When I asked Rick R. Reed, horror author, and lately M/M romance author to participate in our series offering advice to new M/M authors I knew that he would have strong views about writing gay characters and I wasn’t disappointed. Here, then, is Rick’s advice and I think it’s timely and pushes all my buttons.
So a friend related an incident to me recently that I thought would be a good way to start off this blog. This friend,
we’ll call him, “Jeff” has several liberal, gay-friendly bumper stickers on his vehicle. Recently, he noticed a man in a pickup truck driving up next to him. The man was smiling, so Jeff wasn’t concerned. At a stop, the man pulled up alongside Jeff, still smiling. Jeff returned the smile and rolled down his window, because it looked as though the man had something to say to him.
He did. The man said, “You’re going to hell. You motherfucking, cocksucking piece of shit.” Jeff drove away, shaken.
The point of the above anecdote, as it relates to new writers of gay fiction, is that there is ample room for social commentary in this genre. And, I think, there should be some amount of responsibility, when we create our fictional universes of gay men loving each other, to respect and report on the realities of actual gay men’s lives.
Now, before I get into my thesis more specifically, let me be clear, since I know many of you reading this might grouse: “I read gay romance to escape. I want to read—or write—about cowboys, shapeshifters, tough cops, and grizzled detectives. I don’t necessarily want real gay life, whatever the hell that is.”
And I would say you have a point. I would not argue you with you. I am a writer, but I’m also a reader and sometimes, pure escapism is exactly what I’m looking for. There’s nothing wrong with that.
On the other hand, and getting back to my original thesis, I do know that many budding gay fiction authors are straight women who may not have had as much first hand experience with gay life as gay men. I am not saying you cannot, or should not, write about gay men. Several female writers do that as well as, if not better than, many openly gay male writers.
What I am saying is that we all have a responsibility to be true to the characters we create. We need to give some recognition to the very real problems, pitfalls, and pleasures real gay men experience, aside from falling in love.
As a gay man, I can tell you that I—or close friends—have personally wrestled with such issues as homophobia, HIV, drug abuse, promiscuity, job discrimination, hate crimes, the inability to marry the person we love, and many other things that occupy today’s headlines.
I think, as writers, we can find powerful fodder for fiction in these real life issues. In my own work, I have dealt with some of these issues—HIV in NEG UB2, hate crimes in Bashed, and crystal meth addiction in Orientation. Dealing with real world issues like these can make our fictional universe come to more brilliant and authentic life. As we write love stories that include real life challenges, we can make a more effective commentary on relationships—and the perils that cause them to either work…or not. And that’s the stuff of any good romance, right?
When contemplating bringing social relevance into your gay romantic fiction, you don’t even necessarily have to delve into specific gay-centric issues. Check out Lynn Lorenz’s handling of Alzheimer’s in David’s Dilemma or Isabelle Rowan’s treatment of homelessness in A Note in the Margin.
I guess what I’m saying here is not that you can’t write fluffy, sentimental romance but that, sometimes, if you can add social commentary or substance, especially if it’s pertinent to the community you’re portraying, it can make your work that much more resonant and meaningful.
If you’re looking for ideas or just what’s happening to real gay men and women everyday, log onto 365Gay, or the Bilerico Project Report, or Towleroad. All of these feature excellent reportage on what’s going on with gay men and women around the globe. And who knows? You just might find a great idea for your next story that you can rip right from the headlines.
Rick Reed’s Contact Information
email: jimmyfels@gmail.com
website: http://www.rickrreed.com/
Hey Rick!
Can I play “devils advocate” here about balance though?
Seems to me that over focusing on a single issue is a chance to explore it but could also be a trap if it gets over simplified.
Even Gay writers can fall into this one creating a “one note”. The stories that scream BIG MESSAGE to me.
I may be HIV+ but I do not live my life going around defining everything I do around it. In fact I have spent an awful lot of time learning to NOT to define myself through that single lens.
The same can be said with being Gay and “coming out” or any of the other headline topics.
Hi Teddypig!
You can play devil’s whatever anytime with me.
I never meant to imply, though, that we should only write about the “big” issues and even have social commentary in our work. I was only saying that it’s something to consider as you explore different ways of illuminating the gay male experience in genre fiction.
But even I will be the first to admit I don’t always want to read “serious” stuff. But I will also say that even outrageous, fluffy, and humorous stuff can contain a message, if it’s done right and not with a heavy hand.
It’s not your fault I am still getting over a 7 hour review of HBO’s Angels In America.
Which goes to show riffing on a “one note” can bring fame and fortune. Even if your viewers feel like they got their head pulverized with that heavy hand afterwords.
But it’s an acquired taste.
Honestly, I think all of this has to be aspects of character arcs and plot arcs. Otherwise it reeks of being an issue book.
I agree, Steve. Issues need to grow out of the characters actions and dialogue…I wouldn’t want to see someone put the “issue” before the story or the characters. I think that would be putting the cart before the horse.
Good points, Rick. I’ve always written with a kind of gut instinct (perhaps my muse?) to place my characters, straight or gay, within a setting that speaks not only to sexual tension, but to social tension as well. How could it be otherwise? We cannot place our characters in places and times that are blissfully perfect. (Oh, I suppose some can. Some do.) The trick, of course, is in the mixing of those tensions to provide storytelling that engages the reader…both those who read to escape, and those who read for inspiration, to connect to something outside themselves.
George,
As your editor, I know you walk the line between sexual and social tension extremely well.
Hi guys
Thanks Rick for such a wonderful post.
As someone who has read the three books mentioned by Rick – Bashed, Orientation and NEG UB2 – I didn’t think of them as “books with a message” while I was reading them, or “issue” stories, but rather as intense, engaging stories where the protagonists may have had problems that I could understand as a reader, and even if I couldn’t relate to the problem I could empathise with their struggles.
Couldn’t agree with you more, Rick. I have written some purely escapist fiction, but generally my gay stuff includes some of the very real and fearsome issues that gay men face. Gay bashers, abuse, drugs, self esteem issues, disapproval, homophobia – the list goes on and on. They are just a part of life as gays know it. The good thing is, gays have always had a gift for laughing – at the world, at life, even at themselves. I suspect it’s what keeps some of us sane.
We are sane, aren’t we?
Sane? We had to be sane?
*sigh*
Awesome interview, Rick, and valid points. I had (fortunately few) reader comments of one of my books slam me for trying to “impart a message.” Pppht. The “message” (gay and poly marriage and discrimination) was part of the storyline, but not the only part or even the main part.
Unfortunately, some readers will fixate on one point and miss the larger picture. And the fact that less than five readers out of hundreds of comments I received mentioned it, it means most of them didn’t see it as an issue.
Exactly as you said, you can stay true to the characters and story and be real and entertaining at the same time. Your books “Blue Moon Cafe” and “Mute Witness” for me, came off as both entertaining and solid stories, “messages” but not head-thumpers.
While yes, I like escapism, I also don’t like the fluffy bunny stories as much as I like the ones that strike a note within me. I want stories I think about for a while after I close the book, even if they’re supposed to be “entertaining.”
I try to write that way as well. I want a plot and “real” characters, not just caricatures.
Which is why I love you! Your stories are always grounded in reality…and you always give me a lot o think about, especially when you’re writing about BDSM.
Thank you very much for this, Rick. In my first published story, the main character struggles to overcome the bullying he suffered in high school. I didn’t suffer what I put him through and it wasn’t for the same reasons, but I drew on what I lived to write his story. It’s not the main focus of the story and nobody gets on a soap box, but it’s integral to Mal’s character and part of his conflict. I’m hoping I did it well–still waiting on the first round from my editor–and that someone out there might take an interest in who’s protecting our nation’s kids. If not that, then I’m just hoping they’ll enjoy my little romance and tell their friends. 😉 Thanks again, Rick.
“What I am saying is that we all have a responsibility to be true to the characters we create. We need to give some recognition to the very real problems, pitfalls, and pleasures real gay men experience, aside from falling in love.”
I think I got little hearts in my eyes when I read this.
And as for everyone else’s concerns about it being “issue” centric or heavy-handed… that’s where the skill and craft of writing well comes in.
Very nicely done, Rick. *applauds*
I like Victor’s comment about humor…and will not reply to his question about sanity.
It’s good to know people understand how a book can be a good story, have sympathetic characters and impart a message…all at the same time.
Rick
You do know humour. I still remember and chuckle over Man-Amorphosis, one of the funniest books I have read in a long, long time. I need you to write another story that would make me pee myself laughing.
‘pee laughing’? choke That is not a pleasant word picture, Wave.
I’m so ready for this weekend!!!!
Great essay, Rick. I think that just by writing about GLBT characters, we are writing social commentary. In my adventure romance series, beginning with Three Wrong Turns in the Desert, Liam is a former SEAL who left the Navy under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” His issues about being a gay man in the military are part of his character arc. I don’t think I’m beating the readers over the head with this issue, but it’s part of his life.
The same is true with Kimo, the detective hero of my Mahu series. He brings all his own personal baggage to the crimes he investigates.
Make them pee themselves laughing…now see, there’s a noble ambition.
Well I don’t want readers to get the impression that all you write are serious stories because that’s not true. Man-Amorphosis really opened my eyes, and I realized then that you’re a very complex, introspective writer who sees the world through 3D glasses. LOL. I love that in an author: one who can make me laugh in one book while he’s cutting off his protagonist’s head in another story. (You can use that in your next bio). 🙂
Don’t be surprised if I do, Wave.
Excellent article, Rick. As one of the straight women who are writing gay fiction I agree 100% with you. I was never into straight romances because of the “fluff” as my friends and I call it. Fluff is fine in small quantities, but I personal prefer a more realistic approach to my writing and because of this my close friends have crowned me “The Angst Queen”. *chuckles*
I’ve come a long way from my first novel and I’ve learned a great deal. My second novel ‘Blood Noir’ dealt with homophobia on a couple of levels, child abuse, and touched on gay marriage. My last release ‘Samhain’s Embrace’ dealt with a man who lost his lover in a car accident when some men–just like the guy who your friend ran into–ran them off the road.
Dealing with real life issues is never easy, but we as writers hold the ability to enlighten the public if they care to be. That is a power that we should all consider using to the best of our ability.
I think, also, that there will always be readers who like an issue-oriented story and ones who find the fluffy bunny stories more to their taste. For example, I LOVED Angels in America (and authors like Tennessee Williams whose work can best be described as laden with symbolism and issues.) Sometimes a good story is painful. But it isn’t what I’m going to curl up with when life goes south for a day and I need to get under a blanket and read for comfort.
Can I add that when issues come up, they include not only the GLBTQ man or woman, but also those living around them; because nobody really plays only one note? That the evil person in that car who said the horrible thing to your friend has a painful story arc as well. We may not care about his, though. 😀
Still that’s one of the reasons I liked Angels, the antagonists were fully fleshed out human people who just did awful things, but you saw how they got there and they weren’t one dimensional. Well. mostly.
Authors can and should be entertaining AND true to any character’s human experience. Very good advice, Rick, as always. Okay if I just sit at your feet and take notes?
You rock out loud.
Only if I can do the same with you, ZA.
I’d say all of my books touch on issues of intolerance or the problems gay men face. My cops still get hassled by their fellow cops and called names. In ‘L.A. Bytes’, David is left little ‘gifts’ by other cops and when the accusation of child abuse comes up many believe it just because he’s gay. In ‘L.A. Boneyard’ he gets partnerned with a total homophobic jerk. In one (unpublished) the gay cop gets a blanket party when he comes out. And of course Wager in ‘Memory of Darkness’ is hated by his own son. It’s not the overriding theme of any of my books, but it’s there as a fact of their lives.
But then I guess it could be said I don’t write fluff pieces.
I’m a reader and I think this can be difficult for an author to achieve this without coming off as preachy sometimes. Not just gay issues, but any social commentary. I read something recently that I felt was a lecture about the poor eating habits of Americans. I’m not saying I disagree at all with what the author was saying (people eat crap in North America, I think we all know that) but I felt like it was “I’ve got you reading a romance, let me educate you here dear reader” and it turned me off. It made the characters seem like know-it-alls and that the rest of us “normal” folk were too stupid to get it.
Sometimes I’d rather have fluff than feel like it’s History 101 or Public Service Announcement of the Day wrapped up in a romance or adventure story. But when it’s done well, you kind of realize after “Wow, I never thought about X that way before.” then it’s very impressive.
Tam…you make a very good point. The relevance and themes have to come from the story and characters and NOT from the author trying to tell you what you should care about. I suppose that’s when authors need to show and not tell. Writing good fiction isn’t about preaching (that’s another job and another kind of writing).
I so don’t get to comment because I only write fluff! Vampires, werewolves and pirates. Gay ones, but all erotic fluffies. Must go hide my head in shame.
I hope you’re kidding, Laura.
Rick, thanks so much for this informative and thought provoking post. This advice can actually apply to flesh out any character. What obstacles do they face? What fears do they have? This helps keep them real. Not all will have loving, supportive families, or live in gay friendly areas. Do they hide their true selves from their boss in fear? I have a reread to do tonight with these thoughts in mind.
Wave, thanks again for offering these valuable topics on your site.
Eden,
I’m glad I could make you think…hope your reread went well.
Mostly kidding, Rick. I just don’t think about the issues that work into my stories. They are there or they aren’t. If I focus on any particular gay issue, then it becomes a book about that issue and not an erotic romance, which is my stock and trade, one which I am proud of, if anyone wonders.
Seriously, I do agree with you that the characters have to represent the times they live in to be believable, in a beach read or more weighty reads.
I’m with you, Laura. Even when my books are about issues (Bashed, for example), I am not focusing on writing about hate crimes, but about people…and what happens to them and how they’re affected by their plight.
And you do it very well, Rick.
As an LGBT advocate and M/M author myself, I believe that the social issues can be both overt and covert, and sometimes blended with the storyline to paint various shades of those social relevances. My novel, The Code, which takes place during WWII, has a deep vein of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, but not by ramming it down peoples’ throats, but instead through eliciting emotion and by story telling. Although Rick might make this seem easy in his writings, it is, in fact, not.
It’s not merely educating the reader, but sharing with them, say, what it really feels like to be gay and called faggot from across the street, or being closeted and getting that lump-in-the-stomach terror that comes with believing someone you didn’t want to know now does. We can do that through our characters.
What’s terrific, though, is that this can all can be done without affecting the romantic fluff, storyline, or character development. And so the good news is that social relevance can be amalgamated with a story to deliver a good read.
I can’t imagine why a writer wouldn’t *want* to write about these things, assuming they are interested in writing anything beside fluffy fantasy. Because thinking in terms of fiction rather than “social issues”, they are the fundamental conflicts on which stories are built. Conflict with society, conflict with family, internal conflict, and tough decisions to make, hard dilemmas with real consequences and no easy answers.
Of course I don’t want to be preached at, especially if the writer is bashing me over the head with something I already agree with them about! I want to see – and hopefully write – a story that uses the personal challenges of an individual to explore and illustrate a wider conflict. Preferably with some subtley and depth and without straw man villains, or characters who are a mouthpeice for the writer.
I very much enjoyed this essay, and its issues are quite relevant to me these past couple of weeks, because I discovered my choice of social commentary quite possibly went against the grain of the whole genre! Now just so that this comment won’t sound like a shameless plug, I won’t even say the title and will simply clarify that the book touches on bisexuality.
By necessity, there’s sexual interaction with a female, albeit briefly, even though the main focus of the whole story is man-on-man action. As a writer who’s not gay — but who’s literally had a date turn to him with almost cliché suspicion and say, “Hey, what’s with the bisexual stuff?” — well, I do think there’s room to explore that in M/M romance. I did keep it to a minimum in the book, because I recognize readers who pick up a novel, expecting one thing, shouldn’t necessarily get something different than the packaging (though my blurb copy makes it quite clear it’s about a bi guy). But I think it would be bordering on almost cowardly had I not had the brief sexual interaction with a female character, an involvement that was intrinsic to the narrative and essential to the hero figuring out who he is. To punk out, well, you might as well put *** like they did in the old days to suggest “off-screen” intercourse. So in this case, as Gore Vidal says, Sex is Politics. That brings me back to Rick R. Reed’s point: I think the responsibility to be true to what you want to say, as opposed to the conventions of the genre, is paramount.
In the same way, a publisher recently emailed to remind me that their guidelines insist on a happily-ever-after or happily-for-now ending. I’m a little concerned that M/M, which Wave correctly told me is exploding in a very kind and insightful briefing of the genre, could petrify if publishers insist on such templates. Sure, Harlequin makes millions, having perfected the formula, but from what I’m told by reviewers and fans, many M/M readers are sophisticated, intelligent types who fled the cookie-cutter fluff of M/F romance for something better. What does that have to do with social issues? Everything. In erotica books I’ve written for women, I’ve touched on Brazilian racism, corporate exploitation of Africa, other stuff, and in one novel the love interest dies. She has to die. Never mind any preaching or info dumping, how can we get a HEA or HFN ending after we dragged our hero/heroine through a situation in which he or she is exposed to the world issue? It would ring false. And yet I believe, without getting into the nitty-gritty details, readers found the ending satisfying.
I applaud Rick R. Reed’s reminding us that we have to set the bar higher. It’ll make for better books, even if we sometimes fail. I live in Canada, a country with an almost unique literary snobbery – what I like to call the “tyranny of naturalism.” If you write about nice straight middle class couples in suburbs, you’re making literature. If you write about queer werewolves, well, you’re not a real writer (yep, that cheque I just cashed, that wasn’t for real royalties). At the end of the day, I think good writing shouldn’t only be entertaining; it should be provocative and moving. And what moves us most are dilemmas that strike a chord echoing from those issues we experience and hear about in our very complex, infinitely challenging world.
I so agree with you–if you can make a story a page-turner and also provide something between the lines to think about, then you really have something. And a story about gay werewolves can be weighty stuff, too! I know…
I appreciate your post, Rick, and find the whole discussion thought-provoking. In part, the issue of wanting to see realistic gay characters in realistic lives is about good writing: having 3-D characters in a compelling tale. The other part is about this burgeoning “m/m” genre that weirdly straddles traditional romantic conventions and the yaoi tradition and also gay fiction.
Some readers come to this m/m marketplace strictly for erotic gay romance or yaoi — which don’t really have to be realistic to please and which have some stereotypical conventions. Many m/m authors shy away from protags who are not tall and muscular and “straight acting.”
Other readers want more variety and realistic depictions of gay lives, at least some of the time. Those authors who manage to take the notion of “m/m romance” and imbue it with the richness and variety of human experience, with flesh and blood characters rather than stereotypes, and with plots that acknowledge real world issues for gay characters make me happy as a reader. Well, so long as it isn’t all preachy and is a good story….
Great post, Rick, as always. And not just cuz you mentioned my book either.
No matter what you’re writing, from paranormal to historical, adding a touch of “reality” only makes a book and its characters richer.
I enjoy writing about gay men, and how they face the same life we all do, getting up, going to work, finding love, dealing with family, but with a slight difference. I always think of Ginger Rodgers’ quote, “I do the same steps, only backwards and in heels.”
When you’re “different”, and it’s socially unacceptable by a vast marjority of the society you live in, your life is always just a little different too. It affects everything.
Showing that in our writing makes our stories and characters that much richer.
I heart you Rick!!!
I heart you too, Lynn!
Wow, I’m fashionably late, as usual. But I never had a chance to read the post and dig through the comments until tonight. Rick, this is a great post with some excellent points, and I’m totally with you. I like a nice, healthy dose of realism with my romance, so I enjoy reading about real people with real problems and issues. Like most everyone has said, yeah, it needs to be well written, and as you said, Rick, the issues need to stem naturally from the characters and their situations.
I never really thought about it, but I guess I’ve got some of that going on in my books. TBH I haven’t ever sat in front of my laptop and thought, “hmm, what social commentary and/or current hot button issue can I tackle in this scene?” Some of my guys happen to have issues they’re dealing with and others don’t, that’s all.
Thank you for this post, Rick, definitely something to think about! Not just for new writers, either. I’m sitting beside ZAM and taking notes too *g*
Ally…something you said really hit home: “TBH I haven’t ever sat in front of my laptop and thought, “hmm, what social commentary and/or current hot button issue can I tackle in this scene?”” That, IMO, would be exactly NOT the way to approach writing. If we start out with the “theme” or the “issue” I think we’re bound to fail as writers of fiction. And you, of course, have learned that lesson well.
Having just recently joined this merry group at Jessewaves site I have a lot of catching up reading to do, so I’m even more fashionably late. 😉
Great post, Rick, and great contributions by everyone!
I’m *just a reader*, I have no ambition to write myself, sometimes I like to read fluff but mostly I want *More Than That*:
Realistic characters in a realistic world with realistic problems and joys, several of you already described that more eloquently. And even a fluffy romance can gain depth if the characters don’t live in their own little bubble.
But I would like to encourage all writers that there definitely IS a readership for realistic stories which do not fit into that “Romance” mold.
Hopefully more publishers see this too. Maybe it just needs the right kind of marketing as the genre evolves, “product lines” with a fluffy plot and a sure HEA and others where readers / buyers know “anything goes”.