Mentally Exhausted....

*Warning – if you're a reader of Target, this post is like a MEGA spoiler for things to come toward the end of the book, so if you don't want big, heaping details (or at least hints) – come back another day*

I just finished writing 8 pages of sex. I should feel ecstatic, but in all actuality, I'm just exhausted. Mentally exhausted. Now, you may wonder why the hell 8 pages of sex was so difficult. Well, this wasn't just any run of the mill sex scene. This was a threesome.

I tell ya, the logistics of 2 people are easy. But add that 3rd person and it becomes a little bit like strategizing. (Don't even get me started on the 4-some sex scene I've still got to write!) It's inevitable at times, but you never want one of the characters just sitting back and not doing anything. Heh, then add to the mix that they're all guys…and then you get lost in a sea of: he said/he moved/he turned. If you're not careful, you can lose track of which he is doing what! Luckily this is written in 1st person, so that only left me to deal with 2 he's.

Even though I've tried to add the foreshadowing of this twist, I do think my readers are going to be shocked. And then they're going to be angry. Hell, I was a bit angry at my character's decisions. But trying to go over it, around it, under it…anything but through it…that didn't quite work. Things always seem to get really screwed up when I pull rank on the characters and make them do what I want them to do.

What people don't always realize, is that I'm not making these twists and turns to shock people. Really. Everything I'm doing actually has a reason and a fix. It might not be magically fixed in the next chapter – or even in this book – but it will work. Hopefully the readers will stick around to see that happen.

I've lost many readers in the past year. I've been told that it's not my writing, which is a plus (I think), but that it's the story itself. It seems that I've touched on a lot of people's personal demons…including my own. This isn't a light-hearted "beach read". No, this is more like an emotional roller coaster ride with the energizer bunny in control. It just keeps on going, and going, and going....

Anyway, 2 guy friends (I use the 'friend' term loosely for one of them) were asked about how they felt about 3-somes/4-somes – in regard to this story/situation. I'd expected the worst, but they surprised me by saying that it wasn't a big turn-off; to them, at least.

So, as a reader (not of my stuff, but just in general), just out of curiosity…

How do you feel when romances take on a more non-typical twist in a story?

Would it bug the hell out of you for the 2 main characters/lovers to have an encounter with another couple…and then ultimately have more of a stable, loving relationship with ½ of that other couple when that said couple didn't quite work out and parted ways?

A few thoughts/questions for any writers out there…

Do you ever worry (perhaps obsessively) about the plot twists and turns in your work?

Have you ever not taken a direction in a story because you were afraid your readers wouldn't be able to accept it? Not necessarily in regard to "is that in the character's mindset", but in regard to some "moral/controversial" subject?

Ever worry that you're just going to have a piece so F.U.B.A.R that you can't figure out what to do next?


Ah well, I better head off to bed and let the brain cells reorganize. I hear that's VERY important for us blondes ;)