Working On My Debut
Hello!
I’m working on my debut MM romance; a novel about the life of Tom, a tall Anglo-Croatian rugby player with a moderate-severe anxiety disorder and definitely a little bit of hypersexuality.
Tom of course meets Etienne. Etienne is French, beautiful and one of the best rugby players that Tom has ever seen. Etienne also has a reputation for being difficult, egotistical and a bit of a hedonist.
The novel itself is a slow burn, with lots of yearning and missed moments between the two MCs. It will explore issues such as mental health (anxiety and ptsd) and trauma, identity and reclaiming cultural identities, drug use, sex and homophobia within high level sports. It’s character led, rather than plot lead. Whilst the novel is based around the world of European and International rugby, Etienne and Tom spend the whole time playing cat and mouse with each other; to their own devastation.
Currently I’m still working on the manuscript, but I’m finding I’m losing steam and getting writers block more and more. So this is where I have some questions;
- What kind of tropes do you like to see in MM? Is a slow burn where the characters don’t have sex a turn off?
- My biggest worry is that this will be like Heated Rivalry, and my friend has said it seems to be very similar to HR. Is this a problem that most sports romances will have?
- Are flawed, traumatised, non-perfect characters a turn off?
I will be looking for ARC and beta readers once edits are done and I actually finish my first draft.