M-M fiction written by straight (?) women

[Lexington]

I actually enjoyed the concept, and I liked some of the end result. Taking known characters and writing new stories with them. I once compared it to playing chess - you have these pieces, which act in these known ways - what can you do with them? It's interesting to see how you can casually expand stories and characters out while still keeping them relate-able.

"Beta reading" was supposed to be having somebody fix potential problems - both basic ("you spelled this wrong") and larger ("I have a tough time following your storyline"). I liked doing it, but I finally gave it up. Too many writers took far too many liberties with the characters. ("OK, in this story, Bugs Bunny is an evil gay wizard who has taken over Chicago..." - huh?) Plus, I found out that far too many writers didn't really want to "write" - they wanted to "have written", if that makes any sense. They wanted to be able to say "I wrote a twelve-part epic about the end of the Harry Potter universe"...when their story idea wasn't interesting enough to fill out a short story.

Lex