Michael Pyrite

#WritersCoffeeClub 10. How informal is your prose? Is there a limit to informality?

Book 1 opening sentence: "I'm Mike."

In school, my prose was more formal and flowery.

Today, I'm just happy if my smutty romance doesn't sound like an engineering specification.

For book 4 WIP, which opens with "i'm Audrey", I will have to relearn writing skills I forgot, and learn new ones.

#erotica #romance

#PennedPossibilities 952. How do you use social media as an author?

I got on social media to promote my smutty novella.

But I refuse to join the social media apps that most readers are said to be on.

On less-popular social media apps, I met some nice writers. And some naked people, which I'm calling research.

#erotica #romance

#WordWeavers 8. How do you approach stereotypes while creating characters?

We know that Audrey identifies as "queer," but if she fits a stereotype, it's not one I know.

"The Problematic Audrey series" WIP stories develop that more.

Mike is a stereotypical young man, in that he's simpler than some of the women Audrey has loved. But he surprises her sometimes. And he doesn't want Audrey to think of him like all the men who are wrapped around her finger. Though he is.

#erotica #romance

#EroticMusings 41. Are you self-taught, or have you been trained or mentored in your craft? Would you like more?

New writer. Only basic education. I don't think the nuns intended for me to write excessively smutty romance.

#erotica #romance

#WordWeavers 5. What's the most supportive/uplifting thing you heard related to writing?

Personally, the first review I received, for my first novella.

Despite the limitations of my skill, the reviewer seemed to understand what I was trying to do, and was very kind.

They said only good things, though I'm sure they noticed many flaws.

I really needed that, 'post-partum'.

(Now I'm not stuck on writing enthusiasm, but on non-AI covers, before I finish more books or get in more stores.)

#WordWeavers 4. When was the last time your MC lied? Why?

Not all the real-life influences for the MCs had the same ideas about honesty, and I had to decide for book 1 how complicated to make that. I decided both MCs would be strictly honest.

But when sketching a subsequent book in the series, lying and cheating happened. Mistake. People who liked the wholesome but horny MCs of book 1 would be betrayed. I destroyed the sketch.

In book 3 WIP, FMC fibs and tricks, but for a good reason.

#WritersCoffeeClub 4. Share a recent experience where something just 'clicked'.

I removed a coherent set of scene ideas from book 1, because they didn't fit well.

They could be a start on a separate short of the same MCs, which I wanted to write, but that seemed to want to be an alternate timeline of book 1. Book 2 already went to that well.

Clicked: I could re-explore the book 1 story *from the other MC's narrator perspective*, using the new scenes instead of rehashing book 1's.

#WordWeavers 2. Do you write scenes out of order? If so, how do you decide their arrangement?

So far. Not only one chapter at a time, but notes for each chapter, fleshed out (erotica pun) incrementally in parallel. Chapters are shuffled around. Details move between chapters.

Book 1 order was mostly increasing intimacy. Also SC breakup, and a house move.

Book 3 WIP order has more constraints of who is where, when, and what they know then. Also increasing intimacy. Some bumped to book 5 WIP.

#PennedPossibilities 25. Has your MC ever snooped in a friend or partner’s house?

That's one of FMC's naughty things to do, and it's not only curiosity, but thrilling to her.

MMC narrator refers to it in passing in book 1. Now that you reminded me, I'm banking that trait to move the plot forward in book 4 or 5.

#WordWeavers 26. Who in your book is most like a real person you've loved irl?

Audrey is fictional, but influenced by at least a dozen people I've known, including the original inspiration, who I loved, and a few ex-girlfriends.

I'm a new writer, and I wonder whether it's *too* easy for me to imagine what Audrey would do or say in a situation.

Is she believable and likable? Am I describing her well enough?

A kind Amazon reviewer said they liked the character, which gave me hope.