An Editor Says: "Have a One-Night-Stand! And Write About It!"

What do you guys think? Should I do this assignment so I can see what casual sex is like--and write about it? Or is this just insane?

Lovelies:

Unlike most of the rest of my contemporaries--or so it seems--I am virtually incapable of having casual sex. I can't do a no-strings-atached relationship; just ask Jonas Singer. Nor am I capable of having a good olf-fashioned one-night-stand; just ask the Baby Fireman.

However, I often wish I were capable of having casual sex (to the point where I even asked a friend from Nerve.com to give me some advice on the matter). Why do I wish this? Well, because sex can be deeply physically pleasurable, of course--even first-time sex, particularly when the other person is in peak physical shape, like Baby Fireman is. Also, because I like to have interesting experiences with strangers, and things can get especially interesting when sex is involved. (At the same time, things can also be ridiculously boring and repetitive when sex is involved.) Similarly, I generally feel desirous of living my life to the fullest--of pushing the boundaries--and sometimes I feel dismayed that I am so (relatively) puritanical and boring when it comes to sex. Another thing: I'm not getting any younger! Shouldn't I carpe some diem? Shouldn't I be getting as much booty now as possible, before I become another shriveled up old raisin-lady who dyes my hair red but never manages to properly cover the white roots, and wears nylon knee-highs that have lost their elastic so that they remain rolled around my ankles at all times?

What's more, I've been thinking that my next novel* should be concerned with modern-day sexuality. Perhaps having casual sex would be good "research."

A friend of mine who is an editor at another publication--not Marie Claire--knows all this about me: that casual sex seems, in some ways, appealing, even while it also seems undesirable. Knowing this, he has challenged me to an assignment: He wants me to have a one-night-stand ... and to write about it.

He has given me three weeks to turn the story around.

Here's the question, lovelies: Should I do this? Or is it completely nuts-o-rama?

(The question for myself is: Can I do it?)

xxx

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*My agent is looking at my first novel soon--maybe this weekend; hopefully, we will be sending it out to editors for consideration before much longer. Please keep your fingers crossed.