others find themselves like I did on this site. So personal reasons beside, I need help. I already know where I would start with the story, just I'm lost at what to write after that. Besides somewhat writing out personal experiences, what would I write with it?

 

[UniUrchin]

It depends on what you want to get out of the story!

If you're mainly planning to write it for yourself, honestly you could probably just approach it like a diary like you mentioned.

If you're interested in appealing to other readers, you might want to construct some kind of plot. For me, I often construct some kind of fictional setup (a "problem" per say), and then imagine myself in the setting to produce a story that also honestly reflects my feelings. You could say that I adapt my personal experiences to a fictional world and embellish them so that they're more interesting for an audience.

 

[Agentt]

You are new here, so you wouldn't be knowing this but, asking on writing tips is usually useless
So, a transgender story.
The first thing is, transgenders aren't anything special. So it is same as making any regular character.

If your story focus on that aspects, you can discuss some problems like going to doctor regularly, taking hormones tablets, etc.

 

[PrincessFelicie]

Yeah if OP is non-binary I don't think you need to give them bottom of the barrel advice like "TrAnSgEnDeReDeDs ArE pEoPlE tOo" >_>

If I understand correctly, you're aiming to write a story that's more about the character's queerness than having a protagonist of a story that happens to be queer, right? My advice would be to take one small part of your personal experience and to focus on that. There is a lot to talk about wrt queerness and if you try to address everything at once you'll be overwhelmed with choice. So, just one aspect. What obstacles come with it, how did it make you personally feel when you encountered them? Put those obstacles on your character's path, and see if they deal with them similarly to you, or differently.

Then, remember that just because you're writing about queerness doesn't mean the setting has to be our contemporary real world. You can have a story about queerness set in the far future, or in a fantasy world, etc etc. Obviously, it depends what you're setting out to talk about, and whether you want to do it allegorically or directly or in any other way.

I'm here if you have follow up questions.

EDIT: Now wondering if that was the most relevant advice, if you already know where to start. Hmm. What's your outline looking like, or are you more of a pantser?

 

[TrismegistusShandy]

Keeping a diary can be helpful both for exercising your muscles in general and for gradually building up a respository of autobiographical bits you may someday reuse in a story. I can't think of any fiction examples offhand, but big parts of "Walden" were basically repurposed and revised passages from Thoreau's diary.

Or do you mean you're intending to tell your story in a diary format, i.e. write it as if it's the diary of the main character? There's a long history of that in fiction, too. It's a good way to combine the advantages of first person past tense, where the narrator is looking back on the events of the story after they're over, and first person present tense, where the narrator is (somehow) telling us everything as it happens, without knowing what's going to happen later. In each diary entry, the main character can talk about recent events with only a tiny amount of hindsight, but can't know what's going to happen after they write that entry/how their feelings about those events will change over time. That seems like a good way to write a story about someone figuring out they're non-binary, or going through the process of coming out and transitioning if they've already figured their identity out before the story begins.

You might also consider a mixed-media or collage format, where the narrative consists of a mix of diary entries, letters/emails, social media messages, blog posts, chat transcripts, maybe even news articles. That can combine the advantages of a first person narrative with those of third person with multiple viewpoints, if you need at some point to get into the viewpoint of other characters besides your protagonist.

As for the actual content, I'd suggest looking at the wide range of possible trans narratives, as Felicie suggests, to see if that sparks any ideas. Are you telling a story about someone figuring out they're trans, or transitioning, or just living their life after transition? Maybe all three, if the story is long enough. Are they living an ordinary modern life while figuring themselves out/transitioning, or having adventures fighting monsters or pirates? Maybe they have some other personal changes going on at the same time as they're hatching or transitioning, like reconsidering their parents' religion or reevaluating their choice to be a superhero.

 

[TheTrinary]

First off, I think you need to be specific with what you want.

Someone said, "Transgender are people too" is bad advice, but it isn't if you want to write a high concept sci fi story where being transgender is just normal and people don't bat an eye.

It is bad advice if you want to write a deep character study that is first and foremost about the experience.

So step 1 to writing a Trans story: what's your truth. Stories that work are the deeply personal that say something real, it's the only thing that people connect to and care about. So what are you saying with yours? What life experience are you putting on the pages? Until you answer that, you're just going to get vague and possibly unhelpful advice.

 

[Khiricastares]

Just write a story that you would want to read. It's fine to ask around and take in advice, but in the end if you wouldn't want to read the story then you're doing something wrong somewhere. As for whether other people will want to read it, that's impossible to say. But I find sincerity is more interesting than trying to paint by numbers for a perceived audience.

 

[Derin_Edala]

You're going to want some kind of plot to wrap your Journey of Discovery around. There's not much anyone can do to help you until you know what your plot and main conflict are going to be.

If you want to keep it close to your life experience, I'd recommend checking out some real world coming-of-age fiction. There's a lot of this written for teen girls; you might want to check out books like Annie On My Mind, The Princess Diaries (the first book, NOT the movies), or The Earth, My Butt, And Other Big, Round Things. Or basically anything written by Judy Blume. Books like that will give you a good framework on how to structure a real-life-adjacent, low-conflict story focusing on personal issues and growth/transformation, which seems to be the kind of format you're going for if I understand you correctly.

And also, of course, you should read as much queer fiction as you can get your hands on, especially modern transgender fiction.

 

[ArcadiaBlade]

Non-binary? Damn, I thought gays and lesbians be the only sexual types I know off but considering there are more types of things in this world I can fit into my mind, I guess learning about traps and attack helicopters are something new to learn about.

*Cough*Anyways.

First thing to tackle? Don't talk about what it means to be different.

I know I might sound harsh or anything but considering that you want to talk about sexuality and stuff, it might be popular at some point but you need to consider what type of story your gonna go off on.

Telling about sexuality and stuff does seem to be good but what makes an interesting story is how you want to have fun writing it. Trust me, I'll probably write two guys having bromance and girls would immediately ship them and even build a ship name to it as well.

What you want to write a story is how you wish it to be interesting to not only yourself but to other readers as well.

We are Authors, we build a world and make it due with our imagination. What you only need to work on is how you want to shape it to your own idea. One guy can write drugs and sex and make it interesting, hell, there's probably more fcked up stories that aren't discovered but what matters is, how you want it to happen.

You want to write a story of a non-binary? be my guest, but what does it make you different from others? some made gay stories while some make lesbian stories. Yours isn't too different from them.

What makes it different is how you want your story to go.

Like, since you want to write a non-binary character, maybe make him/her interesting by writing it to be a superhero story, fighting crimes or stuff. Make it isekai and question which partner he/she would like. Your story, your rules.

However, make it different such that its not only unique to you and while at it, have fun writing without worry about genders and stuff.

I've been friends with gays, had fights with lesbians, comfort with trans and even help non-binaries with their love life. Traps or Attack Helicopters? I talk to those types and even wonder how they reproduce... like maybe make some oil and they birth them at some facility or something? Wonders of the world I still question till this day....

A-anyways, Just make it interesting and fun to write about and you don't even have to worry about people talk about genders and stuff. you only need to put what makes it interesting as a writer and not try to force your readers to shove it to their mouths what your story is. Have fun and get creative. thats it.

Now excuse me, I still am questioning what the fck is microtransactionsexual actually is. Is it the gender of money or do I need to pay it just to tell me what sex that person is....

 

[AlreadyInUse]

So... yeah, uh so I'm planning on writing a fairly unique story... I personally believe myself to be Non-binary, even going through the whole thing for it... I'm deciding to keep a diary of sorts, partly because I want to write out my experience for myself, but also to potentially help others find themselves like I did on this site. So personal reasons beside, I need help. I already know where I would start with the story, just I'm lost at what to write after that. Besides somewhat writing out personal experiences, what would I write with it?

If you're worried you'll lose motivation after the beginning, or that you won't know what to write, I'd say before you even start you should figure out the ending, then move back from there. Knowing where you want to go is always good, and it's helped me at least.

 

[ForeverEgg]

So... yeah, uh so I'm planning on writing a fairly unique story... I personally believe myself to be Non-binary, even going through the whole thing for it... I'm deciding to keep a diary of sorts, partly because I want to write out my experience for myself, but also to potentially help others find themselves like I did on this site. So personal reasons beside, I need help. I already know where I would start with the story, just I'm lost at what to write after that. Besides somewhat writing out personal experiences, what would I write with it?

Id recommend building a character drive for the story and lining up plot points to guide that in whatever ways interest you.

My first transgender story was about a girl coming to terms with being a girl. Liking the ordinary and mundane aspects as well as the extraordinary.

The way I did that was I set up a sort of safe space for exploration. I took a very eggy personality, gave them a little kiddie pool of gender euphoria and then started the story the moment that was yanked away where she needed to scramble and process. *Then* the story plays out over a week. Minimal distractions and a few scheduled activities such as quality time with family, friends, and even therapy. My story followed her journey of self discovery and ended shortly after she came to terms with the fact that the uncomfortable journey she had been on had done her good and she was ready to continue with purpose rather than panic.

My second followed a similar formula. I took a very depressed and stagnant character, zapped them with a disaster and then wrote a story of recovery and healing with a freedom of exploration.

Those are the stories that mean the most to me because trauma is a kind of theme in what I need to process through writing. I don't expect you to just *know* what you need from the story you are writing for yourself. But I don't think it would be a terrible idea to take a dig at that hurt and comfort model.

 

[NixolasZinn]

It depends on what you want to get out of the story!

If you're mainly planning to write it for yourself, honestly you could probably just approach it like a diary like you mentioned.

If you're interested in appealing to other readers, you might want to construct some kind of plot. For me, I often construct some kind of fictional setup (a "problem" per say), and then imagine myself in the setting to produce a story that also honestly reflects my feelings. You could say that I adapt my personal experiences to a fictional world and embellish them so that they're more interesting for an audience.

I plan on writing a fictional story, and I hope to use a diary I'll be writing to help flesh out the story. And thanks for the advice.

Yeah if OP is non-binary I don't think you need to give them bottom of the barrel advice like "TrAnSgEnDeReDeDs ArE pEoPlE tOo" >_>

If I understand correctly, you're aiming to write a story that's more about the character's queerness than having a protagonist of a story that happens to be queer, right? My advice would be to take one small part of your personal experience and to focus on that. There is a lot to talk about wrt queerness and if you try to address everything at once you'll be overwhelmed with choice. So, just one aspect. What obstacles come with it, how did it make you personally feel when you encountered them? Put those obstacles on your character's path, and see if they deal with them similarly to you, or differently.

Then, remember that just because you're writing about queerness doesn't mean the setting has to be our contemporary real world. You can have a story about queerness set in the far future, or in a fantasy world, etc etc. Obviously, it depends what you're setting out to talk about, and whether you want to do it allegorically or directly or in any other way.

I'm here if you have follow up questions.

EDIT: Now wondering if that was the most relevant advice, if you already know where to start. Hmm. What's your outline looking like, or are you more of a pantser?

Yes I plan on writing a story about the person's queerness and their eventual transition. I'll keep in mind to take it slow as I write, and I hope to remember about the character's perspective. The setting of the story originally was gonna be contemporary, then I realized that I wouldn't personally enjoy writing it. So yeah, the story's now near future cause tech improvements. I would have questions but the others kinda gotten down the main things I was curious on, I'll come back when I need help of some sort.
And "how I plan stories," I do it like how I dungeonmaster dnd, make a general plot list, write down potential conflicts/ideas to be used, and then live in the view of the characters in that scene. But otherwise pantser as I expect all my plans to fall short for one reason or another.
Thank you for your help

Keeping a diary can be helpful both for exercising your muscles in general and for gradually building up a respository of autobiographical bits you may someday reuse in a story. I can't think of any fiction examples offhand, but big parts of "Walden" were basically repurposed and revised passages from Thoreau's diary.

Or do you mean you're intending to tell your story in a diary format, i.e. write it as if it's the diary of the main character? There's a long history of that in fiction, too. It's a good way to combine the advantages of first person past tense, where the narrator is looking back on the events of the story after they're over, and first person present tense, where the narrator is (somehow) telling us everything as it happens, without knowing what's going to happen later. In each diary entry, the main character can talk about recent events with only a tiny amount of hindsight, but can't know what's going to happen after they write that entry/how their feelings about those events will change over time. That seems like a good way to write a story about someone figuring out they're non-binary, or going through the process of coming out and transitioning if they've already figured their identity out before the story begins.

You might also consider a mixed-media or collage format, where the narrative consists of a mix of diary entries, letters/emails, social media messages, blog posts, chat transcripts, maybe even news articles. That can combine the advantages of a first person narrative with those of third person with multiple viewpoints, if you need at some point to get into the viewpoint of other characters besides your protagonist.

As for the actual content, I'd suggest looking at the wide range of possible trans narratives, as Felicie suggests, to see if that sparks any ideas. Are you telling a story about someone figuring out they're trans, or transitioning, or just living their life after transition? Maybe all three, if the story is long enough. Are they living an ordinary modern life while figuring themselves out/transitioning, or having adventures fighting monsters or pirates? Maybe they have some other personal changes going on at the same time as they're hatching or transitioning, like reconsidering their parents' religion or reevaluating their choice to be a superhero.

Thank you for agreeing with me on the keeping a diary for inspiration. And I had the passing thought of writing it like a diary, but no I ain't doing it like that. That mixed media thing I'm curious about, but I don't plan to make the story solely based off that. And I've been reading a whole range of other people's works partly for inspiration, and partly because I want to confirm certain feelings.... the rest of the parts is me just enjoying the work.
I originally plan to make a story on all three, where they realized they aren't whom they are, and that they've been lying to themselves for too long, they go through the treatment, and when they finish I'll have to decide wether to continue the story, or end it there. Here's to hoping I can make the story long enough. They probably will have a ordinary life, and they play video games to 'escape' their thoughts to copy what I've been doing for too long. The changes.... I haven't thought about it... I'll keep it in mind.
Thank you for the advice

First off, I think you need to be specific with what you want.

Someone said, "Transgender are people too" is bad advice, but it isn't if you want to write a high concept sci fi story where being transgender is just normal and people don't bat an eye.

It is bad advice if you want to write a deep character study that is first and foremost about the experience.

So step 1 to writing a Trans story: what's your truth. Stories that work are the deeply personal that say something real, it's the only thing that people connect to and care about. So what are you saying with yours? What life experience are you putting on the pages? Until you answer that, you're just going to get vague and possibly unhelpful advice.

I'll keep these questions in mind, and hope I can answer them soon. Sorry for not having an answer, but I need time to think on them. Thank you for the direction

Just write a story that you would want to read. It's fine to ask around and take in advice, but in the end if you wouldn't want to read the story then you're doing something wrong somewhere. As for whether other people will want to read it, that's impossible to say. But I find sincerity is more interesting than trying to paint by numbers for a perceived audience.

Yeah I completely agree with the statement. And I'll be trying to do just that. Thanks for replying.

You're going to want some kind of plot to wrap your Journey of Discovery around. There's not much anyone can do to help you until you know what your plot and main conflict are going to be.

If you want to keep it close to your life experience, I'd recommend checking out some real world coming-of-age fiction. There's a lot of this written for teen girls; you might want to check out books like Annie On My Mind, The Princess Diaries (the first book, NOT the movies), or The Earth, My Butt, And Other Big, Round Things. Or basically anything written by Judy Blume. Books like that will give you a good framework on how to structure a real-life-adjacent, low-conflict story focusing on personal issues and growth/transformation, which seems to be the kind of format you're going for if I understand you correctly.

And also, of course, you should read as much queer fiction as you can get your hands on, especially modern transgender fiction.

I already planned to write some plot for the story, I'll keep the recommendations in mind, and thanks for replying.

Non-binary? Damn, I thought gays and lesbians be the only sexual types I know off but considering there are more types of things in this world I can fit into my mind, I guess learning about traps and attack helicopters are something new to learn about.

*Cough*Anyways.

First thing to tackle? Don't talk about what it means to be different.

I know I might sound harsh or anything but considering that you want to talk about sexuality and stuff, it might be popular at some point but you need to consider what type of story your gonna go off on.

Telling about sexuality and stuff does seem to be good but what makes an interesting story is how you want to have fun writing it. Trust me, I'll probably write two guys having bromance and girls would immediately ship them and even build a ship name to it as well.

What you want to write a story is how you wish it to be interesting to not only yourself but to other readers as well.

We are Authors, we build a world and make it due with our imagination. What you only need to work on is how you want to shape it to your own idea. One guy can write drugs and sex and make it interesting, hell, there's probably more fcked up stories that aren't discovered but what matters is, how you want it to happen.

You want to write a story of a non-binary? be my guest, but what does it make you different from others? some made gay stories while some make lesbian stories. Yours isn't too different from them.

What makes it different is how you want your story to go.

Like, since you want to write a non-binary character, maybe make him/her interesting by writing it to be a superhero story, fighting crimes or stuff. Make it isekai and question which partner he/she would like. Your story, your rules.

However, make it different such that its not only unique to you and while at it, have fun writing without worry about genders and stuff.

I've been friends with gays, had fights with lesbians, comfort with trans and even help non-binaries with their love life. Traps or Attack Helicopters? I talk to those types and even wonder how they reproduce... like maybe make some oil and they birth them at some facility or something? Wonders of the world I still question till this day....

A-anyways, Just make it interesting and fun to write about and you don't even have to worry about people talk about genders and stuff. you only need to put what makes it interesting as a writer and not try to force your readers to shove it to their mouths what your story is. Have fun and get creative. thats it.

Now excuse me, I still am questioning what the fck is microtransactionsexual actually is. Is it the gender of money or do I need to pay it just to tell me what sex that person is....

I'll keep your questions and advice in mind when I write my story, thank you for the help.... oh and btw, non-binary, as in "gender identities that are neither male nor female‍". I'm not exactly certain if you got something confused or not, but yeah good luck on your quest.

If you're worried you'll lose motivation after the beginning, or that you won't know what to write, I'd say before you even start you should figure out the ending, then move back from there. Knowing where you want to go is always good, and it's helped me at least.

I'll keep in mind the "end" but I personally hate ending stories and reading the end of them. I'd rather leave it dropped and let people take what they want from it to come up with their own endings. My "end" with be finishing the transformation, but it won't be "the end". Thank you for providing advice, I'll keep it in mind... well written down and in a folder saying "things to keep in mind"

Id recommend building a character drive for the story and lining up plot points to guide that in whatever ways interest you.

My first transgender story was about a girl coming to terms with being a girl. Liking the ordinary and mundane aspects as well as the extraordinary.

The way I did that was I set up a sort of safe space for exploration. I took a very eggy personality, gave them a little kiddie pool of gender euphoria and then started the story the moment that was yanked away where she needed to scramble and process. *Then* the story plays out over a week. Minimal distractions and a few scheduled activities such as quality time with family, friends, and even therapy. My story followed her journey of self discovery and ended shortly after she came to terms with the fact that the uncomfortable journey she had been on had done her good and she was ready to continue with purpose rather than panic.

My second followed a similar formula. I took a very depressed and stagnant character, zapped them with a disaster and then wrote a story of recovery and healing with a freedom of exploration.

Those are the stories that mean the most to me because trauma is a kind of theme in what I need to process through writing. I don't expect you to just *know* what you need from the story you are writing for yourself. But I don't think it would be a terrible idea to take a dig at that hurt and comfort model.

Thanks for your advice I'll keep it in mind, cheers for replying and giving me your thoughts

 

[K5Rakitan]

Here's one you could read if you'd like inspiration:

Tree Black: Bruler, Connor de: 9780982280911: Amazon.com: Books

Tree Black [Bruler, Connor de] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Tree Black

www.amazon.com

 

[RedHunter2296]

Well, I am writing a somewhat similar story where the protagonist, who was a man, has to solve something similar to a plot against the government, let's say, and due to a couple of magic things, he ends up turned into a girl. But since the series is not mainly about that, but about how to solve the plot, because it is what the protagonist focuses on, so it is a topic that I only mention above barely anything. Well, I think the most important thing in a story is that it be good by itself, that in case it changes the names, sex or skin color of the characters, it does not influence the plot at all.

Look at it like for example the Batman story. We change the place that instead of the USA the plot takes place in Mexico, Batman is black, Alfred is an older woman who also raised Batman after the death of her parents and the Joker is still a random person that nobody knows. It may sound weird, but if you treat the story as serious as always, the serious story, focused on crime, investigation, and fights would be just as good. Now if every 5 minutes Batman is going to be talking about how incredible his Mexican roots are and how that helps him eat chili to catch the criminals he faces, I assure you that people will hate him.

After that I would give you the usual advice, plan the story first, to always know where to direct what happens in a convincing way. Investigate well about the topics you are going to deal with, do not stop writing even if your story is bombarded with negative reviews, because surely a shy person out there who may be always anxious for a new chapter of his favorite unpopular novel that has it in an altar. I also recommend that you make cards of the characters or a glossary of important events or objects, not only for your readers, as they are of equal help to the writer as well.

 

[AliceShiki]

Well, I am writing a somewhat similar story where the protagonist, who was a man, has to solve something similar to a plot against the government, let's say, and due to a couple of magic things he ends up turned into a girl. But since the series is not mainly about that, but about how to solve the plot, because it is what the protagonist focuses on, so it is a topic that I only mention above barely anything. Well, I think the most important thing in a story is that it be good by itself, that in case it changes the names, sex or skin color of the characters, it does not influence the plot at all.

Look at it like for example the Batman story. We change the place that instead of the USA the plot takes place in Mexico, Batman is black, Alfred is an older woman who also raised Batmat after the death of her parents and the Joker is still a random person that nobody knows . It may sound weird, but if you treat the story as serious as always, the serious story, focused on crime, investigation and fights would be just as good. Now if every 5 minutes Batman is going to be talking about how incredible his Mexican roots are and how that helps him eat chili to catch the criminals he faces, I assure you that people will hate him.

I don't get why you'd introduce gender bender to a story if you aren't going to make it a focal point of the story.

If the story is just going to proceed as normal without it, might as well not even introduce this aspect to it.

When I go read a gender bender, I kind of expect the story to be about the gender change... If it's an irrelevant point to the story as a whole, I might just drop it because it's not delivering on what I was seeking when I started reading.

 

[RedHunter2296]

I don't get why you'd introduce gender bender to a story if you aren't going to make it a focal point of the story.

If the story is just going to proceed as normal without it, might as well not even introduce this aspect to it.

When I go read a gender bender, I kind of expect the story to be about the gender change... If it's an irrelevant point to the story as a whole, I might just drop it because it's not delivering on what I was seeking when I started reading.

Obviously, I talk about the subject in the novel, because if it is going to make an important subject then it is expected that they will talk about the subject a lot. What I mean is that it shouldn't just be the only thing that happens in the story and that everything else doesn't matter.

Just do not treat the characters in such a way that the only characteristic of the gay character is that he is gay, people are always more complicated, there is always a story behind that is more important than that.

Although I do not know exactly what the novel will be about, so I can not speak for sure in this case.

 

[AliceShiki]

Obviously, I talk about the subject in the novel, because if it is going to make an important subject then it is expected that they will talk about the subject a lot. What I mean is that it shouldn't just be the only thing that happens in the story and that everything else doesn't matter.

Just do not treat the characters in such a way that the only characteristic of the gay character is that he is gay, people are always more complicated, there is always a story behind that is more important than that.

Although I do not know exactly what the novel will be about, so I can not speak for sure in this case.

Oh, I agree that a story can focus on more aspects than just the gender change~

It's just that I have seen a few too many gender bender stories who kinda shrug off the gender change and don't give it too much thought overall, and those tend to annoy me.

 

[LoliGent]

I want to ask a question about this as well and since this topic exists, I hope you don't mind if I add to it, Nixolas.

I'm also writing a story with a transgender in it. I'm going to keep the character mainly neutral in the respect as she is more of a supportive character rather than a main character. However, I want to make references to the past during high school when they were still referred to as a male. Can I make her reference herself as a male during that period or is that not advisable?

EDIT:
I just got a critique for my story. Apparently, this person did not like me using their "deadname". I looked up the term and it appears that would be the character's previous name before the transition (is that the term?).

On the one hand, I feel this is cause for concern and need to be careful how I handle this. Advise would be appreciated on this matter. On the other hand, this person sounds like one of those aggressive types.

Apparently, they thought my story was supporting pedophilia. The story is an age gap romance between a college student and middle school girl but no, it does not support anything of the kind, it's just trying to explore the psychological aspects of a person who is attracted to minors. i.e. it's a lolicon that takes the subject seriously.

I have a feeling they didn't understood or refused to consider the message.

 

[Derin_Edala]

EDIT:
I just got a critique for my story. Apparently, this person did not like me using their "deadname". I looked up the term and it appears that would be the character's previous name before the transition (is that the term?).

On the one hand, I feel this is cause for concern and need to be careful how I handle this. Advise would be appreciated on this matter. On the other hand, this person sounds like one of those aggressive types.

If you're only learning what a deadname is *after* writing the character, then might I gently suggest that you don't have enough knowledge yet to write this character. That's one of the first things you should learn in your research. That person's reaction has nothing to do with being an "aggressive type"; stuff like this is very, very basic, and any trans person or anyone familiar with trans issues would have said the same thing. (Not using deadnames is the default. Your trans character should either be very upset by this,or if they don't mind it, that would need to be specified and consistent with their character.)

If you want to include a trans character, I'd advise doing your research first. I don't just mean asking this forum 'is X thing right?', because you're not going to know what to ask about and you're not going to get coherent answers (for example, you didn't know to ask about deadnaming). You'll need to read trans books, or go on trans forums, or look up trans education resources. The same level of research you'd do if you wanted to write a story where the make of everyone's car was important, or the characters were a different religion than you, or you were writing about space and needed to know how space travel works.

 

[LoliGent]

I took a cursory glance about the topic and, yes, you are correct. There's so much more to learn about adding a transgender character into a story. I'll definitely look into it and even ask around.

For context, the MC was thinking to himself and he ended up bringing up the past in thought. This can be interpreted as him not knowing about this, but I think I'll play it safe and make him aware of it.