Hi,
I had mapped out in my mind a fantasy story, not a novel, only about 60,000 words or so. A standalone story involving some hedgewitches and the sidhe set in a celtic mythology type milieu. It's a basic rescue plot.
But I just couldn't start it. So in an attempt to kick-start the writing flow I wrote a very long sex scene involving two characters as a bit of a lark and dipping my toe into the erotica genre. I ended up writing a 4,000 word chapter in which the plot for my story really seemed to come alive. I've now continued in the same vein and written about 12,000 words of this story.
The trouble is, I now cannot see this story without all the graphic sex, it adds to the story immensely not just for it's excitement factor but also because it helps to define the magical system present in this world and also some major themes too. But I never intended to write an erotic novel and really wonder if its the right direction for my story. Mostly because I don't want a good story and interesting characters to be overshadowed by all the stereotypes about this particular genre.
And I like my world and the characters enough to want to write more than just this story about them. I can already see several other related stories (although not necessarily sequels) in this world. I've put a lot of time and energy into creating interesting and [I hope] believable characters and am kind of worried that they will get lost in the reader's search for titilation. But then adding that little bit of kink on top of a character just seems to being adding great spice to a good cake.
I don't know much about this genre, I've not read a great deal within it. Fantasy is where I have read extensively and it's where my heart lies. But then my story isn't anything more than a rather small book and most fantasy runs into the epic category, so I'm not sure I've got enough to get a toehold in that genre on it's own.
Any advice you can offer would be great.
I had mapped out in my mind a fantasy story, not a novel, only about 60,000 words or so. A standalone story involving some hedgewitches and the sidhe set in a celtic mythology type milieu. It's a basic rescue plot.
But I just couldn't start it. So in an attempt to kick-start the writing flow I wrote a very long sex scene involving two characters as a bit of a lark and dipping my toe into the erotica genre. I ended up writing a 4,000 word chapter in which the plot for my story really seemed to come alive. I've now continued in the same vein and written about 12,000 words of this story.
The trouble is, I now cannot see this story without all the graphic sex, it adds to the story immensely not just for it's excitement factor but also because it helps to define the magical system present in this world and also some major themes too. But I never intended to write an erotic novel and really wonder if its the right direction for my story. Mostly because I don't want a good story and interesting characters to be overshadowed by all the stereotypes about this particular genre.
And I like my world and the characters enough to want to write more than just this story about them. I can already see several other related stories (although not necessarily sequels) in this world. I've put a lot of time and energy into creating interesting and [I hope] believable characters and am kind of worried that they will get lost in the reader's search for titilation. But then adding that little bit of kink on top of a character just seems to being adding great spice to a good cake.
I don't know much about this genre, I've not read a great deal within it. Fantasy is where I have read extensively and it's where my heart lies. But then my story isn't anything more than a rather small book and most fantasy runs into the epic category, so I'm not sure I've got enough to get a toehold in that genre on it's own.
Any advice you can offer would be great.
