Resolution

[zotique]

My new year's resolution last year was to write a novel.

I wrote a 1000 words a day from April to August until the first draft was done.

A research crew is working on a boat and in one scene a rather frumpy looking woman strips off to leap in the water wearing sexy underwear. Her nipples get hard.

I described this scene on a novelists web site and people there said it was illogical and gratuitous.


In another scene one of my characters goes out on deck at night and spieson a a crewman fucking a scientist bent over a box on the back deck. It's kind of proof of a romance that was building throughout the voyage.

That's it. I'm wondering if that is too much or not enough sex in the story. It's an eco-thriller of a novel for want of a better description.

 

[Hypoxia]

However much sex you think is enough to drive the story, is enough. I write some strokers that are wall-to-wall fucks-n-sucks. My current major story has one explicit blowjob but all other conjugations are suggested or mentioned, not described. Is one too much and the other too little? Nope; each is just right.

And forget what wannabe mainstream novelists say. This is LiT. Things are different here, and not just novels vs shorts. Some of LIT's highest-rated stories are improbably plotless fuck-a-thons. Other top stories here are subtle masterpieces. Many would not be offered by mainstream publishers because they're too sexy.

Fuck the mainstream. Write what you want to write. Build a readership. You will not appeal to everyone so don't even try. Find your voice, and some will listen.

 

[DreamCloud]

Fuck the mainstream. Write what you want to write. Build a readership. You will not appeal to everyone so don't even try. Find your voice, and some will listen.

Ditto - no reason to regurgitate what has already been written.

 

[sr71plt]

I agree with this. The caveat is that establishing a readership this way for Lit. doesn't mean it then will ipso facto transfer to success in the mainstream. Doing it this way for Lit. isn't development for writing to a broader audience.

 

[Hypoxia]

I agree with this. The caveat is that establishing a readership this way for Lit. doesn't mean it then will ipso facto transfer to success in the mainstream. Doing it this way for Lit. isn't development for writing to a broader audience.

Quite. I should have said: Write what you want -- unless you need money. If so, write what pays. Precious literary fads may seem silly but can be exploited if they reflect a marketplace. Dr Johnson said, "Only a fool writes, if not for money." Are many happy fools here at LIT. We're in it for the lulz.

 

[SlightlyGone]

My new year's resolution last year was to write a novel.

I wrote a 1000 words a day from April to August until the first draft was done.

A research crew is working on a boat and in one scene a rather frumpy looking woman strips off to leap in the water wearing sexy underwear. Her nipples get hard.

I described this scene on a novelists web site and people there said it was illogical and gratuitous.


In another scene one of my characters goes out on deck at night and spieson a a crewman fucking a scientist bent over a box on the back deck. It's kind of proof of a romance that was building throughout the voyage.

That's it. I'm wondering if that is too much or not enough sex in the story. It's an eco-thriller of a novel for want of a better description.

stephen king says write 2000 words a day, but he writes some pretty boring that take up space ...

if nipples and underwear are all you have to share about your first novel, then I'd suggest going back to work at the gas station that fired you.

 

[TxRad]

stephen king says write 2000 words a day, but he writes some pretty boring that take up space ...

if nipples and underwear are all you have to share about your first novel, then I'd suggest going back to work at the gas station that fired you.

And I'd suggest you and your snarky attitude went back and reread Stephen King.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

And I'd suggest you and your snarky attitude went back and reread Stephen King.

She's right.

I like King but bought 2 of his books for my Kindle, THE GREEN MILE and the collection with DOLANS CADILLAC in it. The rest are meh.

 

[lovecraft68]

And I'd suggest you and your snarky attitude went back and reread Stephen King.

King has gotten increasingly wordy and self indulgent. So successful people are afraid to edit for him, if he even has one any more.

IN his book on writing he says "Kill your darlings" as far as cutting things out, but he hasn't killed a darling in two decades.

But I'd still take his advice over a GB like persona popping in and out of the AH making gas station jokes.

 

[TxRad]

King has gotten increasingly wordy and self indulgent. So successful people are afraid to edit for him, if he even has one any more.

IN his book on writing he says "Kill your darlings" as far as cutting things out, but he hasn't killed a darling in two decades.

But I'd still take his advice over a GB like persona popping in and out of the AH making gas station jokes.

I was referring to the nipples and underwear part of his post. He obviously skipped over parts of King's writing. Anyway, if the story is for Lit then it needs nipples and underwear at the very least. (Yeah, I know, the pervs will be along at any moment to jump on that statement.)

 

[Learin]

https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRzu2RT08snjrd95KAI1bmduxZSPSxKsyiudcsnHxWh4Q_ImTyXkQ

 

[rjordan]

And I'd suggest you and your snarky attitude went back and reread Stephen King.

Stephen King can be brilliant. Stephen King can also be boring as shit or at least formulaic. His latest, The Bazaar of Bad Dreams, is a collection of short stories demonstrating both capabilities.

King also gives the same advice that most others give here. Write what you want. Write it for the buzz. He claims he never wrote a single word with the thought of being paid. I'm sure he EXPECTED to be paid, though.

At some point, a writer's interests have to coincide with the market's interests or the matter of writing for pay becomes moot.

And as pilot points out, some of the stuff we might want to write for Lit may not be good preparation for what mainstream publishers want if that is the goal.

rj

 

[JackLuis]

My new year's resolution last year was to write a novel.
I described this scene on a novelists web site and people there said it was illogical and gratuitous.
That's it. I'm wondering if that is too much or not enough sex in the story. It's an eco-thriller of a novel for want of a better description.

It depends on what your objective is whether it is too much sex or not. Also how it is written can change gratuitous to great.

If you post a novel on Lit it won't get many reads and votes will be about 1% of reads. Lit as a rule is primarily a short story site. However with millions of hit a day you get a lot of traffic, some of which may read your story.

Good Luck.

 

[SamScribble]

You don’t say whether you wrote the novel for a Lit readership or for a more mainstream readership. But, either way, I’d try and find an editor. A good editor will be able to give you an objective view of what you’ve got. After four or five months of cranking out a thousand words a day, you are unlikely to be the best judge of what you have produced.

Good luck.

 

[SeawitchSlave]

Write what you enjoy. Personally I prefer more plot, or plot leading up to sex, but that is because I personally need stimulation of the intellectual sort before the rest of me gets interested - thus, that is reflected in any writings that I plan to do and post here.

 

[Hypoxia]

I re-read the OP. There's mention only of the underwear scene and the voyeur scene. Unless there's a tremendous romantic or dramatic storyline, that's awful thin for a LIT story, or for almost any post-WWII mainstream literature. I'd say it counts as "too little sex".