Writing prompts for trans characters

Trans characters usually only appear in LGBTQ+ stories that focus on their coming out story, but most trans people want to see life outside of coming out. These 22 writing prompts about trans characters seek to do just that.

Whether you’re specifically writing LGBTQ+ fiction or you want to help normalise trans people as part of life, you’ll find something that can work with the story you want to tell.

You can also use these writing prompts as a starting point for a story or character, or to build on an idea you already have.

22 writing prompts for trans characters

You can take just one prompt or combine any of the following for one story! Every prompt is entirely up to your interpretation.

You’ll find prompts for characters, words, settings, tropes, plotlines, and something sensory below.

Characters: An editor of a magazine. An eager public speaker. A self-taught potter.

Words: Announcement. Flourish. Lifestyle. Portrait. Shape. Variety.

Settings: An artist studio. A coffee shop. A poetry slam.

Tropes: Ambiguous Gender Identity. Mentor in Queerness. Old Friend, New Gender.

Plotlines:

• They finally find a label that matches how they feel.
• After years of loneliness, they find a community that loves them and won’t let go.
• A poem about their experience of gender is published in an unlikely place.
• Hormones are easier to take with a friend.
• A trans rights protest brings two friends together again.
• To display trans pride, volunteers at a community hub decorate the place in pink, blue, and white.

Sensory: Softening.

Need more inspiration? Check out my masterlist of writing prompts.

Trans character ideas

For even more inspiration, try incorporating these trans character ideas to create a new character or add quirks and backstories to a existing characters.

• A scrapbooker who creates a new scrapbook every year to celebrate Trans Pride.
• A book club who read books with trans characters in to promote books to other trans people.
• An apprentice tattoo artist who was inspired to become a tattooist after getting their own tattoos over surgery scars.
• A wellbeing coach who works with trans people for free.
• Someone who supports trans people with changing their paperwork and IDs.