Thursday, September 25, 2008

A Love Note to Aspiring Authors

It seems like everyone needs something from building superintendent (okay, assistant super) Sexi Lexi. Luckily Lexi has a lot to give...

Featured this week at Ruthie's Club is a story near and dear to my heart called All in a Day's Work.




All in a Day’s Work is a self-reflexive take on those stale 1980’s “I’m here to fix your plumbing” porn videos. Lexi the Sexi superintendent (okay, assistant super) thinks she’s taking the building by storm until she meets the insistent Mrs Suraj. Convinced the boyish Lexi must be a lesbian, the beautiful tenant won’t release her until those rusty pipes are fixed. After an exhausting mutual masturbation session with a cute guy in the building, the sexy super comes home to a pussycat pair of college friends desperate for someone to hold the video camera as they live out an exhibitionist’s dream. No rest for the wicked! Red-hot from beginning to end, this piece includes some unexpected BDSM, good old 1980’s porn-watching, anal play, F/F content, and boasts a multi-cultural cast of characters.

Sounds like a fun little romp, right? Maybe a little bit self-discovery in there, but no deep emotional connections. What's so special about this story? It's pure porn!

Well, my friends, All in a Day's Work is the very first story I ever wrote with the intent of publishing. That's right: it was only just picked up this week, but I wrote Day's Work almost a year and a half ago.

The aspiring writers reading this post ought to feel encouraged by this fact. Do you ever feel like all you do is write and send off submissions, and all you get in return are rejections? I think we've all been there.

The first acceptance is golden, but you worry it was a one-off, or that the editor or publisher wasn't paying close enough attention, or even that they're trying to scam you somehow. Then a second work is accepted. You're over the moon, and a bit more at ease. You get more and more experience with the editing process under your belt, add some publications to your history, and suddenly you realize you have a hell of a lot of work out in the world.

If you really work at it and you have a knack for writing, there is hope. The key is to never stop learning. Always be open to advice from editors and seasoned writers. Don't get your back up at constructive criticism, even if it's harshly-phrased, because it's always more useful than you realize right away. The more I really listened to what my editors were telling me, the better my writing got. Gets. My work continues to improve as I receive more and more feedback.

I didn't realize, in the beginning, the importance of familiarizing oneself with the works a given editor appreciates, or with the type of stories a given publisher or magazine tends to select. I can't tell you how much time I wasted sending the wrong works to the wrong people! A fashion magazine doesn't want to see your article about black holes, right? It's the wrong venue to showcase your work. Send it to an astronomical publication. Know who your stories are geared toward and market to that demographic.

So, it's been advice day here at Donuts and Desires. I hope it's at least a little useful to at least one of you. *smile* I also hope you'll all run on over to Ruthie's Club to read my prime opus, All in a Day's Work.

Bright Blessings,
Giselle Renarde