By Kathleen Bradean
As I was trying to figure out what to write about this month, my thoughts naturally turned to the question of what readers of this blog want to know. What advice or insights do they hope to glean from our entries? The answer depends on individual writers and where they are in their craft, or what they’re stuck on right now. So what I’d like to know (and probably some of the other contributors here would also like to find out) is what topics would you like to see us delve in to? What do you need help with? From grammar to tales of how we got started, what is it that you’d most like us to talk about?
We’re listening.
How to write lots of sex scenes in a novel while avoiding redundancy.
That's a really good topic. We should throw it out to Donna and Lisabet
My short answer to that is to make sure each sex scene advances the story, either plot or the relationship between the partners. The more common way currently is to vary the accoutrements or the number of partners (one vanilla, add in BDSM, add in more partners, add in circus elephant, etc.), but real variety would involve different stakes for the story, imo.
How to best promote your (erotic) book, in a social media world laden with authors all trying to promote their novels and stories.
That's the million dollar question, isn't it? A great topic, too.
How to find the time to write when you have so many "more important" responsibilities and commitments. And how to push past the guilt about what you "should" be doing, when you do take that time!
Not a clue. 😉 But also an important question. I will venture a short answer to this, and that's that women, especially, have a hard time staking out time for themselves. Every moment of every day must be in the service of others or you're not a good wife/mother/partner/female. But that's an expectation we put on ourselves. I think most loving partners would say, "Go ahead and do your thing for a couple hours today while I work on my hobby/watch sports/go to choir practice. How we get over the guilt for doing that, I don't know. But I think we're not being judged for it by anyone except ourselves.
Actually, I have heard a few complaints from my female spouse about the amount of time I spend on the computer when I'm home. I have found ways to negotiate (X amount of time completely focused on joint activity with spouse, then Y amount of time on writing), including writing in pencil on a notepad (actual paper, not electronic device) while sitting on sofa in front of TV with spouse. If a partner is receptive, s/he could be seduced into a writing exercise or asked for feedback. Hm. Kathleen, you're inspiring the rest of us.