How They Scored

My friend Lisa B wrote a very nice review of HOW THEY SCORED . An excerpt: After the men gather, the plot picks up steam and their interactions increase, with Pritchard quietly portraying a shifting dance of male alliance and competition. Their picaresque sex tales start to cast a subtler light on their characters. The story of the Serbian fashion model ends poignantly. A tale of a threesome takes an unexpected turn, with the storyteller unable to perform, feeling both sentimental about an old girlfriend and ambivalent about the suddenly aggressive behavior of his current one. In short, the scorekeeping of these men becomes less about tallying up sexual conquests and more about assessing their own strengths and weaknesses -- and the elusiveness of their desires. Wow, thanks Lisa!

When I was asked to write a book of sex stories in which the narrators were all straight men, I faced a challenge: What was interesting about straight men? For years I'd written erotica in which the whole point was to blur the boundaries of traditional sexual identities, to take people who thought they were all one way and show how they could, given the right situation, go the other way and enjoy it. I showed straight men blowing other men, gay men getting off on women watching them masturbate, and tops opening up to being topped by somebody else for the first time. In other words, people losing their inhibitions and having new fun -- the basic currency of erotica. But what could I do with a group of straight men sitting around talking with each other about sex? (Every time I write that sentence, I start out by saying "talking about sex with each other," then have to reorder the clauses.) Men who really are straight, who won't get all hot and bothered by the storyte...

Right, I handled that with no problem. I got all the way home with Hap and Meeghan about to go to bed for the final time (in the book). When I went to bed last night I told myself to think about Chapter 10, the chapter where Hap relates his failed marriage to Cara. All along I've been thinking that the best thing I have in real life to use is , of course, my failed marriage to C___. Most of the external details will change, i.e. the whole foreigner-green card marriage aspect, but I want to keep the intimate details. I've never written about C___ before and this is an opportunity to do it in a respectful and complete way. I want especially to use the tender details I remember about her body and her reactions during sex, and also to use her emotional goodness and sweetness. The one thing I don’t have is the exact way they break up, though I might simply use what is close to the truth: instead of Je___, use the affair with S___ that broke up my relationship with S___. It's 9:0...

Thanksgiving weekend. Working Thursday and Friday, I got in 2800 words, going over the 75,000 mark. That means it's officially a novel-length manuscript. That took four months from the time I wrote the first words; almost five months from the time I began making notes. Not too bad for something I hadn't the slightest inkling of before receiving the call from Felice in April. I finally completed the 4th point from the above list, which means I have 1-5 done. 6 and 7 are somewhat trivial, so with some additional work today and tomorrow, I absolutely should finish the first draft by next weekend. I should say that the work this week has taken place in the context of Thanksgiving, a visit by S., who stayed overnight at our place for three nights (I just got back from taking her to the airport), and the cast on Cris's leg. So I did all this work at home in the office. For somebody with a cast on their leg, Cris was great about letting me work. Letting me sleep is another matter,...

Okay, continuing with that brainstorming about Denny. I'm going to copy it over here so I can continue. Q: What is the important thing to think about w.r.t. Denny, in addition to the main plot points? A: His subplot. Q: Which is? A: His wife Marianne has just left him, he's started using junk again, and he has to decide what to do next. Because he is indomitably wealthy, it's not a matter of how to survive financially, only emotionally and physically. Q: How will going back on heroin affect him? A: It won't, in the short run -- i.e. for the purposes of the book. Q: So do we have to talk about it? A: Only in passing, perhaps as we take leave of Denny for the last time. Q: So the main thing to think about is what? A: His emotional state with his wife leaving him. Q: But that's affected by...? A: His emotional state is affected, i.e. muted, by going back on junk. So we'll have to acknowledge that. Q: Then what's the main thing? A: As...

Last working session I arrived at one of the turning points in the book. Don has revealed his idea for the business, and now he reveals to Hap why he's up there and what Don wants from him: to use his influence to recruit Bart for Don's business, Dreedle. In return, Don will promise to solve Hap's problem with the apartment. As I see it, there are only a few important plot points that remain: Shaun finds out that Hap has been asked to recruit Bart, and tries to dissuade him, warning of the political implications of Dreedle. When this doesn't work, Shaun attempts to sabotage the business somehow. But he ends up getting turned around by Don, who convinces him to invest all of his nest egg, about $4 million, in the company. Seth is telling Hap to go for it. But Seth is also disgruntled that he wasn't thought to be as important as Bart to the new enterprise. Denny again speaks to Hap, holding out the possibility of an alternative that isn't so morally objectionable....

A bit at a loss, my attention fragmented. I've squandered the morning time when Cris is still asleep, and now she's up. I'm working at home all week, but there's not much virtue in that, as most of my attention is taken by Cris, the house, the cats, etc. -- which is why I have an office. But as I'm here, I really ought to try to pay attention. Q: What is the important thing to think about w.r.t. Denny, in addition to the main plot points? A: His subplot. Q: Which is? A: His wife Marianne has just left him, he's started using junk again, and he has to decide what to do next. Because he is indomitably wealthy, it's not a matter of how to survive financially, only emotionally and physically. Q: How will going back on heroin affect him? A: It won't, in the short run -- i.e. for the purposes of the book. Q: So do we have to talk about it? A: Only in passing, perhaps as we take leave of Denny for the last time. Q: So the main thing to think a...

Whew -- well, I managed to squeeze out 2000 words yesterday -- exactly 2000. That leaves only 4000 for today. Since I'm doing a Greg story, it might not be that hard. The most inspired day I've had so far is when I wrote the chapter about Greg and Growler. However, I have to differentiate it from my own experience as far as possible, and I have to make it typically Greg -- suspicious, aggressive, insistent on getting what he paid for. I think it would be interesting to make it representative of the business approach of a certain type of person, and in fact the original impulse I had for Greg's character fits into this perfectly -- the obnoxious business type I encountered in Las Vegas whom I overhead saying: "I'm gonna make about $2000 on the deal. Hey, I figure, he charges me for his labor, so I'm gonna charge him for my money. If he worked for free then I could do him a favor." Implicit in this view of the world is the notion that everyone else is bound ...

I had a good weekend last weekend, with just over 6000 words, and I start this weekend at 47,000-plus. Yet I'm increasingly worried about my deadline. If I average 5000 words per weekend from now til Thanksgiving, That will only bring me to 78,000. What I really need to do is average 7000 per week -- nearly impossible without working a four-day week at my job. So perhaps what I'll have to do is "work at home" one day a week. And it would be a good idea to start that on Monday, since Cris has delayed her return from vacation by a day and will not be returning until late Monday night. All right, what am I going to do today? The book is completely out of my mind. I should have prepared by catching up on it yesterday, but I spent the whole evening doing laundry and listening to the ball game. I'll have to catch up now. This is an example of how I still am inefficient when it comes to use of my time. It occurs to me that I still don't have an outline, and that it w...

Early Sunday evening. I did a good 3000 words yesterday, and 900 today to finish that scene, which I interrupted in order to go out with A. Now I want to write the next sex scene, because there hasn't been one in a while, and for that reason it also has to be a good one to reward the reader for sticking with it. It's either Shaun's, Denny's, or Don's turn -- Don hasn't had a sex story yet. I'm inclined to let him go next after this one, which is at the beginning of chapter 8. (I'm over 45,000 words.) I think it should be Shaun. Let's see... something in keeping with his character... Suppose he met a girl at some anarchist conference. (Earlier I had made a note about him telling a story that takes place at Burning Man, but I think I'll leave that to Seth, the over-achiever.) Hmm, I'm finding that the only person who could tell the Orna-cum-Amnesia story is Shaun. Bart is also the type, but I'm establishing him as someone who (against type)...

10:10 -- getting a bit of an early start, for once. Just read a little from the middle of "Sexus." It makes me aware I'm not doing much with these characters at the moment. I have to think more about their inner lives -- or, rather, I should say I have to allow them space to lead their inner lives. In general, I have to spend a great deal of time on characterization. The sex stories matter only if you know the person telling them. Anyway. I'll finish the chapter I was working on last Sunday when I had to stop, and then I'll try to get right into the next chapter, introducing the Bianca character.   2:30pm -- I did about 2100 words and I'm going home. Cris hasn't called me yet but I'll just go home anyway. Bob is having some kind of "debauchery" here and I'm at a good stopping place.

Saturday morning -- once again, 11:15, though I have to say I managed to get to my desk before 11:00 at least. I spent the last 25 minutes nostalgically reviewing photos and news stories in my "Dear Prudence" -- I mean " Bangalored " -- folder. Having met with Elise a few days ago to talk about what the book needed before she felt comfortable putting it out there, it's been on my mind. But last night while I was falling asleep I got a halfway good idea for how to do the next chapter, which is chapter 6. After this weekend, there are 8 weekends before Thanksgiving. If I keep up a pace of 5000 words per week, that's another 40,000 words, which would bring me close to 75,000. But if I can average closer to 6000 words per week, that's a lot closer to 90,000 for a first draft -- and that would be much better. But since my current average per week for the first 7 weeks is 4738, I will need to push myself and also take as much time off work as I can. Since my n...

Yesterday I developed another pink eye infection. It meant I couldn't work at all. How frustrating it was to have a three-day holiday weekend and not be able to use one of the days. Today, the holiday, was not shaping up to be great either, because I was going to have to spend much of it at home due to the fact an electrician was coming to work at the house. But strangely, with all the disruptions, I actually did about 2500 words, writing the end (or almost to the end) of chapter 4 with Denny's story about Marinka. It felt good and weighty and very interesting without being too dirty; I only hinted at the outré stuff without actually going into it. I'm at almost 25,500 words. Tomorrow morning the guy is coming back, so I went tonight to work and got my computer so I can work at home tomorrow. The release is slipping a week so it shouldn't be a big deal.

Saturday -- again, as long as I allow myself to sleep as late as I need to (since it's the only day of the week I can do so) and perform a minimum of errands before getting to my office, I wind up sitting down to work between 11:00 and 11:30. Perhaps part of the issue is that the neighborhood is so pleasant early in the morning, and my office is do dreary. It's very dark during the morning and gets increasingly brighter, due to reflected light, during the day. An hour before sunset the room is brilliantly lit by sun reflecting off the walls of the airshaft, even though it never shines directly into the room. Then the sun goes behind a row of trees across the street and suddenly the room becomes twilit again. So when I begin work in the morning I'm bound to turn on lights. I imagine that during the winter the problem will be much worse, since the sun will not climb high enough even to reach into the airshaft and will set behind the buildings across the street earlier. Plus,...

Friday of a long holiday weekend. I should have come straight here to the office after leaving work, but I felt some resistance. In fact, I spoke of it last night to A.: I said "I actually don't want tomorrow to be Friday because I don't feel like working on my book already." After I left work I went home, took a shower, tried and failed to nap, and left the house; but even then I drove around unwilling to go straight to my writing office. Nevertheless, I drove up the block, and there was no parking place, and I felt vaguely hungry, so I finally drove to Noe Valley and had something to eat at Pomodoro, a chain Italian restaurant on the corner of 24th and Noe. It's cheap but good, and neighborhoody enough that I don't feel bad about going in there wearing only a t-shirt (while I would never wear just a t-shirt to Bar Bambino). After eating I felt more like working, so I came to my office at Bob's house. I have a couple of hours to make a few notes, and then...

I didn't get right back to it. My head of steam, such as it was, wore off and instead of getting right back to it, I did something else -- exercised and watched baseball on television, or did not exercise and still watched television. Then during the week I found myself feeling a little bit creatively tired and even depressed. I brought my laptop to work most days but I found myself resistant to thinking about the book or even opening the notes file. Friday came, and I found myself busy at work and with things to do during the evening, so I did not fuck off and come over to my office to write. So while I worked for four different days last week, this week will have only two. And I'm getting a late start today, a muggy Saturday where the fog never quite burns off but forms a glary haze. I woke up reasonably early but because I was determined not to spend time sleeping during the day -- because I have to knock off in late afternoon and go see A. -- I stayed in bed and slept until...

Early start -- 10:50, anyway. A sunny, warm day with a cool breeze -- perfect summer weather. Me in my little green cave (the office is painted green; when I finish this book, I want to repaint it so it's not quite as underwater-feeling). I feel like starting something fresh. Instead of doing the scene about Bart's first time, told at the party -- which I am having trouble getting a feel for -- I want to attack from a different angle, write a dialogue scene between the travelers. Above all, change the tone. The idea will be to show some character traits through dialogue, with a little exposition along the way. It's also important to introduce a constant sexual tone, not just from the narrator, but from the others. I'll read a little Henry Miller to prepare.

Late Friday afternoon -- I came to my office at Bob's a little before 4:00. I want to think just a little about this section, then lie down. Random thoughts about Bart: He is a GEEK, he must be strange, but he is also a SUCCESS. He is not immature. As shown by his attraction to Jennifer, he seems to like women who are very straight -- or maybe that's just one of the types he finds attractive. I should think about why he was attracted to Jennifer, the annoying super-straight HR manager, and not Stella, the kooky San Francisco girl. Perhaps Stella is too similar to all the girls who are naturally attracted to him, whereas Jennifer, strangely enough, represents -- not a challenge, but something different. Similarly, he has also had an affair with the bored wife of a Chinese-American dry cleaner. In fact, taken together, all these represent a quirky, eclectic bunch, even if alone set against American culture they are anonymous and straight. Hmm, that's kind of an interesting id...

I'm thinking that I should try doing something a little different for Bart's story of how he got laid the first time. I can have a little more dialogue and give-and-take between Hap and Bart, and I can also stage it in an interesting place -- M.'s parties, I'm thinking. That will allow me to relate backstory as well as create this Bay Area atmosphere. Keep in mind that M.'s parties were a pre-dotcom phenomenon. They were more related to the RDBMS- and aerospace-heavy high tech industry of the early and mid-90s than they are to the dotcom era. Make that clear. So let's see... Who should I use (from my own history) for Bart's first? Has to be somebody young and impressionable... J., or that noisy little Berkeley girl with the jewfro. Yeah, that's it. Bart can tell this story to Hap at the party and they can have a big laugh over it. Then I can immediately transition to them standing at the dock the next morning ready to board the ferry. This means there wi...

I was listening to the sports radio program this morning and I thought, I should have a character -- either Greg or Don -- just talk like Gary Radnich, where everything is a sort of catch phrase or sports cliché offered in an ironic tone. It's a good template for an aggressive man who needs to be in control. Somehow I feel it's better for Greg than for Don because I feel Don doesn't exert power that way. I put a few words to the end of chapter 2 and this afternoon wrote a paragraph about Bart to begin chapter 3. I thought he would be a stronger character to continue with than Seth. And I quickly decided that I could begin with a sex story about the first time he got laid. But I need to figure out a little about that. When I wrote the sentence "he real reason he stuck around long after the faculty had run out of things to teach him was that it took him that long to get laid" I drew a slight blank and I realized I had to do some thinking about it. However, the bit I...