Fakeminsk TG Fiction: Constant in All Other Things

Sneak Peek: Constant, Chapter 6--Returning "home"

What, two sneak peeks in a week?  Why not.  Mostly because, starting a new chapter there's always a bit of... insecurity? I guess, as to how it's going.  This is compounded by the facts that a) I'm returning to Constant after a break of a few months, b) I'm returning to David's "voice" after a year of writing in 3rd person, and c) I'm trying something a bit tricky, capturing a shift between "now" voice and "then" voice, compounded by the unreliability of the narrator (and the a...

Writing Update: 01/02/24

Oops!  What is wrong with me?  Work and lack of sleep must be getting to me.  Suddenly thought it was Friday and typed this up a day early.  Guess I'll leave this here and just update it tomorrow with the additional day's word count (an additional 1,324 words, possibly with more to come later in the day.)

Start of week: 19,317

End of week: 24,238

Change: +4,921

Most of it was on Constant, though some of that word count went int...

Sneak Peek: Constant 2, Chapter 6 - The Funeral of David Saunders

Despite a whole host of distractions and challenges this week, I've still managed to make a strong start, or at least build on last week's start, with Constant.  I think I've got a solid foundation to build from and although tricky, it'll hopefully maintain the tension as we shift into the final story arc of the series (I think).

Anyways!  Here's a sneak peek of the opening of chapter 6--still, I might add, very much in a rough state liable to change considerably by...

On returning to writing Constant

Starting up with Chapter 6, I realised it'd been over a year since last writing in David's voice.  The Interlude was in 3rd person (mostly) and the most recent bit of Silk and Shadows in 2nd person.  It took a few tries to get it right.  (I'm still not sure I'm there.)  It's a tricky thing - over a hundred thousand words in, you'd expect some change, right?  So finding that balance between OG David and current-story David/Cindy is taking some work.

You can decid...

Publish!: A Song of Silk and Shadows, Chapter 2

Made a few minor tweak throughout, and published the second chapter of Silk and Shadows over the weekend to the usual places: FM, BCTS, TGStorytime.  With that done, this week I'll be turning back to Constant.  Hopefully, though, once I've made some progress there I'll return to the fantasy story--I'd hate to leave Duncan there forever, bound and blindfolded on display at Castigan's party.

Please find below the "final" published verison.  I put "final" in quotation marks ...

First Draft: A Song of Silk and Shadows, Chapter 2

Found a little unexpected downtime today, so took that time to finish off what I think will be chapter 2 of Silk and Shadows.  I've given it a proofread but it probably needs another pass before publishing.  In any case, enjoy the first full draft of Chapter 2 - I'll probably publish it to the usual sites tomorrow or sometime next week.

Chapter 3 will pick up the content I expected to squeeze into this one--the flashback about how all this started, the transformation and train...

Writing Update: 26/01/24

Start of week: 15,096

End of week: 19,317

Change: +4221

Not too bad a week for writing, accounting for real-world interruptions.  A 12-hour work day this week didn't help, as well as a noticeable bump in other workload, but still managed to carve out some time every day.  Was hoping to hit 5000 for the week, and the writing this morning was going phenominally well - a thousand words in just over an hour - then an emergency struck and well, that was that.  Time...

Sneak Peek: A Song of Silk and Shadows - On Corsets

Hello all.  The week's writing continues apace: started Constant, and managed a bit of Song and Silk on the side.  Don't want to shove it completely to one side yet, not until the current scene is done.  

In the sneak peek below, I'm working through a bit of a metaphor.  Not entirely sure it's come out as I wanted, but I think it holds together as a first draft.  I wanted to convey that this item Duncan hates represents an economic miracle - the coming together ...

On Fantasy

Now that the first chapter of ASoSaS (not the greatest of acronyms) is published, I hope you'll indulge me a little rambling about the writing of it.

I read a lot of sci-fi and fantasy growing up.  I mean, a lot - it was pretty much all I read.  I'm sure it's all churning away back there in the unconscious depths somewhere - all those Dragonlance novels, the Chronicles of Thomas Covernant the Unbeliever, The Lord of the Rings (obviously), A Wrinkle in Time, Earthsea, and more-...

Publish!: A Song of Silk and Shadows, Part 1

Well, based off of patron Asklepios's comment, I decided--why not?--and trimmed the current chapter back to the first two scenes, and called that "Part 1".  I've sent it off to FM to publish - I imagine it'll show up there in the next day or two.  It's pretty much the same as posted yesterday, with a few tweaks here and there (mostly a few typos) and the change in the title (from "Game" to "Song"; I think the alliteration sounds better, and it'll work into some later plotting, I thi...

First Draft: A Game of Silk and Shadows (Part One, Unfinished)

I suppose in some ways this short stort is an a

Writing Update: 19/01/24

Despite the horrendous work week, not a bad week for writing:

Start of week: 9261

End of week: 15,096

Change: +5,835

Currently averaging a little over 1,000/day, which is good (for me) - though I don't expect I'll manage to maintain the pace.  Still, it's wonderful seeing a story grow at it's current speed, there's a real sense of getting somewhere.  Though even then, it's a bit frustrating - I'd be writing more, if I had the time (and place).

Next week...

Sneak Peek: 2nd Person Narrative

Hello all!  So, this'll be the final installment of sneak-peeking at the tentatively-titled Game of Silk and Shadows (I switched from "Season" to "Game" for the GoT echo).  It's been great fun to write, but it's time to get back to Constant, which I'll be picking up again on Monday.

In the meantime, I tried my hand at writing in the second person.  It's an intriguing perspective to write in - easy, to create a strong voice with, which is great but potentially pro...

Sneak Peek: A Season of Silk and Shadows

Hello!

I carved out a little time to edit and fill out some of the "Unnamed Fantasy Short Story" side project this weekend, and below you can see what is possibly the first part of what is growing into a somewhat longer-than-expected short story.

My current plan is to finish the third part of this "chapter" and then return to Constant. I'll probably post it to FM at that point as well.

This little story has taken me by surprise, and I could easily write up another entry abou...

Writing Update: 12/01/24

Start of week: 2,786

End of week: 9,261

Change: +6,475

An excellent week for writing - for me, at least - and the unnamed Fantasy short story continues apace.  I've reached a natural stopping point for it, and so am contemplating over the weekend whether to set it aside and return to Constant on Monday, or to keep at the increasingly not-so-short story whilst the inspiration still burns.

The point may be a moot one as I anticipate the next two weeks will be less t...

Patreon Front Page: Constant in All Other Things

Turning some of my energies and efforts back to Constant, I started thinking about the Patreon front page and that rather ugly place-holder art at the top.  When I first started the Patreon over a year ago, I didn't have a clue what I was doing.  (I still don't really, but I'm trying!)  I can't remember where I got that image from - I think it was a website for designing digital book covers from a limited selection of (free) templates.

So, it could probably do with a refr...

Unnamed Fantasy Short Story: AI Art (Duncan and Aubriella)

So, I thought I'd poke around a bit more with the AI Art software to see what I could generate; a little bit of downtime fun inspired by the recent short stort writing.

I'm using Artsmart here.  I started with Duncan, the protagonist of the story, and wondered whether I could generate a coherent male and femal version of the same character.  It took a bit of work to get a suitable Duncan: the AI really went ripped-abs, romance-novel cover on him and initially refused to give h...

Sneak Peak: Unnamed Fantasy Story

I'm really enjoying the strong start to the writing year - I don't know how long it'll last before general exhaustion, illness, melancholy or any of the other inevitable downers of life creeps up, but for now it's all going suspiciously well.  Part of this may have to do with a shift into a different genre.  I'm keen to return to |Constant but having spent the past year writing it, I think trying my hand at something different has been good.  

In any case, writing in the ...

A Branch in the Narrative: Willing Sacrifice, or Betrayed Victim?

Hello!

Let's try a poll!  I've never done one of these before on Patreon, so I'm curious to see how it goes.  Alongside Constant, I'm writing a fantasy-themed short story.  I've reached the point in the story wher I've got to make a key decision regarding backstory, namely the means by which the TG hero(ine) ended up under the influence of the antagonist. I've got two ideas, and each brings a different nuance to character and plot, and how the protagonist will react to ci...

Writing Update: 05/01/24

First update of the new year!

Start of week: 0 (!)

End of week: 2,786

Change: +2,786

A strong start to the year I feel, considering it wasn't possible to start any writing on New Years Day and I had a twelve-hour work day on Thursday.  The current side project (which needs a better name than Unnamed Fantasy Short Story) is proceeding well, and I'm having a lot of fun with it - more on that later.  Jotted down a few more ideas for Chapter 6 (and beyond) of Con...

Sneak Peek: Unnamed Fantasy Story

Greetings!  Well, after the exhausting chaos of the festive period and New Year, some form of normality reasserts itself.  I've been back to writing since the second (admitedly, only two days) but it's been a joy returning to the keyboard.

However, it's not Constant.  Don't worry! Constant hadn't been abandonned.  I'm still working on the outline for the next chapter (and beyond) and trying to tame and organise the many ideas and scenes I want to squeeze into the rem...

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, everyone!  Here's to an awesome 2024, filled with happiness and joy, success and pleasure--and lots of writing.

Publish!: Second Interlude (3/3)

Final part of the Interlude is now up on FM!

With the whole chapter out in the wild now, I'm curious to see how it go down.  The number of hits is slowly ticking upwards - I suppose it's no surprise that it's doesn't enjoy the kind of readership numbers a shorter piece might.  It's sixteen chapters in of a 200K+ work stoy that started about fifteen years ago - not exactly an easy thing to jump into the middle.  Hopefully, though, it picks up a few new readers.

I've ...

More AI Art Attempts

It's quite fun, and fascinating, trying to create images from text, though also somewhat frustrating. There's so much going on here, from the "unconscious" biases of the learning model (initially, I didn't indicate either gender or race for the image, for example) to its stubborness regarding some details - but still great fun to play with.  I had a go at the same scene Bobbie experimented with, using getimg.ai, which does allow for some nudity. I then tried using one of the more success...

AI Art - Patron Submission

Recent patron "Bobbi" created these image of David/Cindy using AI, based on the awakening at the start of Season 2, Chapter 1.  I went and retrieved the relevant passage.  Here it is:

"Soft, sloping shoulder, their slenderness accentuated by the delicate strap of the babydoll that whispered against my thigh with every movement. Small, slightly upturned nose and the full lips beneath, glistening and soft. The dark, round circle of areolas. The nubs that pushed out rudely from...

AI Art - Experimenting with Stable Diffusion

Inspired by a recent comment, I thought it might be fun to experiment with a little AI art, in this case Stable Diffusion.  I've got very little experience with this stuff, so literally just fed it some lines from the Interlude - the moment when David sees himself in the mirror in Dan's bathroom.  It refused to show him stepping into the dress; I imagine it's got some censorship limitations and didn't want to generate a half-naked character.  

The prompt, tweaked from the...

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone.  It's a funny season, Christmas - joyous for some, and difficult for others - a week (or weeks) filled with expectations, stress, celebration and resentment.  Whatever your festive reality is, I hope it proves a good one with, at a minimum, some respite from work or the stresses of daily life, even if only for a day or two.

I'm lucky enough to be spending some time with family which brings its own mix of all of the above, but I'd be a fool to conside...

Publish!: Second Interlude (2/3)

It's an odd sort of Christmas gift, but just sent the second part of the interlude off to FM - hopefully it pops up soon!  

Thanks, again, to everyone who helped make this possible--the support and feedback has been invaluable and as I wrote at the end of the 1/3, I'm not sure I would've stuck with it without you all.

I'll publish 3/3 in the new year.  I'm not sure how much writing time I'll find over the festive season, but I'm gearing up for chapter 6 and looking to st...

Final Draft: Interlude (3/3)

Struggling a bit to find free time to write ove

Final Draft: Interlude (2/3)

Here it is - the final version of the second pa