Q: Do you use a writing process?

A: I do, but it’s much less linear than one might think when an author says “I use a writing process.” Typically I start with brainstorming then go to outlining. The outline, however, is very loose and general, and I may write whole scenes before I even know what the next scene is going to be about. I almost always set aside an outline and draft then after working on some other story come back to it. I may add just part of a line, only edit what I wrote, or type yet another scene. Once I get a manuscript so the draft is essentially complete, I edit it – at least proofread it – several times. If I think there are problems with the story, I’ll highlight those areas and go back to outlining and drafting those sections.

Q: That must take a long time to do!

A: It depends on the story. Sometimes it all comes together with a couple of days of hard writing. More often than not, I’ll spend months working on a short story, though there may be several weeks in that stretch where I don’t look at the piece.

Q: Where do you come up with ideas for you stories?

A: Every story is essentially about resolving some conflict. For this genre, I think of it as two types of conflicts. One is a woman’s inner conflict in which she must decide if she’ll engage in a certain sexual activity. There are dozens and dozens of reasons why a woman might want to have sex, so each story is about exploring one of those reasons. Maybe she’s curious but her personality is naturally cautious. Maybe she likes to be in control but wants to know what it’s like to give up that power. Maybe she desires sexual release but doesn’t consider herself good looking or interesting enough to be of interest to a man.

Another type of conflict is why a woman would have sex with a man who is the opposite of her. Why would a woman who is an evangelical fall in love with an atheist? Why would a vegan peace protester get it on with a soldier? Why would a school teacher hook up with a motorcycle gang member? A lot of this type of conflict are taboos, like you shouldn’t have sex with your husband’s best friend or be a cougar who goes after young men.

I keep running lists of these two conflicts and try to merge one with the other. For example, the straight-A college woman who studies all the time desires sexual release but doesn’t believe men are interested in her and then she finds herself attracted to a greaser, someone who is totally incompatible. How does she overcome her self-doubt, and how do they hook up? That’s an interesting story!

The conflicts for these lists come from a variety of places – books I’ve read, TV shows or movies, magazine articles, overheard conversations, my own experiences. But I never note the source of those conflicts on my lists, as I want to develop the story idea on my own rather than copy something already done.

Q: Is it that simple?

A: (laughs) It is! Except I make it even more complicated! (laughs again) I also keep lists of different sexual acts and divide them into three categories – one is foreplay stuff like kissing and showering together, the next is “satisfying her” or ways a man can bring a woman to orgasm, and the third is “ways of having sex.” If you put 20 items on each list, there are hundreds of possible combinations of stories you could write. I avoid using the same combination of three acts from story to story so each piece I write will be unique. Another challenge is to make sure the act metaphorically matches or makes sense given the conflicts you’ve started with.

Q: Once you have selected a couple of conflicts, do the stories follow a formula?

A: All stories have a structure – inciting incident, rising action, climax, conclusion – so in that sense it is a formula. I’ve experimented with a variety of “formulas” that other authors use as exercises to learn the craft of writing, and I think they all affect my stories. Sometimes I might lean on one particular formula over another because it works for a particular story I’m writing. Very loosely, though, the formula is my female protagonist must overcome her conflict, and the way it’s overcome always is to her sexual satisfaction. I believe in happily ever afters. (laughs)

Q: What do you look for when revising your story? Is there anything special that must be done with women’s erotica?

A: Revising is the same process for erotica as it is for any genre. I first focus on the story, things like if the plot, character arc, and point of view are working. In scenes where it is, I turn my attention to style, stuff like diction, narrative drive, and color. Lastly, I proofread for spelling, punctuation, capitalization and basic grammar, though I’ll fix any of those four problems when I come across them in a draft. If I misspelled “Sacramento,” it’d drive me nuts to leave it misspelled through several draft. Besides, I might miss it on my last proofreading! (laughs)

Q: Do you use an editor?

A: Absolutely. I usually take a story through a few drafts on my own before handing it over to her. My editor always makes my story better, even if it’s by only pointing out some lines that I might tighten or use a better image for as well as noting that I’ve misspelled a word, usually one that I’ve been misspelling my whole life! (laughs).

She’s always great at confirming my suspicion that a scene or stretch of dialogue isn’t working – and at telling me that something I wasn’t sure about actually works well, so that I don’t stupidly go back and rewrite it. (laughs) A second pair of eyes on your manuscript really is helpful when writing. Just make sure that second pair actually understands writing and isn’t a family member or friend.

Q: When do you know that you’re done with a story, that it is ready to be published?

A: That’s something you just have to feel. It’s not as simple as checking off a bunch of metrics and saying “All right, it’s done!” For me, it’s a sense that the story is “complete,” that there’s nothing more to tell and that there’s no better way to tell it. Usually when I’ve finished a story, I set it aside for a few weeks then come back to it. Most of the time, it really is ready to go, minus a few bonehead typos I somehow let slip by.