I've been posting a chapter a week of The Nymphomaniac, usually on Tuesdays, but sometimes on Wednesdays. For those looking for this week's posting, I posted Chapter 66 on Monday.
Now that the entire novel will soon be posted, I'd like to share some thoughts. The title makes it sound like a sex story (porn). It's not. There are a lot of sex scenes in the novel, but it's not a sex story. It's a story with sex. Every sex scene has a purpose, either for the plot or character development. The sex scenes define Julie's relationships and go into her struggles with her medical condition which, in the 1950s, was called nymphomania. A nymphomaniac back then was a slut, a tramp, well, a negative term to regard a woman with contempt. The ingredients for a good porn story. Although I don't shy away from graphic sex scenes, that wasn't my intention.
For those of you who haven't studied the craft of fiction writing, there is no plot without conflict. In The Nymphomaniac, the plot's conflict is the internal conflict Julie experiences. Sexual feelings brought on by her medical condition she doesn't understand combined with the morality of the time. Of course there are many mini-conflicts along the way that come up and are resolved. That's what keeps you turning the page. But when the main conflict is resolved, the story is over.
I could have kept writing more sex scenes instead of ending the story when I did. But then it would be a sex story. The sex scenes would have no purpose other than to throw more sex into the story. When I wrote The Preacher's Wife on another site, after I finished it people complained they wanted the main character to have more sexual experiences. I buckled to their requests and modified it, adding five chapters of just sex. Basically turning it into a sex story. When I posted that story on SOL, I went back to the original version. I learned my lesson back then.