I really cut it close this month, but the next chapter of Consequences has been released! I hope people like it, and of course, all feedback is always welcome. The story is proving to be interesting to write, as there are both a lot of parallels, and a lot of new challenges to writing the story. The biggest challenge is in continuing a story I finished around 2017 even though I’ve changed as an author since then (I’ve had to remind myself to keep up Adam’s lengthy inner monologue, something I’ve naturally shied away from writing out of pure instinct). The biggest help in all this is that I’ve known in a rough shape the direct Consequences would take ever since I finished Being More Social, so it’s more of a process of remembering than first discovery, with the former being easier to do than the latter.

One particularly interesting difficulty has been in the knowledge that I need to continue writing Mr. Salvador. This isn’t to say the story needs him – I could still write a sequel to Being More Social without him – but the particular version of the sequel I want to tell will feature him as a character. Salvador has been one of the most explicitly based-on-a-real-person characters I’ve ever written, being very clearly modeled after my own drama teacher. The problem is… that drama teacher got outed for some pretty not-okay behavior recently. (I will not, here or in future, outline what the real person did, but in case you’re wondering, that first place your mind jumped to – it wasn’t that.)

I’ve attempted to suggest that I made Salvador my own character, but only insofar as his direct choices. In terms of his core personality, he very clearly resembles this teacher. In a weird way, I have to grapple with how the same personality I want to directly emulate created someone who did some morally not-okay things. As well, I will be reminded of that every time I write him. So you may see the character act a tad… inconsistent as I figure out a balance between being faithful to Salvador, and distancing myself from his real-world counterpart.

It’s a shame. I mentioned that he hated me, and I wasn’t his biggest fan as a teacher, but I always found the person at least interesting. I’m sad to know that a person so responsible for my upbringing wasn’t that great of a person, even if I don’t ever talk to him and he likely doesn’t remember I exist. I suppose this is what it’s like to find out a YouTuber or Twitch streamer or TikTokker you like has done some bad things.

I briefly considered writing Salvador out, but I think it’s more empowering to my own characters to press on and simply make him more my own character. Very few, if any, events of the story should change as a fallout from this, I just thought it was at least interesting to talk about.

Sorry for not keeping up with blog posts lately. September was another one of those hell months and it doesn’t look like it’ll get any easier from here, but I’ve made choices in my life and one of them is to ultimately put my writing first. I’ll do whatever I can to keep writing online, in any form. That said, unless my writing is in active danger, there may be times where I may skip a blog or something to make sure all of the other fires in my life are put out. In general, I’d still like to do a blog a week, if nothing else, to be consistent.

The next projects I want to work on are some commission pieces and the edit of Mutual Benefits. The stars may align this month, or perhaps I’ll just come out with my standard one piece a month. I hope it’s the former. I’ll talk to you all next week.