I would say the hardest part for me to write about the opposite sex are the physical and emotional responses in intimacy. As I am a woman, I obviously have never experienced being inside a man’s body, so, I have spoken with men I know well and asked them to describe to me some of the sensations and thoughts they experience during arousal.
My writing has not changed since my first publication, but my editing process certainly has. Though I had edited before, I had not done so on my own works since finishing university; therefore, the bulk of my editing experience came from scientific proposals and final reports, which is completely different than fiction. Editing one’s own work is exceptionally difficult, because the brain remembers what was meant to be said.
I actually write because I have found life to be an emotional draining and stressful pursuit. Writing actually relaxes and re-centers me.
That being said, the best advice I could give any aspiring writers is to just write! Get it out on paper; then worry about the quality during the editing process. First drafts are also called rough drafts for a reason, so don’t cut off the creative process off at the neck- once it is out, one can then rearrange and correct.
I have always enjoyed the writing process for as long as I can remember. Nevertheless, the bulk of my writing when I was younger was spurred by my education. Indeed, I was on of “those†students who enjoyed writing book reports, essays, and research papers all the way through university. However, after I finished school, I didn’t write much at all anymore, and very rarely had written fiction before that.
That all changed when I began writing during an exceptionally stressful and difficult time in my life. A story idea popped into my head in January, 2016, so I decided to run with it, and the rest, as they say, is history.
