The spin

A story works better if it has a spin—some element, large or small, that throws the whole narrative beyond the edge of normality. This is my opinion. Others disagree. You see a lot of stories about characters who are (a) living in a realistic world, (b) not very good at it, and (c) extremely sad. Sometimes I find stories like this interesting. But not usually.

You don't need to have the spin defined when you start writing the story. In fact, you don't need to have much at all defined. A general idea of the type of story you hope to write is enough. Then dig in. Describe. Explore. Invent. The spin might grow naturally out of this process, or you might have to backtrack and add it more purposefully.

In an erotic story, the spin needs to be erotic. For my novel Mandi, it was the sex pills, first the Fire Genie and then the Master Genie. I wasn't planning on these when I started. Mandi was having a fine time and lots of sex right from the first line. But when I dreamed up the sex pills, the story spun off in whole new directions

In my novella Clytie, the spin was the title character. The point of view character, Paris, had enough going on to fill up a long story, but his life got far more intense when Clytie came on stage. I invented her on the fly. Paris was looking at the backs of three novice bull leapers who were about to be tested by their first live jump. It occurred to me that one of them could be a female. From that point on, Clytie stole the show to the extent that she forced me to use her name for the title.

In my Fair Warrior Chronicles series, the idea of a cave on Crete where six friends would be ravished by a paranormal presence was not at all in my mind when I started the first story. All I had for the opening was the idea of writing about a minor character in Clytie, a guy who goes around in a bull mask and causes riots at orgies.

Now I'm working on the first story in a new series for eXtasy Books, and the spin hasn't emerged. I decided to go back to the beginning and dream one up. Icame up with a pretty good thing about the point of view character being driven to sexual heights by dreams of mating with a huge bird. (Think, Leda and the Swan.) But then I remembered the eXtasy Books policy against bestiality. For some reason, I have a hard time with that limitation. They made me take out a great scene in Clytie simply because it had a scene with a woman fucking a bull.

So I'm back to the drawing board on the spin for my current story.