Anyone there? If so, here's a question

I address this to my theoretical Reader.

I know a few of you are out there, of course. You're the guys I keep up with on a semi-regular basis, who I email and I occasionally IM. You guys are basically a given.

I'm talking to the other Reader. (Or can I be brave and assume a plural Readers?) The silent majority.

I need to hear from you.

Not entirely to stroke my own ego (although yes, I'll admit that's part of it.) I actually want to get your opinion.

Y'see, right now, in another window, I have the beginning of Betty's latest issue in the works. Issue 23, if you're counting. And it's easy stuff. It's familiar, it's comfortable. It's not hard. Sure, the plotting can be an absolute bitch sometimes (as I'm pretty sure I've said before, trying to write a coherent narrative while also trying to ensure you get in as much disguise material as possible is basically like trying to write porno that makes sense) but I'm used to that now.

The point is, I have done this before. A lot. I have something like almost 250K words written that chronicle the adventures of Betty and her friends, and while I'm happy to write a lot more, I'll be honest with you... I think I'm almost done. Not so much with Betty, but with mask fiction in general.

I know, I know. Those of you who've been 'with me' a while know I say this periodically. I think this time it might be true.

Why? Well, it's a lot of different things. I'm probably going to be a father in the next few years, God willing, and I hear kids take up some time! My career is also in pretty good shape, but demands a lot of time. And also - and frankly, I see this as the big one - I'm getting older. Believe it or not! And I know now, unlike when I was a callow youth of 25 or so (when I really, seriously started writing mask fiction with Beneath the Veil) that I've only got a limited number of years left in me.

Do I really want to spend them writing this fiction, with no reward, little recognition, and no way I can even share it with close (real life) friends?

I've been writing in other areas recently, thinking about other projects and getting some stuff done. It's enticing. It's appealing. So I'm thinking I might walk away from this for a bit, and see what happens when I do.

However. (Here comes the good news.) I don't want to walk away unfinished.

I have a number of large, major projects 'in the works'. (It's a terrible habit, but then so's writing erotica - oh, wait....) And here's The Question:

What do you want me to finish... first?

As usual, there's no guarantee I'll actually do what you suggest. But I'd love to hear opinions.

So in the spirit of a new(ish) decade, and transparency and new journalism and all that bollocks, here's what's on the block. No cute codenames, just what I've got here and how near-complete it is. In no particular order:

Option 1: BBSSG

... is of course the continuing adventures of Betty, Spider-Girl. Issues 21 and 22 are done. 23 is started. The current arc would possibly end in that issue, maybe 24. These issues involve Mysterio, a Spider-Girl impersonator, lots of identity switching and even Batgirl.

I have loads of other ideas for the series. Honestly, I'd say another 15 to 25 issues is possible. How long would that take? Possibly forever. I leave this as an option, though, because for some it might be what you want.

For those who aren't up to date with the series, it features a lot of F2F masking and disguise, with a little M2F (so far: there's a LOT more to come) and even the occasional F2M outing. It's heavy on the superheroines, costumes, that sort of thing. Oh, and it's pretty much PG-13 rated; sex is suggested more than shown. If you don't like comic-based stuff you won't like this, but then you can read what it's been like up until now and make up your own mind.

Option 2: The Babysitter

This is your typical boy-meets-girl, boy discovers girl has a secret, boy and girl decide to do naughty things together story. In other words it's a heavy M2F story from another (male) perspective. So far, disguises in this have mostly been 'off-stage', as the perspective doesn't allow for that. Even so, I think it's pretty strong, I can see some fun stuff coming before the end.

It's got a definite 'strong woman' vibe, although don't think 'bondage', more just... well, a strong woman. (Albeit a woman who's a man. You know what I mean.) If the idea of an English schoolteacher looking over her glasses at you with a glint in her eye appeals, then you'll probably like this. Oh, and it's definitely X-rated.

25K words written on this; I would say it's maybe a third finished. I know the plot just about all the way to the end, though.

Option 3: Teya

This one's been in the works for quite a long time - in fact, it's a bit distressing to note that I've pretty much not made any progress on it for over two years. That said, what I have works for me, and I'm sure I could get back into it.

It's another M2F story (in fact it uses PJ Wright's Nu-Gen tech idea) where the main protagonist is observing the actual disguises happening. Unlike the Babysitter though, this is much more about two friends discovering... interesting things together. I think the main character is very relatable, as is the situation. Essentially it's a story that answers the question "What would you do if your best friend could be a woman at will?" The Babysitter is more of a thriller... assuming your 'thrills' are very specific!

49K words down on this, and I think it's actually about two-thirds, maybe three-quarters finished... again, I know the plot to the end. Also, X-rated.

Option 4: Housesitting

This is a real oldie, to be honest. The original version of this was started God-knows-when, and really, it was never supposed to be much more than a little romp.

However, I include it here because I did re-plot it a couple of years ago, and if I pursue that plot, it'll have a lot more interesting twists and turns. Also, frankly it'd probably be shorter than the others... and also it's M2F, but with the protagonist being very much at the centre of the action. In other words, if you want to imagine you're 'M' becoming the 'F', then this is your choice.

Now, frankly, I know that many of you will just pick this because of that... so I have to caution you. While this thing is plotted out, I have less interest in telling this story than any of the other three options. SG is easy, albeit it's a bit repetitive; Babysitter has, well, two of the most interesting characters I've written; Teya is a really good, intimate look at two people. This one... well, it started as a simple fantasy and it grew from there.

But, there are 15K words done on it, it could probably be done in 40K, so honestly it could get done quick. And yes, X-rated.

That's it. Let me know what you want. We'll see what happens.

Writing projects update... January

So I think I might do these semi-regularly from now on... the first two got a lot of traffic. Hopefully not just from people who are basically not at all interested in Spider-Girl and are looking for other stuff....

Anyway for anyone who's not read one of these before, here's what I'm either thinking about, plotting or possibly even writing at the moment that I'm not talking about extensively. Everything gets assigned a letter, just to confuse me. There's no guarantee anything here will ever see the light of day, but if something catches your imagination... let me know.

Project T hasn't been worked on for a while (bear in mind before I came back to Spider-Girl recently, I hadn't worked on anything since September), but just so you know, it's at just under 50,000 words... and I think could well be double that when it's done. I basically think it's a novel, now. I won't be releasing it until it is done, either - with the exception of serial stuff like Spider-Girl, that has no fixed ending, I'm trying not to release parts of things if they're not finished. Just FYI.

Anyway, the writing of that has been a lot of fun. I got past a major, major scene a while back which had been in my head forever, and when it was down on paper I felt so close to it I couldn't even tell if it was any good. I sent it to an 'independent adjudicator' and I'm happy to report he gave it a glowing report card. So hey, I know at least one part of it is good.

As I've said before, but just for the record, this is a male-to-female story involving bodysuits.

Other stuff I've actually written words for; several years ago Victor and I sort-of collaborated on a story I called Housesitting, which we never finished, although I have about 12,500 words of it done. Frankly I was never that happy with the plot that we came up with, and yesterday I finally re-plotted the whole thing (hence my post on plotting).

I'm a lot happier with the potential for it now; it seems a lot sturdier to me, with some interesting interactions I've never written before. (For 'interactions' you can also read 'sex' if you like.) I can see myself tapping away at this for a bit and seeing how it goes. This is another male-to-female story, but more traditional - a kid imitating his mother using a mask.

I mentioned Love Hotel before... I will finish this one day, but honestly I've got to be in the right mood. What's written of it was done in 2001 in a hotel on a business trip... perhaps the next time I'm alone in a foreign clime with time on my hands I'll get it done. (And I do have a potential trip in the first half of this year....) I'd like to tell you what it involves, but it'd spoil the surprises....

Father Knows Best, some of you will remember I'm sure. (Three parts were released a few years ago, but I never finished it - dammit.) I really want to finish this but I still don't know what the hell the ending is. It might just need a complete re-plotting session, like Housesitting... I'll try and do that, we'll see what I come up with.

Moving on to stuff that's plotted, or semi-plotted, but not written at all... I have a complete outline for what should in theory be a 'short' but knowing me it won't be! Lemme see... I guess that would be Project A, but I know that'll confuse me so let's just give it a working title - Anita. Believe it or not this is a female-to-male story, with some other stuff I won't spoil. Any interest?

What else, jeez... I guess there's Project TNG, which is long, has a very complex plot and would be a huge challenge to write, as previously mentioned. I still don't have an ending for that damn thing so it'll probably stay untouched until I figure that out. It's primarily female-to-female, but has female-to-male stuff in there too.

I mentioned something called Project B before, and just to allow you to connect the dots, that's actually The Babysitter (a working title) which I talked about the inspiration for a little while back. So re-read that post and imagine if you like. (Or even better, suggest your 'Holy cow, my babysitter is actually a masked hottie' fantasies to me and give me some material.)

Project TSL is my serial story, the one inspired by The Black Widow. I do want to do this, but plotting it is actually a lot harder than expected. I will get to it, but the plot needs to be totally done, and I'd be writing it in either 9 or 13 parts, so that's quite a lot of plot. Wait and see.

And finally... Project AC isn't dead, but it sure isn't very alive either. Frankly I can't see myself working on it until Spider-Girl is done... so that's a loooong way away. But never say never. Project G... uhh, we should probably forget about that. It'd be huge, and it's an idea without a story, really, and would need researching and... life's too short.

That's it. If you want to see any other post where I talk about these projects, then helpfully, they're all filed under 'projects'.

Sunday morning word count

Project T now stands at just over 44,000 words. (I'll admit, I came to a natural break point just shy of 44K, so I added a few more. Just so I wouldn't lie to you. I'm like that.)

I have a strong feeling there's at least 15, maybe 20K more in this thing; the scene I'm writing now is probably several thousand long, and there are several more scenes just like it before it's done. I guess I'm over half way... maybe. I don't know, I'll just keep going and it'll be done some time.

I know it must be annoying to some of you to read this, but I figure you might prefer to know I am actually writing, as opposed to just jerking off or checking YouTube all day.

Also, Spider-Girl 13 is progressing, slowly. It's probably likely, all things considered, that I'll release it before Project T's completely done. Right now though, Project T has it's hooks in me, so that seems to be what comes out whenever I sit at the keyboard.

So how're you guys?

Three lines = three thousand words

In another tab, Project T is sitting at 34,390 words... so about 3,000 more than last night. That's 3,000 words drawn from three lines in my plot description, and there's a lot more to go... lots of fun stuff I hope.

In case you're wondering that 3k took about two and a half hours, with few interruptions (assuming that rating songs in Pandora as I listen to them doesn't count as an interruption). Not much of a boast by the way. Well alright, a little one. Generally though, I can churn out 1,000 words or so an hour of any kind of writing if I'm 'in the zone' and know where I'm going. In this case, I have a pretty good roadmap.

In a comment on my previous post, RJW suggested that I might give out some practical tips to writers. Well, here's an easy one to start with: just write. Sounds pretty frickin' obvious I know, but unless you're willing to devote close to three hours of a weeknight to just sitting at the keyboard and getting the words done, you won't get much accomplished.

Of course, I only get to issue smug directives like that on nights like this. Come back when I've been staring at a blinking cursor for a whole evening - you'll get a different GW.