Core Stories

I am an author of erotic romances and I tend to incorporate elements of the Dominant/submissive lifestyle into my stories. The choice isn't one based on popular trends, marketing, or monetary goals. It's organic to my characters and how they live.

I also spiral around a story. You know those cool shots in movies -- the kind that almost make you dizzy -- where the image is far away and the camera slowly zooms in as it circles around the person or spot. From all those angles and distances you can get a pretty good idea of where the person is standing, what direction they're headed for, and, if the shot is meant to foreshadow coming events, what obstacles the character is bound to face. That's how I work through problems. How I get to a story or an idea. I spiral in -- sometimes I spiral out -- but this often results in lots and lots of talking AROUND the problem instead of addressing it head on.

With that in mind I was discussing some issues I've run into with my writing with a friend of mine the other night. The subject of core stories came up. And when I say core I'm not talking the plot or genre, I'm talking about the type of story that is at the center of an author's work. Some examples -- and please keep in mind, I'm not touting myself as any expert of specific writing genres, this is merely my observation and opinion: If you look at the works of Shakespeare -- his tragedies are often about secrets and revenge; his comedies about mistaken or hidden identities and secret plans. Which means, at the core, his plays were focused around secrets. JR Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood primary focus (in my mind) is family and keeping it alive. Many of Edgar Allan Poe's short stories and poems were focused on death but deeper down you could say (again, my opinion) that he related in his stories the impact of death and grieving upon those around the victim and his/her killer (a lot of the stories I've read by him dealt with murders).

Keeping this in mind, I examined my own writing. At the core  I write about relationships. It doesn't matter if the characters indulge in the D/s lifestyle or not, their behaviors towards one another will tend to take on that mannerism based on who and what they are at their essence. I also discovered and accepted (and that was the hardest part -- the accepting) that I will always write erotic (unless I'm writing Young Adult) since the sex is a key communication device between my characters. By doing this, I've empowered myself to write what I want the way I want without feeling like I have to chase some elusive "style" or "subgenre" to gain an audience. If I stick with my core story and put on the page the story my characters tell me, I'm being true to the writer I am. And that's the most important thing, at least in my eyes.

To Happily Ever After or Not?

If all I was focused on was sex, I could produce page after page after page of hot bodies and slick sheets. But I can't. My characters want more than a physical release of pent up tension. The emotional connection is key to their satisfaction.

And that is where the problem lies. Delving into the psyche of a person can really take it out of you. With each of my books, I became as emotionally invested in the situations and progress of the relationships on the page as my characters. Which meant, I was as amped or drained as the heroes and heroines I wrote about. But I do enjoy it.

Harking back to the beginning of this post...see, I always have an ulterior motive (remember that -- ulterior motive)...While the majority of the people populating my imagination are looking for the love of their life and a happily every after, I do have a few who haven't reached the point in their life where they want a relationship. Happily Ever After (HEA) and sometimes even Happily For Now (HFN) aren't even on their radar. All they want is sex. Wild, kinky, wicked sex. A smorgasbord of physical gratification with as many people as possible as often as possible.

This, of course, creates a dilemma of sorts for me -- do I focus only on creating a happy ending for ALL of my characters, thereby forcing the ones who only want sex to accept the HEA/HFN to make myself happy? Or, do I cave and pen the sexual romps and get it out of my...I mean, their systems?

The reason I ask this question is: I'm thinking of taking a few of my scribblings and self-publishing them. It would only be a short or two -- 10,000 to 15,000 words, but I wonder and worry about the readers perception of a story that essentially has no resolution. It would simply be a story of fucking. I'm curious to know readers' opinions on this. 

To give you an idea of what I'm talking about, I'm including a snippet from a story:

Living in a construction zone can give a woman ideas best left not acted upon. All those sweating male bodies, taut muscled forms, and snug denims. Is it any wonder a normal, red-blooded woman wouldn’t indulge in a fantasy or four?

Unfortunately, I’m not one of those women who listens to her saner self. I like the thrill of the forbidden, the taste of temptation, and the satiation of desires others tuck away into corners of their minds and only bring out in the darkest of nights.

I make no excuses about enjoying sex. Why should I? Fucking is like breathing for me. Invigorating, stimulating, rejuvenating are all words which come close to describing the sensations, but don’t quite say enough. To be blunt, I love the feel of a hard cock stretching my pussy; the sound of wet flesh sliding in and out, over and against more wet flesh; the scent of sweat and sex that lingers after climax. All of these, to paraphrase Julie Andrews, are my favorite things. Society can go take a hike if it can’t accept me for who and what I am—a woman unafraid to ask for what I want and satisfy needs when I like.

Admittedly, I’ll never be any competition for the women who think thin is in. I like my food just like I like my men—full of flavor, plenty of it, and enough left over for later. I don’t worry about how others view me. When I look in the mirror, I’m happy with my full-figured self. I’ll never wear a size ten again, or a size twelve, but the clothes I wear suit my 38C breasts, full hips and round thighs. While at work I wear my honey blonde, shoulder-length hair in a braid or rolled up and clipped with one of those big alligator type clips. It’s easier that way and tends not to distract me from the records I have to input. Once I get home, though, I let it down. I love the feel of it swishing across the back of my neck, caressing the curve of my shoulders.

Charlie, Travis and Harry are my little secrets. Encounters repeated and enjoyed over the long summer when the apartment building I lived in was being repaired after a frightening fire destroyed half of it. Memories I often relive on those nights when I settle beneath my sheets, sometimes alone, but never lonely.

So, as a reader would a story like this interest you? Knowing there was no HEA/HFN at the end, would you shy away from buying it? Heck, I'm even curious to know if I should change it from first person to third. Let me know. Please.

Knowing Isn't Doing

I am an author of erotic romances. I love telling stories about strong men and women who aren't afraid to go after what they want. Before I was published, writing was a past time. I did it to relax, to decompress after work, to escape the boredom of not having anything to watch on television.


All that changed after I was published. I still love writing, I still hear the characters telling me their stories in my head, but now I'm finding that sitting down to write isn't as easy as I thought. In the last six months, although I've had ideas and jotted down notes for stories -- I haven't written anything but blogs and I'm beginning to worry.


A friend of mine and I have been discussing this issue since December. In bits and pieces things have been surfacing and making sense regarding my writing process, but knowing isn't doing.


Fact One: I am a pantser. I don't normally plot out a story because that isn't the way I see it. Recently, I have been reading and studying books on plot techniques. I'm not sure if this has been a good thing or a bad thing.


Situation: One part of my brain is adamantly demanding I need to plot out my books before I write anything. The other part is being stubborn and refusing to do anything if I'm going to ruin everything by plotting it out.


Result: Nothing is getting written.


Fact Two: My stories are not linear or sequential. This means I don't see the story from beginning to end. I see it, and when I'm able to, I write it in disjointed scenes. Sometimes a scene at the end of the book; sometimes in the middle; occasionally a scene at the beginning of the story.


Situation: The part of my brain processing the plotting demands is irate over the mish-mash of information. My creative side is blowing fat, juicy raspberries at the plotting side and making fun of it.


Result: Nothing is getting written.


Fact Three: I have always known that the way I learn, as identified by Dawna Markova, is VKA (Visual, Kinesthetic, Auditory), which means for me to learn I have to see it; do it; then hear how it's done. Based on the premise that the brainstorming style is the reverse of the learning (also considered the writing) style, then I have to talk out my ideas, write them down, then see them on the page.


Situation: This would suggest, then, that I would do well to plot my story ideas out before writing them. *Note: pantser brain is in the corner pouting, while plotting brain is doing the dance of celebration, chanting 'naner-naner, boo hoo,' and thumbing its nose at the pantser side based on this conclusion.


Result: I have tons of notes and information in notebooks and journals, but nothing on the story is getting written.


Fact Four: Further discussion with another couple of friends has gotten me thinking about working with a critique partner. Someone who will get on me about producing pages and getting work done.


Situation: I don't normally like presenting my work to critiquers until I'm done completely with the book. Or at least nearly finished. I like feedback and responses to get an idea if I'm on the right track, but I'm not big on being pushed or being told "you need to..." Guess it's the Taurus in me.


Result: I have a few people I do send my work to, but nothing produced yet.


Fact Five: In order to write my books, I have to rewrite them at least three times. Not really a hard thing for me when you consider once I know what needs fixing I can get it done relatively quickly.


Situation: Thinking about my writing process both annoys and depresses me. Annoys because I think I should do it faster than I usually do. Depresses because the idea of redoing a story four times makes me question my writing skills. (This sucks especially writing it down and seeing it on the screen.)


Result: My mind works in a certain way and I need to respect that.


All of this analysis simply identifies the fact that I need to get over it. I need to accept the fact that I work in levels and steps. I'm character driven and plotting is great -- in MY revision stage, NOT my original draft stage. If I'm going to get back on the horse for a ride or two, I'm going to have to close my eyes and take a leap of faith!


That's all any writer can do. Have faith that their skills and the story inside them deserves a chance to be heard and read.