Suddenly A Succubus Ch. 19 - Reflection

Before I jump into the Chapter, I want to share some behind the scenes stuff on how I approach my books. For the most part, I outline the events of an entire book before I really get started, with a few exceptions. For example, when I started Book 1, I had no idea I was going to take everything this far, so Chapter one was written entirely in a vacuum. I simply had a neat idea (What if I ended the chapter with her tail appearing?) and ran with it. Once I finished, I then outlined Chapters 2-13 in their entirety, and only then did I sit down to write Chapter 2. The outline for Book 2 has existed since I was about halfway finished with Book 1.

I've actually been really good about sticking to these outlines - they give me plot points to foreshadow, character beats to build up to, things like that, but the description of each chapter is actually pretty short. Here's an example, using Chapter 16.

—

Chapter 16 (Book 2, Chapter 3)

Tuesday

Tessa realizes why the voice was familiar, it belongs to one of her teachers. Amara decides to go with Tessa to one of his classes. The teacher gets to class late, at the same time as one of his students, and Amara realizes that they're fucking. She gets an idea.

Nick and Amara help Chloé with her fundraising?

Amara has another dream, this time it continues. The car crashes and starts sinking, and she manages to open the door and escape. As the car sinks past her, the other person still trapped, she sees a reflection of herself in the window, but sees Derek instead. She realizes she's seeing his nightmares.

—

So that's directly copied and pasted from my outline sheet. Pretty short, right? Well, when I outline, the assumption is that I'll be adding extra details when I actually sit down to write the chapter. In this case, Tessa identifying Mr. Luxnor was moved to the previous chapter as a way to close the scene where they overheard the cultists talking.

The second plot beat, about helping Chloé with her fundraising? That became the entire passage of Amara and Chloé hanging out playing games before going to the Jade Palace to see the new dumpster.

Then, in the outline, I jump right into Amara's dream. However, in the chapter, I actually added a whole scene where Nick pushes Amara into using her powers to cook dinner. After, they fuck, and then finally Amara goes to sleep. Even in the dream, though, I change how Derek's identity is revealed.

So why am I sharing all of this? Well, for one thing, I think behind the scenes facts are cool. Who knows, maybe there's an aspiring author out there, and they might get inspired if they see my writing process. Even if that's not you, maybe you just think it's neat!

One big advantage of these outlines being relatively vague is that I have freedom to change things up, like I demonstrated above. Often, the extra details I'm adding are sex scenes or developments with Amara's powers. Every once in a while, I'll find that a scene is coming in a little shorter than I'd like, and I'll comb through my outline to see if there are any plot points that I could flesh out, give more screen time to, things like that.

Take Brandon, for example. In my original outline, he doesn't reappear until Chapter 20, which is much later than when he appears now (Chapter 15). This is because, when I was writing Chapter 15, I realized that I wanted Brandon to have a bigger presence in the story. I wanted him to try and apologize, get rejected, and then start a slide towards his currently sleazy behavior. I think this enriches his character, and gives more depth to his actions. He's clearly got some kind of obsession, and he's cycling through a couple different options to see which one works. Would he have actually given up his soul to Amara? I guess that's for you to decide for yourselves, but he certainly made the offer. Brandon's offer also gave Amara an excuse to think about Soul Stealing, which is a pretty sensitive topic for her.

Which brings me, at long last, to this chapter. For the first time since I started writing, this chapter is actually a combination of two chapters in my original outline. Originally, the events of this chapter were split between Chapters 19 and 20. However, when I sat down to write 19, it just didn't feel like it was clicking. By adding in the plot beats from 20, the chapter suddenly felt more alive, and I'm incredibly happy with that decision.

(There's always a chance the opposite might happen at some point; an outlined chapter proves to be too long, and I chop it up. Hasn't happened yet, though!)

Starting this chapter was simple and cute. I always jump at the chance to show Amara cooking, and we finally get the big reveal about the nature of the circles. I've been building to this for a while, and I wouldn't be surprised if some of you had already figured it out. Still, I'm happy with the stakes it sets moving forward.

Jumping forward, we get the first official clean up event of Chloé's charity. I love how Amara's interest in photography has played out, especially since I try to keep my characters multi-dimensional whenever possible. This gives her something that's entirely unrelated to her Demonic transformation, and it also helps give depth to the Amara we never saw, the person she was before the transformation.

Of course, Brandon crashes the event and reveals that he's been stalking her, and took photos of her volunteer efforts. Quite a few people guessed that the flash of light that night wasn't lightning, so good guesses all around! See me after class for a Gold Star.

Ending the chapter was a blast. I've been getting a lot of comments recently from people enjoying that Amara is fully a succubus now, and I understand their enthusiasm. She's certainly pretty good at being a nightmare, and it's always a delight when "Demon Amara" gets to come out and play. The first time it happened was all the way back in Chapter 5, and even back then people really enjoyed it, so I'm happy the shift in her character has her being more active with her powers.

Still, it's not all puppies and rainbows. When I was writing this scene, I almost left out an incredibly crucial detail. My very first draft omitted her panic attack after leaving Derek's apartment, weirdly enough. When I read through it, I realized how incredibly out of character this was. There's no way Amara would choke someone out and not flashback to Halloween. Honestly, I'm shocked I almost left that out, it feels so crucial to the scene. It's also the first time Tessa gets to see her like this, which I think works well for the story.

After ending on a fun little cliffhanger, the scene is officially set for the next chapter, and I promise y'all are gonna like Chapter 20.

Nyx <3