I started my latest series (shameless plug) Bullied with the intent of short, sticky stories of submission. I wanted a series I could jump in and out of writing quicker to the point scenes of escalating embarrassment and eroticism. It started off fine, with coercion, drugging, emasculation, and outright rape, but then things took a turn... Characters started falling in love with each other! The main character began standing up for themselves! Other characters affirmed them even as they indulged in sadomasochistic and humiliation play. Characters talked about their kinks in a healthy (as much as these fantasy scenarios can be) way and actually tried to make amends for the very tropes I started out wanting to base the series on. In this case I think I increasingly was drawn to make a more sex positive squirmer and also ended up allowing the characters make healthier choices and allowed them to make mistakes without some chutes and ladders punishment every time. It's been a lot more exciting to write because in real life I don't think there's any shame in getting aroused by being ashamed as long as its between consenting, openly communicating partners. I will probably still write the squirmier 'bad' end filled stuff I am probably more known for, but I doubt I can add much more of that to this series without it feeling forced and off. So I was wondering if that has happened to anyone else? Have heros turner villainous on you? Have the bullies turned into buttercups? What has been the shift in your story that most surprised you?
I'm the type who can never be too nasty to his characters anyway. I have to admit, that turn you described sounds appealing, because I like to read that softer sort of story. I have had some deviate from my original vision pretty heavily. I say go with it; in my experience, you're most likely to settle on something that excites you anyway. Better to go where your inspiration is taking you than spin your wheels trying to write it a certain way!
A number of branches in Lois Lane's Night Out have gotten a bit away from my original intent - either because I was following reader suggestions in comments, or because I felt the need to do something new & different, or because I needed to up the ante somehow and broached into new kink territory. Believe it or not, the original idea was to keep things relatively simple and realistic with only a couple of fantastic elements. Three thousand odd chapters later...
In two senses in particular. First, the project as a whole has gotten away from me. I expected to get to the point and write about six overlapping character arcs in a couple months, maybe four at most. It's now been a year and I am only half done, and the game mode permutations I need to account for are only getting crazier. What was going to be a bunch of Do It/ Don't Do It choices have splintered into Can't Do It/Talk About Doing It/Do It With Remorse/Do It And Be Mean About It Because You Were Mean About It Last Time. Now I am adding a feature where Game Over chapters jump back to an alternate starting chapter, allowing for an achievement system and game+ content. One more year is all it will take! Second, most of my characters. On the large scale, the character arc goals are like light lighthouses that I am paddling toward (and I'm still on track--Yay!), but the act of writing individual chapters is like looking at the currents around me. When I pick a setting and start filling in the plot and dialog, eventually something surprises me in the moment. An unexpected character moment feels right, making me rethink how I can get to that lighthouse, usually a more specific or interesting route than I had assumed. A couple side characters that were meant to be one-off scenes have ballooned into major characters, while some main characters are still barely explored. I like like all the characters, and like writing the paths where the main character helps them out, and I will probably have some inner conflict writing their darkest paths. Maybe it is the suspense I have about how it will all play out that keeps me excited about the story, too.
See, I was going to do a nice simple linear story. Which I did. Then I decided when I posted it HERE to fix the typos. Then there was this thing about the ending that always bothered me, and I wished I'd fleshed out a little more of a few things... which the Chyoa format totally lets me do. And then I thought... hmm... I can do more with this... and this... and two years later, ASH is now 1/3 the length of the bible, includes a play on the Iraq war that nobody reads, (Don't worry, its very dull unless performed, so don't bother reading it.) Added in a short novel for the hell of it, and included the story in a shared universe that now includes it's own Novel length story co-written with a good friend. Let's just put me down for a yes.
I mean, I wrote a non-con story and then realised that the protagonist was actually kind of into it in one scene so it's like... A fully consensual path. Also about half of that my story whose premise is a girl attending a party ends up not taking place at that party??? And those are my most popular scenes too. I can't keep to my plans for shit. It's actually a little surprising to me that the chapters I wrote in Bullied are actually turning out how I'd intended??
