Straight guys who write gay stories

[Series 6]

What is your motivation and how do you feel about it? Does it embarrass you at all to submit a gay story? Do you have a separate user name to submit gay stories?

 

[CoffeeWithMonkeys]

I'm a straight woman, well maybe not actually, my kids say I'm pansexual...
But I once started writing a gay male story but felt to insecure about writing gay male sex since I've never experienced it.
And my POV was wonky because I started it as first person present tense, but most of the story was seen through the eyes of her boyfriend so I need to change the POV.
I actually think it could be a good story though if I can ever take the time to fix those that.

I do have another username here that I use to publish fetish stuff, just try to keep my more innocent romance stuff separate.

 

[SimonDoom]

I haven't done it but I want to. I think it would be an interesting writing challenge.

Doesn't embarrass me, and I wouldn't use a different name.

I'm always intrigued by the idea of people pushing their sexual limits or exploring sides to themselves they haven't explored before. There's a lot of potential with this story idea.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I've got one collaborative gay male story and one I wrote for a couple I met on line with a strong GM angle. No big deal for me, they were submitted under my account name (I don't have any alts), and both did okay. But men don't interest me much, socially or sexually, so other than my central protagonist, my stories always feature women.

I do have a couple of gay encounters in my chaptered stories, and a female friend said I "wrote those with enthusiasm" which made me chuckle, and my collab writer reckons i write better blow jobs than he does.

My collaborative story was an interesting exercise - I probably wandered places I'd never gone before and we ended up with a very tender story, each using our own well established character - we just had them meet. We got some appreciative feedback from both men and women - the story clearly got... results .

 

[ThisNameIsntTakenYet]

Not sure if it counts, but I'm a straight guy and my first story Undress to Impress was in the Lesbian category. I guess it's different because there's a lot of straight men who read and get aroused by those stories, whereas gay male stories do little for me on that level (if they did I guess I wouldn't be entirely straight). I suppose I could enjoy them for their plot alone if it's good, but I prefer to read (and write) categories that I'm actually into.

I guess writing a gay male story could be interesting for an exercise to push myself out of my comfort zone, but I don't see that happening anytime soon. I wouldn't post it under a different account though, I don't see a reason to be embarrassed by it. There are a lot of weirder things being written here, I doubt anyone would bat an eye at a straight guy writing gay stories. If they even know the writer was straight to begin with of course, or male.

 

[KeithD]

I'm a bi guy writing all kinds of stories and books. Yes, I have separate pen names for separate categories.

 

[eroticstoryspinner]

I have written two stories in the gay-category. I think that at least one of those stories deserved to be placed in the Romance-category, but that's not how it works at Lit.

Reason? I like writing stories, I like to 'experiment', and those stories happened to deal with men loving men. I don't think that's something to be embarrassed about. At least one of the stories is well received, which I consider a compliment; I take from it that I can get into the mind of various people. Among other stories, I've also written a Lesbian story which is doing okay.

I expect my readers to be open-minded, so I didn't see the need to create a special account for the gay-stories. Like (most of) my other stories, they weren't heavy on sex, so perhaps that makes it easier to deal with.

Agreed.

You often write what you are not. Rowling was hardly a magic user nor was Meyer a vampire or shapeshifter. You need to find out how something works in the real world you research or talk to experts.

As SimonDoom said it would be a good writing contest.

 

[blozo]

I wrote a gay/trans story that was well received, and I've put a lesbian scenario in another story. I liked the idea of branching out.

My stuff has been getting pretty formulaic, so I decided to work on a gay story, but the going is slow. It's just hard to write convincingly about something I know nothing of.
When I get stuck, I reach out to another lit author, (you know who you are K) who has been very helpful.

When you're getting to the point where your regular readers can predict where you're going with a story, it's time to leave the comfort zone.
I think that makes you a better writer in the long run.

 

[NoJo]

I had a sports massage the other day which gave me a great big plot bunny

 

[PoisonPen33]

I do get teased a bit by my friends, considering I've written girl-on-girl and a guy getting penetrated by a girl, but for some reason guy-on-guy...squicks me out just a little bit.

Although, I had an idea for a brief anthology series in my head and an attempt at guy-on-guy could be one of the stories. Couldn't hurt to try it, right (no pun intended)?

 

[Blind_Justice]

What is your motivation and how do you feel about it? Does it embarrass you at all to submit a gay story? Do you have a separate user name to submit gay stories?

I write what the plot demands. As such, if the story goes into gay territory, be it lesbian or m/m, I write that, as well as sex scenes between males, females and futanari. I consider myself straight, but why the hell should I be embarrassed? First, I am a writer. Nothing I write _has_ to reflect my own views and fantasies (although if often enough does, let the guessing begin!). A good writer should be able to separate their own likes and dislikes from those of his characters. And a dilligent writer can research what he's about to write. I haven't had gay sex, but a decent amount of work went into the m/m scene in "Temptation of Gheeran" and I got praise from gay men for its depiction. Job well done, I guess.

Having said that, I would never pick a separate pen name for any of my content. I am safe enough in my sexuality that I can proudly point to my work and say "I did that". A person's sexuality, be it in real life or in my stories, is of no further concern to me. Hetero, gay, trans - I don't see any orientation as preferable or something to be ashamed of and portray them as such.

I do have a problem with the idea of the hyper-masculine "alpha" stereotype. Enters a room, claims every female to be his bitch and treats them as such. These guys can - for all I care - contract a specially designed retro virus and die off.

 

[KeithD]

I guess one of the main reasons to use separate pen names is, because you're selling your books. Would you also feel the need to do that, if you were only writing for Lit?

It's not just writing to sell books. I had an editing and publishing consulting business I wanted to keep separate, including editing major foreign policy and intelligence books for mainline publishers. I have also written Bible studies. It's just safer to keep everything separate. My best-selling series has been light lesbian under a female pen name. I was on a panel at a book festival and got outed then on Amazon, which has hurt those sales.