Sometimes it’s a little strange being in my particular Internet niche. I love being able to not only write erotica, but also have the freedom to write with my own style and ideas. Currently, my most popular commissioned story by a long shot carries no specific deadline and no particular requested events. If you’re an outsider, I want to stress how truly unusual that is for erotica commissions. Normally commissions carry both, and my prices reflect the fact that I truly never know, with my full-time job, when I’ll have time to write and when I’ll have no time… or no energy left.

Most of my contemporaries have unenviable positions that burn them out. I see it constantly in their blogs and comments, especially since these people banked on kink rather than a solid story, and have since been condemned to writing the same story over and over with slightly swapped character names or events. I can’t imagine writing the same type of story past a certain extent twice. I have highlighted the similarity of a lot of my stories in my blogs before, but especially since my longform stories all run over 50,000 words long, go figure, they all have stark differences in one way or another. All of that tends to boil down to characters.

If you make a character distinctive enough, the story will become its own. A lot of my released stories, and even some of my unreleased ones, can only work because of the characters. Even a recent one-shot story such as Here’s My Snapchat wouldn’t have worked without its juxtaposition of characters. Character and dialogue is at the heart of my writing style. My last chapter of Final Answer – spoiler warning – essentially introduced a new romantic interest out of nowhere, and people not only accepted it – they really like Sammy. But the key thing is, they don’t really like the inclusion of someone new out of nowhere as a plot device in and of itself – they really like Sammy. The comments I’ve gotten ranged from “Where was someone like Sammy when I was younger” to “I like Sammy’s spunky spirit.” While I’ve written similar personality traits, Sammy feels new, even to me as a writer. I enjoy writing her.

I enjoy coming up with these characters and writing these stories, but of course, sometimes, readers may dislike or disagree with how these characters end up. While trying to avoid spoilers, I’ll say that some readers expressed desire for a different ending for both Mutual Benefits and Consequences, for distinctly different reasons. This is beyond understandable. People will read stories and feel that the story should go a certain way. I think, if anything, I baffle my readers with which characters get happy endings and which ones don’t, which I will accept. However, hearing that often enough made me realize something: the way people talk about these characters, it’s as if I own them.

I’m aware we live in a society where ownership is exceedingly important. Copyrights and trademarks and patents are a part of even the art world, and without it, stealing and misattribution and lost income would be more rampant than it already is. Even so, I have to pause and think of my characters… do I own them? Sure, I came up with them, and for that obvious reason I am fully allowed to be the first to use them, but… ownership? It doesn’t sit right with me.

I think I am fully okay with any writer using my characters for their own stories, with caveats. Caveat number one is that if someone uses my characters for a piece they’re writing with the intent to sell that writing, I think I would prefer to be attributed or at least mentioned. Even though I have commissions and Patreon, I still don’t sell my writing directly. You don’t need to pay to view my works, and if I have it my way, you never will. Caveat number two is to be respectful, and treat them like people with feelings. That part I can’t control, but I ask people keep that in mind. Caveat number three is that I will likely never treat any story someone writes featuring Nicole or Adam or someone I wrote as a canon story in my universe… but indeed that might be the very point.

As I mentioned, Consequences is a story that readers have expressed they’d rather see an alternate ending for. I’m not against that. We all know what the canon of that story is if we’ve read it, but if someone took it upon themself to rewrite the last few chapters and make a “what if” alternate universe styled story… why would I want to deny them? They’re inspired to write, they want to explore a world, and they’re using my characters to kickstart their writing adventure (or even continue it)… that only sounds wonderful to me. So, to be clear, if you are an author and want to write your own story featuring one or multiple characters of mine, you have my full blessing, and indeed, please show me that story when you’re done! I would love to read it!

Writing is wonderful, and a great way to express emotion. Writing using someone else’s characters as a jumping-off point is no less valid in my eye, and I don’t see myself as one of those “original character, do not steal” types. I think that ideas, much like a lot of other commodities in the world, are better when shared, and I would rather share them with my community. So if you wanted to try your hand at writing, and feel you could explore another timeline of these characters… by all means, see what you can create. I’ll talk to you all next week.