How They Scored

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...

How They Scored is now on sale from the Lulu Print on Demand website. They produce a nice product, and it's a book I'm proud of. Buy the book. It's funny, sexy, and you're probably in it.

Second full day in Chicago. I didn't get much done yesterday; I was feeling kind of sleepy. I managed to go through a number of Christy's comments, but I didn't even finish them. Actually, Christy's individual comments are not what I'm concerned about; most of them deal with small issues and are easily dealt with. What I'm concerned about is the rewriting I have to do, and yesterday I didn't do any of it. One of the scenes that needs reworking is the story about "Cara" in chapter 10. I based it entirely on C___, and I think it's too close to reality. What I have is a French immigrant who wanted to be monogamous and I have put in all the intimate details of her sexuality. I need to change the former so I can keep the latter. It doesn't matter that the character be a French immigrant, what matters are the compelling details of her body and her sexuality. Since I have a few hours free, I'll try doing that now. 7:00 -- I made it all the wa...

I'm in a hotel in downtown Chicago, and will have a few days here to work on HOW THEY SCORED. It's a version of the retreats I've taken in past years -- almost always in December or right before or after New Year's -- to work on or finish books. The difference here is that I'm staying in the hotel room of A., who is in Chicago to attend a conference. ... Since I finished the first draft 12 days ago, I haven't worked on the book at all, except for a couple of hours yesterday. Christmas intervened, and before that it was the tech manual project that refused to die, so that my initial plan of taking much of the week before Christmas to goof off and work on this book was a complete bust. It was a good thing I finished it on the 15th, because I sure didn't get a chance to even look at it between the 15th and the 26th. Well, the break was good. It occurs to me that one of the weaknesses of the book is that the whole theme of privacy and security is not integrated ...

I should totally finish the first draft today. I'm just not really up for it. As I just wrote on my blog, as part of several hours of work-avoidance: I meant to finish the first draft of HOW THEY SCORED last weekend, but I stopped a couple of pages short. I didn't want to rush into it, and -- typical -- I had to be somewhere in the early evening, so I cut my writing day short. Then I thought I would be able to grab a few hours during the week, ideally on Monday, and finish. It was only a few pages. But instead I got utterly hammered at work. In my 12 years in the high tech industry, I don’t think I've ever been as snowed under as I was this week. In fact, I'm seriously considering going in to work on Sunday just to get a head start on the next week. ... Meanwhile, I read a little piece of this book I'm working on for the first time last night to a few people at a dinner. It was a very interesting experience. When you're reading out loud you can instantly tell wh...

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...

Man, really hard to get started today. I wore myself out a little bit yesterday, perhaps. It's after 3:00 already, and in the three hours I’ve been here at my office at Bob's, all I've done is a little additional cleanup of the reorganization of chapters 10-12. At this point I can either: write the long bit on Hap's marriage to Cara (I did decide to spell it with a C, other notations notwithstanding) or: go on in chapter 12, which is where I am. I really should do the latter. I think the Cara thing will have to require special circumstances, such as me taking a whole day off work and going to a motel or something. OK, so onward in chapter 12. They've just eaten dinner and the chickens are about to come home to roost. I had a moment today when I thought -- maybe it should be Don who gives the "Citizen Kane" speech. But no -- Denny has clearly been established as the person who makes film references. Note on (c) from December 1 -- "Hap finds himself re...

I'm working at home one more day. Since I have a date tonight, I don't want to be gone all day. Tomorrow I'll try to work from my office at Bob's, where I haven't worked in like three weeks. I had this thought the other day: Once Don directly asks Hap to recruit Bart, instead of the way I have it now where Hap goes straight to Bart and does that, it should go like this: Hap should do everything he can to keep from doing what Don wants. He runs the other way because he already doesn't like the Dreedle idea. But the comedy is that Bart actually asks Hap for advice, and does it in a way that Hap finds himself talking about the advantages of joining Dreedle. Then later, even though he's tried to do nothing to encourage it, when Bart does announce he’s joining Dreedle, Hap gets credit for it. So in summary: a. Don asks Hap to recruit Bart. b. Hap doesn't like the idea, and does the opposite. c. Hap finds himself doing it despite himself. d. Hap gets credit fo...

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...

Since writing the above list of scenes, I've felt both constrained and energized by it, to the point that I do little thinking about how to go forward except to work out how to get those scenes on paper. By now, at the beginning of chapter 11, I've covered 1 through 3 and also 5. I guess I need to do 4 next. Of course, I also have to work in the sex... This is also a period when I'm stuck at home. Cris got ankle surgery two days ago and I'm home taking care of her. It's just as well, in a way, since B. has family at his house; he warned me last weekend that it would be noisy and difficult to work there. Yesterday was Saturday and I only did a few hundred words. I told myself that it was all right, that things would work out so I would be able to get things done. Even more important than sheer progress is not to get too anxious at this point.   I wrote, basically, one scene all weekend: 11a, in which I covered point 3 above. The next thing I have to do is point 4, or...

Went to bed early! Woke up early! -- it's 7:24 a.m. and I'm getting at least a three hour head start. Of course I'll probably have to stop three hours early too, but at least I'll get something done. I went to C_____ last night for a reception for F 1 , who is relocating to London while continuing to work for the press. I chatted with F 2 about the book, and I was relieved to find her still very enthusiastic about it. In fact, she gave me leave to include at least one bdsm scene, and when I told her that one of the characters was a network nerd at chain.com, she said that sounded perfect. So that gives me an opportunity to open things up a little. I also talked to the women who is doing promotions for them about promoting the book when it is released. I got a chance to tell her I wanted to be very involved, share costs, and generally do everything I could to promote it, and she was receptive. Now if I can only remember her name. I need to look at my outline to see where...

I got an idea for the resolution of the book. My idea up to now has been to have Denny hold out an alternative job idea to Hap and then yank it away at the last minute. Tonight I had an idea of how that could happen. Denny, the former film student, starts talking about the scene in Citizen Kane where Joseph Cotton passes out drunk at the typewriter and Kane finishes his brutal review of Susan's opera debut. When Cotton wakes up, he's told "Mr. Kane is finishing your piece the way you started it.... I guess that'll show you." And then Kane fires him. And Denny goes on to say something that compares him yanking the job away from Hap to that -- something about loyalty to him and not to the friendship... or vice versa.

Sunday. Yesterday I did 2500 words -- though that figure is cheating slightly, since I had done 300 of those during the week but did not count it as a working session -- and by the end of the day I still had a whole social evening to go to (of course I had to stop early because of it). And by the end of that I was completely exhausted. I decided to skip church this morning and sleep in, and I was glad I did, since I slept til 9:00. I'm in the middle of chapter 9 and I'm about to do the first sex story told by Don. There might be only this one from him. I'm over 55,000 words.

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)...

So, that day on the train was a bust in terms of writing my book -- aside from getting to read as much of "Sexus" as I wanted to. I got most of the way through it. Now I'm staying at home today, Saturday, instead of going to Bob's house, because Cris isn't here and it's less hassle than getting over there, given that I have to stop early AGAIN. This time because I have symphony tickets and I have to get dressed and meet Anna for dinner beforehand. OK, THINK ABOUT THE BOOK.