(no subject)
Suggestions for writing footballslash
by ninamalfoy (with generous help by anglo_phile and benitle, who both rock so much)
I decided to do this post because I thought it could help some people in this fandom to get a start on how to write good footballslash. This post is meant for all writers that search for a starting point before writing fics, but also for more experienced authors who want to improve their writing.
Just some words in advance: this post is portraying only my personal opinion. It isn’t a general consensus of the fandom at its whole. It addresses issues in footballslash writing that I noticed two months ago and still do now; and I know I’m not alone there.
I didn’t include anything about style or grammar or spelling here because you can find good guidelines concerning these matters anywhere on the ‘net and if I'd include these, I would never get finished with this post. Also because these matters are - while still very important to good writing - not what I want to focus on concerning the issues I noticed. That said and made clear, feel free to proceed and click on the LJ-cut. *smiles*
Footballslash is not just about the pretty and the slashy and the infinite combinations thereof.
It’s a fandom with everything that it entails, no more and no less.
Although it differs from most fandoms in a big aspect: there is no obvious canon like in fictional, i.e. movie-, TV- or book-related fandoms. This is because it’s a RPS fandom. The people we write about here are indubitably real. They exist; they have a personal history and a professional career.
And this is just what makes this fandom so unique. Its canon is actually what we know about these people we write about - and there are boundaries as to how much they choose to tell the media about themselves. To know this canon, in this case the professional and the private life of the people we portray, we must do research. We don’t get the canon handed out to us in handy little books like in the Harry Potter fandom or in a huge book and a movie trilogy epic like in the LOTR fandom. No, we have to get interested in them and actively search for information order to portray them as realistically as possible - which should be the goal for any RP writer, anyway.
For example, if I wrote a story where Christoph Metzelder’s portrayed as a single child means that I would have done nil to shoddy research, as most Metzelder fans know that he has even got three brothers - Stefan, Sebastian and Malte, the youngest (Metze himself comes after Sebastian and before Malte). Or if I said that Metze never won the Cup in his career - he has, in the 2001/02 season with the BVB. Or that he never scored any goals yet - he scored two in the last season, his first goals ever.
If you think now, “Yeah, that’s all nice and well, but hey, I just want to slash them! I don’t want to write an effing biography about them, thank you very much.”
Well, yeah, that you don’t have to do, you’re right. No one expects you to include all knowledge you have in your fic. But writing a story is easier if you know the people you’re writing about. With original characters that you invented yourself this is a lot less difficult, certainly. But with RP and FP fiction, you have to adhere at least to some of the canon or otherwise your characters will become OOC, and this is something any writer of fanfiction should avoid.
And it’s also these little details that you know about them that can make or break a story. How so? Let me give you two examples.
Example #1:
Sebastian plopped down next to Christoph in the locker room. “Still up to the night out?”
The tall brunet was busy stuffing his toiletries into his bag, but he looked up at the other man and nodded. “Sure, why wouldn’t I be?”
“Just checking,” Sebastian said, grinning. “Wouldn’t want you to chicken out.”
“No worries,” Christoph said, “if the first round is on you, that is,” and he smirked at Sebastian.
“You’re cheap,” Sebastian said, rolling his eyes, “I’ll even gladly splurge on all your drinks, if that’s what it takes.”
Shrugging into his jacket, Christoph grinned down at Sebastian. “Aiming to make a drunken bum out of me?”
Sebastian chuckled as he walked past Christoph out of the empty locker room. “Yeah. A drunken bum I’ll drag home and take advantage of,” he said, winking at the taller man.
Really, nothing was cuter than seeing Christoph blush.
~ fin ~
Example #2:
Basti plopped down on the bench next to Metze. He had waited for his best friend to come back from the doctors’ check-up on the foot - something Metze had to go through regularly now and Basti couldn’t blame their meticulousness, to be honest. “Still up to the night out?” he enquired.
The tall defender was busy stuffing his toiletries into his bag, but he looked up at his best friend and nodded. “Sure, why wouldn’t I be?”
“Just checking,” Basti said, grinning. “Wouldn’t want you to chicken out.”
“No worries,” Metze said, “if the first round is on you, that is,” and he smirked at Basti.
“You’re cheap,” Basti said, rolling his eyes, “I’ll even gladly spurge on all your drinks, if that’s what it takes.” And it would even come really cheap - Metze wasn’t one to get drunk, to be honest, but that also was because he always drove, which Basti appreciated a lot. His car was still over at Metze’s, actually.
Shrugging into his leather jacket, Metze grinned down at the Dortmund midfielder. “Aiming to make a drunken bum out of me?”
Basti chuckled as he walked past Christoph out of the now empty locker room, picking up his bag at the door. “Yeah, a drunken bum I’ll drag home and take advantage of,” he said, winking at his best friend.
Really, nothing was cuter than seeing Metze blush.
~ fin ~
If you did notice a difference, you’re welcome to continue reading. If you did not - well, then you are welcome even more so. This post is also meant for people who aren’t yet well acquaintanced with good footballslash.
Anyway, see what I did with example #2, compared to example #1? Metze’s history of injury is mentioned, also their positions on the field and which club they’re playing at. And then I inserted a bit of speculation on my part - namely that Metze’s the sensible one driving them home, and as I know that Kelly’s living rather close to Metze as he said himself in an online chat, that wouldn’t be much of a hardship. And then I’ve got a layout of the Borussia Dortmund locker room and Kelly’s sitting next to the door there, which I used in the example, too. Most importantly, I mentioned repeatedly that they are best friends, which is a RL fact.
Compared to that, example #1 seems very bland; I could have easily inserted two other players that happen to play for the same club here, and it wouldn’t have changed anything in the atmosphere of the little ficlet - it’s still written well, yes, has nice dialogue, but you don’t sense anything deeper between the two characters, only that there’s a sort of relationship or even only an occasional one-night-stand going on between them.
So, if you want to write good footballslash, here’s the most important word of advice:
Research, research and research.
It wouldn’t really help your fic if you’d just pick two players at random that do look cute or sexy together, but have no history whatsoever together, only faced each other once or twice at a match and that’s it. Granted, people not knowing much about these two players but agree with your opinion that they are cute and slashy would like your fic if it’s written well (good style, no grammar/spelling mistakes, nice plot etc.), but the others - the ones that are more knowledgeable wouldn’t, based on your lack of knowledge about their history, and you would lose credibility with them.
Additionally, if you choose foreign players that play in or for countries whose language you don’t know, you should be aware that you might miss out on a lot of useful facts about them, because there will be lots of newspaper articles, online homepages, boards and other kinds of information sources in the language you lack knowledge of. I can go only by my personal experience as I slash players from the German Bundesliga where this is often the case, i.e. most information about them that I found useful for my fics are in German. You often get only the barebones in English, and I suspect that this is no different for any other league (save for the ones in English-speaking countries, like the EPL).
Although you can use babelfish or Google translator to get to the gist of these information sources, I’m afraid that these often twist meanings or obfuscate them that much that it’s sometimes quite impossible to get the original meanings from them. I would recommend asking a fellow fan who knows the language to translate relevant articles or bits for you. Or, if you’re writing about a fairly known player, try to check any relevant posts (OTP/club promotion posts on footballslash or the Pimp my Player posts on manndecker, for example; a good starting point are also fics that portray the player in question fairly well, according to the general consensus). But these posts can only offer a small insight of who the player really is.
I’m not saying that you shouldn’t pick foreign players; I just want you to be aware of this problem. Because - as it often happens with shoddy research, too - you could get important facts wrong, for example if the player’s a funny or rather a quiet guy, what his hobbies are, if he’s a partygoer or more of a recluse, if he’s religious or leaning more towards atheism, what his family background is and more - as a lot of things are to be found between the lines, for example in players’ interviews and the likes.
And don’t forget his professional career, either: which clubs he played at, how long he stayed there, if - in the case of non-native clubs - he learnt the local language well enough, where he liked it best, etc. Though, for the purposes of your fic, it isn’t really necessary to stalk the player in question until you even know whether he snores or not. But I think it makes ficcing easier, because you are now able to create a realistic, 3-D model of your players with all their characteristics and their backgrounds and what more you have.
And the general rule to write real person fiction - either het or slash - is in my experience to portray them as close to the public persona of themselves [that part of themselves that they allow the media to see] as you can, because then - and only then - you’ll be close to canon. And writing IC characters should be the goal of any good fanficcer, to put it simply.
Another important point is that the footballslash fandom, which contains essentially all football leagues in the world and national and international tournaments, has a very interesting dynamic, namely that it’s possible for players of the same club to play against each other in the World Cup tournament and be adversaries for 90 minutes and then return to be friends, and vice versa. If you were to disregard the fact that the two players you decided to slash play for opponent clubs but for the same country, this will be seen as shoddy research, making you lose credibility, and it would also be a loss of a great plot device.
In addition, the national team isn’t actually everything. International tournaments like the World Cup this year are just the icing on the cake that is club football, so to say. A lot of players who seemed pretty close when away with the squad might actually have played against each other during the week at club level - and there’s also the fact that these international tournaments only take up but a smidgen of the time that’s spent training and playing for the players’ respective clubs. Yes, representing one’s country at such opportunities is an honour for everyone - but without club football, the players in question wouldn’t even get to be called up into the squad.
And you also have to consider the demanding lifestyle which differs also very much from a 'normal' one, especially when it comes to the sheer amount of training times per week, having to follow a special diet, going to bed early when at training camp and more. This is something that you can't research easily, but players' interviews and news reports do point out such things which make for more realistic settings in fics. [added after a suggestion made in the comments by pink_potato; thank you so very much, darling!]
The second most important word of advice:
They are men. Men. Men who play football.
And they're also probably more men-ish than in any other RPS fandoms, like in popslash where it isn't uncommon to read about a boyband singer penning a song about unrequited love for one of his bandmates or doing something romantic like that. This is not to say that footballers are thick neanderthals or don't have any sense for romance or even love - they do, but as men. Writing as a woman, it's often not so easy to try to think like a man - what would he do, what would he say, and how, and when? It has to sound believable, too; you just can't imagine, say, Lukas Podolski decorating the shared room with rose petals for his first time with Bastian Schweinsteiger, even if this is something you would do for the first time with your lover or boyfriend. Men are men, and nothing will change that.
There's also something any good fic writer should try to avoid as much as possible: stereotyping. For example, we all know that Philipp Lahm is not as tall as the other guys on the pitch and he looks very cute, too. But that doesn't mean that he should always be the bottom or act submissive or feminine - he wouldn't have made it that far in football were that the case. [added after a suggestion in the comments by philipptimofan - thank you a lot! *blows kisses*]
And if you've succeeded so far to write men realistically, try to put yourself in these particular men's shoes, too. You have to remember that these men you write about have an almost 100% male-dominated, high-pressure, high-profile and very physical job, and there are also the expectations of thousands, if not millions of people on their back who are more often than not blatantly homophobic when the mood takes them.
So, if you take all these points into consideration - would football players really snog each other on the pitch? Or profess their love in an instant in the full locker room? Very unlikely. A gay or bisexual football player in love with another teammate would have to possess a lot of bravado and steel nerves covered up with humour, sarcasm, dares, quietness... anything to not give himself away, knowing that this love that dares not to speak its name is - in this job, in this lifestyle - unthinkable. Unacceptable. Even if there were one or two tolerant teammates, the majority would still frown on falling in love with a teammate.
And then you have also to consider the fact that most - not all - men are able to separate sex from love unlike most women. So it isn't unheard of at all that a lot of gay men are in happy relationships but still have sex with other men because physical fidelity and monogamy don't rate that high in their priorities. Of course there are also gay men who are happy in a completely monogamous relationship - it does differ a lot, but basically, men are men. Not women. [added after a suggestion in the comments by philipptimofan - thank you very much! *smiles*]
[This part was created from suggestions in the comments by abbichicken and niamh_x - thank you so very much, guys! *smiles*]
The third most important word of advice (which only applies if your story's rating is higher than R):
Try to write realistic gay sex.
If you want to write an explicit steamy sex scene in your fic and you don't have any personal experience (seeing as many slash fiction writers are women, they do lack a prostate and a rather important appendage), it would be a good idea to read up on it first - well-written and realistic PWP or NC-17 rated fics come to mind, but there are also very good links that are great for research:
Minotaur's Sex Tips for Slash Writers
The Ten Rules to Anal Sex
So You Wanna Write A Slash Sex Scene
[penguin_attie found them over at _literotica_, thanks for providing us with them! *smiles*]
Unrealistic approaches to gay sex can be a big turn-off for the more knowledgeable readers, i.e. if you're using solely water as a lubricant or don't prepare a virgin ass for its first time bottoming, which is a no-no if you want to spare the unlucky recipient great pain. To avoid this happening, research is the best way to get it right.
[This part was created from a suggestion in the comments by philipptimofan - thank you a lot! *smiles*]
The fourth most important word of advice:
Get a beta. (Or two.)
It should be a good beta, too; it shouldn’t be someone who squees over every word you write and at the end just says, ‘omg rite more luv u’. No. It should be someone who tells you honestly his/her opinion and offers concrit, for example pointing out weird sentences or bad wording, or tells you when a character is too OOC. You can have more than one beta for different aspects of your fic, for example one for grammar and spelling and another for characterisation and plot(holes). The beta should be a native speaker of the language and also very secure of grammar and spelling. The second best choice would be a beta that is very fluent in the language that you’re writing in, although it isn’t his/her mother tongue. Your betas should also be quite knowledgeable about football RPS or, even better, know the players you’re writing about as well as you do.
To get a beta for your fic that you intend to publish on a community where lots of people will read it is the best move you can do. Your readers will get put off by bad style, heaps of spelling errors - something very, very important: never ever spell players’, clubs’ or countries’ names wrong! - and grammatical mistakes and you might miss out on a bigger and more appreciative audience, since many readers don’t bother finish reading a fic written in poor language, even if the plot may be good or vice versa.
Lastly, if all this seems rather demanding, don’t be put off - all of us started out knowing nearly nothing (save for the ones who were football fans before footballslash fans, that is) about the game as such or the players who have gained recent popularity. Just think back only four years and only a few insiders will have heard of players such as Timo Hildebrand or Pablo Aimar. Or even just a year ago, no one would have dreamed of seeing Aaron Lennon or Lionel Messi at the World Cup.
It’s all a learning process and everyone’s part of it. The ones that are perceived as ‘oldbies’, so to say, in this fandom, are no exception to this rule. The fandom in itself is changing every day - players get injured or move on, their careers kick off or fade into obscurity and it’s almost a superhuman effort to stay up to date with everything, especially in the summer and the beginning of the year when the transfer windows are open. OTPs can be torn apart from one day to the other, while other potential OTPs appear just as suddenly.
If there’s anything you fear to have missed or need to know, don’t hesitate and ask around - the only questions that could be categorised as ‘dumb’ are the ones that don’t get asked.
~ fin ~
Again - this post portrays only my personal opinion. Every one of you is welcome to put in her/his two cents, be it suggestions or tips concerning issues that you yourself think equally important, or constructive criticism, or any links to other guidelines concerning fic writing that you think people should follow up, too - in short, just anything you want to say concerning this post.
Edited: I have added particularly poignant points about writing footballslash and slash in general to this point, and will do so if more crop up, so it would be a good idea to check back from time to time to see if anything has changed.
by ninamalfoy (with generous help by anglo_phile and benitle, who both rock so much)
I decided to do this post because I thought it could help some people in this fandom to get a start on how to write good footballslash. This post is meant for all writers that search for a starting point before writing fics, but also for more experienced authors who want to improve their writing.
Just some words in advance: this post is portraying only my personal opinion. It isn’t a general consensus of the fandom at its whole. It addresses issues in footballslash writing that I noticed two months ago and still do now; and I know I’m not alone there.
I didn’t include anything about style or grammar or spelling here because you can find good guidelines concerning these matters anywhere on the ‘net and if I'd include these, I would never get finished with this post. Also because these matters are - while still very important to good writing - not what I want to focus on concerning the issues I noticed. That said and made clear, feel free to proceed and click on the LJ-cut. *smiles*
Footballslash is not just about the pretty and the slashy and the infinite combinations thereof.
It’s a fandom with everything that it entails, no more and no less.
Although it differs from most fandoms in a big aspect: there is no obvious canon like in fictional, i.e. movie-, TV- or book-related fandoms. This is because it’s a RPS fandom. The people we write about here are indubitably real. They exist; they have a personal history and a professional career.
And this is just what makes this fandom so unique. Its canon is actually what we know about these people we write about - and there are boundaries as to how much they choose to tell the media about themselves. To know this canon, in this case the professional and the private life of the people we portray, we must do research. We don’t get the canon handed out to us in handy little books like in the Harry Potter fandom or in a huge book and a movie trilogy epic like in the LOTR fandom. No, we have to get interested in them and actively search for information order to portray them as realistically as possible - which should be the goal for any RP writer, anyway.
For example, if I wrote a story where Christoph Metzelder’s portrayed as a single child means that I would have done nil to shoddy research, as most Metzelder fans know that he has even got three brothers - Stefan, Sebastian and Malte, the youngest (Metze himself comes after Sebastian and before Malte). Or if I said that Metze never won the Cup in his career - he has, in the 2001/02 season with the BVB. Or that he never scored any goals yet - he scored two in the last season, his first goals ever.
If you think now, “Yeah, that’s all nice and well, but hey, I just want to slash them! I don’t want to write an effing biography about them, thank you very much.”
Well, yeah, that you don’t have to do, you’re right. No one expects you to include all knowledge you have in your fic. But writing a story is easier if you know the people you’re writing about. With original characters that you invented yourself this is a lot less difficult, certainly. But with RP and FP fiction, you have to adhere at least to some of the canon or otherwise your characters will become OOC, and this is something any writer of fanfiction should avoid.
And it’s also these little details that you know about them that can make or break a story. How so? Let me give you two examples.
Example #1:
Sebastian plopped down next to Christoph in the locker room. “Still up to the night out?”
The tall brunet was busy stuffing his toiletries into his bag, but he looked up at the other man and nodded. “Sure, why wouldn’t I be?”
“Just checking,” Sebastian said, grinning. “Wouldn’t want you to chicken out.”
“No worries,” Christoph said, “if the first round is on you, that is,” and he smirked at Sebastian.
“You’re cheap,” Sebastian said, rolling his eyes, “I’ll even gladly splurge on all your drinks, if that’s what it takes.”
Shrugging into his jacket, Christoph grinned down at Sebastian. “Aiming to make a drunken bum out of me?”
Sebastian chuckled as he walked past Christoph out of the empty locker room. “Yeah. A drunken bum I’ll drag home and take advantage of,” he said, winking at the taller man.
Really, nothing was cuter than seeing Christoph blush.
~ fin ~
Example #2:
Basti plopped down on the bench next to Metze. He had waited for his best friend to come back from the doctors’ check-up on the foot - something Metze had to go through regularly now and Basti couldn’t blame their meticulousness, to be honest. “Still up to the night out?” he enquired.
The tall defender was busy stuffing his toiletries into his bag, but he looked up at his best friend and nodded. “Sure, why wouldn’t I be?”
“Just checking,” Basti said, grinning. “Wouldn’t want you to chicken out.”
“No worries,” Metze said, “if the first round is on you, that is,” and he smirked at Basti.
“You’re cheap,” Basti said, rolling his eyes, “I’ll even gladly spurge on all your drinks, if that’s what it takes.” And it would even come really cheap - Metze wasn’t one to get drunk, to be honest, but that also was because he always drove, which Basti appreciated a lot. His car was still over at Metze’s, actually.
Shrugging into his leather jacket, Metze grinned down at the Dortmund midfielder. “Aiming to make a drunken bum out of me?”
Basti chuckled as he walked past Christoph out of the now empty locker room, picking up his bag at the door. “Yeah, a drunken bum I’ll drag home and take advantage of,” he said, winking at his best friend.
Really, nothing was cuter than seeing Metze blush.
~ fin ~
If you did notice a difference, you’re welcome to continue reading. If you did not - well, then you are welcome even more so. This post is also meant for people who aren’t yet well acquaintanced with good footballslash.
Anyway, see what I did with example #2, compared to example #1? Metze’s history of injury is mentioned, also their positions on the field and which club they’re playing at. And then I inserted a bit of speculation on my part - namely that Metze’s the sensible one driving them home, and as I know that Kelly’s living rather close to Metze as he said himself in an online chat, that wouldn’t be much of a hardship. And then I’ve got a layout of the Borussia Dortmund locker room and Kelly’s sitting next to the door there, which I used in the example, too. Most importantly, I mentioned repeatedly that they are best friends, which is a RL fact.
Compared to that, example #1 seems very bland; I could have easily inserted two other players that happen to play for the same club here, and it wouldn’t have changed anything in the atmosphere of the little ficlet - it’s still written well, yes, has nice dialogue, but you don’t sense anything deeper between the two characters, only that there’s a sort of relationship or even only an occasional one-night-stand going on between them.
So, if you want to write good footballslash, here’s the most important word of advice:
Research, research and research.
It wouldn’t really help your fic if you’d just pick two players at random that do look cute or sexy together, but have no history whatsoever together, only faced each other once or twice at a match and that’s it. Granted, people not knowing much about these two players but agree with your opinion that they are cute and slashy would like your fic if it’s written well (good style, no grammar/spelling mistakes, nice plot etc.), but the others - the ones that are more knowledgeable wouldn’t, based on your lack of knowledge about their history, and you would lose credibility with them.
Additionally, if you choose foreign players that play in or for countries whose language you don’t know, you should be aware that you might miss out on a lot of useful facts about them, because there will be lots of newspaper articles, online homepages, boards and other kinds of information sources in the language you lack knowledge of. I can go only by my personal experience as I slash players from the German Bundesliga where this is often the case, i.e. most information about them that I found useful for my fics are in German. You often get only the barebones in English, and I suspect that this is no different for any other league (save for the ones in English-speaking countries, like the EPL).
Although you can use babelfish or Google translator to get to the gist of these information sources, I’m afraid that these often twist meanings or obfuscate them that much that it’s sometimes quite impossible to get the original meanings from them. I would recommend asking a fellow fan who knows the language to translate relevant articles or bits for you. Or, if you’re writing about a fairly known player, try to check any relevant posts (OTP/club promotion posts on footballslash or the Pimp my Player posts on manndecker, for example; a good starting point are also fics that portray the player in question fairly well, according to the general consensus). But these posts can only offer a small insight of who the player really is.
I’m not saying that you shouldn’t pick foreign players; I just want you to be aware of this problem. Because - as it often happens with shoddy research, too - you could get important facts wrong, for example if the player’s a funny or rather a quiet guy, what his hobbies are, if he’s a partygoer or more of a recluse, if he’s religious or leaning more towards atheism, what his family background is and more - as a lot of things are to be found between the lines, for example in players’ interviews and the likes.
And don’t forget his professional career, either: which clubs he played at, how long he stayed there, if - in the case of non-native clubs - he learnt the local language well enough, where he liked it best, etc. Though, for the purposes of your fic, it isn’t really necessary to stalk the player in question until you even know whether he snores or not. But I think it makes ficcing easier, because you are now able to create a realistic, 3-D model of your players with all their characteristics and their backgrounds and what more you have.
And the general rule to write real person fiction - either het or slash - is in my experience to portray them as close to the public persona of themselves [that part of themselves that they allow the media to see] as you can, because then - and only then - you’ll be close to canon. And writing IC characters should be the goal of any good fanficcer, to put it simply.
Another important point is that the footballslash fandom, which contains essentially all football leagues in the world and national and international tournaments, has a very interesting dynamic, namely that it’s possible for players of the same club to play against each other in the World Cup tournament and be adversaries for 90 minutes and then return to be friends, and vice versa. If you were to disregard the fact that the two players you decided to slash play for opponent clubs but for the same country, this will be seen as shoddy research, making you lose credibility, and it would also be a loss of a great plot device.
In addition, the national team isn’t actually everything. International tournaments like the World Cup this year are just the icing on the cake that is club football, so to say. A lot of players who seemed pretty close when away with the squad might actually have played against each other during the week at club level - and there’s also the fact that these international tournaments only take up but a smidgen of the time that’s spent training and playing for the players’ respective clubs. Yes, representing one’s country at such opportunities is an honour for everyone - but without club football, the players in question wouldn’t even get to be called up into the squad.
And you also have to consider the demanding lifestyle which differs also very much from a 'normal' one, especially when it comes to the sheer amount of training times per week, having to follow a special diet, going to bed early when at training camp and more. This is something that you can't research easily, but players' interviews and news reports do point out such things which make for more realistic settings in fics. [added after a suggestion made in the comments by pink_potato; thank you so very much, darling!]
The second most important word of advice:
They are men. Men. Men who play football.
And they're also probably more men-ish than in any other RPS fandoms, like in popslash where it isn't uncommon to read about a boyband singer penning a song about unrequited love for one of his bandmates or doing something romantic like that. This is not to say that footballers are thick neanderthals or don't have any sense for romance or even love - they do, but as men. Writing as a woman, it's often not so easy to try to think like a man - what would he do, what would he say, and how, and when? It has to sound believable, too; you just can't imagine, say, Lukas Podolski decorating the shared room with rose petals for his first time with Bastian Schweinsteiger, even if this is something you would do for the first time with your lover or boyfriend. Men are men, and nothing will change that.
There's also something any good fic writer should try to avoid as much as possible: stereotyping. For example, we all know that Philipp Lahm is not as tall as the other guys on the pitch and he looks very cute, too. But that doesn't mean that he should always be the bottom or act submissive or feminine - he wouldn't have made it that far in football were that the case. [added after a suggestion in the comments by philipptimofan - thank you a lot! *blows kisses*]
And if you've succeeded so far to write men realistically, try to put yourself in these particular men's shoes, too. You have to remember that these men you write about have an almost 100% male-dominated, high-pressure, high-profile and very physical job, and there are also the expectations of thousands, if not millions of people on their back who are more often than not blatantly homophobic when the mood takes them.
So, if you take all these points into consideration - would football players really snog each other on the pitch? Or profess their love in an instant in the full locker room? Very unlikely. A gay or bisexual football player in love with another teammate would have to possess a lot of bravado and steel nerves covered up with humour, sarcasm, dares, quietness... anything to not give himself away, knowing that this love that dares not to speak its name is - in this job, in this lifestyle - unthinkable. Unacceptable. Even if there were one or two tolerant teammates, the majority would still frown on falling in love with a teammate.
And then you have also to consider the fact that most - not all - men are able to separate sex from love unlike most women. So it isn't unheard of at all that a lot of gay men are in happy relationships but still have sex with other men because physical fidelity and monogamy don't rate that high in their priorities. Of course there are also gay men who are happy in a completely monogamous relationship - it does differ a lot, but basically, men are men. Not women. [added after a suggestion in the comments by philipptimofan - thank you very much! *smiles*]
[This part was created from suggestions in the comments by abbichicken and niamh_x - thank you so very much, guys! *smiles*]
The third most important word of advice (which only applies if your story's rating is higher than R):
Try to write realistic gay sex.
If you want to write an explicit steamy sex scene in your fic and you don't have any personal experience (seeing as many slash fiction writers are women, they do lack a prostate and a rather important appendage), it would be a good idea to read up on it first - well-written and realistic PWP or NC-17 rated fics come to mind, but there are also very good links that are great for research:
[penguin_attie found them over at _literotica_, thanks for providing us with them! *smiles*]
Unrealistic approaches to gay sex can be a big turn-off for the more knowledgeable readers, i.e. if you're using solely water as a lubricant or don't prepare a virgin ass for its first time bottoming, which is a no-no if you want to spare the unlucky recipient great pain. To avoid this happening, research is the best way to get it right.
[This part was created from a suggestion in the comments by philipptimofan - thank you a lot! *smiles*]
The fourth most important word of advice:
Get a beta. (Or two.)
It should be a good beta, too; it shouldn’t be someone who squees over every word you write and at the end just says, ‘omg rite more luv u’. No. It should be someone who tells you honestly his/her opinion and offers concrit, for example pointing out weird sentences or bad wording, or tells you when a character is too OOC. You can have more than one beta for different aspects of your fic, for example one for grammar and spelling and another for characterisation and plot(holes). The beta should be a native speaker of the language and also very secure of grammar and spelling. The second best choice would be a beta that is very fluent in the language that you’re writing in, although it isn’t his/her mother tongue. Your betas should also be quite knowledgeable about football RPS or, even better, know the players you’re writing about as well as you do.
To get a beta for your fic that you intend to publish on a community where lots of people will read it is the best move you can do. Your readers will get put off by bad style, heaps of spelling errors - something very, very important: never ever spell players’, clubs’ or countries’ names wrong! - and grammatical mistakes and you might miss out on a bigger and more appreciative audience, since many readers don’t bother finish reading a fic written in poor language, even if the plot may be good or vice versa.
Lastly, if all this seems rather demanding, don’t be put off - all of us started out knowing nearly nothing (save for the ones who were football fans before footballslash fans, that is) about the game as such or the players who have gained recent popularity. Just think back only four years and only a few insiders will have heard of players such as Timo Hildebrand or Pablo Aimar. Or even just a year ago, no one would have dreamed of seeing Aaron Lennon or Lionel Messi at the World Cup.
It’s all a learning process and everyone’s part of it. The ones that are perceived as ‘oldbies’, so to say, in this fandom, are no exception to this rule. The fandom in itself is changing every day - players get injured or move on, their careers kick off or fade into obscurity and it’s almost a superhuman effort to stay up to date with everything, especially in the summer and the beginning of the year when the transfer windows are open. OTPs can be torn apart from one day to the other, while other potential OTPs appear just as suddenly.
If there’s anything you fear to have missed or need to know, don’t hesitate and ask around - the only questions that could be categorised as ‘dumb’ are the ones that don’t get asked.
~ fin ~
Again - this post portrays only my personal opinion. Every one of you is welcome to put in her/his two cents, be it suggestions or tips concerning issues that you yourself think equally important, or constructive criticism, or any links to other guidelines concerning fic writing that you think people should follow up, too - in short, just anything you want to say concerning this post.
Edited: I have added particularly poignant points about writing footballslash and slash in general to this point, and will do so if more crop up, so it would be a good idea to check back from time to time to see if anything has changed.