How this book began
F.N. from ____ Press called with a brainstorm. She said she had received a manuscript from an agent that was of really low quality -- a scenario in which two housewives got together to exchange erotic stories -- and that, while rejecting it, she came up with an idea of her own for an erotic novel she thought I would be perfect to write. She adapted the idea to a group of men. They’re together for some reason -- golf match or something -- and share tales, probably inflated, of their sexual exploits. It would have an episodic structure with each of the men getting his own chapter.
She asked me if I were interested, and I sort of am. I immediately started thinking of ways it might work, and I said I would write something up and submit it to her in a sort of proposal format -- a few pages long -- and then discuss it with her when I returned to town after the 22nd.
Some of the ideas I had: the main setting has to be a situation in which a group of men are together for some believable reason: maybe a camping trip or a business conference. Or, I thought, perhaps something more sinister, like they're quarantined during a plague -- but she said she didn't want it to be too dark. Not quite mainstream, but not as dark and edgy as some of my stuff.
One version might be like this: The main narrator is driving up to meet his buddies for a week of fishing and camping at the cabin of one of them -- in Washington state, say. The first chapter is about his trip up there, in which he has the first sexual encounter of the book. During this chapter we also get some backstory on the guy which is important at the end of the book -- because he returns to his backstory, which I’m not sure of yet. At the beginning of the second chapter, he arrives at the cabin and we meet the other characters, and they take turns telling these stories. But the whole book is from the point of view of this one character, so we get his perspective on all the other characters; this allows him to comment on them, etc.
Another version might be that the men are on some kind of working trip as opposed to a vacation. For example, they could be the crew of a fishing boat. Unfortunately I know nothing about fishing. Or they could be a baseball team on the road. I sort of like that idea, but the problem with that is believably differentiating among all the baseball players. On the other hand, if Philip Roth could do it…
I also thought of it taking place on a cruise ship, but I have never been on a cruise ship.
It seems that isolating them works best -- in a vacation cabin -- or if not in a vacation cabin, where else are groups of men isolated?
It should be a somewhat light-hearted atmosphere but in a situation that the attendees have to deal with -- such as being stuck in a blizzard but with plenty of supplies, or simply in an area so remote that to choose to leave rather than stay would be a major decision.
I’m also reminded of the Chuck Palahniuk book in which people who were marooned in a disused resort told each other scary stories. That book was compared to the Decameron! So it could be a bit like that.
The useful thing about the group of men on vacation is that they might have been from similar backgrounds but now have taken a variety of paths in life, and I could use these to provide contrasting and distinctive settings for each of the tales.
But once I've decided this, I immediately start wondering how I can subvert the premise -- such as making the “men” really FTMs, but not revealing this til the end. Hilarious!
Or maybe the setting is actually a reality TV show. All these guys are stuck in the house together and are forced to play all these games... Hmm, the problem with that is that the period during which there are eight people still in the game, the players are being eliminated rather slowly, not quickly enough for my book. I guess it would be better that the characters merely joke about this.
But it would be good if there were some kind of overarching narrative line. A competition would be one way to do it. Clearly they are competing in their storytelling, but I feel it should be something else. Men are always competing, aren’t they?
Idea: one of the ways the stories should start is by a typical masculine challenge: one character says, for example, that in his opinion there really is no such thing as a nymphomaniac, and another says Oh yes there is, and proceeds to tell his tale.
Structure idea: Remember what I liked so much about John Carpenter's "The Thing" is that the premise kept changing so that the narrative was always one step ahead of the audience. I’ve always wanted to adapt that concept. Not sure how.
She asked me if I were interested, and I sort of am. I immediately started thinking of ways it might work, and I said I would write something up and submit it to her in a sort of proposal format -- a few pages long -- and then discuss it with her when I returned to town after the 22nd.
Some of the ideas I had: the main setting has to be a situation in which a group of men are together for some believable reason: maybe a camping trip or a business conference. Or, I thought, perhaps something more sinister, like they're quarantined during a plague -- but she said she didn't want it to be too dark. Not quite mainstream, but not as dark and edgy as some of my stuff.
One version might be like this: The main narrator is driving up to meet his buddies for a week of fishing and camping at the cabin of one of them -- in Washington state, say. The first chapter is about his trip up there, in which he has the first sexual encounter of the book. During this chapter we also get some backstory on the guy which is important at the end of the book -- because he returns to his backstory, which I’m not sure of yet. At the beginning of the second chapter, he arrives at the cabin and we meet the other characters, and they take turns telling these stories. But the whole book is from the point of view of this one character, so we get his perspective on all the other characters; this allows him to comment on them, etc.
Another version might be that the men are on some kind of working trip as opposed to a vacation. For example, they could be the crew of a fishing boat. Unfortunately I know nothing about fishing. Or they could be a baseball team on the road. I sort of like that idea, but the problem with that is believably differentiating among all the baseball players. On the other hand, if Philip Roth could do it…
I also thought of it taking place on a cruise ship, but I have never been on a cruise ship.
It seems that isolating them works best -- in a vacation cabin -- or if not in a vacation cabin, where else are groups of men isolated?
- In military service, About Which I Know Little Or Nothing (AWIKLON)
- On a work crew that is working in an isolated location -- could be anywhere from Antarctica to some remote rural place, but again, I don’t know much about any of these jobs, so realism might be a problem.
- In prison, or better, in some unexpected and temporary imprisonment, such as the recent incident in which the crew of a small British ship was seized by Iran and held for a couple of weeks. However, it seems to me that the stress of a situation like this would preclude the light-hearted atmosphere I want to capture.
It should be a somewhat light-hearted atmosphere but in a situation that the attendees have to deal with -- such as being stuck in a blizzard but with plenty of supplies, or simply in an area so remote that to choose to leave rather than stay would be a major decision.
I’m also reminded of the Chuck Palahniuk book in which people who were marooned in a disused resort told each other scary stories. That book was compared to the Decameron! So it could be a bit like that.
The useful thing about the group of men on vacation is that they might have been from similar backgrounds but now have taken a variety of paths in life, and I could use these to provide contrasting and distinctive settings for each of the tales.
But once I've decided this, I immediately start wondering how I can subvert the premise -- such as making the “men” really FTMs, but not revealing this til the end. Hilarious!
Or maybe the setting is actually a reality TV show. All these guys are stuck in the house together and are forced to play all these games... Hmm, the problem with that is that the period during which there are eight people still in the game, the players are being eliminated rather slowly, not quickly enough for my book. I guess it would be better that the characters merely joke about this.
But it would be good if there were some kind of overarching narrative line. A competition would be one way to do it. Clearly they are competing in their storytelling, but I feel it should be something else. Men are always competing, aren’t they?
Idea: one of the ways the stories should start is by a typical masculine challenge: one character says, for example, that in his opinion there really is no such thing as a nymphomaniac, and another says Oh yes there is, and proceeds to tell his tale.
Structure idea: Remember what I liked so much about John Carpenter's "The Thing" is that the premise kept changing so that the narrative was always one step ahead of the audience. I’ve always wanted to adapt that concept. Not sure how.