Thursday, January 26, 2012

Live and Learn

Good morning. 

Another Thursday post here with me, Sharita. Today, I wanted to express how I’ve learned something new while being a new author to this genre. I’ve always been one of those people who feel that you can never stop learning anything regardless of how old you are. I appreciate when someone can set me straight and tell me if my thinking might not necessarily be correct.

With being an author, in my opinion, this is especially important when writing outside of what you already know. I’m a female writing in the m/m romance genre so in reading other authors and “listening” to what gay male writers have said on, for example Facebook, I like to pay attention to what’s been discussed and learn from it.

So what have I learned? The biggest differences between gay fiction and romance. What is it? Gay fiction is stories by gay males who write about their experiences in coming out or any growing up, etc while m/m romance or m/m in general is more about the relationship side and can include anyone writing about those situations. Also, this can encompasses genres like paranormal, urban fantasy, etc. Does that make sense? Maybe I didn’t say it right. Basically, I don’t write gay fiction but m/m which I have no problem with.

At first, I thought m/m was just a cutesy term that publishers use just so they don’t have to say gay but that’s not a fair statement. There is a big difference in those and while reading blogs from authors who’ve been in the genre a lot longer, I’ve picked up these ideas and emblazoned them in my brain. You may think I take issue with this but I truly don’t. I’ve never claimed to know it all and still won’t. Being a writer is about learning and growing so I’ll never know everything and I’m okay with that. In my opinion, if you don’t pick up things from your peers in regards to anything, you’re being stubborn. More so in writing, when tackling a genre such as m/m, you have to know what you’re talking about. What do I write; m/m romance and m/m erotica.

Okay! *smiles*

So, any other posts I’ve made about Call it what it is, Gay Male Fiction, scratch that. I write m/m romance/m/m erotica and I’m proud to say, I learned that from my gay male peers.

Thanks for setting me straight and hopefully I’ll continue to try improving at it.

3 comments:

Johnny Miles said...

I believe that as humans who have different backgrounds and beliefs, it is our duty (ALL of us) to learn from one another. We may not agree on all points but we will find that we frequently have common ground and wish for the same, if not similar, things. That having been said, I do agree that as writers, we have an even bigger responsibility to learn, digest, and put it out there. It's just one way to, hopefully, help the change world as we entertain at the same time.

S.Lira said...

TY for the comment Johnny. I very much agree!

Unknown said...

m/m erotica has a larger appeal than gay fiction as it deals with the universals of relationships.