Does It Have To Matter?

ZealousNihilist

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Hold the ban hammers for a second, please.

What I mean is, I'm worldbuilding, and I don't want sexuality to matter. I don't want to be obliged to write 'I like men' scenes, but I worry that if I don't address it, it might not go over well.
 

SWest

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Write completely True to your characters' story. There is no prescription.

Every story is not for everyone, so don't worry that some people will feel confused or left out.

Write the stories you want to read.
 

buz

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Hold the ban hammers for a second, please.

What I mean is, I'm worldbuilding, and I don't want sexuality to matter. I don't want to be obliged to write 'I like men' scenes, but I worry that if I don't address it, it might not go over well.

It doesn't have to matter.

If you're concerned about the representation thing: when people talk about the importance of representation, I don't think they're talking about the necessity of every book having some sort of dramatic coming-out-of-the-closet scene. It's just, if you're going to mention marriage, or sex, or a relationship, or attraction, or love, or some character admiring the arousing gray dried-up winter-raisined lips of an alluring lich siren, it doesn't always have to be the cis-man-and-woman-doing-the-normative-thing. It's just, yanno, considering other possibilities as equally legitimate avenues, IMO.

But no, sexuality doesn't have to matter. I've certainly never had any to bother about, personally.
 
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Convenientalias

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I know some people really enjoy books where sexuality isn't an issue, it's just assumed people like who they like. I like those too, though I must admit I prefer books where you can see a little more of how society views different sexualities and it's not completely a nonissue. But yeah, it's fine to build a world where everything's as queer as you like and unspecified. I've read a lot of book reviews praising casual queerness of that kind.
Also like buz said (sort of? I might be veering from the point here?), you don't have to necessarily have a dramatic coming out of the closet scene to reveal someone's sexuality. Just a simple, "yeah I also like dudes" or "I prefer dudes" dropped in conversation or in internal monologue can be fine.
 

shadowsminder

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Not all stories with queer characters need coming-out scenes or statements defining the characters' sexualities. Is that what you mean?
 

Miss Vicky

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I think sexuality only has to matter if it's important to the story you're trying to tell. There's no need to shoehorn in a love story or even address a character's sexual identity if you don't want to and the story doesn't require it.
I definitely second what SWest said: Write the stories you want to read.