Sunday, August 30, 2015

Sex is a big idea, it turns out.

I'm going to be finishing Bren's critique of The Blood of the Succubus today, and I have to admit the book is improved.

I had thought it was already ready, and now it's more ready, but...

I have some ideas.

Sex is a pretty big idea, it turns out.  Lots of ramifications.

The original idea was that the Three Daughters of Lilith, the Succubae: Eisheth, Naamah, and Agrat Bat wander the earth to tempt man and drain him of his lifeforce. A group of men and women try to stop them.

So what about women? Are evil women temptresses a harmful stereotype? How about aggressive men? What about gays? When is sex wrong?  What about....so much more...

I'd sort of decided not to address many of those ramifications in an effort to keep things simple, but I'm beginning to think there is no way to avoid them. I at least have to say something.

Anyway, I've thought of a whole bunch of historical flashback chapters I can write, and a few new current chapters that won't disrupt the continuity too much. These should provide information, answer questions, but most of all add some depth and complexity to the story.

It's daunting.

There are so many landmines in this story that I probably can't escape at least some censure for getting something wrong in one way or another.  Not just the appropriateness of the sex, but more dangerously, the sexual politics. I'm bound to get the political correctness wrong, just because gender politics are so fraught.

It would be so much easier to let the book go the way it is.  It's "Good Enough" but that's just it -- I told myself going into this whole writing gig that I wouldn't let those words be my scale of success.  "Good Enough" isn't good enough.

So I'm sort of bound to do this further rewrite.

There is a added bonus of making this book longer, and I need to start writing longer books.

The advantage is the 90% of it is new material, and I do like writing new material.  There will be some adjustments, but hopefully the puzzle won't fall apart.

So off I go, doing something I hadn't planned on. Which pretty much describes my writing career.



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