12/3/23
TGIO
This is number thirty-nine in the blog series, “My Life in Erotica.” I encourage you to join my Patreon community so I can afford to keep writing.
I FINISHED THE BOOK. I know I finished because I wrote “The End.” That’s how you know when a book is finished.
So why do I keep staring at my computer screen, looking at the last page of my manuscript, and sighing?
In the past twenty years, I have published 69 books by Devon Layne or Nathan Everett. Slightly over three a year. I’ve written others that haven’t made it to publication yet. And nearly every time I finish writing, I have the same feeling that many of my readers have when they finish reading a book. I don’t want it to be over.
I’ve been talking to other NaNoWriMo authors at the end of November and most have similar feelings. But we also want to celebrate!
“I’m planning to go get a celebratory coffee and jump right into my next thing.”
“I’m planning to go get a fancy pastry and do some reading (of someone else’s work lol)”
“I made myself a brie and prosciutto grilled cheese to celebrate.”
“Now I can focus on recovery and physical therapy.”
“I’m ordering Father’s barbecue ribs from Grub Hub.”
As you can see, we all have our own idea about how to ‘celebrate’ the end of NaNoWriMo. But it isn’t always a celebration.
The worst ending to a NaNoWriMo I ever experienced was when I finished writing Nathan Everett’s For Money or Mayhem in 2011. It was a tough ending for the book and I wept over the fate of my characters. I was hoarse from screaming out with my hero, unable to undo what had happened. For Money or Mayhem is available on Bookapy.com both individually and as part of the Seattle Noir series.
To top it off, the night I finished the first draft, I was ‘helped along’ to the sudden stark realization that my marriage was ending. I was plunged into despair. I’d been laid off for almost three years and had no new job prospects. I was 62 years old and certainly had no new romance prospects. I was reaching the end of my resources. I had no idea how to celebrate “Thank Goodness It’s Over.” For me, it had just begun.
I decided I needed to write something that had a happy ending.
What has a happier ending than a romance? An erotic romance is sure to have a happier ending, and likely a happy middle, too.
And, as I said in a post nine months ago, that began my career as an author of erotica—a move that drew me out of my self-induced depression and anger, and which has since proven to be very profitable as well.
Those first few months of writing erotica, though, were also months of intense introspection. I had three mainstream books in the market and had several clients for my fledgling publishing business. But what did I really want out of my writing?
For years, I’d bought into the author mystique. Success was a New York Times best seller. It included landing an agent and a publisher with a three-figure advance on my next two books. But being a publisher of other people’s books led me to research market realities. That year—in 2011—ninety percent of the new books sold in the US were by one author, writing under a dozen different names. It wasn’t JK Rowling, Dan Brown, or Steven King. I knew best-selling authors who had nothing but contempt for this one author, who had a stable of writers who took his concepts and outlines, wrote his drafts, and handed them back for review.
I’d read other best-selling authors who had obviously developed one formulaic outline and wrote the same book with different characters over and over again. And the more I thought about it, the less I liked the idea. I wanted to write a variety of different kinds of stories in many different genres.
What’s more, I realized that my heart wasn’t in the idea of writing for money. That might sound silly—especially considering that I sell books—but understand where I was coming from. For years, I’d worked in various aspects of the writing and publishing industry, writing non-fiction and technical material. I was writing for money. I didn’t love writing training manuals, even about layout and publishing software. I let my obsessive nature propel me through creating patents on layout and typography technology when what I wanted to be doing was writing, designing, and publishing fiction.
And if I was going to publish books for other authors, why not put my own out as well?
Publishing was no problem for me. I already had a company set up to design and produce books. But that still left me asking what my goal was as an author of erotica. I set up my goals:
- 1. Get readers to read what I’ve written.
- 2. Engage with readers and get feedback.
- 3. Write lots of different kinds of things.
So, how do I celebrate the end of NaNoWriMo 2023? My 2023 novel has not left me devastated or depressed. Readers will probably be happy about that, too. But writing a story with a really happy ending is very much in mind. And I have a few of those stories ready to be finished.
I’m in the mood to have a little magic in my life. I think my editors will like the change of pace a bit, too. The first series of stories I began back in the late 1970s was “The Props Master” series. But before I finished it, I became wrapped up earning a living and writing non-fiction. So, I think it is time to complete “The Props Master” book four, Child of Earth.
The entire first three volumes of “The Props Master” were focused on ‘the real world’ in which some mystical things seemed to happen. Those who believed saw the magic. Those who didn’t merely saw coincidence. In Child of Earth, it will be far more difficult to ignore the supernatural occurrences as anything other than supernatural. That will be how I celebrate NaNoWriMo 2023 TGIO. I’ll start writing it this week.
I’m aware that my blog about My Life in Erotica has not had much to do with erotica the past two months, but has rather been generally about writing. Well, writing good erotica requires the same disciplines that any good writing does. But next week, I’ll get back to looking at erotica more specifically with “Profit and Non-Profit.”
Please feel free to send comments to the author at devon@devonlayne.com.
