The Pink Elephant in the Room

All the time I’ve been writing my current WIP, in the back of my mind is this little niggling voice wondering about how believable a story is this. This may not be of concern to many, but to me it is, because I like to write fiction that is so real I’d like my readers to walk away from my work and think…Yeah, that could happen….

We’ve all heard the statement “truth is stranger than fiction,” and I feel that applies in this case.

People are strange.

We really are. Out in public, most of us seem pretty normal.

But how are we in private?

What weird little things do we all do that we hope most never see?

The more I learn about people the weirder it gets.

I was recently talking to some guys who used to work in commercial Internet/satellite provider work. What they told me totally changed my mind about what I wrote. About the private, in-the-darkness actions the characters in my WIP do.

These ex-installers told me they’d been called to homes that were in utter filth. Dirty underwear thrown behind dressers and couches…underwear that literally had feces in them.

Sex toys found around and behind furniture.

Women in various stages of undress…flirting and going after them.

Stupid and annoying “parents” who let their stupid and annoying progeny harass them, messing around in their tools (even stealing them).

Dogs let loose to bite and go after them as they worked.

Now, throw in all the stories you’ve ever read about the weird and perverted proclivities of Humankind I’m not even going to write about, it so disgusts me. I’d read about ancient Rome and what some sexual practices were. Some things you just can’t unsee. Unread. It sickens me and I really wish I’d never read it. I was actually stunned that Publisher’s Weekly had put it in their article!

So, as I wrote my current WIP’s sex scenes…as I let the manuscript sit while I receive my beta reader comments, I think about all this and realize…what I wrote is nothing compared to real life. Yes, my sex scenes are intense…are explicit…but, they are not unrealistic interactions between two seemingly normal people (or “lost souls,” as Edie called one of them—I so like that term!) hiding in the dark and trying to deny their connections. Apparently 50 Shades gets pretty graphic, and my work is apparently nothing like those books…but I can still give her a run for her money!

But all the above notwithstanding, my book is about the lives of several individuals and how they’re dealing with the situation within which they find themselves entangled. The scenes are explicit for me…but they are not unrealistic. Not over the top. When I hear about how others of the Human Race apparently run their lives…shit, sex toys, idiot progeny, heinous historical sexual practices and all…my novel stands in perspective just fine.

Say “Hello” to the pink elephant for me.

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