A P*rn Valley Topography
In which I trace the journey of my novel's hero
As I mentioned in my last newsletter, I’m working on a novel set in the San Fernando Valley’s adult movie industry, a process that includes mapping out my hero’s journey. Of course, my P*rn Valley is entirely fictional, although it’s certainly drawn from the two decades-plus I’ve spent writing about the business. In any case, I’ve made various maps of the route my book’s main character takes across the Valley. As a writer, I’m not alone in this practice. Here a few thoughts on creating imaginary places.
Mapping my novel
I made the above map using TravelMap, which is good for planning road trips and outlining one’s novel in a visual format. My book starts in Studio City, which is a nice area, and ends in Van Nuys, where dreams go to die. Sometimes when I get stuck in the writing or need some inspiration, I drive to the area where that part takes place. Invariably, something happens. While fiction takes place in the mind, you’d be surprised how helpful reality can be in figuring your way through it.
Famous literary maps
I have a long line of literary map influences that date back to childhood. When I was studying English as an undergraduate student at U.C. Berkeley, I took a senior seminar on William Faulkner in which I fell in love with his fictional Mississippi county, Yoknapatawpha County. (My favorite Faulkner work is As I Lay Dying.) I also took a senior seminar on James Joyce’s Ulysses. (I read the novel again in graduate school; I guess I’m a literary masochist.) Joyce didn’t make a map for his masterpiece, but Vladimir Nabokov did. Before that, I was obsessed with Narnia as a kid. (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was my favorite C.S. Lewis book from The Chronicles of Narnia.) How all that led me to P*rn Valley is another story …
A map of the mind
Over the years, I’ve taken photographs in the adult movie industry—at auditions, in rented houses, on sound stages. Their locations have spanned from one end of the Valley to the other, from Sunland to Chatsworth, Studio City to Granada Hills. During those years, the business has contracted, cam girls became the new adult movie stars, and internet video-sharing websites replaced the big production companies. What it was, what it is, and what it will be are what I’m after in my novel, following the arc from the lows to the highs, and everything it transformed along the way.
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That mapping tip, is good. I can say, same, going to new areas can be revitalizing in certain ways.
The whole new business model of the cam-girl era is interesting. What's going to happen to the old Van Nuy's being the central location for porn activities being shot and recorded there? Is there a location where camming is taking place, or is it as spread out as the internet? Or is there a new hub? That to me will be interesting to read about.
As always thanks for covering this beat, you're one of the best who does it in a way I enjoy and read eagerly!
I love this