writing a homoerotic bromance

so, two guys, somewhat bloodbrothers and best budds.

Their names are Jason and Logan.

Logan is canonically asexual,

and Jason is canonically heterosexual.

But I want to mess with my reader's heads! and maybe my own as well.

I'm not doing that well, I can't feel that slightly gay subtext that shows the reader that Jason sometimes thinks "If Logan was a girl..."

How do I do this? I'm not getting it across right.

I'm going to hazard a guess and say that your story doesn't really need a gay subtext.

perhaps not, but it would help give it some depth. A sentence vaguely suggesting it maybe every 5 chapters with something one says to the other is enough. It wouldn't mess with any plot lines or the story, but it WOULD help show just how close the two are... i think?

I dont know.

... How the fuck does this give it depth?

im eating, and i started to laugh and almost choked.

I guess it doesn't, but the matter of the fact is I want a gay subtext for Jason and Logan. I want to mirror the real life gay subtext I have with my real life best friend. It's more a homage than anthing.

that, and I want to create something for fans to argue about, it's good for the book sales once she get's published.

Also, the shippers will be happier.

Though I thought about it and I could actually VERY easily write Logan and Jason as the only two main characters, so it kind of makes sense that the two most important protagonists to the plot have some kind of slightly more complex relationship in order to make it feel more real.

Though, to be honest, as a semi-trolling author I just want to allude to Jason being bi-curious about Logan specifically.

Even though I don't think it's a good idea to try to force Ho Yay (or any kind of romantic subtext) on your characters, this page can show you how to do it properly.

Thanks, I'll check it out.

And as of note there is another part I forgot; at one point I realized that if I let a homoerotic subtext naturally evolve it would help me latter on in a scene about half way in the book.

At this particular scene Jason and Logan pour eachother's friendship filled hearts out to each other moments before a major plot twist and the departure of one of the main protagonists. Which may or may not happen before or after the death of another.

The sub-text would be mostly abandoned in the second half of the book, but it might help for readers to be more engaged in this particularly dramatic scene.

edit: that keyword thing sounds good... hmm ill try it.

Tanya: tenacious man killer

Erica: Whiny city girl

Lee: duty loving Muslim (meaning he enjoys duty and honor as opposed to it being done out of guilt)

Jason: ambitious tribal man

Dickens: ethical but ignorant Christian

Logan: empathetic helicopter ace

William: conspiring author avatar

November: ambitious and radical visionary

how well does Tanya and Jason match up? I did plan for just some plain old lust sex to be alluded to there FOR GOOD PLOT REASONS. Not anything really emotional, just plain old sex that serves as a plot point later down the road.

edited 20th Oct '11 12:53:55 PM by jasonwill2

Making homoerotic subtext between males is really easy, especially since for some reason people seem to look for it, even people who aren't Yaoi Fans. Basically just have some scenes where the two are alone together, talking about feelings, perhaps with some awkwardness. And have their relationship with each other be the most important one they have, and they think about each other all the time. That's pretty much all you need. Sad maybe, but true.

then i think i might already have some of that in the sub-text by that definition, minus the awkwardnes

People are definitely going to read subtext into it. The more emotional it gets, the more they will read into it.

then that scene right before the plot twist in particular will really put the nail in the coffin for that. It's a really warm and fuzzy feelings bro talk.

Oh! what if at one point I have Jason call Logan his "guardian angel"?

You know, since Logan is their helicopter pilot, and the chopper in question he flies has a machine gun and about 8 hell-fire missiles and he has more than once (3 times so far) already helped Jason out of a bad situation! One was a full on gunship rescue, the other was more or less expected to happen in that battle.

Depends how sappy he makes it. The sappier, the more slash potential. If it's more humorous it has less slash potential, but the insinuation will still be there, just more easy to write off as 'joking around'.

edited 27th Oct '11 9:33:25 PM by NoirGrimoir

When they're not together, they're thinking and talking about each other. They do really intimate things, like sleeping in the same bed once in a while. They fight about silly things and then rush to forgive each other. They may even dream about each other. Only two things: they never get it on, and they never talk about their relationship.

That's how I handle it anyway.

that may be taking the subtext too far

That would be "all but confirmed". Which I have no problem with, but whatever.

Meh... all you'd really need to do to have homoerotic subtext in the story would be to write the two characters with compatible seed-concepts in mind; once you do that, any hidden subtext usually materializes whether you want it to or not.

Yes, us Yaoi Fans are relentless.

edited 28th Oct '11 11:51:40 PM by NoirGrimoir