Plot of story I'm writing

[tgchar21]

I've finally got back to the subject of what my username says: Writing a story about a TG character. The character I've decided is a teenage MTF set in the recent past (last 5 years or so) to the present, in a politically moderate U.S. suburb. One of the main elements is that she wants to transition between middle and high school with the support of her parents, but the school district refuses to let her go to school as a girl. Her parents then decide to pull her out and homeschool her. A year or so later the district has a bond election to raise money for school improvements. Her parents set up a campaign to encourage voters to vote "no" to protest the transphobic attitude of the administrators. The levy ended up failing by a very small margin, which led to a change of heart by the district. They then told the transgender student that she is welcome to attend school as a girl with a few accomodations (exempt from P.E., must use only designated single-toilet restrooms, etc.). In part this is because the bond issue would've funded a project to help provide much needed relief to overcrowding at the aforementioned high school, and didn't want it to fail again (when they had another election a few months later it passed). What do you think?

By the way, for her name (one of my original questions) I've tentatively decided on Melissa (first and middle name Melissa Ann, using the same initials as her pre-transition name of Matthew Aaron) with the legal change taking place when she originally planned to start attending school as a girl mentioned above. I won't mention the last name here for various reasons (which isn't being changed with her transition).

ETA: The school in the story (not real, but modeled after one a friend of mine went to) prior to the bond improvements was about 150 percent over-capacity (e.g. built to hold 800 or so students but actually has about 1,200) - even with "half lockers" some students had to share one, the school had to use a dozen or so portables, and had to run lunches all the way from about 10:30 to 1:00 and even then the lines in the cafeteria were so long that many students had to rush eating their lunch to get back to class on time.

[Ashleyjadeism]

Sounds interesting... I'm a writer too, so I'm interested to see what you write

Just a warning though... Writing a story like this will get you ALOT of criticism from the average public... It's very controversial and people go nuts when they see stuff like this.

[tgchar21]

Just a warning though... Writing a story like this will get you ALOT of criticism from the average public... It's very controversial and people go nuts when they see stuff like this.

Thanks for the warning, although this is something I'm not going to mention to the general public for awhile (just a fantasy for now). My plot idea brings up an interesting point though: Which is more of a "distraction" - a boy who wants to be a girl, or a school with overcrowded facilities and/or classrooms?

[carol_w]

I would agree that this sounds very interesting.  Have you placed anything onto the TG fiction web sites?  There's www.bigclosetr.us/topshelf (TopShelf) and www.stardustr.us.  I've written some stories and have placed them there.  It's a safe to place to "practice your craft" and gain some valuable feedback.

Anyway, good luck with this.  I'd be interested in reading it.

Carol

[Noah G.]

Just a warning though... Writing a story like this will get you ALOT of criticism from the average public... It's very controversial and people go nuts when they see stuff like this.

I'm a writer as well (though will likely never publish anything for various reasons -- i.e. issues with deadlines; issues with staying on task, so to speak, through the entire process to get a piece written; too many ideas I want to get down and work on at once) and personally love controversy and stirring things up with controversy. So, of course, I say go for it!

The one thing I would say, however, and you seem to have already realized it here

My plot idea brings up an interesting point though: Which is more of a "distraction" - a boy who wants to be a girl, or a school with overcrowded facilities and/or classrooms?

is to be sure that you don't lose your character and her impact amongst the rest of the plot. With what is going on with the school it could be very easy for people to latch on to that and think the fact your character is TG is just a quirk and wonder what the deal is with the rest of it, not realizing that your character's struggles were actually the focus. Or, in a slightly different way, they might just simply get confused as to whether it's a commentary on TG issues or school overcrowding issues. I suppose what I'm saying is: be careful playing with too much here and losing your story or confusing readers, the latter of which could cause the story to lose its impact. It's very easy for people to take the wrong thing away from a story, especially with so much going on or where the focus is not more immediately there for them.

If your focus is on the character's plight, then you'll have to figure out how to downplay the school's plight, which could be tricky as overcrowded schools hit home for a lot of people. If you want to focus on both, then that would be one hell of a balancing act if you can pull it off and get across what you want to. People are stuck on the idea that any story has only one focus or "lesson" and generally struggle when it is a commentary on more than one thing.

[tgchar21]

Noah G.: The main element of the plot is the TG character; I included the part about the overcrowding and bond levy to help provide relief as an element in which the transgirl and her parents have essentially made it where the school district has to decide between becoming less transphobic or let the issues with the school facilities get worse.

[Ashleyjadeism]

I'm interested to see what you write!! I've recently decided to incorperate transgender characters into a book I'm writing.

The character are banished from the tribe for wanting the markings of the opposite tribe, and forced to wear a mask that hides them from The Phoenix which represents discrimination.

[regan]

I think your plot sounds interesting, but its so close to real life it's probably been done in real life.  Only plot hole I see is that bond issues, or really any school election issue tends to attract issues only voters.  These "issues voters" are traditionally conservative, and while not exactly pro-public schools, they are more so anti-GLBT, including anything they perceive as recruiting or "legitimizing" the lifestyle.  They would vote resoundingly against anything that could possiible encourage a teenager towards the "lifestyle", especially expressing her gender variance in a public school.

[Noah G.]

I just wanted to voice a warning that the relief element might be too heavy in and of itself to really act as a relief element. To the reader, it could easily become a major issue as well.

Just thought it might be something to think about is all since it can be frustrating for the main element to be overlooked or put aside for something meant to be a lesser issue.