Weekly Update: 20/09/24
Added 2024-09-20 13:56:05 +0000 UTCWord Count: +2,781
It's been a slow and at times painful process, but I'm easing back into the writing routine. I'm hitting (occasionally surpassing) the 500/day word minimum with greater ease once again, and I've shifted from the "this is all shit" stage back to the "actually, maybe this isn't so bad after all" stage.
Currently, I'm methodically rewriting what I wrote over August, namely most of chapter 5. This new version of Julia's story feels as though it's coming along much more naturally, filling in some backstory gaps, namely Julia's past as well as her first encounter with David. Hopefully, this deepens the sense of her pain and betrayal and renders the extremity of her revenge against our protagonist more believable.
The genre is replete with nasty women enacting horrific acts against hapless men, generally "just because" or out of some unexplained, innate cruelty. As the primary source of femdom retribution against David, I'm hoping her actions and motives come off for readers as--well, if not entirely rational, at least credible, by the conclusion of her story.
Julia's story's rewrite has just reached the point of her entry into David's narrative (finding him drunk in the bathroom stall at Noir) and I'm looking forward to rewriting the next part, picking up with the night at Icarus and what follows with Tom.
The Patreon will resume in ten days, on October 1st. I'm looking forward to sharing this stuff with you!
Comments
Thank you, as always, for the kind words. I certainly do go through periodic cycles of wondering what, exactly, I'm writing here. Fortunately, the doubt usually fades and then I can find some small pride in what I've written. (It doesn't always survive subsequent rereads, but still...) But Julia, as a character, sort of forced herself into the narative with more presence than I'd initially planned, and so I'm keen to see her exit from the narrative done properly. A comment I picked up on Scribblehub sort of sighed wearily, "another vengeful ex-girlfriend, really?" and though I get the sentiment, I'm hoping in this case, at least, there's enough ambiguity and empathy around the character that it doesn't just come off as psychotic spite.
David Sanders
2024-09-21 09:04:11 +0000 UTCYour concern for the way that an antagonist comes off to the readership is commendable. It's what raises Constant above it's contemporaries. If all this story was, was smut and settings with characterizations no more than preferred fetishes and methods of cruelty, then it was still be quiet serviceable forced fem porn. But with your attention to plot and character development we get so much more. Instead we get forced fem porn with heart soul and deconstructions of it's own self. It kind of puts me in mind of the comedian Stewart Lee who's material is often attacking itself. Rather than worrying about 'punching up' vs 'punching down', he's often punching himself and his own chosen profession to great affect. It's likely also the reason it's taking so long to write, but I'd just like to say that I'm glad you still make the not inconsiderable effort to self reflect and raise the material to such a high narrative standard. I know that an author will often begin to doubt and reexamine their work and be hard on themselves as they do so. But as far as I'm concerned your work falls squarely into the "This is all top grade shit." or "This is THE shit." categories.
Julia
2024-09-20 23:44:50 +0000 UTC
