Seductively Creepy-How I do Erotic Horror (part 2)

Thanks for joining me for the second part of this post! If you missed post one, you can find it HERE.

So as you remember, I had the need for the book (editor asked. What can I do? She’s so darn cute) and the blurb, which is like one of those hollow chocolate Easter bunnies. Look at it too closely and you can see it can’t withstand a good poke in the liver. So I had my work cut out for me.

I started the next segment the way all good pantsters do-I wrote.

I know, I know, I’ve sort of turned into a hybrid pantster/plotter. I start to write something, then I’ll stop and draw out a “W” plot graph (if you don’t know what these suckers are, here. Learn. Especially if you, like me, have a weakness in the story arc area). With this story, I had the beginning given to me in my blurb. So I ran with it.

I had a girl who’d seen her jerk boyfriend commit a murder. I had Bryerly. Who was she? How did she see what she saw?

She whispered to me a little, and I wrote it down for reference. Here it is. I referred to this a lot in the beginning, for voice:

            I shouldn’t have done what I did.

            It wasn’t necessarily wrong, but I knew that Rafe would be mad with me if I left the car.

            I never expected to see what I saw.

            The blood, the dark red spill in the moonlight, the way it covered their hands, their bodies…

            Their faces…

            No.

            I shouldn’t have done what I did.

                                                                        -Bryerly Keats.

You may notice a wee bit of similarity to a certain Bon Temps waitress type. In the beginning, there was a lot of Sookie Stackhouse in Bryerly Keats. But as the story went on, Bryerly showed me her true voice, which is a bit more educated, a bit less Southern, and a whole lot more herself. Back to the words in the quote.

Faces? Well that was unexpected. Bryerly had just made this story a whole lot more interesting. Instead of psychotic serial killer story, it was turning into something darker, more paranormal. But I still didn’t know what a Truth Keeper was. And I didn’t know what Rafe and his friends were, or why they were killing people, or why there was blood on their faces. So I wrote a little more. What I discovered surprised me. I wasn’t sure I could come up with something scary, something that would really yell HORROR as well as erotic. But in the first steps of this story, I had a dark mechanic going on for the villains. Still no motivation, but I definitely had an idea of why they were the bad guys.

When Bryerly ran into Verum, the hero, he sort of materialized in my mind. For more about Verum, make sure to see my next blog, part 3 in the “How I do Erotic Horror” series.

And don’t forget, be sure to leave a comment below! To show how much I appreciate each and every one of my blog commenters, I’ll be adding each of your names from now until SINFUL TRUTH releases (April 20th!) into a hat. Comment on multiple blog posts? You’ll receive multiple entries. The winner will be selected via Random.org, and will receive a Scarily Good Gift plus a free ebook copy of SINFUL TRUTH!  So comment below and share with your friends!

Tags: author, Bryerly, drama, ellora's cave, entertainment, erotic, erotic horror, Erotica, horror, plot graph, Publishing, regina cole, research, The "W" Plot, Verum, W plot, writer, writing, Writing for the market