Jake Stark's Blog: Jake's Progress

I've been reading a lot about Facebook ads and how they can power your spread of readership. I've seen courses running into the hundreds of pounds promising the secret to untold sales and subsequent riches.

Marketing it seems, is the key. But what if you are an incompetent in the world of self promotion?

What if your networking abilities are abysmal ?

Fortunately I am blessed with a Panglossian attitude to success and so I'm convinced that to misquote Kevin Costner "if you write it, they will buy."

But am I wrong in my assumption? Admittedly if I divided my man hours writing by my royalty cheque I would be better off picking strawberries for the local landowner. But would that give me the same satisfaction ?
Possibly not, but my mum loves making jam so there's arguments for and against

Just received a review from

Convergence book reviews. On the whole positive including this conclusion

But it tells an interesting and unique sort of story I don’t think I’ve seen anywhere else.


That's the kind of third party confirmation that cheers up a scribbler like me. Just to know what you wrote isn't complete garbage !


I'll keep writing, keep failing.

http://convergencebookreviews.com

I am anti drugs. When I was younger I used to take them - Weed, ecstasy, coke. And I have to say, I've had some wonderful adventures with the aid of narcotics. Now, twenty years later, apart from a few glasses of chilled Rioja blanco my nights of artificially induced happiness are at an end.

But what of drugs in the gay lifestyle? Gay men can now take something known as PrEP, which allows them to have unprotected sex without the danger of contracting HIV. This, combined with drugs that increase sexual desire - GHB and Ket, allow gay men in the lifestyle to have multiple partners; usually at gatherings in private houses in cities throughout Europe and America. Uber being the transport of choice, they travel from apartment to apartment, having lots of sex with lots of people. Of course, this is an empty, horrible way to live and it sounds to me like it's just another addiction, like any drug or type of behaviour that gets out of hand. However, how do I represent this in a novel without alienating my readership? Sure, most people are anti drugs but that doesn't mean they don't exist in real life, and the lives of characters. M/M romance is just that - Romance - but casual sex is such a large part of many gay men's lives that sometimes it has to be represented in some fashion if it serves the story. Or do we just settle for insta-love and hand holding?

I've been writing a BDSM scene where my MC is subjected to a sustained bout of punishment by a Dominatrix

Its a power switch scene where she aggressively demands that he pleasure here, even though he is mainly gay.

Can a woman rape a man? I remember an old Swedish film where a man was tied up and "raped by a woman

In this scene I try and explore that - with the added element that the man is anything but straight.

I wonder if it will work - how will it read?

I've just re-written the opening paragraph.

I think this reads better, does anyone agree?

The bundles of bank notes neatly stacked in the middle of the table formed a block nearly two foot square. As Jack Walsh arranged and re-arranged his stash, the droplets of sweat falling from his chin began staining the packets of cash. Five o'clock in the morning and the kitchen was still broiling hot. The unrelenting, oppressive heat of high summer had sucked the air from the room. Both Jack and Gary, who observed Jack's obsessive behaviour whilst sat by the door, were stripped down to vest and shorts. The white cotton of Jack's t-shirt stuck to his back like a second skin, while Gary's tight jersey shorts clung like wrapping on vacuum packed meat. Unwisely, they'd spent the evening lifting weights, before lying on the narrow bed upstairs in an attempt to escape the heat. But even after a second shower together, the searing temperature still pricked their skin.

In a previous post I talked about my habit of ceasing to read a book at the point at which I discover a cliché. The advantages to this stratagem were twofold - namely a saving of a) time and b) money. I therefore propose an addendum to our list of abbreviations. So, in addition to DNF we could add DNFDTC (Did not finish due to cliché) or a more simple DNF-C.

Why does this matter? Why should I be so hung up about it? Aren't there occasions when clichés are useful or justified? Well on reflection I can think of one. Maybe in dialogue, when the ordinary spoken word is often littered with cliché. So dialogue is now excused. Can you think of any others? But in general, clichés signify lazy writing. We should strive to describe the human condition in new and unusual ways, rather than relying on hackneyed phrases to do the heavy lifting for us. Do you agree? Or am I preaching to the converted?

What has prompted my second post on the matter? Well, I've just beaten my own record. On a new M/m book I came across today, the cliché wasn't in the first paragraph, the cliché was the title of the book itself.

Foolishly, I am writing another book. The opening I have changed many times over. Here it is. Does it make you want to read on?

The droplets of sweat falling from Jack's chin stained the piles of bank notes stacked neatly in the middle of the table. Five o'clock in the morning and the kitchen was still broiling hot. The unrelenting, oppressive heat of high summer had sucked the air from the room. Jack and Gary were both stripped down to vest and shorts. The white cotton of Jack's t-shirt stuck to his back like a second skin, while Gary's tight jersey shorts clung to him like wrapping on vacuum packed meat. They'd unwisely spent the evening lifting weights together, then lying on the narrow bed upstairs in an attempt to escape the heat, but even after their second shower the searing temperature continued to prick at their skin.

guy fucks a gay guy it takes minutes. When a straight guy falls for a gay guy, it takes a whole book.

Men are often confused, helpless creatures. Trapped by their urges, they seek gratification, wherever they can. It is only when love - like magma bubbling up from a volcano - overtakes their every waking thought that we discover the true essence of masculine emotion, in all its raw, angry, distilled power.

Let's celebrate original writing. Let's celebrate new ideas new thoughts, new ways of looking. Let's banish the cliché from our writing.

My rule when reading a "Look Inside!" is to stop when I find a cliché. Besides stopping me groaning in pain when I read, it also saves me money

My record is the very first sentence of a book.

Examples include:

But that's another story
Grip like a vice
boggles the mind
and so on and so forth

As a general rule, I avoid clichés like the plague...

I am on Facebook. As of this week. A refusenik for over ten years I have finally succumbed to the inevitable. I have a wall and a timeline and I have pages of info to complete. I am afraid. Normally a private person (I am a writer ffs), this exposure to the outside world is intimidating.

But is it? Does anyone really know anyone else in the electronic ether?

I am told they do. There is an online game (I forget the name) where people's Avatars marry each other, and conduct an entire electronic relationship without ever meeting. And I do have some online email friends who I have never met and we do have a relationship of sorts.

So onto Facebook I go. Now....how do I insert a 'like' button?