Two weeks ago, I talked about sending the first ten chapters to be reviewed.  How do you think I did?  Go ahead.  Take a minute or two.  Ignore the title.

Option 1:  Oh, thank you.  I truly appreciate the feedback, and I’ll go through it all again.

Option 2: Grab a glass of wine, walk away from the computer, question yourself.

The answer is:  Both!

It was hard.  It’s like someone calling your newborn baby ugly.  That ain’t allowed to happen.  No way. No!

If fact, the first chapter needed a lot of rework.  The opening scene did not have the “hook” in it I thought.  It was a poor attempt at foretelling.  Now the first chapter needs to be reworked.  The fight scene was lame.  It needs to be done again.  That was stressful, and now it is even worse.

Sex in the car:  A great success.

Writing erotica novels is as hard as writing a good erotic short story.  Except you have to do it over and over again, until you tell the full story.  The characters have to have a serious arc in the story.  If they start bland, and end bland, then the story is bland.  If they start jovial, learn nothing and still are jovial at the end, then the story is bland.

I like to use the 7-step story plot.  I’m not sure it works for erotica, but it is the one I like the most.  The first plot point, the first pinch point in the rising action make sense to me.  They nudge the story forward.  The won’t let you stagnate.  The keep you moving to the turning point.

One of the Beta readers suggested I pick up a pure Romance novel and read it to pick up the plot.  I think I’m going to do that and see if I pick up any pointers.