Page 12 of Bro Amazing

"I'm glad you like him," I say, blushing. "This is my first attempt at spicy writing so any advice you can give would be appreciated."

Angela shows me her copy of my pages and points to the first circled paragraph. "This section here seems a little redundant—you don't need to describe the layout of the room as the characters change positions. And this section here," she points to another circle, "was just a bit quick for me. Even if the characters are rushing through the act, that doesn't mean the writing of the scene should be quick. We still want to draw the emotions out with more about the inner feelings and thoughts of the FMC."

"Thank you. That's very helpful." I jot down notes in the margins of my own pages by those sections. I'm so glad Angelais giving me concrete things to improve and not making me feel bad about the change in my writing.

"This is quite different from your normal work," says Sasha with an appraising look as she sips her pink cosmo.

"Yeah." I shift a little under Sasha's gaze and take a large gulp of my wine, but both Angela and Maddie have friendly, open faces, and I remind myself that they're all here to help me succeed. "I wasn't making much money with the sweet romances, so I thought I would try writing a bit more to market. And readers seem to want the spice."

I don't want to come out and say,Hey, I saw you change up your business strategy and I wanted to do the same. I don't want her to think I'm copying her. That could jeopardize our friendship.

"When I was doing my research for my new genre, I did a spreadsheet with all of the statistical data for each genre so I could find the gap between want and supply. Did you use my method? Are you subscribed to all of the reports so you can get the monthly updates on all of the analytics?" Sasha glances over her copy of my chapter, with all the red ink. "If you're not going to do it properly, there's no sense in even getting feedback on something that won't sell anyway."

"Umm." I glance to Maddie and Angela, who both roll their eyes at Sasha's comments. "I thought I would just try writing what I already enjoy, just adding more spice for the readers."

I take another sip of my wine. Sasha's comments hurt because not only is she my critique partner, but I see her as a friend too, and I want her to be proud of me. Yet she's making me feel like I haven't done enough. I wish I could tell her that I'm doing a lot behind the scenes to get these pages to be so amazing, but I'm not about to tell anyone about my current living arrangement.

"I like that," says Maddie. "If you're enjoying yourself, the reader will sense it and enjoy themselves too. I think that really came through in this chapter."

"I'm just not sure that will be enough," says Sasha. "The research I did showed that I needed to switch from contemporary to romantasy to make a name for myself." Sasha pauses, laying her hand on the table and leaning forward. "I'm only saying this because I want you to succeed."

"And I really appreciate that. I'll look into it more." I probably should do that, but dipping my toes into the reality of writing sex is hard enough. Shifting into a different subgenre at the same time would be too overwhelming. Instead of relearning just part of my career, I would almost be relearning the entire thing.

Although, while Angela and Maddie do well as authors, Sasha is the most successful of all of us. Maybe I really should do what she says and switch from contemporary to a more specific subgenre.

"You've clearly done some of your research though," says Sasha, almost reluctantly. "Your sex scenes aren't terrible for your first try. And you've never had a boyfriend since I've known you."

Here it comes. Sasha is going to ask me how I've been researching these scenes, and she's going to try to pry it out of me. It's going to be so embarrassing. Not only can I not get a boyfriend on my own, but now I'm sleeping with five guys for money. Well, room and board, but same difference.

"You've probably started watching porn," suggests Angela. "I've been telling you to watch for ages. Didn't I tell you? Great inspiration."

"And reading other high heat books," says Sasha, giving Angela a sideways look.

"Oh sure, books too. Anything, really, to get the blood flowing to all the right places," agrees Angela, doing a little shimmy. "First the blood flows, and then the fingers fly."

"You're talking about fingers flying on the keyboard, right?" asks Maddie, barely holding back a laugh. "Not on anything else?"

"Like I said," says Angela with a smirk of her own. "First one, and then the other."

By the time we've finished with everyone's chapters for the week, happy hour is about to end so we order a second round of drinks to take advantage of the cheaper prices. I normally only have the one even though they're cheaper, but I'm not paying rent anymore and my new chapter went well, so I decide to splurge a little.

Besides, a second glass of wine will be the perfect excuse for the glow I feel radiating from me. This critique session was the first time my critique partners have recognized me as a good writer instead of the little author they take pity on to make themselves feel better, even as they gatekeep all their trade secrets.

To be their complete equal is a dream. Even just listening to their critiques of each other's work is helpful. I'll go home tonight with a mental list of positions to maybe try with my new boyfriends. Attempting them in real life before making my characters do something similar would probably be best.

Maybe by the end of my second drink I'll have the nerve to ask my critique group if they think the same way. Or maybebecause I had such limited sexual interactions with my high school boyfriend and am only now experimenting with sex, my mind is more tuned in to the possibilities—at least more than before.

This is definitely something to consider. Will the guys change just my writing, or will they change me too?

"So what made you decide to make such a sudden change to your writing?" asks Sasha the moment Maddie and Angela step away from our table.

"I've been contemplating it for a while," I say, playing with the stem of my wineglass. This is, of course, not true. It wasn't until I saw the flyer that the idea started playing over and over in my head. "And I just sort of decided that you were making good points when you were talking about the market, and what did I have to lose? So why not give it a try and see if I'm any good at writing spice."

"And turns out that you're a natural." Sasha eyes me over the rim of her cosmo.

"Thanks." While it is still technically a compliment from Sasha, she doesn't really sound impressed with my writing. Especially given that she marked it up so much. "But like everyone pointed out today, I still have aspects of writing spicy to work out."

"Mmm," murmurs Sasha. "You never did say earlier, what are you using for research?"

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