Well... holy crap. I finally managed to wrap up this arc. Arc 6 ended up having the most fantasy elements out of any of the Arcs except for Arc 1. It also ended up nearly as long (Arc 1 pulled in ~37k words, Arc 6 being ~31k). The work as a whole now sits at 120k+ words.
I whined about writing this arc quite a bit. I know for a fact that I wrote and deleted Part 33 at least 5 times. Drama on the home front crippled my muse. I got stuck in a rut when the "warmth" between the characters got taken away due to the plot events and those were the feelings that I needed to have at the time in my real life. Thankfully, by the time I wrote fs out of prison, I was able to recover emotionally well enough to write 44 and 45 directly from my heart.
A few things struck me as odd throughout the process of this Arc. There was a definitive difference in response to the middle parts. 95% of my feedback for this work comes from four readers and a chunk of it happens via email or private chat. The striking contrast was that my submissive readers seemed to really like the prison parts while my Dominant readers did not. There was enough positive feedback to where I do not regret choosing this theme for the Arc but I can say it got VERY difficult to write after a while. It sort of felt like writing Part 5 or Part 7 for several weeks.
The response to Part 45 was the best response I have had to any single chapter that I have written. This made me incredibly happy because writing this chapter felt very dear to me. I'm glad that it seemed to translate well onto the page.
It also gave me enough confidence to extrapolate Cassandra's thoughts for part 46. I have mixed feelings on 46, mostly because I included some things that I hope to be true, but I can never feel certain of. Even though I created these characters I still struggle to get into the mind of a Domme. I hope Cassandra's feelings here are reasonable and accurate. It's sort of funny that my personal insecurities bleed into how a fictional character would feel. It's easier for me to understand Dominique, Theresa, Lisa, etc.because there is no romantic involvement, they can simply see fs's merits and evaluate them objectively.
I do not currently have any ideas for a 7th Arc. I do have some mini-ideas for some bonus chapters. In my mind I feel like this is the closest I am going to get to grasping Cassandra.
I want to thank everyone again for the feedback, and I hope this Arc as a whole was able to meet the standards that you have come to expect as readers.
The length and breadth of your output has been amazing, fur. The longer you write, the more smoothly it flows. I hope you continue exploring and sharing this way, and it's a pleasure to have followed along.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Lady Grey.
DeleteWriting this has been surprisingly cathartic, both in regards to living vicariously in the absence of reality but also confronting specific thoughts or feelings relating to the events.
I plan to keep writing as long as I can come up with ideas. I feel a bond with the characters and I feel like I would rather keep going in this rather than starting something new, but I guess I will see where the muse takes me.