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.