How times change.

[erastes]

I'm editing "Transgressions," as a lot of you know. This was the magnum opus I began 3 years ago, and which was shelved as I discovered fanfiction and was only recently finished.

I won't say it sucks, because it doesn't completely (and my beta-readers will all yell) but it does need work. Oh Boy. Yes.

The thing is that in bits it has a tendancy to over-soppy-ize itself. Talk about women with male appendage syndrome! The boys are always weeping or raving or "marvelling" at the other boy's "impossible eyes" or "silken tresses" and I want to hide under a rock and give the whole thing to Simon Sheppard to Butch Up.

You see, I wrote "Standish" purely because i didn't know anyone was writing gay historical fiction. As gehayi pointed out to me last night, as far as I knew, I was inventing my own genre, so I had nothing to compare it against. So Standish (and buttock clenchingly more so, Transgressions) are very "romantic genre" based with loads of uber-sweeping emotions. If I'd left it as it was, the cover of Transgressions should have had two men, both Fabio look-a-likes, clinging together in a strong wind, their shirts ripped, their hair streaming behind them... well, you get the gist. Standish was more deliberate, it was a Regency Romance and followed the genre, transposing the heroine with Ambrose and the brooding male prescence with Rafe, but Transgressions doesn't follow a specific time-genre.

Anyway. I'm working on it. My boys will still be emotionally charged, but they will be a little more controlled and a little less like a couple of heroines. And will be an improvement as a result!

The thing that brought it home to me was re-reading a piece I submitted to Outlook Arizona earlier in the year. I resubbed it yesterday to Blithe Quarterly (don't have a HOPE, but you've got to aim for the stars) and as I read it I got that (oh so rare) feeling that I'm sure you've all had - "Did I write this? It's bloody good!"

I have fanfiction to thank for that progression. Left to my own devices with no-one to compare against I would probably still be writing girlie men crying at the drop of a hat, men who FELT a lot, but hardly ever had a conversation. Fanfic and RPG have helped me a great deal in those respects. The protagonists in The Snow Queen are both a lot more repressed, vulnerable and both (frankly) deserve a slap around the head to realise what would make them happy. But that's probably what makes them more real?

Comments

feminised men

[dubaiyan.livejournal.com]

ah yes the "silken tresses" ;)

[faithfulreader.livejournal.com]

My boys will still be emotionally charged, but they will be a little more controlled and a little less like a couple of heroines.

Did you like Brokeback? I did -- I like really manly guys :)

[ejab62.livejournal.com]

Repressed would certainly make them more interesting, I think. If I (and this is my personal opinion which you can happily ignore) can't 'read' a character and he remains somewhat of a mystery, forcing me to think about why he's doing or saying things,it is more challenging and therefore more interesting.
But if they are all over the place (emotionally), I'd get tired of them at one point and think "yeah, yeah, shut up, please"
A fascinating character is the one that makes me think, forces me to wonder about his actions or lack of.
Fandom gives (gave) a great way to experience with that, doesn't it?
*shrugs*