Hitting Jock Bottom (Patreon)

This is the first truly original story I posted to tumblr. It ended up being a three parter, though I can imagine adding more parts to it. At some point in the future there will be a continuation festival, where I just churn out the most requested follow ups. This one will not be on that list, as the algorithms and behavior of tumbler is such that people aren't reading old stories.

There was never a plan for it to be more than one part. The only real goal I had with this first one was to have some dry bureaucrat force out answers for exactly how a confused victim would have his mind and body disfigured against his will. Had I written it now I would probably have cast a  wider net of options. I made the questions and options a bit too similar, but then that was a bit intentional.

Just when I was about to publish the text I had a read through and realized the few sentences at the end that quickly outlined the what was about to happen was something I was interested in telling as a story. So I deleted a few lines and wrote the part 2 right away.  I couldn't stop thinking about what would happen next. Since it was told in first person and I wanted to stay there, I couldn't really get back to him until he was somewhat coherent again. That's when I introduced this quality assurance step, where they make sure he has achieved their mental goals.

As you can see this was before I decided to put images to the stories. I resisted it a bit, fearing it would constrain me. Well, that was true, but it just as often led to more inspiration, so it is probably a net benefit. But unless I start with the image, it takes a lot of time finding the right photo. It should have the right subject matter, the right mood, good enough quality. There isn't that great emotional  breadth in the photos I'm after, just selfies in locker rooms and posing in the gym.