Leto Armitage: Blog

I posted chapter four this morning. Already I've had a few emails with very different point of views. One person didn't care for the text messaging format of the chapter. I get that. Another person loved it. I get that too. There are things I like and dislike about it but I did it for no reason more complicated than it felt right. I'm not making high art here. It's smut but I still want to having fun writing it whatever it is. And I like smut, honest, perverse smut.

One person (neither mentioned already) made some snide comments about the timing of releases. That both surprised me and I'd expected it sooner. Honestly the community on SOL is very positive which I've found very encouraging. Regarding that timing, while I'd love to put out a chapter a day it's not going to happen. Why? I'm busy, it's that simple. I get why people get frustrated. There are writers whose work I like and they release painfully slow but in the end they're writing for fun. At least I hope they are. My response when I see a new chapter come out that I've really wanted is to send encouragement to the writer rather than complain about how slowly they post.

And it occurs to me that I haven't been as consistent in encouraging every writer I should which I'm going to make an effort to correct.

Anyway, I'm working on chapter five today. Melissa and Lavi are over for lunch. Robert is nervous but pretty sure he has lunch under control. He's right about that much.

So, I have this internal debate and I suppose by posting it here I'm to some degree inviting it to become an external one. I'm working on chapter four of The Pool Girl. Following Robert and Melissa exchanging phone numbers (finally!) it felt wrong to not have them text some. That become a monster of a chapter that I didn't like but it felt good to get some of those thoughts out. So I treated it as brain storming, went back through, kept some and rewrote. What I have now I mostly like. More review will have to happen before posting.

My debate is, do I post it as a short transitionary chapter four or keep it as the beginning of a longer chapter four that moves onto traditional presentation?

In my mind chapter four is the beginning of the "complications" stage of the story. The first three chapters were really about them coming together and although both have avoided terms like "boyfriend", "girlfriend" and "love" both are definitely thinking it. There are little things that came up in the first three that were a bit ... convenient. I've appreciated emails noting these, in fact I'm a bit surprised anyone noticed, but the plan has been for these to rear their heads later. Chapter four is the start of that. It also introduces a new character that will play a big role over time.

I have chapter three of the Pool Girl done but not wrapped. I want to spend more time proofing it. Meanwhile I have what is little more than notes for chapter four and had intended to spend time this morning working on it but instead my dog looked at me forlornly from the foot of the bed and crawled up into the crook of my arm, proceeding to fall asleep. Neither heaven nor earth could have made me force her to move from that spot.

While laying there I got to thinking about character and kink in erotica. I've read a lot of erotica, good and bad. And the thing is, I've really enjoyed some of the bad erotica. If you enjoy it, it can't be bad right? I don't think so. The fact is that some is bad but the kinks in it just happen to line up with mine so perfectly that I enjoyed it anyway.

My intention when I started was a story with a lot of kink and a lot of sex. But Melissa and Robert have voices in my head and those voices are more like real people than, as Melissa would call them, rutting satyrs. She's definitely picked up that phrase from Robert though it might never occur to him to use it again. So, the kinks have taken a back set and also changed. One thing I had planned for was very kinky and as I wrote Melissa I realized she didn't think like that, about that specific thing. To my surprise she has some other kinks though that will definitely take the stage and be foreshadowed in chapter four. Robert has no clue yet and Melissa herself will be surprised as they come to the forefront. This is a long way of saying that there will be a lot more sex and kink but only because that is in the nature of the characters, not because I'm writing a sex story.

I didn't fucking plan that.

They're not a couple everyone will approve of, naturally. There will be conflict. One point of conflict has changed too. I had thought "here is how Robert would get around it very, smartly." Then laying in bed I realized, it's not Robert's problem, it's Melissa's and she wouldn't even involve him at first even though his life is part of her decision. And she has contradictory thoughts playing a battle out in her head. Sometimes you have to cut a Gordian knot and does a high school senior really think of the best way?

It turns out I'm as curious to find out as anyone else.

After reading erotica for decades starting to write it is every bit as difficult as I thought it would be. If anything the feedback to my first chapter is better than it probably merits. It has no sex which I assumed would generate disdain. Some of the feedback regards proofing and I found that although I had re-read and reviewed the chapter many times it had been for content and I hadn't had a critical enough eye for spelling and some sentence flows. I've reviewed it again and hopefully with a better eye to these things and re-uploaded it. I have chapters two and three done. Oddly, its' the sex I'm worried about writing well. I feel like I know the characters and know them, describing their actions is what worries me. Right now I have no idea how long the series will last but look forward to following it to it's conclusion.