we went to the library today and I looked at one of the books they had on display near the front
my reaction to the blurb (paraphrased):
book: "trans lady born to be a prince ran from home to be herself..." me: sold book: "...living as a dancer by day and thief at night..." me: double sold book: "...falls in love with a prince and gets drawn into politics again" me: TRIPLE SOLD
I was going to have the first main protagonist of my manuscript be a trans man, but I didn't want to identify with him too strongly so I was like "fine, i guess he can be cis just this once" lol
Identifying too strongly makes me feel bad when i have to kick him around as part of the narrative
you have to be mortally wounded, but not so badly that you immediately die - no, you must stay alive for exactly the right amount of time to give a touching monologue, and then die right before you reveal the important information