A novella it is.
Eleanor and the Healer was originally intended as a short erotica story, but has blossomed from there into a novella. As the characters began to unfold on the page, as I dove deeper into their stories and learned more about their motivations - why they longed for each other, or found pleasure in certain touches - I wanted to know them more intimately.
Perhaps this is a rookie mistake. Perhaps getting attached to erotica characters is not advised. Maybe the saying "get in and get out" is an apt euphemism for how to traditionally tell an erotica story. Well, honestly, sex for me is often more erotic within the context, the build-up - the story.
So for now my first erotica short story is quickly becoming a novella.
But I have other stories in the works. And now I know to remind the characters that we are not seeking to read about their love or relationship woes, but that we want to see and understand them in the arousing and carnal acts that penetrate our flesh. We want them to undress before us, stand tall with nipples erect, and pull us in.
And to be fair to the erotic scenes in Eleanor and the Healer - there are a lot of them - I think adding more story around them will help to ease any potential cramping of the hand.
