Conversations with Calliope

JOE: Good morning, Calliope.

CALLIOPE: Good morning, Joe. How are you this morning?

JOE: Good. I sat down to write a chapter of Marital Property yesterday and ended up writing two instead.

CALLIOPE: How do you suppose that happened?

JOE: I was planning to write a dinner scene with the family next but had also thought about a scene in bed with the parents. Once I started I just kept going. I was surprised how easily they both emerged.

CALLIOPE: Sometimes it happens that way. Maybe you were just anxious to write a sex scene.

JOE: Could be. It's the first time I wrote about sexual intercourse between two people.

CALLIOPE: What have you been waiting for?

JOE: A relationship where such a scene would be expected. I guess I could have put one in my last novel, but my protagonist was more drawn to boys.

CALLIOPE: I see. What was it like to write it?

JOE: I discovered that sex is not so easy to put into words. But then, many people don't talk about their encounters in detail.

CALLIOPE: Were you satisfied with what you wrote?

JOE: I'm glad I got it written. But I won't know if I am satisfied with it until I get to the revision stage and look at it from several different angles.

CALLIOPE: Will you wait until you finish the first draft?

JOE: Yes. I have learned from experience that it interrupts the flow of the story if I stop to edit what I have written before the story is finished.

CALLIOPE: Good thinking. I guess we will revisit this topic again.

JOE: I guess so. TTFN

(World War II Navajo Code Talkers)