i know this probably isn't something you can answer, but i felt like maybe you could post and some kind human from the tags may answer. do you know if there are any tutorials on HOW to write a trans person?
you're right - this isnt something i can personally answer , but i can point you to guides . just an fyi - if me , a cisgender person , can use google then please please try and do so yourself if you are also cisgender , especially before asking others . especially if they may be trans or nonbinary and you are asking them to do the work for you when they most likely already have , freely . it can come across as slightly lazy / disrespectful to at least not try and look yourself . all i did was google ' write a trans character guide ' and ' writing a trans character tumblr ' .
i totally understand that you're after other peoples input too , or for me to try and find some resources and guides for you . . but again , i don't think it is cis people's place to tell others how to write trans characters . i'm glad you recognised that , but i'd advise your first step is to maybe find someone in the rpc who is trans / gender diverse , but again - please try and at least do some research yourself / a quick google before reaching out and asking . people put out so many guides and resources . they work tirelessly . we can put in a little work ourselves .
with that said , if anybody has an additional guide or resource or tag they want to link - pls comment and i'll add it in !
so you want to write a transgender character
what to avoid - a transgender / nb guide
common / incorrect stereotypes to avoid when writing transgender characters
mini masterpost to help you write a trans character
dos and donts of writing a transgender character
writing trans characters : names
transgender characters masterpost
writing trans characters - corrections of common mistakes
writing trans characters - more do's and don'ts
tips for writing a trans character
transrph writing a trans character pt 1 , pt 2 , pt 3
hi! i'm a cis female and i've created a trans female who i'd love to use more, but i don't know enough information to portray her properly. do you or any of your followers have a guide with helpful information on transitioning? tysm xx
i couldn’t find anything SPECIFIC on n how to write JUST a trans female . here are some overall great guides i found from people who know what theyre talking about with the overall trans community and rep !
THETROLLIESTCRITIC (character guide + character building + lots of links at the bottom abt what to avoid and what to think about ! )
ACTIVISTHELPS ( guides masterpost )
SEBLAINERPH ( 101 guide on how to write a transgender character )
FIXYOURWRITINGHABITS ( ‘ so you want to write a trans character , but you’re cis ‘ )
SCRIPTLGBT ( corrections + common mistakes when writing trans muses )
ASK-TRANS-FELICIANO ( ‘ you’re a well-intentioned cis author trying to write a trans muse ‘ )
Writing a Trans Character
As Experienced by a Trans Man
With more resources coming out for trans faceclaims, I wanted to make sure that there were also more guides on how to write a trans character. So I’m going to be sharing my personal experience with gender as a (very extensive and detailed) toolset for those that haven’t/aren’t questioning their identity. Please keep in mind that this is entirely based off of my personal experience and growth, and that every trans person has their own journey with their own experiences. None are invalid and all are equally as important. This also wound up turning into more of a gender study as well, so feel free to share and message about your thoughts. I’d love to have gender discussions!
Part One Part Two
The Early Signs | Mislabeling
Before coming to terms, or truly understanding gender as a non-binary and fluid concept, I was constantly flipping back and forth between sexuality labels. More specifically, there was a desperate need to explain something that I felt was perfectly normal.
An attraction to girls, in my head, was never questioned when I was a child. I didn’t start to think it was wrong until I was around ten, but even then it was confusing. So when writing a transgender character keep in mind that most children have a better concept of themselves before society forces standards of normality on to them. Most kids know what they like, and they don’t question it; AFAB (assigned female at birth) children may like stereotypically masculine things, and AMAB (assigned male at birth) may enjoy more feminine things. Keep in mind that these are not for sure signs that someone is transgender, however they could be, what’s important to take notice is the dialogue behind the actions.
As an example, I grew up very flat chested and when my sister explained to me that I was going to get breasts, I had an absolute meltdown. I am aware that there are some cis females that this happened to as a child, however my exact words were ‘but I’m not supposed to have those’. Despite a clear understanding of sex and me being classified as female, it never clicked that that meant I wasn’t male. All it meant to me was that I was called she and her.
There are plenty of trans people saying that there were ‘signs’ and comfortability in certain clothing seems to be very common. I think what gets talked over in this, however, are those that weren’t uncomfortable in dresses, but moreso hated that it made people view them as more feminine.
This ties into your characters dysphoria, which will have its own long post, and how that manifests in them. I dont want to dwell to long for the sake of length, but for right now your focus should be on how your character experienced dysphoria before they understood what it meant. What made it spike? How did they cope? Would they throw tantrums? Things of that nature. For me, you can find it in how i never smiled in photos of me wearing a dress or what is seen as feminine clothing. And the way I would describe how I felt in those clothes.
I remember growing up and being forced into certain clothes and the only way I could describe the way I was feeling in them was ‘itchy’. What I now know is that by ‘itchy’ I meant ‘my skin is literally crawling please take this off of me right now’. However this was rarely with dresses and more with turtlenecks. Dresses bothered me because I couldn’t play tag in them as easily, and I was constantly being scolded to sit with my knees close together. I hated that, I liked to be comfortable and sprawled out. The overall point is that everyone’s experience with clothing and the ideas of what is feminine and what isn’t are different. My mother is a tomboy, and so she felt the same as I did when in dresses, not content but not distraught either. It is also why, according to her, my transition was so difficult for her to understand. Because to her, the way I was explaining things simply sounded like I was a ‘tomboy’. It’s taken months for her to understand the differences to being ‘societal boyish’ and actually a trans male.
Another thing often seen is children screaming they are a boy/girl from a young age, for me this never happened. Society accepting girls to act more boyish was always okay, and so I got to wear shorts and pants as I got older and could dress myself. So, for your character, you could decide which route you’d like to take, the route of knowing for sure at a young age, or having mostly no idea and only learning as they grew older. For me I didn’t know I was trans until I was twenty four, others didn’t until well into their adulthood, and some figure it out in their teens. This is entirely up to each individual's experience, however like I said before this is based off of mine.
There’s a specific moment I remember when I was in my very early teens when I googled ‘I wish I was a boy but I’m not transgender’. At the time it felt so silly but I was so desperate because that was all I wanted. I was miserable. I hated everything about how I looked and I remember looking at men on tv and non stop thinking how badly I wanted to look like them. It’s easy to look back now and think ‘holy crap how dumb am I’ but at the time I was so accepted as a tomboy that I just thought that was why I felt this way. Which brings me to the next point in writing a trans character: Most of the time, wishing to be a boy, is all that matters. And what I mean is that there is so much talk about ‘knowing’ you’re a boy but so little on ‘wishing’ it. And sometimes that’s all there is in someone. For me that’s all there was. I only wished, I didn’t know because I didn’t know I could be. The lack of conversation regarding transgender and gender identities hinders a lot of trans people in finding their true selves (and I say this based of the many trans youtubers I’ve watched).
It’s something I’ve actually seen very common when watching trans youtubers that came out later in their lives (mid teens to early twenties). There was a wish to be but never the knowledge that they could be. It seems confusing and obvious, but when you’re in the position and there isn’t much rhetoric surrounding being transgender, and even less representation, it makes the identity and possibilities seem all the smaller.
So I would keep all of this in mind when writing the backstory for your character, or if they are finding themselves later in life and you are in the middle of developing it, keep it in mind how confusing it is to be unsure and how limited the resources are if you’re not sure what to look for. There was no guidebook when I was growing up, and I was always with the understanding that because I didn’t know 100% that I was transgender (the thought hadn’t even crossed my mind and seemed like such an impossibility that I refused to even label myself as such when searching for help), I simply couldn’t possibly be that.
The other thing that I would like everyone to keep in mind, that I intend to touch on in another part of these guides, is how confusing sexual identities further confuses what your gender identity is. Because of my attraction to girls growing up, I labelled myself as a lesbian, however when thinking about my future there was always a male father figure/husband figure in mind. And I could never quite figure out why that was. Now I know that the male image I had in my head that wouldn’t go away was me.
In short, my belief is everyone in life knows who their true selves are, it’s only after society pushes norms on us that we have to navigate and find ourselves again. In Plato’s The Symposium there’s a quote that says “According to Greek Mythology, humans were originally created with four arms, four legs, and a head with two faces. Fearing their power Zeus split them in two separate beings, condemning them to spend their lives in search of their other halves.” I’m sure that my own take is not at all what is intended, but I do take something away from this different than the soulmate theories. I feel that this quote shows how our souls, who we are as people, have been split in two, and when young we are whole, we are our true selves. I believe Zeus is a symbol of society, and the thunderbolt the harsh realities we are forced to face that rip us away from who we truly are. And it is our goal in life to find our other halves that we have been split apart from; navigating life so that we can feel whole once more.
Prompt Version:
How did your character experience dysphoria?
What caused their dysphoria to spike? Was it a situation or something physical or social?
How did they cope with their dysphoria? Did they cope at all?
Did they know from a young age, or was it something they learned about themselves later on in life?
