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The RA 4 Ch 1: Toni's Story
🕑 Added 2023-06-20 04:29:29 +0000 UTCSo I'm back at it. Before I get into this, let me get into my thoughts on volume 4 as a work. After three volumes of Spencer easing his way into Higgins 3, I feel like we have a good enough grasp on the setting and the cast to branch out and explore some other perspectives. That's what this volume will be, stories told from the perspective of various Hotties, and perhaps a staff member or two. The plan is to start them wherever they make sense to start, then montage our way up to the Halloween party awaiting us at the end of volume 3. It'll be less a novel, and more a collection of character-driven short stories.
I'll likely steer clear of most of our best-established characters -- Casey, Charlie, Tori, Savannah, Ramona, etc. -- though don't quote me on that. My notes right now include a variety of specific characters I know I want to do a story for; some characters who have hardly any substance to thus far that I want to flush out; and stories I want to tell that don't yet have a girl attached to them, for which the former category will be helpful. I'm not writing these in the order I intend for them to release in the final edition, which is one of the main reasons why I expect these stories will be undergoing substantial revision. It will be referential to the first three volumes, of course, but as it grows, it will also be referential to other chapters from this volume. The Halloween party in particular will grow and morph as the narrative requires it and the more fleshed out cast supplies ideas.
This story is about Toni, whom we've mostly known as streamer-girl Terri's partner in crime. I'm tempted go full Canterbury Tales in the titling, so rather than using character names, do a little foreshadowing. Here, for instance, The Influencer's Tale. I already know some things I'll want to flesh out or flesh in for the final edition, but I try not to do much cutting on these first drafts so I can decide with the benefit of broad perspective what's worth including.
The real threat, imo, is the potential for sexytimes. I know I have some readers who might be content to just hang out with our Hotties, but y'all aren't running a soup kitchen for writers who want to do humdrum character studies, so... We'll see. I like the idea, at least, of seeing how in this installment we follow Toni from her relatively "meh" attitude towards dating to the co-founder of the HOTTEZ stream. As for execution, well, we'll see. Feedback welcome as always.
Speaking of, I fucked this thing up by switching to first person, so if you find any errors, I make this one-time request to let me know if you see any switches to I/me/my in the narration. That stuff is insidiously difficult to detect and I'm sure I missed some despite my best efforts.
That all said... I hope you enjoy this, my first undertaking in The RA volume 4. More to come!
Comments
Orifalcon
Joined up after reading the first chapter on emcsa, love the series so far! I'll say that after Vol 3 was a "9 steps back 10 steps forward" affair, a volume of flashbacks and retellings wasn't my immediate desire, but this first Chapter was well done. Would love to see something for Amy, Sydney, Carmen/Vanessa, and Destiny for some different perspectives. Page 28 (in my hand, Toni’s doubts evaporated) was the only POV switch I noticed.
Ice Bear
Same!
Thomas Reijerse
I didn't notice any first person mistakes :) Excellent stuff, by the way, can't wait for the rest of RA 4!
WDB
I think it's hilarious that you're concerned that this volume of The RA might lack for sexytimes, since (judging from the first chapter) you might have the hottest book yet on your hands? It's the change in perspective that does it. Spencer's POV is all guilt and worry and frustration and a tiny bit of anger. He'll indulge in sexytimes, but it's always with an eye on it being a failure in his role as guardian. The end of Book 3 changes the status quo in a major way, but for most of The RA, the sexytimes are the result of something breaking down. With this chapter, it's like all good MC stories: some young woman is being warped by an unknown force, and she's unaware of it, but the reader gets to intuit her downfall. A story from the perspective of the Hotties is inherently hornier than Spencer's because Spencer's not under the control of pheromone bombardment. Toni's horny as fuck, and not at all guilty about that mindset. So, yeah! Huge success on the sexytimes front, as well as on the usual I Love Reading About These Characters front. Toni's complicated relationship with fame and judgment put her square in the headlights of this franchise's views on self-acceptance, but now with slightly less concern over invisible machinations. Well, there's always Twitch's changes to monetization, if Toni needs an unseen nemesis...
WDB
"Somehow he never seemed to anticipate that any of his residents might flirt with him." Toni's just reading the copy from the back of the first book in the series!
