Good Lesbian Stories, by Male Writers???

[Imaginator]

I guess this is directed more to the women, but the men can chime in, too: Is it possible for a man to write a good lesbian story? Or put another way, are there any lesbian stories on Literotica written by male writers that are exceptionally good?

One obvious obstacle would be the fact that, since a man could never have a lesbian experience, he could not write a lesbian story with the same authority as a woman who had had such an experience. So, what would it take for a man to be able to write a good one, a convincing one, perhaps not one that would rank with those penned by the women writers, but would obtain something of the same effect?

 

[ilovewriting]

I wouldnt say "exceptionally good", however i did get a lot of very positive feedback for my stories Lesbian Blackmailer and Lesbian Blackmailer 2.
So i guess it is possible for a male to write an atleast semi good lesbian story.

 

[Couture]

How do you know they're not all written by horny old men? LOL!

Sorry, I didn't mean to ruin your illusion that all the stories on the lesbian page were written by hot gorgeous women that had never had a man, but were all somehow curious to try one out.

 

[medjay]

Mine isn't exactly a lesbian story but it is the story of a threesome written from a female point of view. I'm a male with little interest in lesbian sex but I wrote the story anyway just to see if I could.

Many of the ladies here at Lit said I did a good job of showing the female perspective and the ratings stayed very high. Here's the link if you're interested.


http://www.literotica.com/stories/showstory.php?id=42913&page=2

 

[ilovewriting]

Sorry, I didn't mean to ruin your illusion that all the stories on the lesbian page were written by hot gorgeous women that had never had a man, but were all somehow curious to try one out.

I actually thought most lesbian stories WEREN'T written by women.

 

[ronde]

I think it is possible for a male author to write a lesbian story that is convincing to male readers. I'm not so sure female readers would be as impressed, especially if they have hands-on experience, so to speak. Since I am male, I find it difficult to describe the unique feelings that I know must be there. Now maybe, just maybe, if I could make an intensive study of lesbian relationships, I would be more capable of putting words to the song. Somehow, I doubt this is ever going to happen. Drat!

 

[Couture]

Have you ever tried to describe a male orgasm?

It feels good, then it starts feeling real good. All of a sudden . . .BAM . . .the balls are pumping and the cum is spurting all over the place. Yes, Houston, we have liftoff. Of couse you are going to fluff it up a bit, but that's the essence of it. Orgasms are pretty personal things. I imagine the descriptions would vary from person to person, just as it would from gender to gender.

Any woman who has gone down on a man with one iota of empathy should be able to write about it from the man's point of view.

Want to write a story from a woman's point of view . . . pay attention to one.

 

[medjay]

People still liked my story even though a few said it was fairly obvious I was a guy. Everyone knows that the lesbian scenes you see in pornos are totally unrealistic because they're made by men and that's how men like to see two women get down.

I guess the best way to come up with a convincing piece would be to thoroghly interview a woman as to how the story should read. But in that case, can the man really say he created the story?

 

[christo]

Men can write convincing stories about women, and vice-versa. It just takes imagination, empathy, a willingness to understand what it might be like to be another person. No one has all the direct experience of another person, and that's part of what makes fiction fun, stepping into someone else's shoes and wondering what it would be like to be that person.

I've written one story about lesbians, or a girl who thinks she might be a lesbian. She and her lover are seduced by a man a bit out of the ordinary. If you're interested, check it out. Here's the link: http://www.literotica.com/stories/showstory.php?id=44217

 

[LivingUnicorn]

Saying that a man can't write a lesbian story is just being very silly!

Do you think Mary Shelly was a monster created from parts of dead people?

Do you think that Ernest Hemingway paddled around in a boat with a dead fish strapped to it for a week?

Do you think Jack London died in the Alaskan Wilderness before he wrote his book about it?

Point is that all fiction comes from the mind. If the man is a good writer then he should be able to write a lesbian scene that would make me think twice about my own hetrosexuality. I've read some lesbian stories by women and some by men. I wouldn't say that the women writers were "better" than the men. Besides, my husband is always telling me that he is a lesbian in a man's body!

LU

 

[Lucien_Al]

In the case of my stories I have a female friend who is very bi-sexual and normally reads over them for me and gives me some pointers for the lesbian scenes but how effective that is Im not sure as the feedback one gets is almost non-existent.

 

[KillerMuffin]

Of course they can. I don't see gender or sexual orientation as the issue in writing a "convincing lesbian story." It's the ability to create convincing characters and situations then follow them through.

A good lesbian story has two women in it. They're complete women who have lives, interests, motivations, feelings, and thoughts that people can relate to. The situation is believable, that means that the two women involved in sexual scenes get there in a manner that people can believe and that they conclude the scene in a manner that people can believe.

It's no different than the girl~guy story when some ordinary average joe is just minding his own business when pow, a Cindy Margolis look-alike in a porn queen outfit shows up and rocks his world for no earthly explainable reason.

The difference between a bad lesbian story and a good lesbian story on the writers' part would be their motivation for writing it. If they write it for a guy, particularly themselves, to jack to, it's not going to be as good as if they write the story for the story's sake.

I've got a gay male story out. The typical response to my replies to feedback "Oh my God. You're a woman????"

It can be done. I think it's done fairly regularly as well.

 

[SexyChele]

Of course a man can write a story about lesbians. Why not? Yes, it might have the perspective of a man, but that doesn't mean it won't be good or even "convincing". If it's a good story, it's a good story.

I just wrote my first gay male story - and was worried that gay men would bombard me with mail saying I'd got it all wrong, that I didn't what the hell I was doing. Well, even with my name (female) and stating I am a female in my profile, the overwhelming feedback was that it was assumed that, not only was I a man, but that I was a gay man - and the story I had written was an actual encounter! What did I do? Simply took the idea of a man and woman, their emotions and feelings, and simply put 2 male names in the story. Well, there was a little more than that, but that's what I started with.

So, if at least 2 females (KM and myself) can write convincing gay male stories, then it could only fall true that men can write convincing lesbian stories.

 

[Guest]

Males writing about Lesbians?

I think its possible yes. As per the link below, I wrote a story specifically about a lesbian relationship, entitled "The Butterfly Boutique".

What I also did however, was talk to, review, and discuss with lesbian friends I know personally, as well as in asking for and receiving advise from lesbian friends off Literotica.

So first and foremost, I think you need to do your homework before you start trying to write about something you have no direct information about. Afterall...you might write about something that's exciting to you, but it might not be to anyone else. Even possibly offensive if not written and taken as it was intended.

And to Leslie....thanks for the inspiration for the story!

http://www.literotica.com/stories/memberpage.php?uid=39666

To sleep.......perchance to dream - William Shakespear

I remain.......

 

[Imaginator]

I gleaned some thoughts from the above threads and grouped them according to what seem to be two prevailing prerequisites for a man to follow, before he begins to consider writing a lesbian story.

1) RESEARCH THE SUBJECT:

Couture: "Orgasms are pretty personal things. I imagine the descriptions would vary from person to person, just as it would from gender to gender. ... Want to write a story from a woman's point of view . . . pay attention to one."

Thesandman: "What I also did however, was talk to, review, and discuss with lesbian friends I know personally, as well as in asking for and receiving advise from lesbian friends off Literotica."

[Unfortunately, I don't have any friends who are lesbians (or at least I don't think I do. ).

2) USE YOUR IMAGINATION AND SKILL AS A WRITER:

Christo: "Men can write convincing stories about women, and vice-versa. It just takes imagination, empathy, a willingness to understand what it might be like to be another person. No one has all the direct experience of another person, and that's part of what makes fiction fun, stepping into someone else's shoes and wondering what it would be like to be that person."

LivingUnicorn: "Point is that all fiction comes from the mind. If the man is a good writer then he should be able to write a lesbian scene that would make me think twice about my own hetrosexuality."

KillerMuffin: "It's the ability to create convincing characters and situations then follow them through. A good lesbian story has two women in it. They're complete women who have lives, interests, motivations, feelings, and thoughts that people can relate to. The situation is believable, that means that the two women involved in sexual scenes get there in a manner that people can believe and that they conclude the scene in a manner that people can believe."

I believe that this last is the primary prerequisite, even after doing the research and perhaps still not getting it. It doesn't mean writing from one's favorite incredible fantasy, nor recreating a scene from some porno flick. But doing what some suggested, and getting into the character's mind and body, learning how she thinks and feels, what her real dreams are, how does it make her feel wearing a bra all the time, are her shoes hurting her feet, would she be offended if the other woman smoked, did the realization that she was about to have sex with another woman make her feel frightened, indifferent, intrigued, sick to her stomach?

 

[XicotencatlSmith]

Imaginator sums it up pretty well

A great thread, which is to say one in which everyone:

A) Thought about what they posted.

B) Agreed with what I thought, lol.

In a sidebar to this discussion, I might throw out the idea that having no clue about you are talking about does not automatically disqualify a person from writing something great. In the case of lesbians, I happen to have considerable personal knowledge from friendships and conversations with lesbians. A cousin, a sister of a childhood friend, and I would guestimate well over 20 co-workers/friends during my employment at a certain large online service. They flocked to this company because of it's liberal domestic partner benefits. (BTW, this company was so liberal in this regard that it did not discriminate against heterosexuals either. I was allowed to extend my health coverage to my girlfriend at no extra cost when we shacked up.) So my social life was chock full of lesbians, and in my experience they are us. There are angry lesbians, happy lesbians, pro-dildo lesbians, anti-dildo lesbians, stereotypical birkenstock wearing/WNBA watching lesbians, and even pro-gun Ozzie and Harriet style lesbian couples. Sexually, I have little experience with lesbians, some experience with a bisexual (Or as she called herself, a lesbian reservist, serving one weekend a month, and maybe two weeks a year), but I have confidence saying that if you can imagine it, there is probably a "real" lesbian doing it or thinking about doing it. Lesbians have too broad a cultural cross section in the world to rule out anything. Anyone flaming your story with a variation of "lesbians don't do that" probably means to say "I don't do that."

But back to my thesis, which is: you can be totally inaccurate and still tell a good story. Take westerns, if you will. In western literature and movies, there is probably nothing more common than the lone sherriff facing a bad guy or a whole gang of bad guys by himself, while the cowardly townsfolk hide and peek out from behind curtains. Historically, nothing could be further from the truth; if anything Old West law men typically had more "help" than they wanted as citizens came out of the woodwork, armed to the teeth and ready blast robbers, followed by helpful folks with plenty of rope to lynch rustlers or people who looked like they might know somebody who was thinking of rustling. But does that make "High Noon" a bad movie? Of course not. In fact, one might even say that "High Noon" was only good because it was inaccurate. The writer, poor blacklisted communist lefty that he was, either didn't know or deliberately ignored historical fact to achieve a great story and a vorpal allegory against McCarthyism. The old west was just his scene, sherriffs and outlaws his symbols. Whether your style is sexy, or romantic, or dirty, I think you can make a good story about lesbians without ever meeting a single one. That said, I think everyone would agree that when you are on unfamiliar ground it IS a lot easier to stumble. Will your lesbian story, "Not a Dick in Sight," or whatever, lol, hit a reader with the same power, truth, and anti-McCarthyism as a similar story written by a "real" lesbian? That depends on you, and it depends on the lesbian.

So that's my "Lesbian High Noon" hypothesis for you to disregard. (Hmmm...Lesbian High Noon... that might make a good story title)

-X

http://www.literotica.com/stories/memberpage.php?uid=114248

 

[karmadog]

Yes and no

Personally, I think that anybody can write about great characters of the opposite sex. Witness Jim Harrison's Dalva, Oscar Hijuelos' women in general, and even Lady Bret Ashley from Hemingway, but...

In a sidebar to this discussion, I might throw out the idea that having no clue about you are talking about does not automatically disqualify a person from writing something great.

this is inaccurate. You must know what you're talking about to make a believable character, whether you're writing about victorian murderers or sixties radicals. False facts never ring true.

 

[XicotencatlSmith]

Karmadog, you wound me deeply

Xico sez:
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In a sidebar to this discussion, I might throw out the idea that having no clue about you are talking about does not AUTOMATICALLY disqualify a person from writing something great.
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Karmadog sez:
_________________________________________________
this is inaccurate. You must know what you're talking about to make a believable character, whether you're writing about victorian murderers or sixties radicals. False facts never ring true.
_________________________________________________

when KD says "You must know what you are talking about to make a believable character," I do agree with that, but only in the sense that you have to know people to write people.

As for "False facts never ring true," that is a rather slippery assertion to which I would respectfully reply, "Bollocks."

Nothing is more common than a false fact that rings true to people, either because they don't know the facts themselves or because of the skill of the writer. How many people walked out of JFK thinking Oliver Stone had proved his case? Norman Mailer's novel Harlot's Ghost is a book that some consider his masterpiece, even if it is hard to swallow and even harder to lift. IS Catch-22 a remotely accurate portrayal of what it was like to be a bombardier on the Italian front in WWII?
That's the point I was attempting to make, that with art on your side, the facts can and sometimes must take a backseat in service of the story. Now if Karmadog had said, "Xico, people who don't take care to learn the facts probably won't take the care to craft a good story or true characters," I would agree. After all, the best lies are mostly truth, or so Satan tells me.

 

[karmadog]

people who don't take care to learn the facts probably won't take the care to craft a good story or true characters," I would agree. After all, the best lies are mostly truth, or so Satan tells me.

Now that I agree with. What is fiction but a well told lie?

 

[PAUL C]

Lesbian Stories

I have written many Lesbian scenes. Even had the earlier ones vetted by a Bi lady, she was impressed that I thought to explore the feelings after the event when the women couldn't believe she had done it and went back to her man to prove she was still a 'normal' woman. (See Cruising up the Nile).

I have also written about a lesbian orgy. (See Return to Dallas).

And I have written and recoded a Lesbian story. (see Full Circle, in the audio story's).

Some have said they liked them.

 

[peterpan]

Saying that a man can't write a lesbian story is just being very silly!

Do you think Mary Shelly was a monster created from parts of dead people?

LU

The question is perhaps more whether a monster created from the parts of dead people would consider Mary Shelly to really speak to them on a level they can relate to.