M-M fiction written by straight (?) women

[ShiftyNJ]

Like some other folks here I write some fiction; mine is mainly for my own amusement, but I do like to see what kinds of things are getting published, especially since it's possible to publish online without getting a "major book deal".

Somewhere along the line I had tagged a book in Goodreads called Show Me Yours, by Kaje Harper. I didn't really think about the gender of the author but I am now pretty certain Kaje is female, and I discovered there is a shit ton of M-M romance fiction, some of it pretty explicit, written by ostensibly straight women.

I read Show Me Yours today and it was pretty good. There are a number of free stories on the site kajeharper.wordpress.com.

Wondering if any readers or aspiring writers were aware of this and what you think of this kind of writing?

[Lexington]

I used to be a "beta reader" for a fanfiction website. Fanfic seems to be predominately female-written. And I had a few women actually ask me to describe to them certain sexual acts, and how they felt for a guy, in order to write their fanfiction more accurately. Some of them were M-M, others were M-F.

Lex

[ShiftyNJ]

I used to be a "beta reader" for a fanfiction website. Fanfic seems to be predominately female-written. And I had a few women actually ask me to describe to them certain sexual acts, and how they felt for a guy, in order to write their fanfiction more accurately. Some of them were M-M, others were M-F.

Lex

Whole worlds I don't know about.

[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

[East]

I have a feeling most lesbian fiction is written by straight men...so it makes sense.

[Beaux]

Kinda funny, but true: I stumbled onto this series (about 10 years ago) by Storm Constantie, called "Wrathu". Really Awesome SiFi with a VERY sexy homoerotic undertone and I literally convinced myself that the author was a gay man using a pseudonym! Until I finally got around to googling her, and found out she really was a woman who's name sounds fabricated...
~Beaux

[ShiftyNJ]

... and found out she really was a woman who's name sounds fabricated...
~Beaux

... and may well be. This person writes by at least one other name, I think to keep her young-adult stuff separated from her more NSFW material.

[ShiftyNJ]

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

That's my fear, that I am crushing on my characters and wanting to spend more time with them than the story warrants. Maybe someone would edit it down to 30 pages, IDK. I guess you could always write them another adventure afterwards.

[Lexington]

I've written a lot of stories that never went any further than my brain. It was clear that there was no real story arc - I was just enjoying watching the characters interact, or get through a certtain situation, and there simply wasn't enough conflict to be engaging to an outside viewer. That's OK - they were "written" with an audience of one in mind.

Lex

[meridannight]

strikes me as kind of inauthentic.