Today’s writer topic comes from QSFer Janet Gershen-Siegel:
Creating believable homophobic characters, the kinds that aren’t just one-note villains.
It’s a good question. Any time we create villains, it’s easy to make them all bad, a dark vs. light thing where the evildoer must be vanquished. I have to admit, I am especially guilty of this when the villain is homophobic. As a gay man, I don’t WANT to see anything redeeming in such people.
And yet… we are all complicated creatures. I just read the story of a woman who used to head an ex-Gay organization, who now officiates at same sex weddings. People change. And even those who don’t can have complex motives for their actions, evil or otherwise.
So our questions today – have you ever written homophobic characters in your stories? If so, were they one note characters, or more complex? How did you get inside their head? And did you think the character was successful?