Tips for Writing Good Gay Fiction

[The Pecman]

surely "tips for writing good fiction" would work just as well, or are there special rules we should be using if we/our characters are gay?

 

The word good does not appear in my article's title: it was merely "Tips on Writing Gay Fiction," and follows that with "better gay fiction." If you actually read what I have to say, I said several times that the same rules apply to all forms of fiction writing, not just gay fiction. Gay fiction has to be a genre that appeals to me, and I see an awful lot of bad gay fiction out there -- not necessarily here, but at various places on the net and published as eBooks. If anything, the quality of writing is much worse now than it was ten years ago, sadly.

 

And it's certainly possible to adhere to all the guidelines and still come up with a lousy story. There are many writers who are brilliant technically but ultimately come up with a story that falls short in terms of characters, story, structure, and a satisfying ending.

 

 

Another tip for writing good gay fiction (in fact all fiction), is to use the five senses.  I try to do this with everything I write. 

 

Another sense: time. We instinctively know when an hour has passed by, or eight hours, or a day. Use that as well.

 

I absolutely agree, adding sensory descriptions helps let the reader know how the character feels, which is very important. This was one of the tips in my article as well: engage the senses.

 

 

surely "tips for writing good fiction" would work just as well, or are there special rules we should be using if we/our characters are gay?

 

No special rules. Fiction is fiction, and that counts for straight, gay, action, suspense, adventure, romance, mysteries, science fiction, fantasy, and everything else. And I mentioned this in my piece.

Edited February 15, 2014 by The Pecman

[The Pecman]

Some of my favourite books don't follow this rule at all. David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas, for instance. It sort of has a beginning, middle and end, though in one sense, the end is in the middle. Or one could say it has several beginnings, middles and ends. The structure is far from consistent, and it is in no way clear and accessible.

 

Absolutely true. There are some very impressive novels that use a flashback structure, or jump ahead in the narrative or even tell the exact same story Rashomon-style from different points of view. It's possible to pull that off... if you're brilliant, which I don't see a lot of out there for free on the net. 

 

The greatest novels ever written tend to stick with a chronological structure and lay the story out with a beginning, middle, and end, the story makes sense, the characters move from point A to point B, and maintains internal logic. Can it work otherwise? Sure, but I don't see it done well very often. 

 

Tarantino's Pulp Fiction is an example of a movie that has completely scattered structure, and still won an Oscar for best screenplay and made hundreds of millions of dollars (and deservedly so). Godfather II told its story with numerous scattered flashbacks and also won many awards and made hundreds of millions of dollars. Would either have done as well if they had started at the beginning and followed a conventional structure? Probably not. But the difference is, I'd argue that none of us here are as talented as Tarantino or Francis Coppola. 

I've heard the term before, but I don't quite understand what "passive writing" means. Can you fill us in so we can be sure we're not doing it? LOL

 

Google can be your friend:

 

https://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/passive-voice/

 

http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/active-voice-versus-passive-voice

 

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/passive.htm

[The Pecman]

As a general rule, this is fine. However, as with everything, there are exceptions. There are some very successful writers who don't seem to have the word "simplicity" in their vocabulary. Stephen Donaldson is the example that immediately springs to mind. "Dense" is probably a much better description of his writing than "Simple". To a degree, this is a writing style. For new and aspiring writers, the simplicity guideline is a good one to take, but there are some authors who are able to write well without keeping things simple.

 

I think "simple" has different meanings for different people. If you mean in terms of description, Anne Rice is an example of a successful author I sometimes point to who gets very, very over-winded in describing certain kinds of action and situations. I can remember in one of her past Vampire Lestat novels, a character comes up to the gate of an old decaying house, and it took her three pages to get the character inside the house, after describing what the character saw and felt in the surrounding grounds. Is this excessive? I dunno, but the book sold two million copies and she got great reviews and enjoys a lavish lifestyle. Stephen King spent 100 pages describing a 3-day ordeal of a mother and her 4-year-old son trapped in a car by a rabid dog in Cujo, with almost no dialogue. Both were way too long for me, but I can't deny the books were successful and had huge audiences. 

 

Many books can benefit from having good editors with good taste and knowing where to cut and where not to cut. In each of the above cases, I think the story could be told every bit as well in about half that much space... but that's me. And no question, the specifics of where to cut are like the differences between good surgery and bad surgery: one slip, and the patient is dead on the table.

 

 

I have to keep reminding myself of this because I always seem to forget. I have one quite good book on writing by an established author, and he makes the same point -- use all the senses, or at least as many as you can. Descriptions in stories feel much, much stronger if they involve more than just the sense of sight.

 

Absolutely true. And nothing kills a gay romantic story for me quicker than when the opening paragraph says, "Let me describe myself: I'm this tall, have these features, and I'm this old, and let me describe my anatomy." I'm done before I hit paragraph two. Next!

 

If my characters are described at all, it happens through the eyes of other people over a period of several chapters. We learn over time how tall the characters are, what they think of themselves, what they see as their flaws, what their health and age are... just enough information to get a general idea of how they look. I never resort to saying, "you look just like <insert famous movie star's name>," because that to me is the kiss of death. Leave it vague and let the audience take the image and focus it. You don't have to over-describe anybody or any place... give them just enough information to make it real. 

Edited February 15, 2014 by The Pecman

[Cia]

Let's put it this way: For every rule there's a counter example about an author who can break said 'rule' and do so well. What I like to see is the varied opinions on what makes 'good fiction' and discussion of the 'rules'. There are a lot of valid points in this topic. The key for authors is to learn everything they can. Check out different 'camps' on the rules and see what works for you. What flows for you? What do your readers respond to best? Most people don't focus on one single technique and never try anything new. Be open! Try new things!

[LJH]

 

If my characters are described at all, it happens through the eyes of other people over a period of several chapters. We learn over time how tall the characters are, what they think of themselves, what they see as their flaws, what their health and age are... just enough information to get a general idea of how they look. I never resort to saying, "you look just like <insert famous movie star's name>," because that to me is the kiss of death. Leave it vague and let the audience take the image and focus it. You don't have to over-describe anybody or any place... give them just enough information to make it real.

 

While this is a technique for describing characters, imagine if the reader is told in the twentieth chapter that the MC has only one leg? Lol. Just kidding. I know you will never do that.

[Sasha Distan]

 

The word good does not appear in my article's title

 

I was talking about the topic in general, not everything is about you.

[Thorn Wilde]

Here's what I think: If you have an idea for an unconventional way to shape your narrative, go for it. Try it out. See what happens. Maybe it will be awesome, maybe it won't, but you'll be better for having tried at all. And I guess this is where I disagree with the Pecman, because even though everything he has to say is perfectly valid advice, there is an underlying (and now in fact directly spoken) opinion that none of us are as talented as Tarantino, Coppola, David Mitchell or Ray Bradbury, Anne Rice or Stephen King, and therefor we should stick to the rules and not even try to do something interesting and original with our story telling. And I don't think that's good advice at all, because it's precisely by trying new things, pushing boundaries and breaking the rules that great fiction happens. How do you know that a new Ray Bradbury doesn't walk among us? How do you know that there isn't a person in our midst who could easily create a narrative style that rivals the brilliance of Quentin Tarantino? 

 

While I definitely, definitely agree that a writer should learn the craft properly, and that one should stick with rules and conventions of grammar and make sure one understands the fundamentals of the language one is writing in, I think that experimenting and trying new things is something that should be encouraged. Because when people do pull it off, when they create something beautiful that stands out, that isn't just good writing, it's brilliant writing. And I don't know about you guys, but I think it would be pretty cool to be a brilliant writer. So I'm gonna keep trying out new things and experimenting and having fun with my craft. Maybe something awesome will come out of it, and even if it doesn't, I'll be richer from the experience.

[Warrior1]

I am gay in dialogue and narrative. I know of an editor for a publishing house who will not offer contracts to writers who use such dialogue. She says that it's such a cliche. A tiring cliche. One can Write the story from the gay perspective without using I am gay. I don't know if I agree with her, but when I read straight novels, I never find the words I am straight. So maybe she has a point there.

Considering that being a gay is a different social experience than being a straight (for the majority of people), it makes sense why there can include dialogues like 'I am gay', and also long passages where characters are questioning their sexuality, or talking excessively about them.

[Thorn Wilde]

I would like to add some advice from the truly fantastic author Neil Gaiman. He has said on several occasions, on his blog and on Twitter and in real life, that the one thing that makes your art unique is you. Only you can tell your story in the way you tell it, and that is what makes your art valuable and special. That is some really great advice from a really great author, and I think that's something we should all remember more often.

[JamesSavik]

Avoid writing dumb stuff.

 

1. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.
2. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.
3. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.
4. She grew on him like she was a colony of E. coli and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.
5. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.
6. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.
7. He was as tall as a 6'3" tree.
8. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM.
9. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.
10. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.
11. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.
12. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.
13. The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.
14. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.
15. They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan's teeth.
16. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.
17. He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant and she was the East River.
18. Even in his last years, Grand pappy had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.
19. Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.
20. The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.
21. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.
22. "Oh, Jason, take me!" she panted, her breasts heaving like a college freshman on $1-a-beer night.
23. He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame. Maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.
24. The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.
25. It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.
26. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.
27. She was as easy as the TV Guide crossword.
28. Her eyes were like limpid pools, only they had forgotten to put in any pH cleanser.
29. She walked into my office like a centipede with 98 missing legs.
30. It hurt the way your tongue hurts after you accidentally staple it to the wall.

[TetRefine]

Avoid writing dumb stuff.

 

1. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.

2. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.

3. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.

4. She grew on him like she was a colony of E. coli and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.

5. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.

6. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.

7. He was as tall as a 6'3" tree.

8. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM.

9. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.

10. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.

11. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.

12. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.

13. The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.

14. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.

15. They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan's teeth.

16. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.

17. He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant and she was the East River.

18. Even in his last years, Grand pappy had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.

19. Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.

20. The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.

21. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.

22. "Oh, Jason, take me!" she panted, her breasts heaving like a college freshman on $1-a-beer night.

23. He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame. Maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.

24. The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.

25. It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.

26. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.

27. She was as easy as the TV Guide crossword.

28. Her eyes were like limpid pools, only they had forgotten to put in any pH cleanser.

29. She walked into my office like a centipede with 98 missing legs.

30. It hurt the way your tongue hurts after you accidentally staple it to the wall.

 

LMAO, some of these were hilarious. 

[Thorn Wilde]

Agreed. Many of them were Douglas Adams-esque in their absurdity and would be awesome in a humour novel. 

 

 

 

The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.

 

Actually, this is exactly like a bit out of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:

 

 

 

The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't.

 

I am also reminded of the following lines:

 

[...]the effect of a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster is like having your brains smashed out by a slice of lemon wrapped round a large gold brick.

 

He had found a Nutri-Matic machine which had provided him with a plastic cup filled with a liquid that was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea.

[JamesSavik]

My favorite:

 

20. The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.

Edited February 16, 2014 by jamessavik

[Mann Ramblings]

LMAO, some of these were hilarious. 

 

It makes me want to write a story using nothing but screwed up similes and metaphors.

 

My favorite:

 

20. The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.

 

 

That was a special favorite of mine too LOL

[Thorn Wilde]

It makes me want to write a story using nothing but screwed up similes and metaphors.

 

Do it!!! Write an awesome, absurd comedy story!

[Persinette]

You know what would actually make a pretty awesome prompt? This list. Pick one and use it as your first line.

[The Pecman]

While this is a technique for describing characters, imagine if the reader is told in the twentieth chapter that the MC has only one leg? Lol. Just kidding. I know you will never do that.

 

I think there's a balance between being reasonable and being ridiculous. You might not describe the person on the first page, but I'd hope by the second chapter you'd know if they were in a wheelchair, if they're blind, if they're young, if they're old, or at least some vague idea of who and what they are. Common sense covers 90% of this stuff.

 

 

I was talking about the topic in general, not everything is about you.

 

Well, here was your statement:

 

Surely "tips for writing good fiction" would work just as well, or are there special rules we should be using if we/our characters are gay?

 

All I did was reply that the piece being referenced by the o.p. didn't have the word "good" in the title, and that the rules work for all kinds of writing, and there are no special rules for gay fiction. These aren't so much rules as guidelines, because (as many have cited above) there's thousands of ways to bend or even break the rules. 

 

An old pal of mine, Nick Archer, used to joke in the last ten years that we should try to write a short story that had every possible cliche often seen with online fiction. Alarm clock, characters "meet cute" by running into each other, tearful confessions, and on and on and on... there's a thousand of them. Here's his own list of some of the worst cliches, which parallel a lot of what's on my list:

 

http://archerland.disbelieve.org/nonfiction/jump.htm

Edited February 17, 2014 by The Pecman

[TetRefine]

http://archerland.disbelieve.org/nonfiction/jump.htm

 

God, that article was dead on with just about every pet peeve I have when reading gay fiction. As an author its helpful to know cliches to avoid to keep from boring the readers. 

[crazyfish]

Avoid writing dumb stuff.

 

1. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.

2. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.

3. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.

4. She grew on him like she was a colony of E. coli and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.

5. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.

6. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.

7. He was as tall as a 6'3" tree.

8. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM.

9. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.

10. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.

11. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.

12. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.

13. The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.

14. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.

15. They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan's teeth.

16. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.

17. He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant and she was the East River.

18. Even in his last years, Grand pappy had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.

19. Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.

20. The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.

21. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.

22. "Oh, Jason, take me!" she panted, her breasts heaving like a college freshman on $1-a-beer night.

23. He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame. Maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.

24. The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.

25. It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.

26. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.

27. She was as easy as the TV Guide crossword.

28. Her eyes were like limpid pools, only they had forgotten to put in any pH cleanser.

29. She walked into my office like a centipede with 98 missing legs.

30. It hurt the way your tongue hurts after you accidentally staple it to the wall.

You know these similes could work, if you have the confident voice to back it up. For example, Raymond Chandler is famous for his strange metaphors.

“From 30 feet away she looked like a lot of class. From 10 feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from 30 feet away." 

"It was a blonde. A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained-glass window.” 

“He looked about as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice of angel food cake.” 

Edited February 18, 2014 by crazyfish

[Sasha Distan]

You know what would actually make a pretty awesome prompt? This list. Pick one and use it as your first line.

 

seconded. someone go grab comicfan and hand him the list.

[Zombie]

You know these similes could work, if you have the confident voice to back it up. For example, Raymond Chandler is famous for his strange metaphors.

“From 30 feet away she looked like a lot of class. From 10 feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from 30 feet away." 

"It was a blonde. A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained-glass window.” 

“He looked about as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice of angel food cake.” 

 

Exactly. But no-one here talks about how to do good comic writing and Chandler was, along with other things, a consummate comic writer - and I'm not talking about graphic novels!

[Mann Ramblings]

I think in some ways that effective comedy is infinitely harder to do well because there are so many potential nuances. Most of us can pull off a scene here and there, but an entire story or novel takes some serious skill to do well. Authors who do it have my sincere admiration.

Edited February 19, 2014 by Mann Ramblings

[crazyfish]

Exactly. But no-one here talks about how to do good comic writing and Chandler was, along with other things, a consummate comic writer - and I'm not talking about graphic novels!

I dunno. I wouldn't call Chandler a consummate comic writer. He certainly had a flair for the absurd in his style, but I never really found him funny. One thing's for sure, the reader will accept anything as long as you own it.

[Zombie]

I think in some ways that effective comedy is infinitely harder to do well because there are so many potential nuances. Most of us can pull off a scene here and there, but an entire story or novel takes some serious skill to do well. Authors who do it have my sincere admiration.

I dunno. I wouldn't call Chandler a consummate comic writer. He certainly had a flair for the absurd in his style, but I never really found him funny. One thing's for sure, the reader will accept anything as long as you own it.

 

Mann's right, comedy is difficult to pull off. And what makes one reader laugh or smile leaves another cold, or maybe irritated.  I'm in the Clive James camp that Chandler had "a comic style, always on the edge of self-parody––and, of course, sometimes over the edge..." But maybe it's something writers just have to work out for themselves

 

[TetRefine]

One of my main pet peeves as a reader is an author writing about a subject or from a perspective that they are completely clueless on. It is so easy to tell from the beginning in gay stories whether or not the author truly knows about the subject in their story.

 

One of the most common examples of this is an author who tries to tell a story from the point of view of the popular, starting quarterback jock character. It is almost painful for me to read stories like this where it is so glaringly obvious the author never was one himself and never hung around one a day in his life. You can insert this into any kind of common character you find in gay fiction, not just jocks.

 

Seriously, you can write about things you aren't personally familiar with, but at least take the time to do some basic research to make it sound semi-believable to those of us who are familiar with it. I only write what I know about because I want my stuff to sound authentic, and I want the reader to think it mimics what they would see in real life in similar situations. But I really don't think that even with a lot of research an author can pull off an authentic sounding story that revolves around a theme they are not already personally familiar with. Thats just me though.