Spencer Dryden
When I hit this topic I was immediately conflicted
by what I wanted to say vs what I think
an author should say. Then I got brain lock. What should an author say? That I have never compromised my art? Any
writer who says that is a liar, deluded, and most likely, unknown.
I wish I could dial into readers the same way Steven
Spielberg is dialed into me. He can make me laugh, cry, or scream whenever he
wants. He hasn't had many mulligans—rare in the movie business.
I do my best writing when I am simply writing to
entertain myself. Admittedly, I am a bit of an odd duck writing vanilla M/F
erotic romance from a male point of view. I'm sure there is more of it around
than I realize. I haven't spent too much time looking for other male writers.
Maybe I should. We could form a tribe of
guys trying to make it in a world dominated by women and a female POV.
(Incoming!)
First drafts are all about me, my clumsy language,
split infinitives, so many 'that's, that I have all but worn out that word. And
of course my favorite faux pas, the IDB (Independent Body Parts)—His eyes swept the room (because the
vacuum cleaner was broken). I'm sorry, I like my IDB's when used with
discretion. It's one of the few issues I've argued with my editor. I do have at
least one body part that acts on its own and it is the source of lots of
trouble.
As long as I'm down in the bunker, I'll say as a
male writer, writing to a male audience (is there one?), I know my work is
going to pass through a female gate keeper who has an eye toward a female
audience. Bottom line, I shape second drafts and beyond in light of the fact
that more women are likely to read my work than men.
This plays out most vividly in sex scenes. Men are
visual and mechanical, at least ordinary guys like me—the guys I write
about. If I am going to do a sex scene
and be true to the male experience, I shouldn't wander too far away from what I
know. However, the trope in erotic romance surrounds the multi-layered physical
sensations and emotional satisfaction of the woman. Men like me don't have that
kind of experience in sex. We (I) become less attuned to the environment as our
(my) excitement grows. (I know, not enough blood...) My work as read by women
was often labeled as 'telling not showing.'
I had to take a step back to realize what they were saying...I wasn't
connecting with readers expectations. I needed a new plan.
One of my goals for the year has been to raise the
heat level of my stories. A famous publisher of erotic romance has a line
dedicated to male oriented fiction. I want to be on that line-up. I decided I
would read all of it, if possible, to see how it's done to the satisfaction of
editors and at least one publisher.
Oddly, the entire roster of writers— writing male
oriented fiction— are women. Huh? Imagine a publisher launching a line of
lesbian erotica and only publishing stories by male writers. True, the story
lines are following the editorial guidelines of 'less emphasis on relationships
and more focus on men's needs and desires.' In the hundred or so stories I have
read to date, many of the plots feature women acting like men in terms of
promiscuity, which strains credibility, or they write the story switching the
POV back and forth from the male and female characters, jumping to the woman's
POV when it's time for sex. Those techniques don't work for me as a reader or a
writer, but the reading exercise has helped me identify places to improve my
storytelling and raise my heat level.
The work I'm submitting to them is better than what
I'm reading, at least from a male perspective.(And a highly biased one.) Unfortunately there are stories circulating about
the hard times this publisher is experiencing. The articles surround the Amazon
blame game. I wonder if its bigger. Everyone seems to be having trouble
connecting with the reader. (Great topic for the future.)
I'm very fortunate to have found a couple of female
beta readers who understand a male point of view with a sensitivity to female
readers. In subtle ways my stories and sometimes my characters are feminized in
that they are shaped closer to the expectations of a female readership. I accept it, the same way I accept the
necessity of something approaching the Chicago Manual of Style for
construction, or meeting the formatting requirements for making a submission.
Publishers want to sell books. So do I.
Am I selling out? I think of it as buying in. I
don't know if that's what a author should say, but it is something an author
with ambitions of marketplace success must be willing to do.
