Establishing interior

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William Blake Bradbury

For the past month or so, I've been churning out pages and gelling for a 7,000-word memoir essay. It's about my experiences as an asexual. I don't know whether to divide the story into two parts: how I became an asexual and the after-effects, or to just stick with the after-effects, which involve me dating a bi-sexual with a voracious sexual appetite. I've encountered several problems with the writing of this essay. The first, and foremost, is: being a non-sexual, I don't how you sexual creatures would relate to this piece, so I don't know how much style to pour on, what you folks would find interesting. Secondly, I can't figure out how to establish an interior monologue, mostly because there are so many reasons why I'm an asexual: cowardice, trauma, compulsion, religion, instinct. How do you tell a story about a person whose life-style is quite literally the opposite of every person on the planet, even eunuchs? I've written hundreds of pages trying to work this out and writing this essay is all I've been thinking about for the past month and a half. I didn't want to come and ask you guys for help, because I wanted to churn out a fully written essay and surprise you. But I'm stymied by so many questions: how graphic should I be? Should I use mostly dialogue? Is this of interest only to me? I'd really appreciate some serious, direct, frank feedback. Can this essay possibly be written?:kiss
 

William Blake Bradbury

To give you an idea of what I'm going through...

...here are 10 of more than 100 opening sentences I've written:

When I was a freshman at Nabisco Tech, I fell in love with a girl who wore Mickey Mouse shoes.

As we leave the emu farm, I notice that, once again, my mother's hand is on my ass.

It all started with the underwear: I stopped wearing any.

Whenever I tell people I'm an asexual, they usually say one of two things:

1) What, you're an hermaphrodite, like them lizards in Africa?

2) Does that mean you stay home and jack off on Friday night?

The only person I've ever seen naked is my gay psychology professor.

The day after I see my gay psychology professor naked, I'm up on the roof of St. Paul's cathedral, wondering: If I jump, will I shatter my knees on those stone scallops, or fall all the way to the sidewalk below?

Let's face it, people love to suffer.

People tend to give the NFTA bus - a dun-colored breadbox with rheumatic axels - a wide berth, as though it were a ghost ship on the high seas, oarred by the Damned and captained by Satan himself.

I'm mean. Mean as a drunk three days sober and feeling the knife of it between tooth and gum.

Oi :head
 

veingloree

Re: To give you an idea of what I'm going through...

I don't know if it would be helpful to see how other writers deal with this topic but I believe Keri Hulme (award winning author of 'the Bone People') has writen about being an asexual.
 

William Blake Bradbury

BRILLIANT

BRILLIANT BRILLIANT BRILLIANT BRILLIANT BRILLIANT BRILLIANT BRILLIANT BRILLIANT:jump :rollin :party :snoopy :thumbs :hail :clap :hug :b
 

Yeshanu

Re: BRILLIANT

William,

Any one of those ten opening sentences would work.

My suggestion:

Write the piece. Don't censor yourself. Fix it in second draft, when you find out what it is.

This is such an intensely personal subject that I don't think the outline-then-write approach would work.

I'd be willing to do crit on it once it's done. I won't be excessively bothered by the subject area, that I can promise you.

And as to your question, "Is this of interest only to me?"

No. There are others out there who would be interested in reading it. That I know.

Ruth
 

Cary

Re: BRILLIANT

You go Billy boi.Of course folks would be interested...especially If they arent 'asexual'.People are inherantly nosy, thats purely a bonus.Write in your most comfortable style.Say what you want to say.Ill read It.Heh..:b What do you mean you dont know how us 'sexual creatures' would relate?? We can relate to anything honey!! The world is our oyster...no pun intended.Be graphic (we can take It), lots of dialogue is good.Intro? I liked the line statring as,'It all started with the underware'.Intriquing.;)
Carybelle
 

William Blake Bradbury

*

Thank you so very much for your truly heartening advice, Cary. I wanted to write a memoir that was both literary and joyously profane (something like if Kevin Smith ever decided to tell his life story), but I couldn't figure out any soft way to open up my readers, and a league of journalists (all mossy, arcane, barnacle-ridden), stoutly informed me that the average reader needs to be eased into a story, but there's so much to tell, that that has to be the opening. But I have been heartily encouraged to go with my instincts. Thank you, thank you, thank :kiss you. I promise to get it to you guys n' gals as swiftly and sweetly as possible. It'll be about 7,000 words (that's a full length essay) and I promise you a tartly comic and subliminally murky story. Thanks again, y'all :snoopy
 

Cary

Billy !!!

Hey Bubba !! Cant never go wrong If ya go with the 'instinct' !!! How come the intro has to be soft ?? Probably the same one who said the average reader likes to be eased into a story !! (And yet that could still be true..)
Me ?? I wanna be tossed in, the deep end, in cold, cold water an shiver with delight !!! 'Barnacle-ridden' Ha !!! I love that noodle of yours !!!! Lookin forward to new literary delights !!!! Love an suckermarks, Carybelle
 
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