Inside the Writing Process: Concepting

Hello!

I thought it might be a fun exercise to show a little bit of my writing process by working on one of my story concepts a bit more publicly than I typically do.

In the poll about concepts for Freelancer stories a few weeks back, one of the top vote-getters was “The Rulebreaker”, which was interesting to me because it was such a barebones concept compared so some of the others.

To refresh your memory: “The Rulebreaker was the idea of a hypnosis-based cuckold story about a bull that progressively breaks rules set on him by the couple, then begins setting rules of his own. That’s about as far as I had gotten with the concept.

When I first begin writing a story, I often begin with seeds like this: a hook or concept that I find compelling. Then I take that core concept and flesh out the idea before I begin outlining.

For Freelancer stories, which are fairly formulaic, that means I need to figure out a list of specific ideas:

1. A Client. Who is hiring Faria? What are they like? Clients are by definition not very good people typically, so that goes into characterization.
2. A Target. Who will Faria be hypnotizing? Targets tend to be people who, for one reason or another, consider themselves untouchable, so arrogance is a typical character trait, but a lot of the fun of the series is making the clients very diverse. Often these clients have a weakness or flaw that made them the way they are.
3. A “Crime”. Freelancer stories are about revenge. What did the target do to the client? Part of what makes a revenge story satisfying is that you feel that the target deserves it in some way. The Crime usually has to be related in some way to the nature of the punishment.

I don’t currently have any of these for “The Rulebreaker”, which means it is time for some brainstorming.

For ease of reference, I will assign some placeholder names to the characters. Abby for the wife. Blake for the husband. Cal for the Client.

The Target

This story will be somewhat unique because I think it makes sense for there to be two targets right off the bat. I could in theory have just the husband or just the wife in the cuckold couple get hypnotized, but I think having both be hypnotized will allow the rulebreaking plot to move forward more naturally.

So what are Abby and Blake like as people? My freelancer stories typically take a person who behaves badly or has a twisted way of thinking and flips their behavior or thought process around to corrupt them. For example: Avani Rao is a control freak, so she is corrupted into someone who has utterly given up control to her mother-in-law. I already know where I want this story to go: the couple will set rules for a cuckold relationship, and then those rules will be broken. So rules, and following the rules, are important to this couple. I’m getting a picture already. These two are rule followers. Obnoxiously so.

Unlike some of the cuckolds in my other stories, I don’t think Blake should start out as a wimp. It’s a lot more fun if he has further to fall. So Blake will start the story as an alpha type, and be hypnotized into being a wimpy cuckold. I can smell the one-star reviews already. I’ve been on a bit of a streak of strong, take charge women, so it might be fun to have Abby be a more innocent type just for contrast. I see her as loyal and smart, but the sort of sweet woman who never uses swear words worse that “shoot”.

So Blake will have a journey of a strong man being broken, and Abby will be an innocent woman corrupted. That works. Blake is a strong man who deeply cares about the rules. That says an authority position to me. Politics would be an interesting angle. Maybe Blake is a politician, with Abby as his loyal wife by his elbow during television appearances.

Next, we should discuss the crime. What did Blake and Abby do to Cal that made Cal hate them and want revenge?

The Crime

The crime should have something to do with the nature of the hypnosis. In this case, the hypnosis will have two major effects: getting them to accept a cuckolding relationship with Cal, and then making Cal the absolute master of that relationship.

So the first and most obvious solution would be that Cal feels like Blake stole Abby away from him. He could use hypnosis to “steal her back”. But as neat as this would be for the cuckold angle, it doesn’t tie in with the rules and rulebreaking. I can use the core idea of Cal feeling like Blake unfairly took Abby from him, but there needs to be more to it than that.

So how about this: Cal and Abby worked in city hall and were dating. Maybe a brand new couple. When Blake was elected mayor, he found out that Cal was breaking some minor rules at his job and fired him. Abby begins spending all her time at work, then breaks up with Cal, claiming that she can’t believe his behavior in breaking the rules at work. Then Cal finds out shortly afterward that Blake and Abby have begun dating. Blake fired Cal to get between him and Abby, using the rules as an excuse. Abby accepted his advances while still technically dating Cal. Legitimately bad behavior that Faria would be willing to punish, and difficult or impossible for Cal to get revenge on by other means. Also ties in with the rule setting and breaking. Whatever rules Cal was breaking at his city hall job might be tricky. They have to be borderline, something that would work as an excuse to fire him, but also seem like a bullshit reason to fire someone.

The Client

Now that we have targets and a crime, the client should be easier to bring into focus. Cal should contrast with Blake. Maybe he is not a perfect physical specimen. I don’t love to go super gross with my male protagonists, but maybe he’s a little overweight.

I definitely see the trajectory of the story being that Blake used to dominate their interactions before the situation reverses, so maybe Cal starts less stereotypically masculine than Blake.  Maybe Abby was out of his league to begin with, and it took him a while to get closer to her and convince her to date him, which made it even more crushing for Blake to swoop in. Maybe he is more of a “funny guy”, who has to use his charisma to compensate for his lack of looks. He is also a bit of a rulebreaker apparently, so maybe there is an element of sleaze to his character.

At this point, I have a lot more meat on the bones of the story. I like the politician angle, which could add some serious tension for Abby and Blake: they wouldn’t want the public to discover their shameful secret. I like the jilted lover idea as well. Now that I have a much more solid foundation for the story, the next step would be outlining.

If you guys enjoyed this, I could make this a series where I do the writing process step by step! Otherwise, it was still a fun exercise to write out my thought process like this.

Enjoy your weekend!