I’m not sure if it’s reasonable for a first-timer to write a book that would appeal to both genders from a sexual standpoint. I mean I think it’s easier to write for the guy than for the girl. Time will tell.
So I’m writing this road-trip novel, and it started simple enough, a guy story, like that movie “Sideways” a few years back with Paul Giamotti or whatever. I read the book and thought it was funny and then I watched the movie and didn’t think it was as funny as the first time I saw it, but maybe that’s because I read the book so recently and it’s rare for a movie to exceed the book in my estimation. Then I took my first novel writing class at Write On and I shared 6000 words and the instructor, who is an acclaimed novelist herself (I know. I read her first novel–Literary fiction, beautiful, the real deal), Samantha Chang, said it should be in 1st person, all from the primary character’s viewpoint, like Jack Keroac’s “Road Trip,” which I also read for reference, and then I also read “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” for further ‘Road Trip’ genre stuff. Then I worked like a son of a bitch at my day job for a few weeks. I continued to write my tome, and then I took my second novel writing class. Part of that class involved talking to a girl at length and she said to me, “So, basically, all the women in your novel are objects.” To which I replied something along the lines of, “Yeah, now that you mention it. I guess so.” That got me to thinking , and I’m going to at least try writing another paralell storyline in 1st person, female perspective to alternate with the other two story lines of 1981 roadtrip of my two 18 yo protagonists and the 2022 timeline of the same two protagonists 40 years later. The female would be the connection between the two. I had already read “Where the Crawdad Sings,” which is where I got the idea for the alternating timelines, years apart, of the same characters, and the alternating chapters through time. So now… I am about done with the first timeline of the 18 year olds, aside from the climactic sex scene, and then I’ll start on the female perspective. In preparation, I’ve been reading novels, romance from female 1st perspective to see what women really think, and I’m rather shocked. I started with “Gone Girl,” which I liked very much, then I read, “Verity,” which was pretty cool, even more erotic, I suppose, or at least graphic than the former, which made me think I’d better get better at being a girl, so I googled “how to write erotica for women” or something similar, and that led to “Pisces Girl,” which was just gross although the story was OK, and then I thought, WTF, I’ll just read “Fifty Shades” and get it over with. At first, and as I worked through the novel, I thought much of it formularic and cliche-ish, but it moved along and I don’t think I was ever bored, and, well, I suppose it’s difficult to get too much sex, if that’s the objective, which obviously it was for EL James; but, she was hugely successful and I applaud that and I admit that with the ending being a cliff hanger, I appreciated the preview of the second novel, which was basically the ending for me. I don’t need to read the other two because I think I have the idea. There is implied sex and actual sex, and there is pretty sex and ugly sex and realistic sex and unrealistic sex. I’ll need to figure out how deep to get in the implied vs actual category although I can always edit myself one way or the other. I am currently reading an anti-romance, which I’m half-way through, and of everything I’ve read, it is the most literary and the sex is mostly implied, not so graphic, yet anyway. I’ve highlighted some parts just because they were so well done. The book is “Acts of Desperation,” by Megan Dolan I think it is. It is a more tragic look inside the head of a girl and I think I’ll probably take more from this treatment than I do of the others. I’ll be ready to start writing like a girl in a couple of weeks. Wish me luck, ether world. I know no one’s there.