Identity: Genderfluid
Genderfluid is a word to describe the gender identity of someone whose gender changes over a period of time.
How to write a genderfluid character
Well, of course, you would write a genderfluid character like any other character. Their gender probably doesn't affect them enough that it'll change their way of living in a very significant way. Except that isn't quite true. I'll stop blabbing and get into the details.
Consider their gender.
The first thing you should do is figure out the details of the character's changing gender. That means you'll have to decide how often the character's gender changes. Does it change regularly, as if on a schedule, or does it change randomly? Is the change often (for example, every day, every few hours, or every few days) or rarely (like once a week or every couple weeks)? You will also have to choose how many genders their gender changes between. For example, does they switch between agender, demiboy, and bigender. Or maybe they go between boy and girl. Or possibly their gender shifts between androgyne, trigender, deminonbinary, anonbinary, and pangender.
Next, you should imagine what life might be like if your gender changed in the same way. Some things that might help with this step is going to the genderfluid entry on Gender Wiki to understand what exactly genderfluid means, going to #genderfluid on Tumblr to hear about the experiences of genderfluid people, or even going to genderfluid on any social media and finding real genderfluid people. Then it comes to actually imagining being genderfluid. The following instructions are mainly for people who are not genderfluid. If you're genderfluid, you don't need to do the exact things on the list, but you might adapt them for notetaking and story-planning purposes.
One thing to consider is dysphoria. If you are a trans person, you might want to think about your dysphoria and imagine how it might feel if sometimes you were a gender that matches your assigned sex and sometimes you were a gender that didn't match. How might you experience dysphoria? When might you not experience it? If you're cisgender (or not experiencing dysphoria), imagine waking up some days and feeling intense discomfort in your body or your ability to present yourself. To help with this as someone who doesn't experience dysphoria, you might want to do some research into what it feels like.
Another thing to think about is how you might label your gender. The character is of course genderfluid, but would they label their gender every day? Would they try to figure out their exact gender when it changes? How much does it matter to them to label their gender?
Think about how it feels to change to another gender. How might they feel when they wake up (or whenever they notice their gender has changed)? Do they feel a significant change? Do they have a sudden rush of dysphoria or a sudden release of it as they have a different perception of themself due to being a different gender?
The final step is to perhaps take some notes about what you've found about the character's gender and move on to the next step of the process.
Do research into stereotypes of genderfluid people.
It is easy to write in stereotypes, since there are stereotypes and beliefs about people around us nearly all the time. Stereotypes are generalizations about a group of people due to one specific fact about them. For example, a stereotype of gay men is that they are very feminine. This is not true, but it is believed about gay men because of old beliefs. Another example of a stereotype is the stereotype that all genderfluid people just shift between male/man/boy and female/woman/girl. This is also not true. While a stereotype might be true for some people in the group, it is not true for the entire group. It is important not to just write in generalizations and to show that there are people to whom stereotypes don't apply.
To make this step easier, I have made a list of stereotypes about genderfluid people. Avoid these in your writing!
All genderfluid people change between male and female.
All genderfluid people use all pronouns without preferences.
The presentation of genderfluid people always changes with their gender.
The gender of a genderfluid person changes every day (or on a schedule).
Genderfluid people are not trans.
Genderfluid people sometimes identify as their assigned sex.
Teenagers are the only ones who identify as genderfluid.
Remember: None of the statements in the list of stereotypes are true. They are only stereotypes. While they might be true for some people, they are not true for all genderfluid people.
The last and most important step is to remember that genderfluid people are... people.
Their gender might not be represented as much as most people's genders, but they are still people with backstories, personalities, and selves outside of just their genderfluidity. They have more interesting things about them than their gender. So, when you're writing a genderfluid character, remember to include the following details about them.
Their backstory. Where are they from? What is their family like? Have they had an easy life? What are some major events from their life?
Their personality. What are they like? Are they kind? Confident? Angry? Self-conscious? Unaware of themself? Are they a bully? Do they stand up to people who are doing things they disagree with? How do they talk? How do they think?
Their preferences. What do they like? What do they dislike? What are their hobbies? What are things they want to do? What are things they would never do again?
Their appearance. What do they look like? How do they dress? What is their aesthetic?
Their interests. What are their hobbies? What do they like to learn about? What makes them happy or excited? What do they dislike? What bores them?
Their mental health. Do they have any mental illnesses? Do they struggle with mental health? What kind of coping mechanisms do they use? What are they trying to do better? Are they a pessimist, an optimist, or a realist?
Design them like you would design any other character. Don't just focus on their gender. It's important to have stories of genderfluid people who are living life genuinely, not just living based on their gender.
Character design list!
I thought this might be helpful, so I decided to make a basic list for planning out a character's traits.
Name
Gender (if genderfluid, list genders here)
Pronouns (if uses multiple sets, list all here)
Dysphoria (see Dysphoria list below; here, mark out of ten how bad dysphoria is overall)
Age
Personality (adjectives about their personality)
Likes (list things that they enjoy and like)
Dislikes (list things that they don't enjoy and don't like)
Interests (list their hobbies and things that interest them; if they are autistic/ADHD/neurodivergent then include any special interests and hyper-fixations)
Perspective (optimistic, pessimistic, or realistic; like themself or dislike themself; like the world or dislike world; introvert, extrovert, or ambivert; etc.)
Mental disorders/mental illness (list any mental illnesses or disorders that they have; this include neurodivergences such as autism, ADHD, OCD, and dyslexia)
Physical disabilities
Backstory list (see Backstory below)
Dysphoria
Rate the severity of each kind of dysphoria out of ten (10 - most severe. 0 - no dysphoria). You can also name what exactly gives them dysphoria to make the list more specific. To see an example of this particular list being put to use, look at the words in pink at the bottom of the post. You might want to make a list specifically for each gender of the genderfluid person.
Physical (genitals): __ / 10
Physical (other body parts): __ / 10
Social (self-presentation): __ / 10
Social (others' misgendering): __ / 10
Mental: __ / 10
Backstory
Where they're from (as specific as you want; could include country, city, address, planet, star system, whatever fits the story)
Family life (people in their family, who raised them, how healthy their family is, etc.)
Favorite memory
Traumatic memories (something you might want to include is how much they remember it, the fragments they remember and fragments they don't, etc.)
Ease of their life (have they had an Easy, Hard, Moderate, Moderately Easy, etc. life)
Other major events