Fitting In (Chapter 2)

Hello! I am so so sorry about the lateness of this update. I was going to schedule it last night, so it would post this morning at 10AM EST, but I fell very ill very suddenly late in the day and fell asleep for quite some time. The good news is that I'm feeling much better today than I did yesterday, but the bad news is that I completely forgot to make the post!

Now then, our second chapter! This may be my biggest divergence ever between the originally intended plot and what actually happened. 

Originally, Fitting In was going to be a sort of reversal of The Reporter, one of my first stories. It would have followed Tanya’s friend Vix as they tried to uncover what truly happened to Tanya, and how she was brainwashed, while undergoing an accidental stepfordization sequence (such as getting their hair done at a salon while trying to spy on Sarah-Grace). It was to end with Vix discovering that there was no sinister secret, and that Tanya truly just wanted this new lifestyle for herself. 

After posting the first chapter, and seeing the feedback to it, I realized just how unsatisfied I was with the direction I was taking the story. It was too similar to The Reporter, save for the ending, and I just wasn’t very happy with how I had written Vix (they came across as far too unlikable and mean), so I shifted gears and instead decided to focus on Tanya’s emotional journey as she undergoes this transformation into her new self. It’s a more positive and healthy take on Stepfordization, compared to the darker content I typically write. 

Overall, I’m very pleased with this new direction, even if I did spend a lot of time hastily rewriting the story. I’m already in the early stages of writing chapter 4, and depending on how our current $5 polls go, I may extend the story to 6 or 7 chapters. Already though, I can promise that it’s much better than my original version of the story (and much more entertaining as well). 

Tanya’s look as of the end of this chapter was inspired by a very specific image I saw, and immediately fell in love with. 

It’s a very retro, stepford look, but with some lingering touches that evoke a more punkish history, which was just perfect for our protagonist. A girly girl at heart, but one who still has a harder edge when she’s feeling confident. In fact, Tanya may be one of my favorite protagonists yet. 

I hope you enjoy this update!