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We continue.
I've been busy with another writing project for a while, during which part 4 has been quietly fermenting away until such time as it reached perfection.
Today is that time.
One thing I strive for in my writing is to be unpredictable.
If I wouldn't read it, I won't write it.
If I've seen something done before, I also won't write it.
If I've written something similar before, I'll grow bored long before I finish writing that same thing again in another place.
TTC is a horror series, and using the same type of horror more than once is boring to me. I feel that each work I write should, in some memorable and impactful way, be noticeably better than everything I've written before it, which includes devising new and more terrifying things to write about.
The culmination of these thoughts and goals is Taking the Class: Part 3, which is now several chapters underway.
Please enjoy.
With the end of Part 2, the main characters have now been fully introduced.
The planning for TTC1 and TTC2 was done more or less at the same time. I wrote TTC1 in the first few weeks of June, and then immediately wrote TTC2 in the following two weeks once the first plot arc was done.
The concept for the combined arcs was to present two characters from a forced narrative perspective such that it becomes entirely up to the reader to decide who, if anyone, is the "hero" of the story. Taking the Class is not intended to be a story about "good guys" against "bad guys", it's just a story about people who live in a fucked up world.
Thanks to all who have taken the time to send me messages while and after reading. I never intended to write for an audience, and it continues to baffle me that I've managed to acquire one.
Part 3 is, once again, vastly different from either of the previous arcs, and I look forward to sharing it in the future.
I received a surprising number of mails from here in response to the first arc of the story, so I've begun posting the second arc. TTC2 is finished, and I'll be releasing a chapter every 1-2 days until it ends.
Please enjoy, and be careful reading.
Chapter 5, the final chapter in the prologue of TTC, has posted today. Since I write plenty of long-winded for reviews of other peoples' work, I thought it might be interesting to give some insight into the process of constructing this story.
At the outset, TTC was a (bad) idea that I had one day which somehow grew into something (slightly) less bad, and then developed into a horror story. One of the core ideas that I wanted to try was to write a story which presents main characters at their worst. Instead of making them likable to keep a reader going, what if I made them interesting instead? Instead of a sex story that tantalizes its readers with the idea of characters engaging in sex acts, could I make a horror story which makes sex repugnant--titillating but undesired?
No character of significance in the story is (or at least is intended to be) without flaws or conflicts:
Alaina herself is not supposed to be liked by the reader, despite being the main character; some have even told me that they despise her, and that's great to hear. She copes with her situation as best she can, but ultimately she is unprepared for what life throws at her despite spending so much of her time preparing for life. I don't think she's a bad person, but I do think that people are less personable when going through a crisis scenario.
Will is an antagonist, and yet not. A story with an unreliable narrative will only have a villain as much as the narrator perceives one to exist. The flashbacks from Monday afternoon may have occurred as written, but what did Alaina take away from them? Why is her perception of him so different from Ayanna's? If you finished reading and were uncertain whether or not you think Will might be a good guy or a bad guy (or neither), I've succeeded. Enough hints were left to figure out his true motivations if one reads extremely carefully.
Writing sex scenes is hard. The choice is there: whether to try appealing to the reader with vivid descriptions, or whether to be more utilitarian and let the appeal come from the interactions of the character personalities. Everyone has their own style, and I chose to be very much on the less descriptive side. I only hope that I was able to make Alaina's personality shine through in full here.
If you completed the story and had strong feelings on it one way or another, or if you have any questions, please drop me a line and let me know.
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