About two and a half years ago, I blogged about feeling limited by the sex writing niche I’d found myself in. Since then, I’ve been an editor at a web magazine featuring content on love and sex, I’ve had my own sex column, I’ve co-written an ebook with Ian Kerner on spicing up your sex life, I’ve been interviewed as an expert on vibrators, and more. When all is said and done, I suppose the sex writing thing has been good to me.
Still, it’s tough to continue getting mileage out of that first sex party I attended five years ago, or that one time I posed nude for a portraitist. Plus, even sex gets boring!
Which is why, in this month’s edition of Word Nerd News, I urged readers to get the hell out of the house and live a little.
I even gave them some homework:
1. Step away from your laptop at least once a week, and try something new.
2. Develop at least three story ideas based upon that one experience, or that one nifty person you met.
3. Send out those queries, dammit.
4. Land some fabulous assignments.
5. Collect a ton of money and immediately spend it all on books and handbags.
The part about handbags is optional, but I’m dead serious about the rest of it. Which is why I’m giving you the exact same assignment.
And just so you don’t think I’m slacking (I may be wearing PJs and bunny slippers at 1:01 p.m., but I’m definitely not a slacker), I’ll take one of the experiences mentioned in my newsletter and do the assignment, too. Here. Let me start us off.
1. My Experience: I hung out at the Trojan Vibrations Truck to talk vibrators and promote sexual health awareness.
2. My Three, Related Story Ideas:
- how to use toys to enhance foreplay
- what else I wish I could buy at my local Stop & Shop (playing off the idea that Trojan wants to display their new line at the supermarket, right next to their condoms, as a means of normalizing discussions about sexual health)
- required reading for your progressive sex ed curriculum (playing off the latest stories of the new sex ed mandates in NYC)
3. Sending out those queries. Dammit. I’ll have them out by tomorrow. I swear.
Okay. It’s your turn. Feel free to share your stories and brainstorm ideas in the comments section of this post!
And if you’re not yet signed up to receive Word Nerd News, get on that, yo!