Thoughts on M/M

So the basic question is, can straight write gay/lesbian and vice versa?

I'm a straight-ish woman enjoying modest success with writing m/m. I try hard to get it right, from the emo to the buttsecks. I try to make my men "male" in their outlook and conversation and behavior. I'm sure I miss the mark sometimes, but I certainly think it can be done.

I come at it from the point of view that people are people, and some things -- like love and pain and joy -- are universal to the human experience.

"People are people" -- oh, absolutely. If someone doesn't write a good subset of people, that's usually because they don't really get how to write good people in all their trite uniqueness. Alternately, they don't get either the "trite" part of that or the "uniqueness." What we put on the dinner plate may differ, but by and large we're happy enough to be eating it.

Ah well. I don't know -- I didn't get into m/m writing with thoughts of audience, though I was aware that there would be one and that it would be some ratio of men who like men to women who also like men. I haven't spent a lot of time fussing over whether that ratio is 1:10 or, to quote a favorite character from a whole different genre, "sixty-sixty." I'm just trying to write good stories that are good stories even when the characters get out of bed, and which happen to contain characters who also have quite a good time in that bed. Or on the floor, or in a creek, or just possibly in a phallic-symbol-infested bit of jungle.

The LLA award, I've been reading about in other places, too. Sort of a different issue, sort of not. At the end of the day, it's their prize and their business to see it goes somewhere they meant it to. Contrariwise, it's our right to raise a fuss about it if we feel like it, knowing that fuss is about the limit of our powers. I have other places to put my piles of fuss just now.

I have gay and lesbian friends, who've I have asked this very question and got mixed results... some prefer that the author be GLBT... some dont care... I think that goes true for any genre... people will like things, for different reasons and dislike things for whatever reason. Write what you like... forget about who wont like it because of the label they might place on you!

I like vampire novels... but I don't like ones where they sparkle! hehehe... but then, I also don't care if the author is a vampire or not. As long as they aren't a mummy, I'm good. *lol*

Can they? Yes.

But if you ask, many (if not most) of them will say they're writing "m/m," not "gay," and their audience is straight women, not gay men.

To me, there's a big difference between an erotic story written by, for, and about the GLBT community, and an erotic story written about two hot men for straight women. The second, to me, is a lot more like the girl-on-girl entertainment that straight men have enjoyed for decades. Much of the m/m out there reflects a completely different focus and sensibility than gay erotica written by gay men for gay men (I've edited a lot of both), and gay men often don't find m/m to be to their taste.

I absolutely agree, absitinvidia. I have m/m and GLBT authors in my stable, and there is a huge thematic difference between the two. It's a common misconception that m/m erotica is intended for a gay audience, but that's not necessarily the case. If you wanted to be particular about it, I've only got one m/m author that I think honestly can cross the bridge into gay literature.

Fallon Blake said:

I guess you'd have to ask the reverse as well, but yes, that's the meat of it. I personally don't think you need to experience something to write about it, but not everyone feels that way.

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You don't need to experience it, but if you're going to accurately represent the lives of GLBT characters, you need to do some research. The m/m authors I've spoken to are usually more concerned about their settings than about how gay men really live, how they speak, and what they do in bed.

So at some point, while it's true that you don't need to "experience" something, you do need to be aware that you've not experienced it and substitute research for experience. And with m/m, a lot of writers don't do that because a realistic presentation isn't their goal. Which leads me back to the question of whether m/m by definition is GLBT. A lot of girl-on-girl stuff is clearly male fantasy rather than any real attempt to explore lesbian sexuality, and at least some m/m seems to me to fall into the same category.

Well, while there are general thematic difference, gay men do read and write M/M, women do read and write gay fiction. I write M/M but I have also been published in magazine by and for gay men. There is a cross-over. Although there are always people who hate blneding things and waht to eject straight writers from the Lambda, declared M/M material in romance is not gay, have threesomes where the two men never touch etc.