My Book

I didn't have work all week. It was nice to get some time off and focus on myself for a while. I hit the gym for several hours over the course of the week and started working with a trainer again.

I've also been working on my erotic novel I've been writing for a few years. It's 9 chapters long. Each chapter is between 10 and 17 'Microsoft Word' pages long.

I'm an avid reader. When I was young I was reading well above grade level, but by the time I'd reached high school, I kind of leveled off. I ran out of good books to read in my school's tiny library. I also had memberships at other libraries, but I kind of stopped going.

Anyway, I remember sitting in my grade 12 English class and being so frustrated because no book could hold my attention like it used to. I'd get half way through a novel and be bored of it. Books about "teen issues" were lame and written by middle aged people who didn't seem to know what it was like. Harlequin books were equally as lame and the main characters were too old, or the language it was written in was boring, not sexy. I didn't enjoy science fiction.

That never used to happen, me getting bored of a book. Once I started a book I didn't stop until I was through.

But something good came out of this situation... an idea popped into my head.

Since I didn't enjoy reading any of the books being offered to me, why don't I make my own? I decided I'd write my own novel. I'd write this perfect dream story, especially designed for me. It would include all the things I was interested in: sex, drugs, romance, drama.

I actually spent a lot of time preparing to write this book. By the time I'd graduated, I'd created several character bios for all the important characters in my book. I mapped out a sort of family tree so I knew who was connected to each character and how they knew each other.

I thought out my basic story line and the message I wanted to get across in my novel. I created a few subplots and made sure I knew where each one was going and how it was going to relate to my my story.

I broke down what was going to happen in each chapter and made point form notes to keep me on track.

It's been 5 years and I'm still not done. I haven't been working on it continuously, so every time I blow the dust off of it, I have to re-read everything I've written, make changes, and edit it all over again, before adding what happens next. It can take a while considering it just gets longer each time I put it down and pick it up again.

It's my baby. When I'm done, I might try and publish it, but I'm not sure how to go about it. I didn't write it to appease a specific genre or to make money. I'd call my novel an "erotic teen romance." All my characters are 17 because I was in high school when I started to create it, but there are graphic sex scenes. I wrote it to please myself, so I guess older female teens would be most interested in reading it too. I posted a few sections online for feedback and was surprised to see that a 12 year old had been reading my work. She sent me a comment saying she liked reading this kind of stuff, but mine was different because the characters were closer to her age and she could relate better.

It made me uncomfortable knowing such a young girl was reading such adult material, but I'm glad I could make a connection I guess. Plus, I was the same way at her age, so it's not like it's that abnormal.

I was also thinking that I'd just pay to print 50 copies, give them away to my friends and donate some to libraries, that way I could share my story with others and it wouldn't be about money or royalties, or publishers or agencies.

How can you put a price on intellectual property, anyway? I'll sign my name at the bottom and that's all the credit I need.