My wife had loads of boyfriends. Thirty years later I don't think about them writhing together, moaning and sweating. I do all that myself, and better when shared.
It's not about the plot. Whether it's modeled after Grease or R&J doesn't change its originality, but it does change it's level of gravitas, and as a result, how seriously I take the plot and characters. I was also joking about Grease.
It needs to be written with abandon, really get inside the eyes of your female character. All the reasoning for behaviour is tiresome, I want to inhale her lust for life, and fuck those hairybeards, two-ways.
I tend to agree. The way I've got it in my head is that they won't sleep together until right at the end of the book, once they've dealt with everything else. He's coming off the back of a bad relationship as well as being a quiet, introverted kid. I agree that he wouldn't try to shame her for her past, but equally he wants to be sure that this is the real thing before they get into bed. How this interacts is that I think that when she tries to just jump into bed with this handsome, artistic black kid and he says no and goes a bit cold on her for a while. By the time they patch it up she's grown a bit and doesn't push the issue, just enjoys what they have and finds herself just enjoying that more than she expected; she's not straining at the leash, they just have a really nice night together and she finds she doesn't feel like she's missing something by them just kissing and cuddling. Then finally by the end they've figured out the rest (overcome Oz's violent streak) and they sleep together and it's all it's cracked up to be. He's a sweet kid and definitely a romantic who's doesn't care what happened before they met but he's not a push over. He'll stand up to her even when she's being physically aggressive (not to him but to others when he's around) and that hits her more than she imagined; he can just tell her to stop and she really feels the impact from that. Obviously he's not the main character here, and we don't see his point of view (Oz is narrating remember) but it'll be an early point of conflict that he doesn't want to just jump into bed with her. Oz figuring out why it matters to him to wait and how that pays off in the end is a big part of her growth. I don't see Marcus changing all that much on that point. His arc is more to the other way; he needs to learn to trust her. He first meets her when she's sketching something he painted and that's the side of her that he initially likes; she asks him to show her the other things he's painted and they bond over that. That's why he wants to give her a chance, because she's someone that does connect with him in a different way too even if she does have some rough edges that he doesn't like. In the broad strokes; she helps him have some more fun and he helps her bring out the more positive, creative side of her. And finally, when they've been through everything else (ex-girlfriends, Oz's previous conquests, gang tension etc) they'll have a moment when they see that this is something that's going to work and finally they'll have their first time in the sack. None of this is set in stone, obviously, I haven't written any of this and I haven't explored the characters at all yet, so some of this maybe contradictory or otherwise poorly thought out because I haven't tried those thoughts through the characters yet, but that's how I'm thinking about it right now.
Oz farted. As ever, her dungarees swelled and then they subsided. Over the other side of the room, Marcus gripped his paintbrush and completed his watercolour 'Motorbike & The Tiger.' The motorbike in the bedroom, a major issue of contention in the relationship. Or was sex the motorbike in the bedroom? It was difficult to say, exactly. Still, through thirty-eight years of marriage, Oz, as she was known performed random acts of sexual pleasure upon strangers. Whilst, his side of the room, Marcus attended to his artistic sensibility. One day their worlds would collide.
May I make the suggestion that you actually start writing? I suspect that once your characters emerge from your head and onto the computer screen, they'll start developing for you in a believeable way. The important thing is get them interacting. Don't worry about starting at the beginning of the story. Maybe start at the beginning of their interaction instead. Write the moment they first meet, and see how it goes. You might find that Marcus is a more forthright personality than you're envisioning him to be. Somebody who acts more than is acted upon, if you know what I mean. They have different personalities, but neither one 'needs' the other, as they are both strong characters and think they know what they want. Nor is either one afraid of the other, or afraid of offending the other? Maybe work along those lines? Make them surprise each other? Or intrigue each other? In my opinion NOTHING is sexier than noticing and being noticed. The notion that somebody is paying more attention to YOU than to anybody else. Or somebody that you are always aware of when they are around, even to the extent that you make a show of ignoring them just to prove to yourself that you can. Or maybe to see if they'll try to speak to you or attract your attention. Whatever the motive, conscious or unconscious, you're aware of everything they do? The opposite of love isn't really hate, it's indifference. Try really hard to make them matter to each other, right from the start. Not in the sense of love at first sight, but in the sense of hyper awareness at first sight. Awareness at the level that makes them able to communicate easily ...even if they don't agree. They may not agree, but they 'get' the other person. But at any rate, try to start actually writing. Again, you can fill in the other details later, go back and write the start of the story, or whatever. The background about the dads, the gang, etc. But get those two together, written down, in a vividly imagined scene ...anywhere in the story ...and see how they develop. I think it's a very important thing to do. They are bound to surprise you and delight you. Have fun. I think you've got the makings of a very strong story here.
Coupling is fucking brilliant. I went out and got all four seasons on DVD. The writing is incredibly sharp. Although Season 4 was kind of lame without Jeff. And yeah, the American version was utter garbage. All hail the Giggle Loop.
If Marcus legitimately has a lower sex drive than Juliet, then I agree that this is going to be a hard story to find a happy resolution for. But I don't think choosing to be monogamous/celibate automatically means a lower sex drive. Does it? You've already gender-flipped once - why not try gender flipping back again and see how it works? If we have a male character who has traditionally slept around, but falls in love and decides to settle down with a single woman, I think that can work fine as long as the new, monogamous relationship is sexually satisfying. If the single woman just isn't that into sex, I don't think the relationship has a good chance at working. But I don't think it's that hard to understand how a male character could have been physically satisfied with a string of one-night stands but then find himself emotionally committed to a single woman. We see it pretty often in fiction. Often there's a bit of an internal struggle with the male character really not wanting to settle down but finding himself so emotionally drawn to the woman that he can't resist. And then of course sex with her is so mind-blowing that he doesn't miss what he gave up. I don't see any reason why this can't work in reverse.
Of course it could work that he's emotionally committed to one woman but takes care of his physical needs elsewhere. "it wouldn't hurt her if she doesn't know" as Bryan Adams said or like the old joke that the secret for a successful marriage is that its good to have a woman who cooks and cleans, its great to have a woman who is your intellectual equal and best friend, its amazing to have a woman who's satisfies your every need in bed, but its absolutely 'king critical that these women don't find out about each other
Teens are encouraged to go there if they're high risk all the time. Just being honest. If he sleeps with her without knowing if she's clean, I would throw the book.
No @BV, she likes sex, it is the boy who is shy. Possibly, I think a religious conversion conclusion. Oz dedicates her body to Marcus & Christ & to motorbikes. The final scene they deliver bagels to homeless people, from the pillion, later channel sexual energy through worship. I see him as a TV evangelist, her, a homemaker. The eleven children play 'soccer.'
May be the motorbike is powered by sexual energy thus solving the worlds fuel crisis through.... the power of love (breaks into song)
@LostThePlot, I would suggest you just start writing the story. You have the basic premise outlined and you have a fair understanding of your character's mindset to begin unpacking and exploring her story. She will reveal more of herself as the story goes along. Trust her to show you where she needs to go and what she needs to learn. If you try to plan every single little detail of her motivation and emotional journey then it might be hard to maintain that element of spontaneity that gives any story its nuance and life. I would argue it's impossible to know ahead of time all of the details about a character's emotional and psychological development. You need to see what unveils itself along the writing process in order to inform future growth.
That's pretty much what I've got in mind. He's not the kind of guy that she'd normally be attracted to; he's just not got the same kind of brash, obvious charm or the instinct for mischief. He won't try to impress her the way that she expects boys to either. For him he knows her connection to the bikers right off the start because she's wearing her dad's cut and that's not something he's keen to get involved with. But she doesn't even talk about that, they go through each others sketch books and just talk and both find themselves enjoying just that rather a lot more than they expected. She has more depth than he thought, he's just as charming he just doesn't shout about it. He doesn't have a low sex drive specifically, he just doesn't want to jump into bed with her right away. He's a different kind of guy than she's used to, he's quiet and thoughtful, but he still wants them to have a normal relationship which includes sleeping together. He just wants to get to know her first, know that they can talk and they can trust each other and once they've built that relationship he'll be more than happy to sleep with her. It's not that Oz is always horny and he isn't; it's that Oz would typically shag first and ask questions later while Marcus wants to ask questions first then shag. I agree and I genuinely didn't want to come here and pull the whole thing apart. I'm half way through editing my last book that I need to finish before I start the next one and I really just wanted to mull over the concept and see how other people reacted to the premise and the characters and just bat around how to approach writing that one aspect of a character that I don't have a lot to personally draw from. I don't plan stuff, I'm just riffing off the top of my head throughout; there is no plan beyond the set up. I'm a 'pantser' and once I'm off and doing it'll come out how it comes out. I just wanted to get the set-up clear in my head.
