Making the (Tentative) Move from Sweet to Erotic Romance

Let it never be said that I won’t try something new…once.

For the past decade, I’ve been writing (but not publishing) romance novels. I’ve written about a dozen contemporaries and a half dozen historicals. The level of heat in all of these has consistently ranged from sweet to average/ normal. I have never ventured out into the realm of hot or erotic. Until now.

Recently, I saw a call for submissions for Total-E-Bound publishing. But before that, I went onto their website and browsed through the titles there. Let me just say, wow! Hot stuff. So I was already intrigued with the area. I’ll be honest: erotic romance has never been my preferred reading choice, which is probably why I haven’t attempted writing any. But after looking through the titles, excerpts and free stories offered by several of the erotic romance publishers, I was hooked. “Total-e” enthralled, you might say.

So, two weeks ago, I set out to write a story, between 15,000 and 20,000 words long, about angels. Hot, sexy, angels. I have (had) a month and a half to complete it. What could possibly go wrong?

All I had to tell myself was “think sexy thoughts”. Instead of leaving the more graphic parts of the sex scenes up to the imagination, I would now have to spell them out. Using the kind of language my mother would never approve of. Yay!

Well, I am pleased to report that my first few pages of writing went well. I brainstormed my story in a morning and I wrote the first three pages of it that same afternoon. Only 57 pages left to go.

Unfortunately, I started the story on the last day of my vacation so the next week was hectic. But, sure enough, another weekend came upon us and I spent another Sunday writing blasphemous activities for angels (and demons). I started out aiming for five pages that day. I was not, as you can see, doing the math. I had a little over one month to complete my story and I was supposed to be writing about 14 pages a week. I was nowhere near that.

But…on that lazy Sunday, I managed to write a whopping nine pages. Better yet, the words flowed well and the story fleshed itself out. And, I am pleased to report, it was HOT!

Now, of course, I am facing another 48 pages. I’m not worried. If the first 12 pages were any indication, I am loving writing erotic romances. Bring it on!

Photo courtesy of luigi diamanti at freedigitalphotos.net