Getting myself out of the jam I was in took some time.  I pulled out all the work back to the point where I had to start over.

Reminder to myself:  Erotic Romance is about the interaction between the two main characters.  It is about their relationship and the tension that can be created around it.  In reading Mike and Helen’s journey in this story I keep thinking about his journey.  I do that because the story is in his voice.

Let’s review the focus of the story.

     - Mike is a workaholic but does not know it or is in denial.

     - Mike loves his wife.

     - Mike has to deal with Helen’s newfound freedom.

The work part of the story is to give background to the internal turmoil that constantly churns in the back of Mike’s mind.  The thing I wrestle with is: Is it necessary to move the plot forward? In other words; will the reader care?

I know this is erotica.  Sex is the glue the binds the novel together.  Part of my brain says: Get to the sex!  The other part of my brain tells me to tell a compelling honest story.  In Mike’s backstory, I created, he is a troubled man.  Childhood emotional trauma, some of it created by his interpretation more than reality, still haunt and drive him today.  He is unaware of this.

Part of his journey has to include the triggers that affect him, his mood, and his mindset.  Do I mention them off as happening off stage?  Do I tell you about them?  I tend to think there is a reason to SHOW and not TELL what happens in the story.

If this were a romance story, would it fit there?  See.  That’s the key question, and one I don’t have a clear answer to.  In a mystery romance story, you have to give enough time for the mystery.  Is it so different then, that in a erotic romance story the Main Character is explored more deeply?

In a short story I would not have this debate.  In a short story I’d spend a single paragraph on it.  The purpose is to give you a glimpse and then move on.  The problem for me is that this is a longer form.  I’m approaching sixty-thousand words and I’m about two thirds of the way through the story.  All I read about erotica – especially for a first novel from an unknown author – is to keep it around eighty-thousand words.  I take that to mean I could, if justified, hit closer to ninety thousand, but not over.

I think in the end I archived around eight thousand words and moved forward.  It is my intent to bring the final chapters together.  Let them build the sexual tension one chapter after the other. 

Let’s see how this turns out.  It is certainly a great learning experience, even if it never is good enough to publish.  None of these questions occurred to me until I tried a novel.