A Sideways Ox - The Alphabet Doesn't Care About Publication Order

I never meant to have a pattern to my book chapters.

But it made logical sense for the first chapter of my first book, On Chestnut Tree Lane to begin with 'Chapter 1: Arrival,' since it deals with Scott's arrival at Whitmore House.

And - as Anna Voss Writes The Classics might suggest - I do like to give myself the odd formal constraint or challenge when I write, so it took no time at all to decide I should see if I could start every chapter with a word beginning with A. 

And, obviously, I could; it wasn't, by itself, a very interesting challenge. But if I took it further... 

Well. Who doesn't enjoy a few extra restraints? 

So it was that when I started writing Sense of Submission, I started it with 'Chapter 1: Beginning',  and gave it 'B' for its chapter headings. Then, because I was learning that I often like to write two drafts at once, I started Mantamer using chapters starting with a C.

Which was all lovely and tidy, right up until it wasn't, when Mantamer got published first.

If you ignore the two short stories collections of Anna Voss Writes the Classics and The Birthday Present and Other Stories (for the purposes of this post; obviously you should still read them!), then the chapter letters for my published standalone works come in the following order:

A (On Chestnut Tree Lane) 

C (Mantamer) 

B (Sense of Submission) 

D (The Ruritanian Pretender) 

E (The Honourable Boytoy) 

G (Anna Voss's Christmas Carol),

...and H, for an as-yet unpublished tale I'm aiming to bring out in February: Her Ascendant Intern. 

So what happened to F? 

It's a title called Edge Close, which I started writing back in July, alongside Boytoy - I even hinted at its existence when I blogged about writing two drafts at once.

I described it at the time as "private, enclosed, filled with silence and breath: even more than Sense, it might be my manifesto of Submission and Devotion as being something more than kink, being the foundation of a genuine, normal marriage" - which it is, and honestly pretty beautifully. 

The only snag was, in mid-August I worked out how I wanted its ending to feel before I understood how to make that happen. And, as my readers know, I'm passionate in my belief that feeling is more important than finishing any time soon. 

The interesting thing was, the ending I planned didn't impact the core themes or engine of the novel; I probably could have hit publish in August. 

But for me, as a writer, that's a little like a pilot promising a lovely flight only to add "I know exactly where we're going, just not how to use the runway at the other end". That won't fly with me. 

Particularly because, while I obviously have a fairly specific set of things I'd like my readers to feel while reading my work - it's femdom erotica after all! - I also care deeply about crafting a story which lingers emotionally after it's been read. That's why I think of my work as literary erotica, rather than purely erotic. 

Happily, while I was knee deep in the emotional and ethical structures of Anna Voss's Christmas Carol, a solution presented itself - and it absolutely lands the emotional plane I'm piloting with Edge Close. 

I still have proofreading to do, and doubtless my usual tinkering with minor variations in cadence and character to make sure I'm hitting the beats I want, but I'm aiming to have it finished soon. 

And yes, it will leave me with a chapter alphabet model that runs ACBDEGFH, which looks more like a terrible cypher than a proper schema - but it will at least be true to the process. 

I think, on balance, that's more important to me than trying to paper over the bumps.