Argh! The Pressure!!!

Chapter 10 of The Inn has now been up long enough to garner a fair number of comments ... and they've sent me into a complete guilt-spiral!

"Can't wait for the next chapter!"

"I wouldn't mind if this series went on forever!"

The problem is, my original outline calls for Chapter 11 to be the finale. So I'm reading these comments and thinking, Oh, shit. They clearly do not feel like this story is building up to an imminent conclusion! I'm going to get crucified if I end it next chapter!

I'd been patting myself on the back for several weeks about coming up with an ending that would bring the romantic plot and the storyline plot to a simultaneous peak, and now it's clear my clever resolution will seriously disappoint the readers.

What to do?

First, I decided I'd better figure out whether the readers would be right in their disappointment. Literotica readers pretty much always want every decent serial to go on eternally, whereas I'm a pretty solid believer in beginning-middle-end storytelling.

But when I put myself in their shoes, I decided they had a point. The plot took a major turn at the end of Chapter 9, and if that plot twist made the book wrap-up after just two additional chapters, what the hell was the point of all the plot building in Chapters 1-8? It would feel like turning the corner and running into a brick wall.

So.

What to do about it?

I sat and thought and sat and thought.

How could I take the position the characters occupied at the end of Chapter 10 and make it lead to not one but several additional escalations of the story? They had to be real escalations too, not just drawing the story out for the sake of making it longer.

The answer turned out to be, "Don't make things quite so easy on the characters just because the end of the story is in sight."

Once I figured that out, I realized that I'd skipped right past the possibility of the Chapter-9 plot twist throwing additional challenges in Simon and Leyna's path, rather than just opening up solutions. And not only would those challenges force them to be more inventive in resolving the threat of Necromanata, they'd also provide a natural intermediary step between Simon and Leyna's relationship at the end of Chapter 10 and where that relationship ends up at the end of the book.

Success!

The book is now plotted out to run through Chapter 14, which will probably bring it up close to 100,000 words ... a pretty respectable length for an erotic fantasy novel!

In closing, though, I must warn my readers ... just because begging for more worked this time doesn't mean it will work every time! If it did, I'd end up writing one long continuation of a single series until I'm in my dotage.

Thanks, though. The Inn is going to be much better for my forced reconsideration of these last few chapters!

Thank you, one and all!

Big Flipping Deal Chapter 7 won the Literotica Reader's Choice Award for Best Transsexuals & Crossdressers story!

I really appreciate everyone who took the time to vote, both for BFD and for Contrast Chapter 4, which came in second in the Interracial category.

It's nice to know people like my stories, and very nice to have my writing recognized as worthwhile.

Thank you very much!