Erotica Alert Level :Frigid Blue

Well I just spent an hour on a story that’s really bad. What I thought was a really cool idea while I was soaping up in the shower is less a cool idea when you put it on the screen and give it an objective look. Looks like my sudsy erect cock wasn’t such a good judge of story material after all.

Realizing a story is not worth finishing is a lot like bad sex. You get all worked up and ready to go but then things aren’t fitting, the bed’s scratchy and your mind starts to wonder. Before long you find yourself thinking about the season finale of C.S.I. Las Vegas and then you have to remind yourself, oh yeah, wasn’t I doing some sort of fucking?

Once I put a story down and consign it to the Great Recycle Bin of Doom, I like to go back through my e-mail and see what people thought of my other stories. I then trawl through my blog looking to see if there any new comments in month old posts. I’m a comment-slut and I treasure every comment like I would a lap dance from a flirting friend. The ratio of lurkers to actual commenters is astronomical so when someone does break down and comment, I know I must have really poked them in a good place.

Speaking of comments, let’s talk about Cell Phone Slave for a moment. One thing that keeps coming up in e-mails is the idea that people love the story but if Wesley requires Amaya to do _______, then they are out. Not that they would be unhappy, but that they would quit the story out right. That baffles me on so many levels.

I mean, I understand quitting a story that has no interest for you, but even when I read a book that starts great and turns bad, I end up finishing it. I finish it because I want to see if the ending made up for the middle. I want to know how it ends for my peace of mind. The semi blackmail e-mails I get make it very clear that if ____ happens, then they can release all emotional interest in the story. I get the feeling they tell me this as a pre-emptive threat though I think they see it as a courtesy. In the relationship of a writer and reader, they want to let me know that they are going to stop calling if I ever join a militia group. Some days I bristle at these e-mails and other days I am touched that they want to stick with me so they tell me what the deal breakers are.

What also interests me is that people are willing to tell me when they are willing to stop reading, but are they interested in what would make Amaya quit? If Amaya runs into _____ do they just assume as an erotica character that Amaya will do whatever is in front of her? And if she did do ____, aren’t the readers the least bit curious why she would do it?

Another thing about comments. I find that my comments on other people’s blogs are getting a little lengthy. It’s a leftover habit from Usenet and Message Boards where people were free to post novellas as long as it didn’t hijack the original intent of the thread. So far I have discussed hypothyroidism, why my wife and I are poly and why smart people watch bad porn. I’m not sure if it is rude to tell my experiences with the blogger’s comment section but I am going to watch myself. When everyone else limits themselves to four sentences, I feel like a hog taking up six paragraphs. What I am doing is keeping a notebook by my computer where I can jot down subjects I should most likely be discussing in my own blog anyway.

One last thing. If you are not reading BlogStormz, you really should be. In the last week I have already picked up so many new favorite blogs that my little sidebar is hopelessly outdated. Click that electric red box to the side and get rained on by great writers.