Time Corps 6

Betty Lou twists a smile over coffee, "you really do have a huge advantage in all this."
"How so?"
"Sex part is dime a dozen, read one of those books, you've got it taped. But at least you got setting. Me, who in Hades wants to read bout a Carolina mill town?"
"Not really."
"Whaddya mean?"
"By and large, I despise East Indian men. So overdone, so overbearing, it's ridiculous. Even whites, though they're a bit better, not too thrilled about. So it could be hard drumming up characters for my story."
"A dashing geologist maybe."
"Not really, your dashing geologist would rather simply hop in the sack with a Black than deal with all the mega-prudery angst of an East Indian."
"Ah yeah, see your point. We're both in the soup, so we'll help each other. Hey, maybe you could make the heroine Black?"
"Not in a month of Sundays. Total apartheid. I know as much bout them, as I do about the Mountains of the Moon."
"You mean, more apartheid than the USA?"
"Absolutely, they're referred to as 'monkeys'. Marry a white guy, he's instantly accepted into the family. Marry a Black, your family disowns you for life."
"Answer is obvious. Make both hero and heroine white. Come on Indira, you're like an honorary white person by now, you'd know how to present them. He's a geologist, she's an archaelogist, they meet in Guyana."
"Hmm, you might have something there."

"Col," Betty Lou says tentatively, "you ah forgot to put the mark on mine."
"I didn't mark any of them. Why? I think the whole romance genre of fiction is utter garbage, afraid how I'd mark, be unfair. No, here's what we do. Each day, one of you reads her story, then the rest critique it. Indira, if you would please."
I groan inwardly but deliver.
Col smiles, "before the comments start, remember she gets a shot at you later. So no cheap shots, let's keep it sensible."
Heidi leads off, "Indira, you are one first-class copout and disgrace. You sit on this goldmine of information, much more experience than we have. And what comes out of it? A hackneyed dime a dozen white-boy-meets-white-girl-in-the-boonies story. Why not have East Indian main characters? Or Black?"
I look, see looks of agreement on all but Betty Lou.
Col smiles gently, "be honest Indira, tell us why the hero and heroine are white."
"Well you see, I know lots less bout Blacks than all you Americans do. See our part of Berbice province is almost totally East Indian. What few Blacks there are, it's like total apartheid. So, reason there aren't any Black characters, I simply would not know how to portray them honestly. As for East Indians, I despise the male ones, so overbearing, so overpowering, they're swine. Towards whites, I am more open-minded, felt I could portray a white man more objectively."
A rueful grin comes on Heidi,"ah, maybe I worded that a little too harsh. Still, maybe a white hero and East Indian heroine."
"That just would not work. 7,000 words just is not enough to deal with all that mega-prudery angst she carries around. Needed a little more simplistic character to fit inside a small story."
Everyone laughs.
Col, "quite apart from Indira's racial profiling, which you may or may not agree with, how about setting? Did she do the job? Teach you of Guyana? You saw the East Indian taxi drivers, storekeepers, the couple running the inn. Didn't they come to life?"
Agreement all around.
"So, no more questions, we move along?"
Heidi jumps in, "Col, you very carefully avoided giving an opinion. Would you care to do so?"
"Who am I, hardly a literary critic? She did the job, taught you of Guyana, followed orders, which is more than some others did."
"I see," Heidi persists, "and what exactly did you think of her sex scenes?"
"She ah obviously has less practice than the rest of you."
Everyone laughs.

Embarrassed? You bet, after a semi-trashing like that. As days go by, I soon come to realize I had a magic-carpet style of free ride.
They are brutal with each other, absolutely savage, dissecting each and every sex scene, trying to find some tiny error.
Once everyone's story has been critiqued, Col says, "right, now talk about the process of critiquing. Indira, your comments please."
"I ah well ah first day felt wiped, like I'd been beat up. Soon realized how easy I got off."
"Why do you suppose that is Indira?"
"Col, my guess, they were seeing something new, different, so they were willing to be easier on my ah other shortcomings."
Col grins, "sort of like the first novel of an author gets a little gentler book review than subsequent ones?"
"More than that Col. See I think the reason they beat up on each other, too much focus on the romance, maybe not as much background on time and place."
"Exactly, you're the only one followed orders. Rest wrote thinly-disguised porn. So here's what we do. Indira, you re-do that paper, but only the sex scenes, try for a little ah more spicy. Rest of you, I told you rules before. Unless and until the word count for setting is thrice or more the word count for sex, it's still an incomplete assignment. So reinvent that setting, cut and paste, say next Thursday it's due."
Loud groans.

I throw caution to the winds, toss in an S&M scene where she vigorously paddles his butt into hamburger. He likes it, suddenly their relationship has five times the voltage.
Col asks me to read it aloud. When I'm done, she asks for input.
"Tell me," Heide grins, "you didn't just read that somewhere, copy it. Oh no, you put you into it. You'd love to do that."
I blush red-hot.
"Nothing to be ashamed of. Should be proud of the improvement in your writing. Whaddya says girls?"
Massive agreement.