S.J. Lewis's Blog, page 3

When Is A Series Not A Series?

My first and second published books were 'Vacation' and 'Female Prey', in that order. My third book was 'The Elusive Prey', which continued the adventures of Kimberley from 'Female Prey', and my fourth was 'Claudia's Surrender', which continued the story of Claudia and Sam from 'Vacation'.
At this point, the publisher warned me against writing sequels, pointing out that sequels never sold as well as the originals. A point was also made that readers didn't care much for series either, since they had to start with #1 of each series or risk not knowing what was/had been going on.
This seemed like good advice. I hadn't been getting published for very long, and I figured that my publisher knew more about the business than I did. And yet, with the kinky resort town of Gordburg I'd come up with a setting in which I could place a lot of stories.
I thought back to some old 'series' that I had read when I was younger, most notably the old Tom Swift (Senior and Junior) books. Each might be a 'series' in that each book had a number, but each of the stories contained within had been stand-alone. They might have a regular cast of recurring characters, with different non-recurring ones for each separate book, but reading the fifth one in either 'series' never left me wishing that I'd read 1, 2, 3 and 4 beforehand so that I hadn't missed any vital background. I figured that if 'Victor Appleton' and 'Victor Appleton II' could make that work, so could I. So that's what I tried to do.
So, none of the 'Prey' or 'Gordburg' stories are properly part of a series. But then, what are they? I think of them as more of a collection, but that doesn't quite seem to fit.

Trying To Keep It Fresh

My first erotic novel was published in 2003. My sixteenth should be out some time early this year.
I've had some success in what's become a very crowded and competitive field with my 'Prey' novels, and #16, 'The Daring Prey', is the latest in that line. I suppose I could write nothing else besides more 'Prey' books and still do fairly well, but some time ago I made a decision to write different stories in addition, just to keep from getting stale. Some of those books have done fairly well. My three non-consensual titles, 'Tanya', 'Krissy' and 'Felicia', are holding up well, for example. This is gratifying, because non-consensual is very difficult for me to write. Others have not done as well, such as 'Disappeared'. But I intend to keep experimenting with different story lines for as long as I keep writing. Think of it as cross-training for the imagination.

Always Leave Them Wanting More

I've had fifteen different titles published so far, and I hope to add to that number. I never had any formal training when it comes to writing, though. Oh, there were a couple of classes back in high school, but that was a long time ago, and I tend to learn best by doing anyway. When I began writing books there was one thing I wanted to do with each story: At the end of any given book, readers should be left wanting more. If I could make that work, I would have a market for my next book. Now, a reader could be left wanting more because they liked the story, or they liked the style, or they liked the content, or all three. What I had not considered way back when was that they would want more because they liked the characters. Yet over the years I've had a number of requests that I continue the story of this or that character or characters because the reader wanted to know what happened to them after the book ended. This has led me to reconsider some stories that I had considered 'over'. I'd be interested in hearing from anyone who would like to see some favorite character in a new book, but given how little actual feedback I've had on my blog so far I'm not terribly optimistic...just hopeful.

Sex and the hot dog

I was trying to come up with an answer to a question I'd been asked, and floundering for a place to begin. I finally had a breakthrough when I realized that sex is something like a hot dog.
At its most basic, a hot dog is a tube of meat that you put in a bun. But then you can add any number of condiments or toppings: Mustard, ketchup, mayonnaise, chili, cheese, relish, sauerkraut, coleslaw, raw onions, cooked onions...the list isn't endless, but it is awfully large, and combining the various condiments and toppings leaves you with a vast and bewildering array of possibilities. At the most extreme, the hot dog itself doesn't need to be made of meat, and the bun doesn't have to be made of white flour. And yet, the basic premise remains the same, and the point of it all is to enjoy the kind of hot dog that you want.

Unexpected consequences

The internet is a vast and amazing thing. It can connect us to people we may never meet in person, and occasionally it can stir up the sediment of one's past so that half-forgotten things bob to the surface.
Something along those lines happened to me after I posted about bad advice on my blog months ago. Someone claiming to be the man I'd mentioned by name in that post wrote to me. It was an arrogant, bullying post in which I was called a number of things, including smut-peddler, followed by a demand that I remove the post and a threat to the effect that I had raised an adversary more powerful than I could possibly imagine. This led me to think about Obi-Wan Kenobi for a moment, after which I ignored the whole post.
I thought I was done with the matter, but then this character contacted my publisher and asked them to use their influence to have me take down the post. They contacted me, and as they didn't know what was going on all they did was relay the message. I emailed back explaining that I thought this character was a troll and I was ignoring him. Once more, I thought that the matter was over.
Not so. Having received no satisfaction from myself or my publisher, this character then went directly to Goodreads, convinced someone there that he was indeed who he claimed to be, and asked THEM to make me take down my post. Goodreads asked me politely, and I explained that if the character had just come to me in the first place, offered some proof of who he was, and asked politely if I could delete his name as the connection was causing him some distress, I would probably have complied. But, as he started out with what he must have thought was the email equivalent of a nuclear strike, complete with insults and threats, I was disinclined to offer any kind of concession.
By then, the character had gone on to offer more insults, not just to me but to some others who had posted on the matter. Goodreads commented that they had passed on the character's 'request', and they didn't seem to see any need for further action. I went back and deleted the character's comments. He may have indeed been who he said he was, but from the start he'd managed to make his actual identity irrelevant.

On Writing- What makes a story?

Any story, whether a novel, novella, or novelette, requires characters, conflict, and resolution. We'll leave short stories for later.
The characters should be clearly pictured in your mind so that you can describe them clearly to readers. On occasion, I've resorted to images that I find on line in order to get a picture of a character, but I didn't have to do that with my first four books. It may be useful to keep notes on a character's appearance, personality and motivations. In my own case, I keep any notes on paper so that I don't have to open a new file if I have a question while I'm writing.
Conflict can come in two forms: External, where two or more of the characters are at odds over something, or internal, where a character resists doing something that they may very much want to do. Other characters may influence the conflicted one in one direction or another.
Resolution can be tricky. A Happily-Ever-After (HEA) ending may leave readers satisfied as long as it doesn't feel artificial or arbitrary to them. An unhappy ending may feel more 'real' to a writer, but not every reader is going to like it. Sometimes they work very well, though, and sometimes it's the only realistic way a story can end. There's also the ambiguous ending, where little or nothing is actually resolved, but at least one of the characters has changed in some way due to the conflict. These sorts of endings are good for promoting sequels, but if you overdo it and just churn out one yarn after another without ever resolving anything readers will grow tired of it all and start reading something else, probably by somebody else. If you absolutely have to go to an ambiguous ending, and don't plan on any sequels, it's best to leave at least the possibility of an HEA for a reader to console him or herself with.

More on Writing- Starting a story

Writing is hard work. Until recently getting your writing published was even harder work, but with the advent of on-line publishing that's changed, much to the distress of the old-style publishing houses, who no longer hold the power of life and death over what gets into print. All hail the liberation!
On a more serious note, some of the old rules that those houses lived by can still apply. While some publishers and agents stress the importance of the opening paragraph, or even just the opening sentence, contrary to some of the more extreme claims made, the opening sentence does not have to, by itself, make a potential reader want to read the whole book. All you really have to do is make them want to read the next sentence. The next sentence should make them want to read the following sentence, and so on. At some point, you may capture their attention enough so that they want to read on, even if not all of the succeeding sentences are as compelling.
As an example, my best selling book starts out: 'Thunder rumbled and echoed behind her.' This is enough for a reader to go on reading, if only to find out who 'her' is, and what is she doing. The second sentence is: 'Kimberley halted on the trail and turned to look back.' Now the reader knows what 'her' name is, and may be wondering what she's doing outdoors, apparently hiking along a trail. You don't necessarily have to tell them that right away, and indeed the next sentences simply describe a small action Kimberley makes and the appearance of the sky as a thunderstorm approaches. But if readers are still sufficiently curious about the character and her circumstances, they will press on.

On Writing-Part 6

One of the many different jobs I had in my youth was selling encyclopedias door-to-door. I don't recommend trying this in upstate New York in the winter, when on top of everything else you have to hear the locals joke that the three feet of white stuff you have to trudge through isn't snow, it's 'lake effect'.
My supervisor was a long-time salesman named Dan Barshay. The man was full of stories about things he'd done and girlfriends he'd had, and sfter a while he was easy to tune out. When he found out that I wanted to be a writer, he started talking about the novel he was going to write. He even had a title for it: "Eli, Eli'. There was a gay acquaintance of his who was going to let him use a vacation cabin to do his writing. Yet for all the time I knew him, I never saw him write a single line. No, this novel was something he was going to write real soon, even if it took him years and years to do it, and when it was finished it would be great. He also went on at length about Norman Mailer. To him, Mailer was the greatest writer of all time, and all other writers should strive to be like him. He gave me some books by Mailer to read. I did, and came away with a strong urge not to read any more Mailer if I could help it. At some point, Dan found some writing I'd done and read it, without asking. He told me there was one piece that led him to believe I might make it as a writer, calling it 'tight' and 'spare', almost like Mailer's writing, as he put it.
I'm pretty sure that wherever he is, whether in this world or the next, Dan Barshay is still bending ears about his novel. He'd managed to convince me for some time that writing was incredibly difficult and complicated and only serious novels were worth writing, as long as they mimicked the style of Norman Mailer.

On Writing-Part 5

I was pleasantly surprised by the success of my second book, 'Female Prey'. That success prompted me to use the main female character from that book, Kimberley, in my third book. In 'Female Prey' she had been hunted down and taken captive by three men, all professionals at that sort of thing. As I envisioned it, she'd enjoyed the experience and wanted to try it again. But I didn't want to simply repeat the story, so I began to work on the setting for the new tale. It started out as a small town, one built to look like a set for a Western, and it kept growing from that humble beginning. I finally wound up drawing a map of the place just so I could keep track of all the features, and then dumped Kimberley and her friend Barbara into the middle of it. Neither of them had been there before, so I took the opportunity to introduce readers to the place through the two girls' eyes as they learned about it for themselves. As I was doing this, it became clearer to me just what Kimberley was looking for, and how far she would be willing to go to get it. It took her adventure a little while to get into gear, but once it did new characters, new situations and new circumstances began suggesting themselves to me. Kimberley seemed to relish it all. I should mention that she is as real a person to me as if I had met her personally, and I enjoyed writing about her escapades as much as many people seemed to enjoy reading about them. She had an adventurous spirit and a quirky little mind, and it was clear to me that she was having the time of her life in Gordburg.
As I wrote and wrote and wrote, however, I began to realize that the book was going to run well over the 50,000 words the publisher was looking for. It could have run to 80,000 words easily if I hadn't started to apply the brakes and look for a way to bring the story to a suitable ending.
Gordburg turned out to be a remarkably interesting and flexible setting not only for Kimberley's story but for any further stories I might write. I can't say why it took me so many years to go back there with 'The Novice Prey'.

On Writing-Part 4

I wondered what to write for my second book until I was struck by an inspiration. The inspiration was enough for the lot and the characters, but not for the structure of the book. 'Vacation' had no chapters, only scene breaks. My second book, I thought, really ought to have chapters. At that point, I began to wonder how many words there should be in a chapter and I went off on some research that may strike some as unusual.
I went through a number of old paperbacks, counting words and pages. I eventually concluded that there were about 1000 words to every three pages of a standard sized paperback. As a rule of thumb, it was something I could work with. I then counted chapter pages and came up with a final figure of about 4000 words per average chapter.
I realize that this exercise may seem strange to others, but I needed some sort of framework to get started. Since that long-ago day, I've written chapters with as few as 3000 words and as many as 5500, but I was just starting out back then.
I finally finished the book and sent it on to the publisher, who accepted it after some minor changes. Then came considerable discussion over the title. We exchanged emails back and forth for about a week, both of us offering suggestions that didn't quite click. Finally, I came up with 'Female Prey'. I did not know at the time, nor could I have predicted, how well that book would do, or that it would lead to further 'Prey' books. I suspect that the cover illustration had something to do with it, which was only fitting since it came from the video that had inspired the story.