Sometimes as the author of a series, I forget that my readers aren't privy to all the copious notes, schedules, sketches I've made. Sure, The Queen's stable diagrams are there, but that doesn't compare to what I have at my fingertips. And when various readers complained about "too many characters" in "Out of the Night: Book One," I got irritated- can't you tell I'm writing a series? There'll be time! Do I need to spoon feed you just the little bit of pablum you can handle? (Yeah, I was channeling and agreeing with some of my Master's favorite vents when it comes to popular media.)
A big topic among authors- whether they be professionals, amateurs, competing in National Novel Writing Month etc etc- is whether you write with an outline or "write by the seat of your pants." I'm somewhere between the two, having cobbled together my own style.
While I don't want to give away all my surprises :D, I am going to show you the schedule for Vala's first two weeks of training.
Week 1:
Collaring ceremony: Etiquette: titles, towards other Doms & subs, proper demeanor; Philosophical discussion of obedience
Week 2:
Obedience games with Vala as sub
Do you notice something? No details of when formal dinners are happening. No day-to-day living. This schedule's purpose was simply to detail for me to see what The Queen wanted Vala trained in and, in lessons after these, which of his other slaves were being used to teach Vala the lesson. Because the primary point of "Vala's Story" is to show her training to be The Queen's slave.
Another of those things I forget- I've gotten to "see" Vala while she was still Mearr at the beginning of the series, all the way to the end of her training... and now even beyond having written a spin-off that's almost a sequel to the Vala's Story series. Sometimes I find myself irritated at comments about Vala's progress and I want to say as one BR pointed out "people needing to be patient and giving Vala time to learn and grow through the books. The more they read, the more they're going to see her grow." But schedule aside, Vala's progress hasn't been a straight line, just as it isn't for a person in real life.
I'm about 2/3rd's into the book and the subs have just been introduced. I can see your frustration with people wanting everything tied up with a neat bow in the first book. It doesn't work like that with a serial. In the first Master's Boys book, "Trick" I got a slew of readers that criticized me for not giving him his HEA in book one. My muse is the one who told me, "keep them waiting and wanting more with each book". Once book two came out, people realized what I was doing and backed off with the comments. They'll figure it out Joelle
ReplyDeleteI admit, The Queen has a lot of slaves- I never intended a) it to be just one book or b)to focus on all of them. But in many ways, both direct and indirect, they show reflections of Vala as she moves in relationship with them. And yeah, on your series, I love the pieces... like following Trick... we learn a little bit more about him in each book. Like I loved "Silver Bullets" (yes, got to 80% some before saying "time to go to sleep" lol and finished this morning) getting to meet various characters in more depth (I love Michael's transformation in SB and hope some time in my work today to get to writing the review).
DeleteFunny thing, I'd thought seeing the "Book One" part of the title would get people to realize "oh a series"- doesn't seem to have acted quite that way.
Of course there's another piece, a BDSM piece on this all that irritates me. Yes, the series is following Vala (a switch) most closely. However The Queen is the master in this story universe. And there are some things for which the answer is "That's the way The Queen wants it" lol