Writing Asexual Characters: Character-Development Questions

anagnori:

So you’re thinking of writing a character as asexual? Great! Maybe you’re asexual yourself, or maybe you’re a non-asexual person trying to portray it accurately.

Being asexual can affect a person’s life and personality in many ways; I know that I, at least, would have grown up to be totally different if I weren’t asexual and aromantic. Your asexual characters’ personalities should reflect asexuality without being completely defined by it. And this holds true regardless of whether you’re writing original fiction or fanfiction.

If you’re not asexual, it may be hard to think of ways that asexuality could affect your characters’ lives, and how you can portray it in a sensitive and realistic way. So I’ve compiled a list of character-development questions to help you. There are no right or wrong answers, as long as you treat your characters’ sexual orientations as real, and not as something to be “fixed” by falling in love or having good sex. These questions will help you get an idea of all the options open to you as a writer, and prepare you to write your asexual character in a consistent way. You may even get some good ideas for plots and conflict from this list. And if you are asexual, then this list might be helpful to you, too.

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