The Inspiration for OUT

Every story begins somewhere. Some spark to life in an instant, while others simmer in the back of the mind, slowly taking shape over time. OUT, my debut novel, is one of those stories that started as a flicker—a half-formed idea rooted in a deep, aching truth—before growing into something bigger than I ever imagined.

It’s a story about survival. About the kind of family that isn’t built by blood, but by choice. About love, loss, and what it means to build a home when the world refuses to give you one.

It’s also the first novel I ever completed, and that alone makes it something special.

But more than anything, OUT exists because it had to.

This is the story of where it came from, what it means to me, and why I had to tell it.

The Spark: Where the Idea for OUT Came From

The idea for OUT was born from two things: a painful reality and a deep love for found family stories.

I’ve always been drawn to found family narratives—the kind where people who have been cast out, broken down, or left behind come together to create something strong and unshakable. There’s something so powerful about characters who find belonging not because they were born into it, but because they choose each other. Maybe it’s because I know how rare and precious that kind of love is. Maybe it’s because so many queer people, myself included, know what it feels like to search for a place where we can be safe, seen, and loved for who we are.

At the same time, I couldn’t ignore a harsh reality: so many LGBTQ+ teens and young adults are kicked out of their homes simply for being who they are. I knew this wasn’t just something that happened in books or movies—it was real, and it was happening to kids all over the country. I had met people who had been through it. I had heard their stories. And I knew I wanted to write about it—not just the pain of being displaced, but the strength it takes to survive and the love that can be found even in the hardest places.

That was the seed. That was the moment OUT started to take root.

The Heart of the Story: Themes I Wanted to Explore

Once I had the core idea—a group of homeless queer teens and young adults coming together to form a family—I started thinking about the deeper themes I wanted to explore.

1. Displacement and Survival

At its core, OUT is a story about survival. Not just physical survival—finding shelter, food, and safety—but emotional survival. The kind of survival that means fighting to keep hold of yourself, even when the world tries to erase you. Each of my characters has been displaced in some way, whether by their families, by society, or by circumstances beyond their control. Some of them have been kicked out. Others have run away from something they couldn’t bear to face. But all of them are trying to figure out what it means to keep going when everything feels impossible.

2. Addiction and Coping Mechanisms

When you grow up without stability, when trauma is a constant weight on your shoulders, coping mechanisms start to take root—some healthy, some destructive. In OUT, addiction plays a major role, not as a moral failing, but as a reality for so many young people who have been forced into impossible situations. I wanted to show the ways addiction can creep into someone’s life, the way it can become a source of both comfort and destruction.

3. Fear and Hope

One of the biggest emotional threads in OUT is fear—fear of being abandoned, fear of never finding a place to belong, fear of opening up to people who might leave. But alongside that fear, there’s also hope. Because even in the darkest moments, there’s always the possibility of something better. Of love. Of connection. Of a future that looks different from the past.

4. Family and Community

This is the heart of OUT. What does it mean to be a family? Is it something we’re born into, or something we create? For my characters, the answer is clear: family isn’t about blood—it’s about the people who show up for you, who hold you up when you’re falling, who love you even when you don’t know how to love yourself.

And beyond just personal relationships, OUT is also about what it means to be in community with each other. Because surviving alone is hard. But surviving together? That’s something else entirely.

What OUT  Means to Me

Writing this book was personal. It wasn’t just about telling a story—it was about putting something into the world that felt honest, necessary, and deeply true. I wrote OUT during NaNoWriMo, and for the first time, I made it to the finish line. That alone made it special. But it wasn’t just about the word count. It was about the fact that, for the first time, I had written something that felt like it mattered. Something that held a piece of my heart.

This book is for every queer kid who has ever felt unwanted.It’s for the ones who had to leave home, or who never had a safe home to begin with.It’s for the ones who found family in unexpected places.It’s for the ones still searching.

It means everything to me.

The Writing Process: Challenges and Triumphs

Writing OUT wasn’t easy. Balancing writing with a full-time job, my own mental health, and everything else life threw at me was hard. Some nights, I stared at the screen for hours, unable to write a single sentence. Other nights, the words poured out of me faster than I could type.

The hardest part was making sure I did justice to the story. I wanted to handle themes like homelessness, addiction, and trauma with care, making sure that I wasn’t just showing the pain, but also the strength and resilience of these characters. I did research, listened to real stories, and tried to approach every scene with empathy.

And then, of course, there was the challenge of getting to the end. I’ve started a hundred stories before OUT, but this was the first one I actually finished. The first one where I pushed through the doubt, the exhaustion, and the voice in my head telling me it wasn’t good enough.

And when I finally wrote the last sentence? It was one of the greatest feelings in the world.

Why This Story Matters (To Me and Hopefully to Readers)

I didn’t just write OUT for myself—I wrote it for the people who need it. I want readers to see themselves in these characters. To know that they’re not alone. To know that even when everything feels hopeless, there’s still love out there waiting for them.

I want this book to remind people that found family is real. That healing is possible. That being out—whether that means being openly queer, or just being fully yourself—is something that should never come at the cost of your safety, your home, or your worth.

This book isn’t just about pain. It’s about love. It’s about resilience. It’s about surviving, and then thriving.

And if even one reader walks away from OUT feeling seen—feeling like they’re not alone—then it will have done exactly what I hoped it would.

Final Thoughts

Writing OUT was a journey—one filled with doubt, late nights, and a whole lot of emotions. But it was also one of the most fulfilling things I’ve ever done.

And now, as I take the next steps—revising, editing, querying, trying to get this story into the world—I hold onto the reason I wrote it in the first place. Because stories like this matter. Because queer kids deserve to see themselves in books. Because found family is real, and love is real, and hope is real.

Because this story had to be told.

Until next time,

Oregon J. Sinclair