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Bang Your Head -- Writer's Poke #109

For Writers:

In the Summer of 2008, two memoirs came out on the same release date. Douglas Brown’s Just Do It, shares the story of how one married couple made the commitment to have sex for 101 straight days. The Browns had been married for 14 years and had a couple of kids, and they were at the stage in their marriage where there seemed to be no time for sex. Not to be out done, however, is Charla Muller’s 365 Nights. Like the Browns, the Mullers had a couple of kids, but somehow their bedroom had developed into just a place to sleep.

Upon learning about these books, I had to admit I was intrigued. Neither Brown nor Muller seemed to suggest that their marriages were “bad,” but both put the spotlight on one of the side effects of marriage -- the end of sex. This doesn’t happen in every marriage, of course, but it’s a common-enough joke that people tell, and it’s a real pity for people that “save” themselves for marriage, only to find out that they were saving themselves for a life of married celibacy.

Is it even possible for the same two people to have sex with each other for 101 (or 365) consecutive days? This, perhaps, is the biggest problem with both books. While both are labeled as non-fiction, does anyone really believe that they shouldn’t be shelved in the fiction section?

Write about your sex life. What is the one thing about it that you wish you could change? What keeps you from changing it?

“I know nothing about sex because I was always married” – Zsa Zsa Gabor

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