The Stubborn Side Of Writing (3)

{1}, {2}

Okay, this time, I think that I'm all set to go. I was able to compartmentalize the aggravation that is my job, which in turn has once again allowed my mind unfettered access to my memory. Whether that is a good thing remains to be seen. In any event, I'm ready to write part three of my series called "The Stubborn Side of Writing", which will be focusing on my second self pubbed book. Hopefully, as this series progresses, your curiosity will be piqued enough to take a chance on ordering a copy through me.

I would ask that you keep one thing in mind about this series: There may be some redundancy strewn along the way. I originally wrote about this book back in the summer of 2009 and in fact, turned it into a nifty series called "G's Adventures? Now!", which you'll find under the tag called "Chapbook". Also, you'll find links to each post in the series when you head over to my book blog to check out my second book (which is the first thing that you see when you click on the link).

Because I last wrote in-depth about my book in 2009, please consider this an advance apology for any potential redundancy that you may encounter along the way. And now, part three of "The Stubborn Side Of Writing."

When I last left myself with the sword of Damocles dangling on a piece of sewing thread over my head, the next topic up for discussion was this: why I chose the various components that went into the creation of this story.

My friends, let me tell you something about that particular topic of choice. As much as I enjoy telling everyone about the how-to's and why-I-chose-that-particular-style of writings, this one topic has really got me twisted into a pretzel. Why? Because talking about this particular topic exposes a personal part of what makes me tick as a writer.

I mean, how do I properly and tastefully talk about why I use certain situations, certain types of characters/character traits, certain types of plot devices in my writing, without turning people off or giving people the wrong impression about me? I'm more than used to tip-toeing in a minefield of my own creation, but walking through that particular minefield is something I'm not really comfortable in doing.

But....nevertheless, I will make an honest attempt at explaining why I chose the various components that make up that chapbook.

1} The easiest part to explain is the sexual aspect of it. I was still trying to find my way around in writing erotica, and if you've read my first self-pubbed book, you know that I got a ginormous "F" in my first attempt at writing erotica. So with this story, I decided to take my time and write the type of sexual situation that for better or worse, does get a certain segment of the population aroused/interested: namely, girl-on-girl sex. And because the original plot idea called for the wife to cheat on her husband, it was a fantastic real life swerve to throw into the mix.

2} The other easiest part to explain is the violence. After the debacle of the first book, in which I went extremely overboard with the amount of violence that was portrayed (I mean really, how many books have you read in which the opening chapter features a shootout and a disembowelment), I decided that for this book, I really needed to tone down the violence. So even though there is still violence in the book (mostly spousal), its been toned down and it's relative to the scene in question.

3} So much for the easy stuff. Now we get into the difficult part. What difficult part? Interracial relationships. When I wrote this story back in 2006, the original intent was to make it part of a sequel to Shades of Love, in which the characters were shown some several years in the future from the original story. In fact, not only did I write this piece, which was a companion piece to the Wally/Azalea pairing, but I wrote one that worked as a companion piece to the Dorothea/Jorge pairing as well.

Anyways, the pairing of Wally & Azalea was my first attempt at writing interracial relationships for a normal plot device. If you're a regular reader of my blog, then you know that an ungodly percentage of my stories feature either interracial relationships and/or non-white female characters. I'm not really sure how that came about, but I guess that since writing descriptive scenes, be it a person, place or thing, has always been my strong suit, then gravitating towards racial diversity has been a natural offshoot of that ability.

I have yet to delve that deep into the minutia that creates a lasting interracial relationship (of any kind, I might add), mostly because I've never experienced that kind thing either while growing up or living as an adult. What I mean by living as an adult, is that up until very recently (2004) most of the circles of people I've traveled in interracial relationships were not part of the equation. About 99% of what I write about is strictly taking a normal man/woman relationship and simply inserting the ethnicity of choice into the mix. I try to be colorblind when I write, and hopefully, it does work out in the long run.

4} Whereas in the first book, I used work and certain parts of Connecticut as a basic setting, with the second, I tried to blur the line so even though I was still using Connecticut as a general setting (and for the record, Connecticut has become the setting of choice for my writing), the specific parts were less identifiable. Also, I thought it would be really cool to go against type and have the main male character be a hair salon owner/stylist. Again, I'm working from personal experience because I'm a minority with the job that I do, and by minority, I mean that I'm a guy in a position that is predominately filled by females from a supervisory capacity on down.

There are a few other reasons as to why I chose to use certain other plot devices and character/traits, but for now, those four particular components should give you a basic understanding as to why certain types of things make a consistent appearance in my stories.