Plans for working on new short story collection in September

It's time to talk a little bit about the next collection of short stories I'm working on. It's been 10 years since my last collection (A Succubus for St Patricks Day). I didn't really intend for the gap to be that long, but things happen.

While most of my time has been spent on HoHH, I have been writing new shorts stories here and there. Some might become 1st chapters of novels, so I'm going to hold them back for now. Overall, I probably have enough for a couple of collections.

One of the things holding me back from just dumping them in a new collection is I like my collections to have a consistent structure. They all have 13 stories. There is always a succubus tablet story, there is always a Nicole story, and there is always a [RPG Class] vs Succubus|Monster Girl story. I did consider breaking that format just to get something out, but the main issue is the succubus tablet story is usually essential. It provides the title story for the collection and also sets out the loose themes for the collection.

The succubus tablet story for this collection is… complex.

The succubus tablet stories in previous collections tended to follow a similar formula – protagonist finds succubus tablet, succubus appears promising sexual pleasures and to solve various problems the protagonist might have, those problems are solved in a way that is far worse than the protagonist intended, and finally the succubus reveals her true nature and takes his soul. "A Succubus for Remembrance" broke that formula by having the owner of the tablet off screen and instead following the man the succubus had been sent after to torment and kill. The succubus tablet story for this collection is similar to that, but split across multiple shorts from the perspectives of the various people the succubus takes out. I tried to be a little more inventive for those kills than "succubus rides victim cowgirl-style and sucks their soul out".

The individual shorts are fairly straightforward. It gets a little complex when the use of the succubus tablet attracts the attention of more powerful players. That results in a few surprise cameos leading up to a final short that brings everything together.

At one point I did think about making the collection a stealth novel, where all the short stories initially seem standalone, but are then revealed as all part of the same story of the nameless succubus being sent to seduce and kill various seemingly unconnected targets.

There were a couple of problems with that. Firstly, I didn't think the idea was strong enough to sustain a 70-80K word book. And secondly, it wouldn't be using any of the short stories I have lying around. That wouldn't be too big of a problem, as I'd just move them to the next collection, but it would require writing a full novel from scratch, which would be too much of a disruption to the current HoHH project.

The succubus tablet story will probably end up taking a good chunk of the word count – maybe a third or just over. And the plan is to intersperse the seemingly unconnected parts of it among the other stories.

The main issue I have is I can't really finalise the full running order until I've typed up all the pieces of the succubus tablet story and know its full word count.

There are some hard considerations I want to stick to in order of importance:

1) Total length around 80K words.

2) Inclusion of brand new, never-before-seen [Nicole] and [vs] stories.

3) Inclusion of some short stories that fit the loose theme of the collection. Those are "A Trial in Vennington", "AProudMaleFeminist gets Creamed", "Joey Farrell Walks into an Obvious Booby Trap", and maybe "The Good, the Bad, and the Monstrous Beauty."

4) 13 stories.

The 80K word count takes precedence over the 13 stories, but I'm fine with shunting that up or down (mainly down) a little if it gives me the "magic" 13.

I have some flexibility with the [succubus tablet] story. I can either count that as 1 story and fill out the rest of the collection with the shortest stories in my stockpile. Or count each of the parts with a sex scene as a short story (there are 6), and round out the collection with some of the longer stories I have lying around. I should have a better idea once I've typed up the [succubus tablet] story and know how many words I have left to play with.

And now the important part – how much work and time will this collection take?

I have quite a few short stories finished and ready, so I have a fair bit of flexibility over which ones are included. Those will just need a final edit to correct anything I missed off before posting them the first time around.

There are three stories to write – [succubus tablet] (the longest and most complex one), [vs], and [Nicole story].

As of this post, the first draft of the [succubus tablet] story is done aside from the final ending piece, which I'll leave until after I've typed up the rest of it.

I did have the first draft of a [vs] story written, but I think I might push it back to the next collection. Too many stories bashing the same targets and it starts to get anvilicious and tedious. Its theme also better fits the light theme I'm aiming for in the next collection, which is sometimes you shouldn't just blindly follow what people tell you. Stories like "Safe Sex", "The Banquet of the Queen of the Goblins", "Chad's Challenge", and "The Real Money Shot", all fit that theme perfectly, so that collection is also pretty much close to done and I hope to get that ready same time next year.

Instead I have another slightly goofier [vs] story that's been half-complete for a while. I just need to write the final Bad End sex scene where an RPG Mage falls victim to a magic-immune, amorous slime girl.

That leaves the [Nicole] story. This is another one that was started a while back. (So long in fact, I need to switch some of the real-life politicians hinted at in the story as they are no longer in the same party or even in politics anymore). I already have a rough idea of the plot and it nicely links Nicole with a couple of other characters within the universe.

I think I should be able to get everything done in a month, but as a safety valve, I will only be using September. HoHH is still the number one priority, and I'm not going back to jumping from project to project, and never finishing anything. If I do get stuck on writing or typing up one of the stories, then everything stops at the end of September and I put the plans for publishing the collection on hold until next year.

Also, while I'm working on the collection, I'll also be working on the notebook segments for the low-tier harlots in HoHH. Currently, I'm working through and writing them. Doing them all together should make it easier to standardise them.

As for what I'll be putting out for patron/subscribers in September. I still have a lot of harlot art to show off (marwmellow just sent me a new batch of finished pieces this morning), so the art previews and harlot spotlights will continue as normal.

Also, while I won't be posting the full stories I'm working on (I need to have some stories that are collection-exclusive and not found anywhere else), I will post some little teasers and maybe one of the parts from the multi-part [succubus tablet] story.

Expect more news on the collection as I get closer to putting it out.