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Hopefully my blog will show up on Sunday when its due. I'm writing on Sat because my dh and I are heading for our mountain cabin and won't be back for several days. We tried to hang out there earlier in the week, but the smoke from California's fires followed us up the mountain. I love summer but the fires that stalk the west until fall rains are a constant reminder of how little we humans can control about our world.
My rant about fires is a backdoor way of getting into what's on my mind today. Earlier I was emailing my editor about a novella called Midnight Soldier which I'm working on for Loose ID and the conversation turned to comfort zones. (And no, I'm not comfortable about the thought of a lightning strike hitting the trees that surround our cabin) The hero in Midnight Soldier (which is part of a military-themed series) dies in Iraq but is given a second chance at life thanks to the woman who comes to the VA cemetery where he's just been buried. I live a stone's throw from the cemetery in the story. To me, it's a peaceful, reflective place often decorated with thousands of American flags. On Veterans Day six military jets scream overhead and every year I cry thinking about what it takes for this country to remain free. That's what I'm hoping to impart into my erotica, that pride and gratefulness.
When my editor read my outline, she wanted to make sure my heroine was going to be having sex with a viable and vibrant male and none of that 'sex with the dead' that makes me shiver just thinking about it. So our conversation roamed from sex with the dead to other areas of the writing world that are within or without our respective comfort zones. I've never done male/male or female/female, not so much because those elements are beyond my comfort zone but because I can't put myself there. Erotica is intensely personal and emotional. Writing it calls for a writer going deep inside herself and pulling out all her secrets, strengths, and fears. I can't give personal honesty to anything except m/f sex and know attempting otherwise would show in the writing. I can and do write capture/bdsm which is beyond the comfort zone of some writers who shine at m/m or f/f or both.
We all have our writing strengths which I suspect carries a parallel to comfort zones. I've tried writing horror but there's the whole gross-out thing and before long I gave up. But comfort zones go beyond gross-out. Example: I'd never attempt fiction with a political or high-tech or fantasy or science fiction theme because my creativity refuses to go to those places. I admire writers who pen great thrillers played out on the world stage. I can't do that. I can't world build or give credibility to a police procedural.
What about you all out there? What's beyond your personal comfort level?
Vonna
1 comment:
Interesting and thought provoking blog, Vonna. First of all, good luck with this summer's fires staying far from your area. My brother is out in Poway (San Diego), and every other year or so he and his family have to evacuate because the fires get really close. Gives one a very healthy respect for the awesome power of nature (and the idiocy of humans, when the fires are set).
As for comfort zones, yep, I think we've all got them. For me, I don't think twice about writing m/m or f/f scenes--or interesting combinations like m/m/f/m or m/f/f--but capture is outside my personal comfort zone. If anyone's captured in my stories, it's going to be by the bad guy, and it's not going to be sexy. Just the way I'm wired.
On the other hand, sometimes I'll deliberately push beyond my comfort zones--not so far as to make me squirm, but enough to present a challenge and produce some interesting results.
Eden
www.edenrivers.com
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