Proud to be different

Of all the questions I’ve had to answer in interviews over the last three decades, I’ve always hated the one about the origins of my story ideas the most. For two reasons, in the most cases I had no idea how I came up with that idea; it just happened at some point and couldn’t be driven away. And then there was the fact that I simply couldn't bring myself to talk publicly about the original idea I had.

That only changed after I read “Lisey’s Story” by Stephen King and he put probably the best answer to this question in my mouth. And even if his view of where authors get their ideas from is by no means devoid of a certain logic, in my case, it is far too often wrong. Of course, now and then, I set my sails and cruise out onto the ocean of ideas, cast my nets and try to reel in the best catch of my career.

Sometime I have all the luck and return with a great story in my luggage; however, as it is with fishing in already over-fished oceans, the nets remain empty and I return with nothing. The innocent white screen in front of me stays untouched.

When I began writing, the literary landscape was still firmly in the hands of publishers who controlled which story and which author actually made it onto the market and into the bookstores. At that point in time, it didn’t matter much how many writers were fishing in the ocean of ideas, because in the end, what mattered most was who was the first to complete the idea’s path to publication.

Within a few years, everything experienced a significant transformation and eliminated the centuries-old dominance of the publishers. Modern technologies revolutionized the dusty literary world and opened it up to everyone. From then on, Amazon allowed people to publish their stories without having to find an agent and publisher first.

More and more writers sailed their boat out on the ocean of ideas and returned with their nets full of wonderful tales. The control of the market was disabled. Agencies emerged and attempted to persuade people that ebooks were a lucrative opportunity, which rapidly resulted in an over-saturated book market. Of course, it didn’t take long for these lies to be exposed and eventually, the market calmed down again. Nevertheless, it still remained quite difficult to make a good catch in the ocean of idea.

For about two decades now, everyone has been able to fish for a suitable story there, and some of those who never intended a writing career but were lured into this business by false promises have remained true to it.

Please, understand me correctly, I have no problem with those who have discovered their love of writing and, thanks to Amazon, can now enjoy it. There are fantastic authors among them who, probably wouldn’t have had a chance before, which would have deprived us of many great books. What I’m tried to say, is the fact that the increasing number of books had made it significantly more difficult to find unique ideas. Setting sail to cruise out onto the ocean doesn’t mean to return with a good story anymore. Almost every author struggles with it from time to time.

Even though I still answer such an interview question with this ocean, I haven’t been out there for a long time. I have found a new, a better way of finding new stories to tell. The main resource is the life we live, the nature and our surroundings. I no longer have to come up with new and unique ideas, because our society is presenting them to me on a silver tablet. I only have to listen and observe. You easily can find the origin of my ideas in the news nowadays. And more often, I even use my own past to back up my imagination.

And recently I even returned to my origins; because back in the days, almost all my stories were created with the very same basic idea. And yeah, this is kind of embarrassing to announce publicly.

When I was a teenager in the 1990s, all my stories actually started with me making up a scene in which two men had sex. And with this basic idea as guidline i started writing. Of course, i didn’t want to open the door straight away, so I started the story a little earlier… and somehow, in the end, this basic gay sex scene never appeared in the story. My main characters started dictating the story and had their very own mind of where it should lead to.

I guess, I never had the courage to actually write a gay sex scene since being gay was still illegal (at the beginning) and not accepted in my direct surrounding. For no means in the world, I wanted to do something that would expose me to speculation about my own sexuality. I already was some kind of alien to most of my classmates and I couldn’t have to stand a much higher lever of homophobic bullying at that time.

In the recent years I have been read a lot of gay romance stories, mainly written by women for women and always felt that none of those stories actually represented me in any way. Most of those tales sounded more like a typical hardcore porn and less than a normal romance story. And while I still was struggling with my personal coming out, I came up with the idea, to try out this genre myself. More and more I wanted to write a gay romance story that presented those gay world I belong in, too.

Over the last decade, I started to develop stories but never found the courage to actually write them down. Especially during the last week that has chanced and some of those stories are in production now. And I really appreciate the challenge they are giving me.

Our world is full of untold tales, andd I am really looking forward to actually tell them now.

THANK YOU FOR READING!