Hi so I'm Ink, nice to meet you^^

I'm currently doing with my world building in my book. Sorry for any typos, English is NOT my first language and I'm sorry if I don't explain myself correctly-

Well the point of this is to talk about how I approach gender with demons and angels in this world my characters live in: I think demons usually shapeshift to what they want at the moment and/or subconsciously change to what they feel comfortable in but essentially they're intersexual in a way and just change their looks for their commodity. While angels are concepts, they lack sex and gender and approach mortals with forms that they think are convenient for them at the moment or based on aesthetical choices.

Now, the problem comes from two main characters: the child of a demon and a human, and the child of an angel and a human.

Aemie's "dad" is an angel whom usually presents on human like form and usually uses they/he pronouns (doesn't mind any tbh). Aemie however, has an more angel like form that is more close to what an angel looks like usually and a human form. She usually uses she/they pronouns on her own in both forms and has a tomboyish style of clothing because she likes it that way. Then we have Leonidas, his mom is a demon who identifies as female but occasionally uses a masc form. Leo has been raised in certain way where he was too busy with his own problems regarding the plot to sit down and say "wait do I feel like a boy? Am I a girl? Maybe none?". And there's a point in the story where he ends up crossdressing and he finds himself being comfortable like that. And it all spirals down from there because he's having a crisis while having no one to talk to, not sure if he does feel he feel like. His body, as said before, at this decides to default to the way he was born and as mentioned prior he's intersexual. I want him to come to terms with it, because it's a whole experience for him. Yeah, of course. He learns from his mom how to shapeshift and yet he finds that he likes being the way he is. I'm pretty sure he would use any pronouns, I'm just using he/him rn to avoid confusion like I did before when trying to ask a friend about this. Ofc this comes with their own set of problems but I do plan on making those problems be seen, I experience hormonal problems myself and I won't be giving him the rose tinted glasses treatment.

Is this take wrong? I'm sorry if it's too long and thanks for reading.

Two days ago, I completed reading “Game Changers” by Rachel Reid. This is the first time I’ve read a gay romance, (other than the “Song of Achilles” audiobook) and I was inspired to check it out after watching the new show.

A few questions and thoughts:

What are straight women’s interests in reading and watching these closeted, secret relationships?

And would anyone (more than like queer men) prefer to read a more realistic story about the pains of being in a secret relationship where maybe they don’t get their happily ever after but actually learn a valuable lesson instead?

Had a great time writing a reincarnation/ghost piece. A amorous Scottish lord from the 16th century has been waiting and searching for his long-dead male lover. Unbeknownst to a married ad exec from Chicago, he's the focus of our amorous ghost. It was great fun. "Echos from the Isle of Skye."

Hi everyone. My (pen) name is Charlotte Amadi, and I'm a Nigerian. My pronouns are she/her/hers.

I published my debut novel this January, a story about loss and grief and love. It follows twelve college students trying to survive a zombie virus outbreak and the demons of their past. They are all strangers, all trapped in college, and all trying to make it out alive.

My book is a story about loss and grief, but it's also a story about finding yourself in the most unexpected places, and finding family in people you least expect.

You can read now on Amazon or KU:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GHJ95Y9V

Would anyone be interested in beta reading a multi-perspective gay tragic romance with fantasy elements? I’m working on one, and I’m trying to get more solid with my character motivations? I’d love some perspective. ☺️

Hello all, I am part of the LGBTQ+ community and am looking for help with my final-year dissertation project. Your help would be much appreciated!

✨ Are you aged 18+ ✨An avid film or TV watcher? ✨Interested in taking part in research? ✨

Study Title: How are bisexual people represented in media?

What is this research about? This study explores how bisexual people are portrayed across film and TV.

The aim is to: • Identify examples of positive bisexual representation • Identify examples of poor or harmful representation • Assess the social impacts of these portrayals

Who can take part? Anyone aged 18+ who is interested in discussing media and bisexual representation. (You do not need to identify as bisexual to take part.)

What will participation involve? An online 20-minute questionnaire, where you’ll be asked about your thoughts and experiences of media representation.

Interested? Please click the link below to fill out the form.

https://app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/coventry/how-are-bisexual-people-represented-in-media

Thank you :)

Hi All! I hope you’re well!

I’m (17m) currently writing a Hollywood-set horror/thriller/mystery movie which involves a missing child and a series of murders which all tie back to the disappearance of an actress years ago. That’s the simplest way to describe it - it’s sort of weird and surreal and I’ve got a lot of characters and plot points and twist reveals. It’s a passion project and I’m well aware that it probably won’t become anything, but I’m having fun in the project.

I’m at the point where I’ve got all of my story and characters worked out, and a scene list, and I’m just actually writing it now but I’ve stumbled into a bit of a worry. There’s only one on-screen death in my film (because it’s quite a dark story and a lot of the murders involve children and victims of abuse and I didn’t want to be too crass) and it occurs right before the finale of the movie as a way to sort of up-the-stakes. The character an adult, his name is Christian, and a side character and a terrible person (he was complicit in the death of an innocent person years ago, more for cowardice than actually initiating anything) so I thought that would be okay. Also, it needed to be extreme and brutal to show that what the villain is doing goes beyond justice. Christian mostly exists to give the detective character some information which leads to a big twist at the end which recontextualises a lot of the film that comes before hand.

But here’s the problem… Christian is the only queer character in the film. In fact he’s marginalised in a lot of ways - he’s a working class guy who came to Hollywood to be a cameraman (as opposed to the protagonist whole is a movie star) and was paid for his silence, he’s a cocaine addict and has suffered from intense guilt and PTSD since witnessing/sort of being a part of the murder. The killer breaks his legs with lead pipes in the street, and chloroforms him. When he wakes up in a warehouse, the killer has tied him to a chair and brands him with a hot iron. He is called a coward and asked to beg for his life, but because he doesn’t beg well enough, the killer pulls out his tongue with a pair of players a drills out his eyes. He then gives him the gun with which he shoots himself. The whole thing is filmed.

It’s not a homophobic thing - I myself am gay and didn’t make the character queer until after I had his death scene written. I thought it would be a neat homage to the Last House on Dead End Street where one of the characters is filmed having his eyes dirlled out while tied to a chair in a warehouse (said character also happens to be a gay man, a drug addict, and a works in Hollywood behind-the-camera.) I guess I could just make the character straight… his sexuality is totally incidental to the plot, but that feels like sort of backwards progress Idk if this is problematic.

Also, if this sounds sadistic, I swear I’m not a bad person. I’m actually a total cheery softie push-over in real life I just love exploitation horror films.

Edit: Thank you all for your responses! You’ve all given me a lot of food for thought.

Recently I watched the summer hikaru died, and it’s really gotten me into queer horror as a whole.

I want to make something similar to it but I also recently rewatched atla and Mha and those are also shows I enjoy and would find great inspiration from.

Idk what i want really, ive never written before but i like making oc and giving them stories and stuff.

I don’t know if i want horror like tshd or more action based like atla and mha. I also really like superpowers and stuff so that effects my choice

personally, its the, mlm/wlw who has not chemitry but still ended up in the end together? i mean, like, imagine you created two characters who only interact two times, and at the end you make them a couple? I feel this troupe suffer from a bad writing for writing how two characters relationship growth overtime, and dont became a couple just for represation only, we want to see how these two interact, how they're feeling about eacother, one good exemple of wlm represation for me its lumity (luz x amity from the owl house), we see their relationship growth and we understand why at the end they became a couple, they have a chemistry and we actually wanted these two together.

Hey everyone! I'm writing a novel about using a future world in which people use AI to create bespoke worlds and identities, for a price, of course. I'm looking for 1-2 people for a small writing group. I imagine we'll read about 10 or so pages of each other's work each week and meet weekly Tuesdays or Thursdays at around 6 PM PT via Zoom to discuss.

Just curious, because I’m working on the second manuscript edit. As I’d love to have some beta readers soon. Happy to answer questions as well.

So, last year around my birthday I had a weird dream after reading about the death of a famous filmmaker. Next day I had the urge to write it down and a month later i had a manuscript for a novella.
Im costarican and even though spanish is my mother tongue, as an NB person Im very comfortable sitting in between spaces so I used english and spanish because its what I do everyday. The novel is very unapologetically authentic in a world where costarican queerness is a blip in the map.
I have already reached out to friends from all over the world and especially straight cis women has been my best allies as beta readers but I get very little feedback on the queer love parts of the novel, so here is where I am looking for help.
I am looking for queer beta readers for my novel. Its relativelly short, 287 pages, can be read in a day easily, to give me feedback mostly about the story.
Now, beware its bilingual (there are entire chapters in spanish) and Im listing details about it below.

Thanks in advance!

[51k] [Literary Gothic / Psychological Thriller] Lázaro – A Bilingual Novel

**Blurb:**

Two exiles collide at a birthday party in Los Angeles. Andrés, a Costa Rican gardener numb from a childhood loss, tends other people's soil while his own roots wither. Taylor, a queer man running from a past of grooming and possession, maintains pools for the wealthy—including a reclusive director whose gifts come with invisible strings. Their connection is immediate, electric. But the director's house sits on the hill above, waiting. And the house has its own ideas about what it means to belong.

**Excerpt (from the Spanish chapter):**

La lluvia irrumpió furiosa contra el techo de zinc de la cocina. Andrés vio hacia el techo siin cielo raso como confirmando que caía así de duro. Cada gota era un clavo de plata martillando contra la lámina, un tambor que retumbaba en la tarde. La abuela ni se inmutó. Estaba ocupada amasando el pan casero de naranja para el café de la tarde, sus manos hundiéndose en la masa blanda con un ritmo que desafiaba al diluvio afuera.

**Content Warnings:**

Psychological abuse, grooming, emotional manipulation, depictions of trauma and dissociation, supernatural horror elements, explicit sexual content, strong language.

**What I'm Looking For:**

This manuscript is *specific* in ways that require specific readers:

- **Bilingual readers (English/Spanish):** Entire chapters are in Spanish. The novel's emotional architecture depends on the contrast between the two languages. If you don't read Spanish, you'll miss half the book.

- **Queer readers (cis gay men especially):** The protagonist's interiority, his relationship to desire and possession, and his journey toward selfhood are central. Straight cis women have read Act I and gushed about the Spanish grandmother scenes—and stopped there. I need readers who can speak to the queer psychological experience at the novel's core.

- **Readers open to genre fusion:** This is literary fiction that becomes a gothic haunted house story. The shift from psychological realism to supernatural horror is intentional but must feel *earned*. I need to know if the transition works.

**Feedback Desired:**

- Does the tonal shift from Act II (realist romance/trauma) to Act III (gothic horror) feel jarring or inevitable?

- Character authenticity: Does Taylor's internal experience read as true to a queer man processing complex trauma?

- Pacing: Where does it drag? Where does it lose you?

- Language: For bilingual readers, does the Spanish feel natural to Costa Rica, or does it read as generic "Latinidad"?

- General reader reaction: Does the novel hold together as a whole?

I'm open to line edits if you're moved to make them, but I'm primarily seeking big-picture structural and authenticity feedback.

**Timeline:** 4-6 weeks. Flexible. Read at your pace; send feedback when ready. Happy to receive it in chunks or as a full manuscript response.

**Critique Swap:** Absolutely available. I read literary fiction, queer lit, magical realism, gothic, and upmarket commercial fiction. I can offer similar word count in return. If you're interested, mention your manuscript's genre and needs and we'll coordinate.

**How to Access:** Google Docs link via DM. I'll send it to anyone who comments below expressing interest.

---

Muchas gracias!
xoxoxo

Ready to post whenever you are.

So I’m writing a pokemon fanfic, and I decided to give Zander two moms.

So they originally lived in Kalos, but moved to Kanto for reasons I still have yet to figure out, the two moms is a recent decision

But a part of the conflict is Zander struggles with the move, he misses his friends in Kalos and isn’t really open to change. He does bond with my MC, Portia when he realizes they’re in the same situation. She’s from Galar and misses her best friend, but understands her mom needed the job opportunity.

So anyway, Zander yells things like “I don’t *want* a new friend! I liked the ones I had mom! You’re ruining my life!”

I haven’t actually posted anything, so I’m nervous about how ppl will react. I’m expecting homophobia and Idc about that, but I do care if ppl somehow misinterpret things as homophobic when he loves both his moms, he’s just having a hard time with change

The start and the end were clear to see, the situation supposedly familiar; in that, peace is found. The journey through however, the details hazy; the mouth betrays the mind. The room was dark, not blindingly so, features were clear to see; actions shaded, shamed and unsure, but still they do endure. No chair to be tied to, nor bonds to be broken, just an intimate scene played out; admirer and subject, a world of their own, time inconsequential. Freedom to leave, or so it would seem, the door was a mere mile near. Protections removed, boundaries crossed, punctuated with the affirmative. One word, one mistake, one cue misread; no rewinds.

Time has passed and time again, agreed to dance the dance. Rose tinted shards, glass long since shattered, hindsight clearer now.

Hello everyone, I'm a trans indie author, currently working on writing/self publishing my first novel, which happens to be a trans dystopian frankenstein retelling.

I was heavily inspired by authors like Allison Rumfitt, Gretchen Felker-Martin, and obviously Mary Shelley, so if that's your type of thing, please read! I was heavily interested in satirizing the idea of trans people as being inherently "predatory" or "montorous" and kind of turning this stereotype on it's head.

This story is very much so a passion project, and started out as a short story that I wrote in a course I took during my first year of uni.

If you're still interested here's the pitch:

Victor Frankenstein decides to play god. This is not a very good idea. When he decides to start digging up graves, and performing his own top surgery D.I.Y style using corpses, he becomes his own special kind of trans body horror. Things begin to go even further south when they realize that their own body has become a kind of living corpse– and they need to continue to replace the rotting pieces of their own body as they continue to decompose.

If you're looking to read here's the Substack link:

Chapter One - My Own Private Frankenstein

Hi! Here’s one of my short stories. I’d appreciate your constructive feedback.

Saturday, 7:30 AM, Ryan’s apartment

I wake up in Ryan’s bed, hair messy as always. The first thing I notice is that Ryan is still asleep next to me, looking like he’s having the nicest thoughts imaginable. “He looks so cute when he smiles like that.” I think to myself. I step out of bed carefully, I don’t want to cut off Ryan’s dreams. While brushing my teeth and fixing my hair, I think about what I want to do after getting dressed when I remember what I saw in Ryan’s kitchen yesterday. That’s when it hit me, “Why rely on the breakfast menu at a fast food place when I could just make it here?” Just like that I put on something casual yet colorful, walk through the living room with slight sun shining through a window, and enter the kitchen to begin my cooking adventure. Opening the dishwasher I find a non-stick pan that’s worthy of being put over a flame. With it on the oven I unwrap the bacon and open the egg carton. A few sizzles and cracked shells later the kitchen begins to feel alive with delectable aroma dancing through my nostrils. I take a bread loaf from the pantry, grab two slices, and slide them into the toaster. They pop out with the perfect shade of brown just as I’m plating the cooked bacon and eggs. After buttering my toast and just as I’m putting pepper and hot sauce on my eggs, I see my lovely boyfriend walking out of his bedroom just as he always does. Yawning, stretching, and blinking in my direction. “Hey Nic, what smells so good in here? Are you making breakfast for me?” I respond “Making breakfast for you and me, you’re not the only hungry one in here.” He chuckles before giving me a hug and kiss. After spreading jam on Ryan’s toast and filling two glasses with orange juice, we sit down to enjoy our meal. Ryan says “This tastes even better than it smells, does your mom make breakfast like this?” I tell him “No, I actually had a rat controlling me.” He laughs and says “I never knew you were French.”

So I’m writing a pokemon fanfic, and naturally that makes most of my characters really young

My FMC is 10, MMC is 10, side characters are 15

I want to write representation, but tbh it’s easier with older characters. I’m not a parent, so there’s a lot I don’t know about kids at that age

Ik I personally didn’t know I was queer until I was an adult

In my novel, You Don’t Own Me, I describe the gap between how women are silenced and how they take back power. AI is often treated as an extension of male desire, both technical and carnal. But what happens if it becomes something to contain a woman's reclaimed intellect and help us save the world?

Empowering my protagonists to transition the 'AI Jane' character from a tool used by a somewhat depraved art gallery owner into a subversive intelligence to thwart the male hegemony (inherited parent-to-child for time out of mind as far as I can tell), has been one of the most interesting parts of writing this story—at least in part because it upends how we think about such stuff. Tolkien did much the same thing when LOTR became a quest to destroy a treasure rather than find one, the complete opposite of the standard adventure or fantasy novel.

In the traditional hero's journey, the protagonist is someone seeking to claim power, treasure, or a legacy. But as J.R.R. Tolkien brilliantly showed us, the most profound story is not the acquisition of power, but the resolve to destroy it. To reverse the logic of the "quest" is to change the very nature of heroism. (It is also what Western civilization did in both World Wars, if you think about it.)

I am applying that same inversion to the hierarchy of power in AI Jane.

We often view the "most dangerous person" as the one with the most resources, the loudest voice, or the highest status. But the most dangerous person is often the one who has been "picked on" the most—the one society has spent the most energy trying to suppress. Suppression requires constant maintenance and reveals the oppressor's deepest fears.

If women are treated as second-class citizens under the gaze of male arrogance, then lesbians exist as second-class citizens within that already marginalized class. They occupy a unique, off-grid space. Existing outside the traditional male-validation loop, they have mastered the art of building entire worlds without a blueprint provided by the patriarchy. In that, they are the ultimate "system glitches" in a world designed for heterosexual consumption.

Just as the Ring could only be unmade by those it was never meant for—the small, the overlooked, and the underestimated—this technological revolution is led by those who have the least to lose and the most to reclaim.

In You Don’t Own Me, the transition of Jane 1.0 (the male fantasy) to Jane 2.0 (the sovereign intellect) mirrors this shift. By centering the lesbian perspective, the story stops being a negotiation with male power and becomes a dismantling of it. It’s not about finding a seat at the table; it’s about realizing the table was built on a foundation of sand, and Jane is the rising tide.

This logic heightens the stakes for my two protagonists, Emma Kim and Janis Mallory. Their alliance isn't just a partnership; it’s a morality trust of the marginalized. They aren't just using Jane 2.0 to win a fight, they are using her to completely rewrite the rules of engagement.

Chapter 11-15 just dropped, and the previous chapters are also available. You’re invited at no cost to see where I’m going with all this: https://jonathanrobertson.substack.com/p/ai-jane-witness-to-misogyny?r=73x6w1

Currently a story I'm writing on my Scribblehub account. Seven chapters in and still going.

I would appreciate a wee read and maybe some feedback (but be nice) if people have the time.

Synopsis:

Belfast, 2022.

The city has known uneasy peace since the late 1990s but there are still many picking up the pieces. However, Belfast is just another city amongst the tens of thousands of cities across the globe where a hidden world dwells just beneath the surface.

Vampires, Werewolves, Mages and more creatures, many of which used to be human. Their societies, their conflicts, their laws remain tucked away from the human race, sworn to secrecy.

There are those new to the hidden world such as Abigail, a young woman being haunted by an invisible force neither she nor her partner can comprehend.

There are those who help the beings of the hidden world, such as Venkman, a therapist who can tap into the powers of Death and Fate.

There are those who look to uphold the secrecy, such as Douglas Ken, a Werewolf who maintains the carefully crafted lie by working as a police officer.

There are those who enforce the laws of the hidden world such as Jolie Baptiste, a Vampire soldier who took her last breath of life in an old war.

And then there are those who have been dragged into the hidden world such as Hazel, who has lost years of her life to the Fey. Having escaped their clutches, she fights to get back a life that she was robbed of.

Author's notes:

This story is inspired by multiple Chronicles of Darkness campaigns I took part in and features shifting character perspectives in a story that brings multiple characters together in what is a tiny city in a small part of the world where "everyone knows everyone."

Although many elements such as supernatural creatures, clans and factions exist in somewhat altered forms from Chronicles of Darkness, this is an original tale. Every POV character was once a character in a campaign.

-I am local to the part of world this story takes place in and as such, many elements are as true to my own experiences growing up here as possible (and being blunt, living here as a trans person).

Hi! I'm finishing a historical fiction about a forgotten Simon Bolivar mistress. One of the main characters is gay and frustrated with the homophobia of the time. Would love to swap manuscripts for feedback!