I have done something I absolutely believed I would never do. Well, two somethings, but one even less likely than the other.
I have had an idea for a chapter of Step-Something since before I first mentioned it, which was to add a BDSM-themed story. I've thought about it and postponed it for a couple of reasons.
First, BDSM isn't my thing. I have no reservations about supporting BDSM devotees. I have friends within that community. I understand their concerns about consent and the influence of major books that get consent completely wrong (you know the one I mean...). I've just no interest in trying it myself, and don't find BDSM stories especially erotic, so I haven't taken the time to read to paper over my experience gap.
Of course I find almost all erotica on the internet unreadable, with a few exceptions. Even at [literotica.com] it's hard to find anything I'd consider sexy. But that leads into my second reason: I just don't find BDSM stories interesting. They're largely crude or non- consensual, or (usually) both. When they include consent, they become bland and slow. So I think it's fair to say I've never seen a BDSM story that I've enjoyed.
(If I have missed any significant entries in BDSM erotica, please tell me over on the forums. I will read them. I'm not prudish about BDSM, just not convinced that it has erotica that makes it interesting.)
But manipulating others is the stock-in-trade of the protagonists of Step-Something, and I could certainly imagine one of them abusing a submissive, just as they abuse everyone else. And in the end, when the hook to the story came to me, I knew I had to try.
So I did, and I do think it's a story I'd like to read, although it's definitely light on consent, contains deliberate choices on my part that violate BDSM rules, and is, I'm sure, physically improbable. But I finally gave up reading about what a story should be and went for what I consider hot.
(Also, of course, consent has been pretty much absent in this entire series, because of its nature. I think that's one of the reasons I've made a point of including condoms wherever the option arises.)
So that was the story I thought I would never write, and I pretty much guarantee I will never write another.
And then...
The setup to the BDSM story (which is Redirection) is Misdirection. And to make Redirection work, I had to remove the victim's safety net, and not just remove it, but burn it to the ground. Nothing I could think of would be good enough until I hit on entrapment into a threesome. Which is another story I thought I'd never write, though at least I'm not in such a complete dearth of experience as I am with BDSM.
I've hinted at the possibility of threesomes before, including in Designs, and in my journal way back, when I could have recorded more interesting times than I did. But I never felt I could make such a story interesting, until I hit on the idea of a really hot couple who are absolutely not partners using a third individual as a catalyst. And I like the result more than I do any other story in the series so far, and it's more true to the protagonist's character than earlier entries have been. It's possible I'll return to a threesome at some point. It's unlikely, but much more likely than attempting another BDSM story.
So you get a twofer of stories that I never thought I'd write. Now I just have to decide if I can make an epilogue / "interlude" to do the stories justice.
(I should say will get, because as of now, they're not yet visible. Should be this week, though.)