Compliance and Acquisition – Director’s Commentary

November 26, 2020

Two notes before we begin. First: spoilers lie ahead! I’d recommend reading Compliance and Acquisition to completion before proceeding. Second, I’ve been swamped this past week so if I owe you email, please be patient just a big longer!

All set?

“You big softy!”

So said Tabico, after she’d finished the advance copy of the story I’d sent her.

She’s right of course. But things didn’t start out that way. When I sat down to write the story that eventually became Compliance and Acquisition, I had three goals in mind and a happy ending sure as shit wasn’t one of them!

First, I wanted to write a story that dealt with a duo who faced off against an evil mind controller. I envisioned a Dom/sub couple whose relationship would be tested to the limit by the the events they experienced.

Secondly, I wanted to write a thriller. Something that would hold the reader’s attention with suspense, dramatic anxiety and the shameless use of cliffhangers. As I’ve said elsewhere, SoVeryFascinated’s Kat and Mouse was constantly on my mind in this regard and I wanted to attempt to tap into his excellent use of tension and release.

And, finally I wanted to end with a heart wrenching twist. The couple would triumph over the corporate plot that drove the narrative… only to lose each other as the Domme left her lover to submit to the evil hypnotist they’d encountered during the course of the story.

So, armed with this plan I sat down to write and we all know how it turned out. Just ask Tabico.

I can’t tell you exactly why it didn’t work out other than to say that I just couldn’t write the ending I’d originally conceived of. I couldn’t write a conclusion where my two lead characters didn’t end up together, happy and free. Somewhere along the way, I fell in love with Lily and Samantha.

Because I’m a big softy.

But, I did have a bit of fun trying to have it both ways with that final piece of misdirection. I really wasn’t sure how the redemption twist was going to play with readers. I worried that perhaps I’d end up causing plot twist fatigue or some such. However, it seems to have gone over well so I guess I got away with it.

It’s startling to realize how much time has passed since all this started. The first work on this (back when it was going to be a caption for a photo manip) began way back in 2017. I think somewhere around late 2018 or early 2019, I’d let go of that plan and allowed myself to start writing outside the confines of the original Pleasure Professionals concept.

When I read Kat and Mouse last summer it really galvanized my resolve to write a proper erotic thriller. The only problem was I didn’t quite know how. So, I decided to learn.

I had been gifted a Masterclass subscription the previous holiday season and I put it to good use during the summer of 2019. I watched and re-watched every lecture I could find from authors and writers. I especially benefited from the insight of mystery & thriller authors like Dan Brown and David Baldacci. Hearing them break down their craft paid immediate dividends for me as I continued plotting my own story.

All through the fall I was making progress, writing thousands of words each week. Then, I got busy with something and set it down for a couple weeks. When I came back I decided to read everything I’d put down at that point. I thought it’d be a good chance to see the story with fresh eyes.

It was a really good idea. Because it sucked. Big time.

I’m being a tad hyperbolic, chapters 1-4 were largely the same as they are now. But act two went in a wildly different direction. So different that it actually felt like Lily and Samantha had left their story and entered a different one. And the new story was a remake of Willy Wonka’s Freakout Boat Ride. Directed by David Lynch.

I was paralyzed with not knowing what to do. I felt like I’d used up every good idea I was ever going to have just to reach that point. I knew that I was gonna have to throw a bunch of it away to get things fixed and I just didn’t have the energy to do it. I gave up, set it aside and didn’t really give much thought to whether I’d ever pick it up again.

And, then one night earlier this year connie k and I were chatting, having one of our epic conversations, and she asked about the story. How was it coming along? I confessed that it had stalled and I’d written myself into a corner with it.

I could dig back through the IM history and figure out exactly what was said but I’m lazy so I’ll paraphrase it thusly: (connie slaps Callidus across the back of the head) “That was a good idea, you should finish it!”

And so I dug it out and read it again. Yup, it still sucked. But, I did have one idea that I thought was worthwhile. I thought that it would be a shame not to see Agent Lily return at some point during the story. I mentioned this to Madam Kistulot during a conversation with her shortly thereafter. We bounced some ideas around and out of that came the notion that Agent Lily would go on a real mission. To get the evidence to clear Samantha’s name.

That was the single drop that broke open the flood gates. Working that angle unlocked other ideas until I was back to writing thousands of words per week on this new angle. I stopped and re-read what I’d done. I didn’t hate it so I kept going.

Eventually I got to the ending… and we all know how that worked out.

It took time. I’d say the better part of five months this year was spent writing and rewriting until I reached a point where I could recognize that the story wasn’t going to get any better. All I could do was polish a phrase here or there. But the story itself was done.

I sent some emails to some people and told them what I’d done and offered to let them take a peak. I incorporated some of the feedback and then, one night, I realized that I was ready to send it Simon. I fired off the first two chapters on a Friday and was pleasantly surprised to see the story go up the following day.

As someone who has harbored the aspiration to write a proper short story, it was a pretty neat feeling seeing it on The Archive like all those wonderful tales that I’d read back in the day. The ones that got me so hopelessly kinked. Great, great fun.

Speaking of fun, Vanderbilt and I have been trading emails of late. He, correctly, has picked up on my love for 90s thriller cinema. Movies like Rising Sun, Disclosure and Basic Instinct were, no doubt, in the back of my mind as I worked on Compliance and Acquisition.

He suggested a really fun list of how C&A might have been cast with the actresses of the day, had it been a lesbian erotica contemporary of those films.

Helena Bonham Carter as Tiffany. Demi Moore as either Samantha or Beth. Uma Thurman or Winona Ryder as Lily. Personally, I like Demi Moore for Beth. I suggested Jeanne Triplehorn for Samantha though I wouldn’t turn down Sigourney Weaver if she were interested 😉

And speaking of casting!

Last time I teased that I had, in fact, cast the story in my mind during the writing and I’d share some of that with you next time. Well, it’s “next time” so here we go:

Given that the story began as a caption for a photo, I suppose it will come as no surprise that Samantha and Tiffany are Samantha Bentley and Tiffany Doll from the Pleasure Professionals shoot that inspired this whole thing.

Beth, I’d imagined as Isabel Ice during one of her blonde phases. I didn’t really care for the name “Isabel” for the character so I tried “Bella” for a bit then settled on Beth. ‘Vish I thought should be a bit younger, closer to Lily’s age, and so Angel Constance came to mind.

As for Lily herself? Well, ever since I was a young man who saw Return of the Living Dead, I’ve been a sucker for redheads with short hair. Thusly, our heroine Lily was cast as the one, the only, Lily Cade.

That’s not to say that things didn’t shift around a bit over the years I was working on this. At one point, I decided (for reasons I can’t quite remember now) that Samantha should be a good deal older than Lily. Closer to 47 than the 37 she’s presented as in the final version.

During that phase, I began thinking about Madeline St Michaels for Samantha. In fact, I whipped up an image of her and Lily Cade together when I was still mulling over whether or not to attempt any manip work to accompany the story.

At some point, I changed my mind and went back to Samantha for Samantha. Though I did still make her a handful of years older than Lily.

Some of the other photoshop work that I abandoned included an image of the moment that Agent Lily briefly held Samantha at gun point during chapter one.

I suppose it’s worth saying that the primary reason I decided not to pursue any photo or video work with this story is that it was just too complicated. Most of the “cast” have never worked together. I haven’t been able to find any shared photo layouts or video shoots featuring Samantha Bentley and Lily Cade for example.

I could’ve recast Lily as someone else that had worked with Samantha Bentley but then that new model might not have shared any work with the actress portraying Beth. So then I’d have to find two new models.

That’s the limitation of manip work. I can do an awful lot with photoshop but the end result is only as good as the source material. Sure, I could photoshop Lily Cade so she was standing beside Samantha Bentley in a photograph and sandwich that between a couple paragraphs of text.

But I don’t think it would’ve been all that good.

Not nearly as good as what your imagination conjured as you were reading. And speaking of your imagination, I’d love to hear what your casting choices might have been. How did you see the main characters? Did my cast of adult models and performers line up with what you saw in your mind’s eye? I’d love to hear all about it.

Thanks everyone who read Compliance and Acquisition. Thanks, especially, to everyone who took the time to share their thoughts with me.

As always, your comments questions and suggestions are welcome.

I’ll see you all next time!

Compliance and Acquisition: My First Erotic Mind Control Story

October 7, 2020

It does seem strange to think that this is the first. But, in fifteen years of writing captions to go with my photos and videos, I’ve never written anything that feels (to me) like a complete narrative. But, that all changed this past weekend with my first ever entry on The Erotic Mind Control Story Archive.

The first two chapters are up now and the next two have already been mailed off to Simon for inclusion in this week’s update. Please go give it a read and by all means let me know what you think! I’m very curious how people respond to my words without the customary images that normally go with them.

Casting Characters

As I was browsing the MCforum, I spotted this really interesting thread about casting actors and adult performers in stories that you’re writing or reading. Its a really timely topic for me, personally, as I did exactly that with this story.

Since it originated as a photo manip idea, Pleasure Professionals, I had always thought of certain characters as the adult performers in the pics. Other characters that got added later were also, at least in my mind, based on other adult models and performers.

I suppose it’s somewhat second nature for me to do that sort thing, given that I’m almost always working from visual media. But I found it really helped my process to have such a clear idea of the what the characters looked like and how they might sound or behave.

Its very neat to see authors and readers talking about doing the same thing.

I’ll be back with more insight next week after the next couple of chapters are posted to The Archive. Do let me know what you think if you’ve had an opportunity to give it a read!

Catching Up With Callidus Sept 30 2020

September 30, 2020

Greetings dear reader!

As usual, I know it has been a spell since I’ve written here. Partially, that’s been because I’ve been quite busy as of late. But, also, because I have a few things that have been coalescing and I wanted to hold off on speaking with you until I had some news to share. And now I do!

Decisive Sequel

First, to follow up on something I teased you with a few months ago, Tabico and I have started trading emails relating to the sequel for Decisive Results. It’s very early right now, there’s an outline for the story that we are discussing.

I’ve been gathering assets for this project for quite a while. If things go the way I hope they do, we will actually be able to tell even more of the story in video this time around. Having said that, I have been having fun recently creating an updated version of the mysterious Ms R’s Spartan OS desktop that will be making a return. It’s been fun imagining how that fictitious software would have evolved the way our real world equivalents have in the time since.

Mostly, I’ve been contemplating how to speed up the creation of those desktop animation sequences. Those were, by far, the most time consuming parts of Decisive Results. I think I have formulated some strategies that will allow me to execute those bits of this new story in a fraction of the time. Hopefully, that will translate to a much more rapid journey from written script to finished video.

Breadcrumbs

I am continuing to work on the next installment of Breadcrumbs. I wrote a complete outline for that story sometime ago but, recently, I’ve located some really fun and tantalizing images and video that might work their way in. So, right now I’m just pouring over those things and trying to think of how and where they might fit into the overall story I laid out for myself. Stay tuned on that, I’m looking forward to sharing more of that adventure!

Pleasure Professionals

Lastly, after years in development I’m very happy to announce that The project I have, until now, been referring to as Pleasure Professionals is complete… kinda.

This is going to be somewhat of a long story and I will hold off on telling it in it’s entirety for a future post. What it boils down to is this: I originally set out to write a fun story around a very fun image that I had in my stash. I worked up something like five or six drafts of that story but was just never able to go anywhere with it.

But, along the way, I collected enough pieces of ideas and characters that I just couldn’t abandon it entirely. I eventually sat down with a blank page and started from scratch, this time, with a new goal. I let go of the image that had inspired the story to begin with and set myself free to write whatever I wanted to. Without any consideration for how, or even if, the manipulated photos and videos I typically create would work into the story.

And I wrote, and wrote and wrote. And, I didn’t finish writing until about thirty minutes ago. It’s finished. And, it’s something I’ve never created before: an honest to goodness erotic mind control short story. Complete with a beginning, middle and end as well as characters, subplots and a fair amount of suspense. I guess, technically since it’s more than 36,000 words, it could be considered a novella.

The title is Compliance and Acquisition and the synopsis goes a little something like this:

A young submissive personal assistant helps her mistress navigate an insidious corporate conspiracy.

I’m very pleased with the end result. It has challenged me like nothing else in recent memory. However it is eventually received I will always be proud that it represents the absolute bleeding edge of my talent and ability at this point.

But, as I think about how it will be received it’s a sort of bittersweet feeling. For the past fifteen years, my focus has been creating erotic mind control art. And, for more than a decade now this website has been the gallery through which I’ve shared my creations. Now, I have created something that I think is much more suited to the Erotic Mind Control Story Archive than my own site.

For sometime now, I’ve had the ambition to write some thing that I felt was worth sending to Simon to be posted on The Archive. I’m definitely going to have the story posted there. As for posting it here, on my own site, I’m still giving it some thought.

There are some technical challenges that would be involved. Without getting too far into the weeds, the back end of my website is very bespoke at this point and it’s been designed around creating my more traditional short works with captioned photos and videos. Doing long-form, multi-chapter fare like this new story is going to require a bit of retooling.

I know that many of you are going to be delighted to read something like this from me. I also know that some of you are going to be disappointed that it’s not going to have my usual erotic visual creations to accompany it. Other than a possible “book cover” kind of image.

Truth be told, I’m a bit disappointed myself. I think, throughout the process, I quietly told myself that when I got to the end I’d be able to find someway to pull in images and make them work. But, now that it’s finished I see that I really have no way of doing that without those images doing a disservice to the story. The key moments, the erotic moments… I simply don’t have photos to bring those moments to life. Ultimately, anything I could craft would feel like an afterthought. Manipulations tacked on at the end to make the story conform to my typical style of work.

And, I guess it just boils down to… I don’t want to do that.

So, with those caveats out of the way, I’m very happy to announce that the first couple chapters of Compliance and Acquisition will be on their way to Simon just as soon as I can get them formatted and emailed!

Here We Go Again… Again

I also want to say that i’ve got plenty of other irons in the fire right now. Juicy, sultry and, most definitely, visual irons. 😉

Although I didn’t make any noise about this, for the past five months I’ve been living under the shadow of losing my employment (again). In fact, I was informed earlier this year that this week was going to be my last at work. Happily, I have dodged that bullet again.

And so, I am making up for lost time. I am very eager to get some new stuff posted here between now and the end of the year. Thank you for reading and for all your years of support! I’ll see you all again soon.

-Callidus

New Series: Breadcrumbs… Part 1?!

August 6, 2020

Yes, you read that right. I’m trying something a bit new this time.

Welcome back dear readers!

I have got a few balls in the air right now but this series is one I’ve been tinkering on, quietly, for a little while now and rather than make you all wait until I was finished to read the whole torrid affair… I thought I’d try my hand at an EMCSA style rollout.

So, today is part 1 of a story I’ll be adding to in the future. I’m not sure what the schedule for future parts will be just yet but I have the whole tale mapped out so it will mostly come down to how quickly I can create images to go with the words.

Speaking of trying new things, this story is my very first foray into the venerable hive-infiltration genre of EMC fiction! That seems impossible given that I love those stories as much as I do and yet I’ve only hinted at that in my own work exactly once prior.

The eagle-eyed among you might be able to recall, or track down, the previous manip I’m hinting at. If so… congratulations it now has become part of the canon of this new story and also hints at the events we’ll see in future updates.

I’ve had tremendous fun putting this together. I mean brainwashing gasmasks… what’s not to love? In any case, I’ll look forward to rolling out updates to this story as my work progresses and I’ll certainly be interested to see what you all think of it.

Thanks for reading and, as always, your questions, comments and suggestions are welcome!

Breadcrumbs

A team of highly-trained women try to regroup after their incursion into the hive goes horribly wrong.

View Manip

Quick Update – New Photo Story

July 16, 2020

Hi all!

Just checking in with the briefest of notes to let you all know I’ve just posted a new photo story to the Gallery!

A very short and sweet job this time. Fun black-and-white photo and a spicy bit of prose to go with it. A very fun (and unexpected) diversion for me this evening and I hope you as well!

See you next time!

Yes What?

A Domme deals with a first-time client who has difficulty giving up control.

View Manip

Playing Catch Up

June 3, 2020

So, this post has been something I’ve been working up to. Firstly, I want to thank everyone who commented and encouraged me to chime in with some news and, especially, those who reached out via email to check in on me or just to wish me well. That was exceptionally thoughtful of you and I deeply appreciate all of the interest.

So, for those who have asked, I’m doing well. I realize its been over six months since my last post but stuff got busy and then stuff got a tad pandemic and then… well you get the idea. The bottom line is that I just haven’t felt all that creative these past few months. So, I checked in on the site every now and then but being here was a reminder of what I wasn’t doing (creating) and it became a depressing kind of thing for me.

But, lately, I’ve been chatting with friends and stuff and ideas have started to simmer in my mind once again. In fact, just last night, I wrote an outline for a project that I’ve had in the back of my mind for years. A follow up to Decisive Results. I’ve had a video clip forever and a day that I always knew would be golden for a similar kind of story but I just never had a flash of inspiration as to what that story would be… until about a week ago.

Suddenly, the floodgates opened and I began to see where I could take things. So, last night I took all the ideas I’d been playing with and jotted down some notes. Its the earliest of early stages, but I’m excited by the prospect of revisiting those characters and that world again.

So that’s it, I just wanted to check in and let you, dear reader, know what’s been going on. I hope you and yours are safe and healthy.

All the best.

-Callidus

The Black Room 21 – Uzobono Interview

October 29, 2019

Welcome back true believers!

This is a day I’ve really been looking forward to. After 20 episodes of the The Black Room podcast, today, Madam Kistulot and I get to devote an entire episode to one of our favorite artists and her brilliant art.

Possibly the most talented 3D artist in the erotic mind control scene, Uzobono has distinguished herself not just with her mastery of Poser but also with her keen sense of visual storytelling. Her 3D comics feature a depth of narrative and sophistication of aesthetic that remains in a class of its own.

In The Black Room #21, we spend over an hour listening to this master-of-her-medium talk about her influences, her background and her incomparable work. Madam Kistulot and I are very pleased to bring you our interview with 3D artist and writer extraordinaire: Uzobono!

The Black Room – Episode 021

We spend this entire episode interviewing one of our favorite artists ever: the legendary and prolific Poser artist Uzobono! We chat about her tremendous erotic mind control comics The Division as well as her ongoing comic-collaboration with Tabico: CORE! Note that the audio version of the show has been truncated slightly. Due to some technical problems, two of Uzobono's answers are very difficult to make out so they've been cut from the audio file. The YouTube video has the full interview with all the chat transcribed. Just turn on subtitles to read along through those difficult-to-understand sections.

Listen Now

New Animation: Positive Protocol

October 3, 2019

Welcome back true believers!

I’m preparing another post to update you on Pleasure Professionals (short version: its coming along nicely), but right now I have a brand new animation to share! Today’s addition to the gallery is called Positive Protocol and I do hope you go enjoy it before you read on for my director’s commentary!

This little gem comes to us by way of bdsmlr. I loved the source image the instant I stumbled across it. The sensuous quality of the photo, the lighting and the profound suitability for twisting into one of my manipulations put this picture somewhere in the top-ten-photo-finds of my manipping career. I live to come across jewels like this one.

The manipulation was very straightforward all things considered. Just a touch of photoshop to get the seated woman facing the screen, instead of the camera. And, again, to get her cuffed to her chair rather than simply holding on. Then, it was down to creating some content to fill this enormous window that would soon become an insidious mind control screen.

When I sat down to write the story, the only idea I had going in was that the caption would start and end with the same line of dialog and that it would, somehow, be very ironic as a result. A few paragraphs in, I had the idea that this very complimentary approach The Director was taking with her subject was just another level of mind fuck. One that she’d repeat with the woman in the chamber down the hall in the closing line. It was a fun idea and it, like the image, really come together quite quickly. At least by my current standards 😉

I think, there’s an undercurrent of gaslighting and love bombing that runs through a lot of erotic mind control fiction and I was certainly zeroing in on those vibes. There’s a very creepy quality to someone showing that sort of affection and encouragement within the context of this traumatic ordeal they’re subjecting someone to. I don’t think I’ve explored that area very much in my work so it was a nice departure in that regard.

And, that’s it. I do hope you enjoyed and, as always, your comments, questions and suggestions are welcome!

See you next time.

Positive Protocol

Miss Jenson's brainwashing is coming along very nicely. The Director says so...

View Manip

Catching Up With Callidus – September 17th, 2019

September 18, 2019

Greetings all,

It’s another week of reading and writing. LOTS of writing, but we’ll get to that in a minute.

First up, there’s new stuff you should be reading if you haven’t already. connie k posted the first part of a new story with the update two weekends ago. The synopsis for The Spiral Girl goes a little something like this:

An unscrupulous hypnotist recounts his fateful meeting with a new subject, and how his plans spiral out of control.

The promise of where the first part leaves off is really tasty. I’m so eager to see where connie takes us in part two. Which, happily enough, connie has informed me will be going up to The Archive this weekend! It will be listed as a separate story called The Spiral Boy, similar to her Four Women / Five Women story.

Be on the lookout for it this Saturday evening!

If you’re a patron of Uzobono’s then you’ve already heard the news: good and bad. The bad news is that CORE 14 isn’t going to make it into our hands until late October instead of late September as Uzo had originally hoped.

The good news, is that Uzo has released a mini comic this weekend to tide us over! Its available to her patrons as well visitors to her Deviant Art page. Its not related to the CORE/Division canon but… well I won’t spoil it. Its loads of fun particularly if you’re a gamer who’s familiar with a certain big-budget sci-fi series from a few years back.

Its terrific fun and a great consolation prize for the unfortunate news that our next taste of CORE is still about six weeks away.

*sigh*

What about the writing? Well, there’s loads of it happening. LOADS.

How much is that exactly? Well, I’m not exaggerating in the least when I tell you that I’ve had a little trouble with some repetitive stress pain in my right thumb. Before you perverts go making jokes, let me explain!

As I’ve mentioned prior, my free time is in short supply right now. Between my full time gig and sideline freelance stuff I’m clocking 60+ hours a week minimum these days. So, I’ve been writing whenever and wherever I can spare the time.

Since that’s not always in front of a computer, I’ve been writing on my phone. I’ve got the mobile version of Scrivener (a fantastic research-organization-writing tool btw) which cloud-syncs to my laptop. So, I’ve been writing away on that during my stints of free time.

Which worked out great until I sat outside to enjoy the weather on a Friday night a couple weeks ago and wrote nearly four thousand words in one sitting. The next day, my right thumb felt like it was being held on with tape.

So, I repeated the process this past weekend except I used voice-dictation to do the writing and saved my recovering thumb for corrections only. The pain is gone now, thankfully, and the lesson has been learned.

And the good news is I also put another 3,500 words into Pleasure Professionals!

At this point, I’ve got a solid first draft of Act I that’s clocking in at around seven thousand words. I knew the story was going to be big, but even I’m surprised. This one is really living in my imagination now. Every time I sit down to work on it, the floodgates seems to open and I mostly just try to keep up.

I’m already laying down a few ideas for Act II and I’m hoping to make some big headway there later this week after my freelance work (hopefully) cools off a bit.

That’s it for now. I know its been a few weeks since I had anything new to show you but, believe me when I tell you big things are in the works.

See you next time!

Catching Up With Callidus – September 2, 2019

September 4, 2019

Welcome back true believers!

It’s a hectic time for me. Vanilla freelance work is keeping me very busy right now. However, while I haven’t had unlimited amounts of time to dedicate to smut, I have gotten really diligent about making the most of the odd hour I can set aside here and there.

And mostly I’ve been using that to read and write.

On the reading front, I’ve been enjoying this amazing new story, that has just wrapped up this past weekend, called Kat and Mouse. The author is SoVeryFascinated and this story is his fourth on the archive. It is a successor to an earlier story called The Glass Wall, which features the same lead characters, Kat and Marisa.

I’ll tell you here what I’ve told everyone privately to sell them on reading this tale: if you’d like to know what Alfred Hitchcock would’ve done with the erotic mind control genre, this is the story for you. The suspense, the tension and the growing sense of anxiety as this tale unfolds is spectacular.

If you follow this blog, there’s a decent chance you know me and my tastes in EMC fiction. I haven’t loved anything on The Archive like I love Kat & Mouse in a while. SoVeryFascinated has already joined connie k, GigglingGoblin and a short list of other active authors whose work is an instant must read.

If you like what I like, you’ll like this story. Please let me know if you check it out, I’d love to hear your thoughts! And, please let SoVeryFascinated know as well! I’d love to see more work from him and I’m sure some encouragement from happy readers couldn’t hurt.

Moving over to writing, I’ve circled back around to the project currently known as Pleasure Professionals. I say “currently” because it will almost certainly not bear that title in its final form.

The past two weeks have been both productive and frustrating with respect to this project. As I’ve talked about previously, I’ve started and restarted this story multiple times, and each pass has been wildly different from the others.

I’ve recently come to realize what the fundamental problem has been in this process. In my initial story concept, I’d imagined a secretly submissive business executive who hired a professional pleasure service to find her a discreet dominatrix, who then goes on to mind control the business exec.

Seems straightforward enough. But maybe that was the issue? As I sat down to plot things out I just couldn’t find the drama. If the business exec is already submissive and already submitting to the domme who later brainwashes her… has the character really been changed all that much by the mind control?

Perhaps a better author than I am could have a field day with it but as I wrote draft after draft I had to stop and admit that my concept was not working. I gave myself permission to abandon my original idea and go wherever I needed to with the story.

I spoke with some author friends and did a bit of brainstorming. I wrote a new outline that had the drama I’d been missing. I wrote a treatment and started to get excited. Then, I made the mistake of digging through my pics folder and realized I had no photo assets, whatsoever, to support this new version.

Back to the drawing board.

I stared at a blank page (phone screen) for three days straight (in between massive amounts of the freelance work I mentioned at the top) trying to have an idea that would work for the photos I’d already collected and satisfy the drama quota I’d set for myself.

And then, I had an idea. Just a little spark of inspiration about the relationship between the two main characters. But that character dynamic immediately suggested a plot point. And that idea would require a certain kind of set up early in the story to pay off later. Suddenly, the flood gates opened and the ideas began pouring through.

I took an hour long break from freelance stuff and wrote a nearly three thousand word outline containing every idea I’d had in this brainstorming session. The next day, during another hour long break, I rewrote the outline. This time with an eye on structure and pacing.

Then I wrote it one more time, as a sort of question and answer exercise to map out the various plot points I would set up and pay off. Along the way, the characters have solidified in my imagination and the themes have risen out of the ideas on the page.

Last night I sat down and wrote a thousand words or so. It’s a first draft and it definitely needs refinement but I’m very pleased with it. I finally feel like I’m on a path that will lead to this project getting finished.

As for the photo work, I don’t quite know how I’m going to pull it off. But, I feel confident enough in my abilities that I can create what needs to be seen. It might not be as straightforward as I’d prefer but if I’m challenging myself with the writing, why not challenge myself with the manip work as well?

The one thing I’m not going to do is give up on this one. In fact, now I’ve really got a fire beneath me to see it finished. I think I’ll go work on it now!

See you next time.