Guilt (Regarding my story)

I feel you. There's something about looking at all the straight characters and being like, "I ship you, but I wish you were queer." But alas. Sometimes the characters develop that way and there's nothing you can do but love and accept them for their straight selves.

Whenever it happens to me, I usually just surround them with other LGBT characters or, as I've been doing lately, stick one of the partners on the ace-spectrum (1. because we're underrepresented and 2. because no sex scenes!).

If you did want to queer things up but don't want to gender swap one of the characters, you could always add a same-sex romantic rival. And while it's nice to have queer people in the spotlight, if you write them well and give them solid characterization (which I trust you would) I don't think there's a problem with a queer beta couple. But if you don't get your f/f this time around, there will always be other stories.

Speaking from a purely biological perspective, if males are rare in the species and females are co-operative and social and not solitary, there's a strong likelihood of f/f relationships. Unless they literally only mate when a man's around - which can't be that often if males are rare unless he can mate with huge numbers of females in one night.

Look at bonobos for an example. They're a species of chimpanzee where females have sex with other females for bonding and this increases co-operation and alliances between females, but they will also mate with males as well. They have a 50/50 m/f ratio just like humans do, but if you were to have a troop of bonobos with far more females than males, then there'd be a lot more gay sex going on than hetero sex.

I know human readers generally like monogamy, but species where females outnumber males by that much aren't monogamous. In fact, usually with those gender ratios the females reproduce asexually (i.e. laying eggs that grow into clones of themselves) as default and on the rare times they get to mate with males, they reproduce sexually (i.e. producing gametes which undergo fertilisation and grow into genetically different offspring).

That's a biological perspective. I suppose from a story perspective maybe she can have girlfriends as well as a boyfriend, and this would probably be considered normal in her society. Then you'd have to take care to present this as actual bisexuality (i.e. she really loves her female partner(s)) and not "I'm just going with a woman because there are no men around"

ETA: you don't have to go with biological realism if you don't want to. It's just a suggestion for a perspective that may add extra dimensions into your worldbuilding and make it possible for your MC to have f/f relationships and be attracted to this rare male

Could I ask a huge favour? Could you change your thread title to 'guilt'? Cos 'guiltiness' isn't the right word and it's making my eye twitch everytime I see it.

Sorry for the derail but.... you know.... bugbear...

If the couple is straight, then they're straight. It's fine. No need to feel guilty about it. Keep on writing!

(I have het couples in a few of my own unfinished stories, and I don't feel guilty at all. After all, the world is filled with straight and/or cis-people, too. I don't consider myself a hypocrite if I write het couples, because that's how those couples naturally turned out as I wrote my random stories.)

Maybe you can add some LGBT minor characters, or make the main girl bisexual. Or you can just write a fxf storyline next time. Whatever motivates you to write and makes you happy.

ETA: While I can understand the "guilt" factor in writing yet another het couple, I don't think LGBT people should feel obligated to always write about LGBT characters.

Do what you feel is right for the story and right for you.

Presumably this won't be the only book you ever write, right? Make a note to yourself to start with the f/f relationship in your next project, so that the plot, setting, and theme flow from the characters instead of the other way around, and focus on making this book as good as it can possibly be.

Thank you!

I'm all for doing what is right for your characters and your stories. If a hetero relationship is what makes sense for your work, then that's what you should do. Don't feel bad about 'taking more of the pie' for cishet characters, as it were. You'll have plenty of opportunities in the future to make the pie bigger for us LGBTQ folks.

Look at it this way. Everything you learn with this project can be applied to your kick-ass future f/f relationships. You're making an investment for the future.