BL Reading Club! (M/m fiction) for Readers and Writers!

[yansusustories]

Surprise! I also write BL!

So, so many people! Welcome ~

 

[Nahrenne]

A competition/anthology thing would be an interesting premise.
(^-^)

x

 

[yansusustories]

Why is @yansusustories is the only A+ student here? -_____-

I was actually raised like that. Always had a guilty conscience when I didn't do my homework I was, however, always chatting in class as well so nobody can say they're surprised if I derail 98% of threads

 

[The_Long_Serpent]

A dark and sinister spell, this one is...

I am summoning... EVERY BL writer from the main site!

AWAKEN, my fellow BL-ers!

@Owl @cissy_eden @jmitsitsiyo @crimson_carnation @Lost_Strings @yansusustories @Jolliapplegirl @ViviCris @Amarathia @Silvareiel @Afterdarkfish @I_Love_Cats @Waterrain @Ruyi @deathbydanmei @DogFood @luzu @RavenousAppetite @lesson101 @Leviathan @LauraSFox @tiaf @Nilphy @Nit_7_7 @BlackyRose @ars @DominiqueAd @MyLadyQueen @lazyredragon @Ginseng @FantasyDeath @Tinypandahero @upwardplane @HantaHanna @TLCsDestiny @Shellyrill @ohko @Metri26 @Lunnear @mrsimple @I_am_not_a_robot @Animestar 411 @sucessor @ForeverPupa @LostinMovement @AngieOwlie @BlankBook @cecilly @KaPi @spiderlily86 @QingSe @xiaolong @thisworldofmine1 @MatchaMilk @Lon3ly @iamaducklingwriter @IshiiMichiko @RoseRogan @Ozmafia @bjwebb @Lulible @yiyuehua @Wretch @Hikaro @theflowerbed @UnnatainableBlueRose @AlwaysxDreaming @Chaleuria @Elamimax @HJ @LucyPanDora @Haku @Danshi @Bunch_Munchy_Crap @Hoshiandme @kitkat2010 @Mayfire @BlaqkLotus @AutumnLeaves @5hehzada @bafflinghaze @Dekuwu321 @reika @Pandoraeh @Lukha @Xenoglossia @flowerie @namio @dandydanes @RaySizm @TruffleMashPotats @TingTang @Hoxrox @Altersaside @Aachiin0914 @skara @Ai-chan @Wesh @ShadyFamily @positiveaddictchan @Kldran @Geek_Aflame @Emiliine @RandomUser12321 @ShenTanHeng @silverkittie @Silverty @lovelymezzo @bloomone1 @wazi @nife999 @addison @Sheng_Ling @paputsza @selfsabotaged @CuddleGoblin @binarysoap @glowingreverie @Yakichou @featherquills @TrulyUnderstandablyConfused @XiaoBubbleMengXue @SerenaJones @lilGoat @WhiteMim @NotFar_YetNotClose @strawberryseason @verielle.crest @Velester @CheezyMayo @ElectronicStars @Seridy @cravingsoul @Staria @Ylle-QinMo @Infinitetree @brida96 @harukot @Polinsesi @osuoha @fujostea @This_Venerable_One @cutewinx @NefariousSage @Tomiki @TheIronTreeBlooms @Heart @BB8 @Sheepishlysleeping @Ayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy @KaraKuriKurari @SpitefulTofu @LingShan0218 @Ame-Tora @thirtytyrants @Fuku_Fuku @Yearafteryear @Lacrima @SoleilBlue_ @NomadicStardust @Midnight-Moon @Leverance @FaveloCzeist @TheInsaneWitch @Yuhannaxi @Luxican @FeelingsPuree @.Lance @lestragon @JustMe123456789 @XiaoNaYe @Serpham @GuangLanhua @DangerousFluffball @CeeRey_BL_Life @Gurukyuu @INUHim-SAMA @j.roro @Qwaile @shi0h @hime.quack @ThoughtsRoamGuy @Bender @MisokoFukumoto @OrchidBliss @Geoliza @Randomname @necrofficial @ScrapAuthorProducingScraps @Avatar_GenderBender @RJMidnight @xinde @LucyDarkness @Tamashitoana @cherry_boylove @LonelyAlien @aogurtt @CallMeAJ @Ozmafia @1426367856 @Blossom_From_Fear @DarkBirdo @Sphinxdroid @AdorableDumpling @malaysian_asian @AriaKang @Org @nanamisashiwa @Shin_hye @YINXUX @judeiiro @sunflower @red2angel @Zcythe @Gremory @QiangYueCaihongQYCH @Pink_Byeol @daydreambliss27 @duelsharks @iDrinkLatte @shiiro @ShiroEinzbern @calderetta @FavreMyOrange @DexterDarko @JBoston110 @The_Long_Serpent @heheawecomemana @Kalip

The reason I am summoning you? Is because I was thinking a lot about starting some kind of a BL-centered thread where we can promote each other and build a community. Due to @minacia 's recent survey poll about SH demographics, it turns out that BL is the most hated genre here on SH . Therefore, we need to keep close and help each other promote ourselves, support our genre, or at least be a bit tighter as an official biggest niche community on SH ^^.

In short, I was thinking of one day starting something like an anthology event for BL shorts aka @Moonpearl 's Yuri Garden Anthology Events only for BL, obviously ^^. Short stories can promote and expand our reader and author base, so I think it might not be a bad idea? But to do that I wanted to fish for interest first -- are there enough active BL-members on this site? Do they even come to the forums? Are they interested in a genre-centered community? NUF has a BL-centric thread solely for BL discussions, and maybe we need one, too? Not sure. We'll find out ^^.

Thus, 1st question -- does an anthology or competition event centered on BL interest any of you?

2nd question, just to start a discussion or to get better acquainted with each other -- what is your BL-writer history? (Where did you first discover BL? How did you come to SH? What are your specific interests in the genre or issues that bother you?)

\(*o*)/ love you all!

First Question: I don't really do contests, but you can do ahead

Second Question: Let's break it down here.
1. Unhappy Medium is called Boy's Love because it's the only tag on here that deal in mxm relationships. Even then, they're fairly old, Niko in his mid-20s and Mallomor being a nigh-immortal demon
2. Unhappy Medium came out of a desire to write a humanxdemon style relationship, and I made them both guys because I didn't see a lot of homosexual relationships in mainstream American media growing up
3. ScribbleHub seemed interesting, end of story
4. I generally like more fantastical situations, fun dynamics, and healthy relationships.

 

[Maple-Leaf]

No confidence to achieve that with my cliched BL works 囧rz

These words speak to me and my future ventures on an subconscious level.

 

[Owl]

Aaaah eh. I don't like competitions but I'd participate in anthologies if the timing is good.
As for myself... I hate ABO, but otherwise I'm fine with most tropes. I've only been actively writing BL since sometime last year but I wrote fanfictions when I was younger :3
I'm still confused why my story is read so much.

 

[binarysoap]

What do you mean -- the better question! Answer our BL questions first!

I just wanted to know why I was included, and now I know.

As for your questions:

Thus, 1st question -- does an anthology or competition event centered on BL interest any of you?

No, you think I have time to write something else? If it does, make it a short story at the very least.

2nd question, just to start a discussion or to get better acquainted with each other -- what is your BL-writer history? (Where did you first discover BL? How did you come to SH? What are your specific interests in the genre or issues that bother you?)

I started writing BL because of @tiaf . Came to SH because I saw an original English novel on NU that I read and thought why is it on NU and clicked it. As for specific interests....

Spoiler: :sweating_profusely:

I plead the fifth

 

[The_Long_Serpent]

Aaaah eh. I don't like competitions but I'd participate in anthologies if the timing is good.
As for myself... I hate ABO, but otherwise I'm fine with most tropes. I've only been actively writing BL since sometime last year but I wrote fanfictions when I was younger :3
I'm still confused why my story is read so much.

I don't like ABO that much either.

 

[TLCsDestiny]

Sorry but I can't commit to anything.
I also don't believe that bl is most hated on the site.
I also don't believe doing a whole heap of short stories would make people read it.
I took the leap into it and liked it, but that doesn't mean everyone else will. I could also be wrong but one of my bl books is my second highest pages read.
I do like writing it though :)

 

[Queenfisher]

Thanks for pitching in!!

I added the poll so that people could reply in an easier manner to the questions ^^.

The Anthologies are obviously Short Stories just for fun on a given topic. The Competitions are harder to define because... well... nobody here has any prizes to offer so far, so I put it in the poll for future reference about who is willing to participate in one if they want to.

I probably need to ask a lot from @Moonpearl about how these events work in Yuri Garden if we ever will have enough people interested in reading/participating! Just looking at the general reception to this thread will suffice, I suppose ^^.

And the Shared Universe Event is something I thought up once about writing a Quick Transmigration story with the same MC and ML, only... you know -- who forget each other every time they transmigrate or something and go into new and different worlds together. Each author can write one world arc (ranging from a short story length of ~1k-5k words to a fully-fledged arc of several chapters, depending on the author). Just to make it a long and cute QT with a lot of variety in the end, I guess?

I haven't thought about it too much yet, sorry

 

[The_Long_Serpent]

Thanks for pitching in!!

I added the poll so that people could reply in an easier manner to the questions ^^.

The Anthologies are obviously Short Stories just for fun on a given topic. The Competitions are harder to define because... well... nobody here has any prizes to offer so far, so I put it in the poll for future reference about who is willing to participate in one if they want to.

I probably need to ask a lot from @Moonpearl about how these events work in Yuri Garden if we ever will have enough people interested in reading/participating! Just looking at the general reception to this thread will suffice, I suppose ^^.

And the Shared Universe Event is something I thought up once about writing a Quick Transmigration story with the same MC and ML, only... you know -- who forget each other every time they transmigrate or something and go into new and different worlds together. Each author can write one world arc (ranging from a short story length of ~1k-5k words to a fully-fledged arc of several chapters, depending on the author). Just to make it a long and cute QT with a lot of variety in the end, I guess?

I haven't thought about it too much yet, sorry

Wattpad awards usually give out stickers for the first place winners, if that helps you.

 

[Moonpearl]

Then I will gladly answer the questions~!

1. I would absolutely love to take part in a competition/anthology that isn't mine~! They can be a little bit tough to run, though, so, if you want any advice on setting them up, I'm happy to help out.
(Although the themes you suggested further down sound a bit stressful for me to write, personally. I wouldn't enjoy writing terribly cliche BL and I'd feel a lot of pressure trying to avoid anything cliche altogether.)

2. My history with BL is... Long. Boringly so.
Back in my young childhood, the internet was a completely optional thing, so my parents chose not to have it for several years. I used my computer to entertain myself by writing. When we finally got internet access, I went merrily searching around Google for images of all my favourite stuff, including Yugioh, and... Stumbled across a picture of Yami x Yugi and, despite having been trained to believe it was horrible, couldn't look away. And somehow from there I ended up reading a lot of slash fic?

So I had my start binging fanfiction, and from there I spread to Smackjeeves, DeviantArt, Tumblr, various manga reading sites, probably other places I no longer remember, and eventually to Novel Updates.
I came to Scribble Hub directly from Novel Updates when this site was first made.

As for writing BL... The more I read BL, the more I just added queer men to my own writing naturally. I'm also a roleplayer and I've been playing in-depth roleplaying games with one particular friend for at least a decade now. They amount to turn-based collaborative writing stories and we stuffed them full of queer people (being queer ourselves).
Therefore I've been writing BL for more than a decade (but miraculously never wrote anything that I released for public reading, to my memory).

These days I'm much more into GL, since I've become picky and I can rarely find a BL to satisfy me. I've hit that stage where I have to just write it myself.
(I actually run the Yuri Garden on NUF, and we run various events that get advertised over here too.)

Types of BL I like and hate... Well, I really hate Omegaverse BL (but love Omegaverse GL?), I hate BL that literally treats the more feminine partner as if they were a woman (calling them "wife" and stuff), and I hate strict uke/seme dynamics. At the same time, I have no interest in extremely masculine men...

I like BL with refreshing dynamics and where men are allowed to fall more naturally along the spectrum of gender and gender expression, and where the relationships are a little bit deeper.
Also I have a terrible curse where I almost always write non-human beings, mpreg, general bizarreness, and trauma victims trying to heal from their past.

 

[bafflinghaze]

Thus, 1st question -- does an anthology or competition event centered on BL interest any of you?

2nd question, just to start a discussion or to get better acquainted with each other -- what is your BL-writer history? (Where did you first discover BL? How did you come to SH? What are your specific interests in the genre or issues that bother you?)

1. Anthology, yes. Competition, too much pressure
2. I came via Draco/Harry fanfic!! I was looking for trans stories and stumbled across a trans Draco fic on AO3, and the rest...is history... But no, more seriously, I started reading that trans Draco fic (that was drarry) and started reading more drarry...and then I got Ideas and had to Write. As for how I got into danmei in particular, I saw so, so many Untamed gifs on tumblr, and decided to read MDZS....and welp, sucked into that hole now Reading about asian characters in asian centered stories was just so, so good. Pretty sure I found Scribble Hub from Novel Updates and its advertisements for SH.

Ah, we talked over on the other thread that sexism in BL bother me, but otherwise, I'm in the camp of "the back button" and "don't like, don't read" sooooo I'm very quick at exiting stories I don't like and they don't affect my life lol

I am actually thinking of at least two anthologies so far -- one for "BL as unconventional as you can make it!" and the other "Honoring all the Classic tropes and having fun with them like the first time!".

good ideas!! Or maybe it can be around tropes, both writing to the trope and subverting the trope? Writing events that I have participated in can also be themed like: having asexual characters, having trans characters, having stories that revolve around food, having stories that revolve around travel, having stories that revolve around [uncommon] jobs, having stories inspired by music, having christmas theme prompts etc.

 

[bafflinghaze]

I've hit that stage where I have to just write it myself.

HUGE MOOD

 

[tiaf]

I seem to differ with most opinions sooo... unwatching the thread

 

[yansusustories]

Or maybe it can be around tropes, both writing to the trope and subverting the trope? Writing events that I have participated in can also be themed like: having asexual characters, having trans characters, having stories that revolve around food, having stories that revolve around travel, having stories that revolve around [uncommon] jobs, having stories inspired by music, having christmas theme prompts etc.

Oh, I like that!

I seem to differ with most opinions sooo... unwatching the thread

Whaaat? Just tell us your thoughts! We're open for everything, I swear!

 

[minacia]

Anthology yes! Competitions scare me!

My history with BL starts with....... smut.

lol >.< and it never really evolved that much.

Uhhhh... *sweats* I like the ABO that everyone else hates.......

Other than that, I like BL novels that have a gender spin to it. What I mean by this, is when there are non-binary characters (or guys with various forms of gender expressions) or various aspects because they’re interesting subjects to me.

 

[Queenfisher]

I seem to differ with most opinions sooo... unwatching the thread

Eh? But the majority of people didn't even say their opinions yet!

I didn't even say a thing, and you already slip away! You know my tastes, come on!

Typical fish >_<. Good thing I have a "fisher" in my name, innit? *Ursula The Sea Witch voice*




Don't leaaaave, tiaf!

And see? *points at @minacia * You haven't even seen the 1/10 of us all,

@tiaf
@tiaf
@tiaf

*drags tiaf back ^^ *

good ideas!! Or maybe it can be around tropes, both writing to the trope and subverting the trope? Writing events that I have participated in can also be themed like: having asexual characters, having trans characters, having stories that revolve around food, having stories that revolve around travel, having stories that revolve around [uncommon] jobs, having stories inspired by music, having christmas theme prompts etc.

I haven't thought about anything yet because I was so afraid there wouldn't be many people even willing to participate! There are some, but being an active BL-hood member on the SHF, I can say that so far -- we're all the same people as usual, lol!

 

[yansusustories]

I like the ABO that everyone else hates.......

I actually don't hate it. It's not necessarily my favorite BL trope but I think if it's done nicely it's, well, nice I sometimes wish the authors would put more effort into the world-building though

I haven't thought about anything yet because I was so afraid there wouldn't be many people even willing to participate! There are some, but being an active BL-hood member on the SHF, I can say that so far -- we're all the same people as usual, lol!

I'm afraid we're just super chatty

 

[Nahrenne]

*likes bara, ABO, Ger, and normal BL (?)*
*doesn't really know what all the different types of BL are but usually reads/watches those*
>w<

My first BL was the anime Junjou Romantica.
I can't remember what my first BL manga was but I know that one of the earliest ones was Your My Loveprize In A Viewfinder, as well as Crimson Spell.
I've read a lot of BL novels on NU but have tended to stay away from ones where reviews say there's tons of misunderstandings.
Actually, I've found a big liking for Apocalypse settings with BL for some reason.
>w<

X