Donna George Storey
Donna George Storey is the author of Amorous Woman (Neon/Orion), a semi-autobiographical tale of an American’s steamy love affair with Japan (see the provocative book trailer here). Her short fiction has been published in over ninety journals and anthologies, most recently in Swing!: Adventures in Swinging by Today’s Top Erotica Writers as well as X: The Erotic Treasury, Best American Erotica, Best Women’s Erotica and Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica. She currently writes columns for the Erotica Readers and Writers Association: “Cooking up a Storey,” about her favorite topics— delicious sex, well-crafted food, and mind-blowing writing and “Shameless Self-Promotion” about book promotion for erotica writers. Read more of her work at www.DonnaGeorgeStorey.com.
How/when did you decide to become a writer?
I’ve always enjoyed creative writing. I was one of the only kids in class who smiled rather than groaned when the teacher told us we had to write a poem for homework. I continued to pour out my adolescent angst in poetry during high school, but I didn’t get serious about fiction until my mid-30’s when my first son was born and I took a break from teaching Japanese to take care of him. Something about the creative act of motherhood freed me up to take the risk of writing. My first paying publication was a memoir piece for a breastfeeding magazine!
Somehow, as I sat down at the computer during my son’s naps, I just naturally gravitated to erotic themes. Sex—and desire and power and all the other delicious things that nourish the erotic mind—have always fascinated me and I never felt that the “great” male writers expressed my experience as a woman. So it’s very empowering to give my version of the truth through my own stories.
Who or what has been your best teacher when it comes to writing?
I’ve definitely learned the most from reading the work of other writers. The Mammoth Book of International Erotica and Best American Erotica 1997 were the first two contemporary erotica books I read, and I was fascinated and inspired by the amazing variety and high quality of the writing. I wanted to do what they did, too!
Now when I read, I read as a writer, which you might think destroys the enjoyment, but I just love observing how a good writer tells her story. Even not-so-good writers teach me how to improve my craft. Sometimes when I’m stuck for an opening or an ending, I’ll open a book of Alice Munro short stories and just read several examples of how she did it. This usually helps get me over my hurdle.
Name a few references every writer should have.
I love my Synonym Finder, by J.I. Rodale. I got it from a half-price mail order bookstore about twelve years ago and I’ve consulted it for every story. For me it works better than a standard thesaurus.
Actually, I’m a bit of a how-to-write book collector so I have many favorite references, although when I’m actually writing, I lose myself in the flow and never think consciously about technique. Right now I’m reading a great book by sex therapist Jack Morin called The Erotic Mind. Morin defines eroticism as the process through which our innate capacity for arousal is shaped, focused, suppressed and expressed, in short, the way sex becomes meaningful. To me, this is exactly what erotica writers do when they write a story! This and other insights in the book are really helping me focus on my goals as a writer.
Another book I turn to regularly for inspiration is Robert McKee’s Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting. It’s nominally about screenplays—which is not my focus at all–but it’s really about what makes a compelling story. Somehow the indirect route of “watching” a good story then translating it back to fiction gives me an extra boost of good intention to do my job right.
But I know every writer has her own way to fill the well that doesn’t always involve buying more books (as you might expect, my house is jam-packed with books), so whatever works for you, keep doing it!
How/where do you do your research?
I love to read, and enjoy researching historical fiction, but for erotica hands-on research is key. The other day I was writing a story about a woman getting pleasantly groped by a stranger in a crowd, so I called over my trusty number one assistant and editor. “Honey, could you come over here and feel up my butt?” Always ready to help the cause of good erotic literature, my husband obliged. I know those teasing fingers and the resulting sensations gave my story an extra dose of authenticity.
How do you overcome writer’s block? Any suggestions?
I think writer’s block comes from the common fantasy that a truly talented writer can just sit down and type out the perfect story in one sitting. This may occasionally happen for some people, but I’ve found that my good stories are the result of a lot of rewriting. I definitely still feel anxiety when I confront a blank computer screen, but I know I need the raw material first, so I tell myself I’ll just start typing out “notes” that no one will ever see. Before long I get caught up in the story and usually get some good material. I kind of have to sneak up on writer’s block and trick it into submission—the joy of creativity will win out in the end!
Another trick for me is to focus on the idea or image that sparked the story at hand. I’d say all of my stories start with a question, a mystery, a situation that makes me feel a bit uneasy or curious to find out more. It’s a desire not unlike a sexual yearning—and the story that comes out of those questions and feelings is sort of my attempt to satisfy the yearning. What makes power play so alluring? How does swinging enrich a couple’s relationship? What new things can you see through a blindfold? My lust for knowledge usually propels me past any nasty editorial voices.
Where did the idea for “John Updike Made Me Do It” in Swing! come from?
I’ve always wanted to work with Jolie du Pre, who is a wonderful editor, so when her call for Swing! was announced I knew I wanted to send in the best work I could manage. I couldn’t write from personal experience as I often do, but the idea of swinging has intrigued me since I first read about it in the novels and stories of John Updike. Plus, my husband and I do sometimes play the “swinging game” that the couple in the story uses to amuse themselves on a long drive up to Lake Tahoe. Mixing this all up with the liberating atmosphere of a hot tub scene in the clean mountain air, I let my characters act out their long-time fantasies in a way that taught me about my own sexual and literary desires as well. The lessons never stop in erotica-writing….
How is the experience of writing a novel and a short story different?
I’d say writing a short story is like a steamy get-away with a lover at a country inn. I can throw myself into it and enjoy the nice change of pace of a little vacation, but it doesn’t impact my life beyond those few weeks.
Writing my first novel was a much more demanding effort. Amorous Woman is the story of an American woman’s love affair with Japan, but it’s also about my very intense love affair with the novel-writing process. During those six months, I ate, slept (though not much) and breathed my heroine Lydia and her erotic dalliances. I think a novel has to be more consuming because you are creating another world, another life. Another interesting aspect of writing a longer work is that my characters really did take on wills of their own. Several of them simply refused to go along with my plot outline and insisted on doing something else. Invariably, their decisions made for a richer story. So writing a novel is definitely like a long-term and very passionate affair, which eventually leads to a birth. You lose part of yourself, but you gain a nice little bundle of a book you can hold in your hands and coo at and then send out into the cold, cruel world. But that’s another story!
What is one of the nicest things a critic or fan has said about your work?
Each time someone has made the effort to compliment one of my stories, it has truly meant the world to me! I wish I could send along a picture of that big, grateful smile on my face. But when Amorous Woman came out, it really hit me how much I was asking of a reader—hours of time and attention taken from their busy lives. So I’d have to say the most touching honor has been when someone has read my novel twice and said they enjoyed it even more the second time!
What makes your writing different from your peers? What kind of reading experience can you give your audience?
For the good or the bad, I tend to write stories that I believe could happen in real life with the bounds of my sensibility. That means satisfying sex usually happens between people who know each other well or at least make a friendly emotional connection beforehand. But within those limits, there’s plenty of room for pushing boundaries and exploring the darker side of eros. I also hope to leave my readers aroused intellectually as well as physically, with lingering questions as well as a warm tingling feeling down there. To this end, I spend a lot of time on every element of my story—realistic plot, careful word choice and patterns of imagery, humor, realistic characters, sex that goes beyond cliché. I don’t always succeed, but I do always break a sweat trying! My readers deserve nothing less.
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