The Big No-No

Just a quick post this morning before I head to the office.

I'm about halfway through my third m/m short story now. I'm getting to the point where everything's so good between the two heroes that something awful now has to happen. I call this the Big No-No. So far everything I've written in this genre has a moment like this - a place where misunderstandings or bad choices separate the characters, forcing them to face up to their shit. It's written to be sad, heart-rending, perhaps a little infuriating and most of all, inevitable.

But has anyone else noticed that many m/m stories don't HAVE these moments? Some m/m stories just seem to involve two hot guys meeting, dating, having sex three or four times and then deciding to stay together? I guess these would technically be 'slice of life' stories, that instead of following a dramatic structure just aim to give a snapshot of someone's existence...except that slice of life stories wouldn't generally be tied up in a neat little bow at the end like most of these stories are.

Some stories - like for example Vic Winter's 'Cinnamon Buns' which I just read - really make this work by making it about the slice of life, showing us the hero changing, learning a new job and finally falling in love. There doesn't need to be a dramatic No-No because that's not what the story is about. It's about a journey, not about the relationship itself.

But sometimes when you read an m/m story which refuses to depict any conflict, any tough choices, any real emotional depth...doesn't it all feel a little pointless? Like you're reading a piece of fanfiction specifically written to display two character's hotness without actually revealing anything new about them because we all already know everything there is to know about Harry/Draco, Aragorn/Legolas etc. already? Except this isn't fanfiction.

Stories like these have everything go right for the hero and hero, no matter what. Often the characters are presented with what should be tough situations, but they breeze through without a blink, without any internal questioning, purely to show how wonderful and perfect they are. If someone opposes them, that person will be a one dimensional bigot. If someone gets in their way that person will be crazy or evil. Black and white. And any other characters in the story (who aren't the one dimensional bigots) will always agree to just how wonderful they are as well.

I know why these stories get published. It's the same reason I've managed to get interest from an e-publisher so quickly. Demand for m/m stories is huge and still growing. If you write reasonably well (grammatically, engagingly) you can probably get published, because editors need more stories than they're actually getting. But doesn't this high demand mean that promising authors who should be developing their craft, learning their trade, getting strong editorial feedback, even getting rejected and trying hard to improve their work so it doesn't happen again - instead think that their Mary-Sue stories are just fine and carry on churning that same old stuff again and again?


Is the m/m market ruining promising new authors instead of nurturing them?