#but honestly my own gender identity is an ambiguous ''girl-ish i guess????'' thing

[homenum-revelio-hq]

are there resources you suggest for playing trans characters?

I don’t have a “go-to” link (or links) that I can give you, I’m afraid. I’m sure there are loads of great posts out there on tumblr and elsewhere, and I’ve done a quick search to find you a few places to start (links below!), but since gender identity and gender constructs etc. is a subject in which I’ve always been immersed, it’s not something I’ve ever had to search-out a how-to for the writing thereof. Honestly I find it’s a topic best explored and/or explained in story-format (whether fictional or non; prose or oratory) because it’s so entangled with who someone is that the best way to learn about it is to feel it -- to experience it through the lens of an actual person (fictional or real) who lives it. If that makes sense? Gender is such a personal, individual thing that the whole beautiful mess of identity and discovery and labels and self-discovery and determination etc. etc. that it makes it hard (in my opinion) to really encapsulate in a how-to guide sort of resource...but try starting with these:

An Important Note About Pronouns!

A General Overview/Reflection on Trans Characters and Stories

Probably the Closest Thing I Found To a “How To”/”How To Not” Guide

Some Further Tips On What Not To Do

HP Specific: The Attisgalli Corrective Draught (already part of our world building!)

Scriptwriters Trans Tag (this blog is a great resource in general; check their tags!)

Stories That Did It Wrong And How Not To Repeat Their Mistakes

A Detailed Guide to Writing Trans Masculine Characters

A Few Links On Definitions, etc.

*Some of these links are old, so the information contained therein may be outdated or the links within may be defunct; in many cases we also skimmed rather than reading in detail so the merits of their information/terminology may vary. Please use your own discretion and if you need clarification on something don’t be shy about asking, either us or the authors or check in with the fine people at Script LGBT+.

If you really want to immerse yourself in the subject, here are some of my favorite stories that involve exploring identity and transition and so-on:

When The Letter Comes is a beautiful short story that includes both Hogwarts-type tropes and genderqueer characters and it’s available to read online in its entirety for free which makes it a good starting point (it may make you cry. It does me. So good.)

Dreadnought is an impeccable superhero origin story featuring a transgender protagonist and if you want to understand the experience of being a trans woman, I can recommend no better place to start than here because it puts you right inside Dani’s head and takes you along every step of her journey in a way that’s both excruciating and exhilarating and while I wouldn’t classify it as a “guide” to writing trans characters (only because there’s no one way to be/write trans), it should still give you a solid understanding of being trans that you can build from.

The Deep And Dark Blue is an excellent fantasy graphic novel about two royal twins who survive a coup by hiding in a magical convent and I don’t want to give it all away but gender identity is a crux of the plot and its really just lovely.

Snapdragon is a charming (and sometimes charmingly-gross) graphic novel about outcast kids finding friendship and magic and an elderly witch and it does some really lovely stuff with gender and transition along the way.

The graphic novel Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe is a deeply emotional and moving memoir about e’s experience and exploration of eir gender identity that I genuinely cannot recommend enough. (This one also gets you right in the heart.) If you really want to know what it feels like to live outside the assigned-x-at-birth cis-binary box, this is absolutely the number one place I recommend you begin your journey.

The most important thing I think is to keep in mind that there’s no one right way to write a trans character, just like there’s no one right way to be trans. Every person’s life, personality, and experiences are different (just like for cis people). And a trans person is more than just their gender identity and transition experience. That’s just one part of who they are, like being left-handed or allergic to milk or having a good ear for music. It’s part of a person’s life and identity and there’s ways and times it will influence them and their experiences, but it’s not all that they are. Be respectful above all, and remember that even though your character is fictional you’re writing about real people’s identities and experiences too, so your number one rule should be do no harm.

To that end the links in the first section to posts or essays written by trans people about harmful tropes and their own views and experiences on trans depictions in media are a good place to start, because they can tell you what to avoid. For how to, I really think you’ll do best by feeling it first like you do when reading stories like Dreadnought or Gender Queer -- but that’s just me! If anyone else has other links or thoughts to chime-in with, please don’t be shy!