Allaboutwriting

Life is a story.

We tell stories, not just to entertain and to escape, but as a rehearsal for life. How would we handle this or that? How would we face the trials of our hero or heroine?

Romance novels should provide us with the characters and situations that we can, and choose to, identify with.

Lesbian Romance gives gay women the kind of love stories they can be drawn into – that provide them with a “rehearsal for life” in the love stakes.

The conventions in all published Romance novels are a little more strictly observed than the more “literary” novel.

All readers of genre fiction have expectations. Readers like to know certain things will happen and others won’t.

Certainly, there are different expectations for straight and lesbian Romance, because there are different conventions within straight and gay sub-cultures.

But in one profound respect, there is no difference at all. Both straight and gay Romance writing is about love. Both involve the intensity that we long for in our humdrum lives.

They make us believe – that great love is possible, and that Romance is alive and well.

Both involve the great search for The One. They take us through the unbearable conflict that holds the lovers apart. They keep us in suspense while we wonder if they can ever be together, even though it’s obvious they’re made for each other.

There are statistics on straight readers. By and large, they’re a pretty educated lot. Most have some college education and many are educated professionals. Most work outside the home part or full-time

There are little in the way of statistics for readers of gay Romance, but there’s no reason to suppose they’re any less educated and sophisticated.

It is thought that a significant number of lesbian Romance readers are in the closet – for many different reasons. That’s perhaps the reason many gay romance stories focus on coming out.

It’s a way of living out a gay life without having to do so in the real world. If you can’t talk about lesbian romance and sex, at least you can read about a young woman’s first gay adventures,  before she finds true love in the end.

As one gay reader puts it: “The stories help us to believe that our moms are wrong: that even if we do follow this path, and even if we do play around a bit, we’ll still find true love in the end.”

Gay romance is more tolerant of other sexual relationships than straight romance. Straight Romance heroines no longer need to be virgins. But we don’t tend to see them having wild sexual adventures (except with the hero) within the story being told.

On the other hand, gay readers are quite comfortable with a woman sowing her wild oats within the ambit of the story, particularly in coming-out stories.

The main character could be with someone else when the story begins. Or she, her love interest or both, could mistakenly think they are in love with another partner, before they discover, or rediscover, each other.

Lesbian Romance doesn’t always follow this pattern. Like straight Romance, it often involves two people who meet, are wildly attracted but held apart by their own issues or external factors.

In straight Romance, old-style brutes don’t hack it any more. The same is true for lesbian romance. Old-style butch brutes don’t hack it any longer either.

Lesbian romances are far more nuanced than that. Not all lesbian relationships are based on the idea that there has to be a “male” and a “female” role player. Some couples want this and others don’t, but all couples want love.

Of course, a happy ending is the most important part of any Romance. Imagine a reader’s disappointment if the lovely mysterious Lucinda gathers the beautiful desirable Arusha in her arms, only to mutter: “I’m not really sure that I’m ready for this level of relationship.”

There is the odd love story that ends in tragedy – all the more heartbreaking since it was true love. And the odd lesbian Romance will end with tantalising potential rather than with the conventional happy ending.

But the general rule is that, no matter how she struggles to get there, or how many adventures she must undertake first, the main character should be happily settled at the end.

Our sister site Allaboutlove.net runs online courses.

Sign up for the Basic Guide to Writing Lesbian Romantic Fiction, the Basic Guide to Writing Romantic Fiction for straight writers or start by doing our free Preparation for Writing Romance.