Spooky Shrieking Update! (10/03/22)

Hey everyone! I'm just popping in to say hi and thank you all for sticking with me for another month! ❤ You're all amazing and I really appreciate your support!

I know there's a lot of buzz about Shrieking Manor. I'm excited too, honestly. I haven't been super public about this, but I'll say that the reason why I stopped writing it to begin with was mainly to focus on other projects, namely Featherlands. But a lot had to do with the heavier, darker themes of Shrieking being especially draining on me mentally. Those really torturous tickle scenes do take a lot out of me. You might think that the process is the same as writing lighter, more flirty stuff, but it's very much not. 

I also love the occasional intense tickle torture scene, but how I'm able to capture many of the details of my stories, what's become a core reason why many people like what I do, is because I tend to take an almost Stanislavski-like approach to building the scene itself. I try to mentally go into the scene, to get a firm grasp on the environment and events in real time. I do the same with the characters, going into their individual mindsets to help capture and relay their position in the scene. Too often this means getting into the head space of both the character being tortured and the character doing the torturing. Both can be especially exhausting, and since that was the direction that Shrieking was going, I kind of just let it slip away from me to focus on other, less draining projects. 

But not finishing it was always a huge regret for me, especially when I took my surprise hiatus. Coming back into it, I realize that there is heart to these characters and this story, that it's not just some tickle torture snuff thing. I feel connected and in a much better place to continue. I'll say that I do feel like my style has changed in that I'm much more conscious now about the length of my stories/chapters. I better outline now to make sure that I hit a good amount of beats. I used to just kind of wing the scenes and sometimes that made them drag on for way too long. I'm sure some people enjoyed that, especially during the tickle segments, so I'm trying to supplement these scenes with substance rather than raw girth. I'm not saying the scenes are better one way or another, but I certainly hope you fans of the story will like what I've been working on. 

I have already finished the next chapter and hope to finish the following one tonight. Ultimately, I'm doubling the size of the thing as it is right now as that's what the outline calls for, so it's a lot of work. But I'm really enjoying it. I'm loving the emotions that the story is building toward. The character of Rebecca is a fun one as she's not some Mary-Sue heroine. She feels genuine and actually wants to help the ghost friends she's made along the way while also having this 'bad girl'/ rebel vibe that's a lot of fun. I cannot wait for you guys to read what I have.

I am still trying to figure out how I want to distribute it, but I will say that, while I will put up some chapters to read for free and for you guys to have early, the full and complete story will likely not all go up publicly. I have to keep putting an effort into building the Featherscape channel like a business. This is currently my full time job, but only because I'm fortunate enough to have parents that can and want to support me. But I can't keep bugging them for help forever. Just like I need to keep pushing for more Patrons, I need to keep adding more revenue streams in order to financially stabilize this whole operation so that I can actually be doing this full time on my own. I trust that you'll all who are subscribed certainly understand. I will see about getting you guys some kind of deal on the full Shrieking book once it's released, but ultimately I do need to monetize it somehow. I'd like it to go up on my website as a digital pdf download for, like, $10-$15, but I am still figuring things out. 

I just wanted to give you all an exclusive update on Shrieking Manor! After that's finished, I'll be getting back into Return to the Featherlands as I'm especially excited for you all to see what happens there. And perhaps they'll be something that happens in one that affects the other... ^-^ And I'll also say that I don't intend on Manor being the end of Rebecca's story. 

I hope you all have a wonderful week ahead of you! I'll be back later with more updates! Thank you all so much again! ❤

Love and Tickles!

-FS