Suddenly A Succubus Ch. 18 - Reflection

I've been having so much fun writing chapters where Amara is being proactive. Book 1 had a lot of stuff happening at Amara, and her only real job was just trying to figure out how it all worked. Plus, if you think about it, she had no idea there was an Angel hunting her down until pretty late in the book, and even then she didn't do anything about it. It's been incredibly refreshing to have her be aware of the main plot, and actively working towards making a difference.

We get to start with a really fun bit between her and Chloé. I love messing with texting and autocorrect, I think it's such a fun way to show off a character's tendencies, but also I love it as a joke. The main thing I wanted to highlight in this section is that Amara is still consistently working towards her goals, but that she still hasn't forgotten that a lot of this ties back to Vee. I spent a lot of the early chapter really trying to drive home the effect the Halloween party had on Amara, and I wanted to make sure I didn't abandon that plot thread. Yes, she's been working through a lot of her emotions, and she's trying to atone for her actions, but that kind of pain lingers in unexpected ways.

But once she's done being pensive, it's time to confront Mr. Luxnor. This scene was SO much fun, but then again, every time we see "Succubus Amara" I have a blast. It was important that I show the distinction between the two, at least in Amara's mind. She doesn't just show up and start hassling Mr. Luxnor, she takes a moment to prep and get into character. This parallels really nicely with the moment at the end of the scene where she needs a similar beat to recover from the actions of her cruel persona.

Let me tell you, though, that cruel persona was an interesting challenge. Way back at the end of the first book, I mentioned that I find it difficult to convince readers that my main character is scary. I have this fear that, since we spend so much time with Amara, it can be easy to see her as a somewhat timid girl that's just trying to help right some wrongs. However, when I write scenes like this, I try really hard to put myself in the mind of the other person (In this case, Mr. Luxnor). He doesn't know demons are walking around campus, he probably just learned magic was real relatively recently. What is his reaction going to be when a demon knocks on his door and threatens him?

I was worried that it might feel as if Amara scared the teacher too easily. With this is mind, I tried really hard to build up the fear factor, to slowly reveal piece by piece that she's a demon before she finally comes down with her big threat. Can she actually steal souls? Gosh, it sure would be convenient for plot drama if we didn't know one way or another.

All of my thoughts about fear, and whether or not Amara is a character deserving to be feared, also apply to the last scene with Derek, but we're not quite there yet.

The next scene is with Nick and Tessa. I must admit, I'm consistently really happy with the group scenes I write. I think I've gotten really good at pinpointing each personality at play, and giving them moments to show off in a natural setting. It's also much more dynamic to have three or more people talking at once, so it's kind of a fun logistical puzzle as well.

Like this time, Tessa is being her usual self and trying to get some group sex going, but it doesn't work. I think it's telling that Nick is the one who turns her down. For those of you that want to see a little bit more of him, I promise I haven't forgotten about him, but for now the plot has positioned him in a bit of a supporting role. We'll be seeing more of him in due time, I promise.

Fun fact! The sex scene in this chapter almost didn't happen. In my original draft, I glossed over it with like, two sentences. I couldn't think of a fun, unique twist an a scene here, but after a few days I figured it out. It was fun to give Amara another taste of some anal play, and I finally got to pull the trigger on the fact that she can cum just by feeding on other people's auras. This is something I've been teasing for a bit, subtly, and I'm really happy with how I executed it here. Plus, for those of you more interested in the smut side of things, it's quite a dirty fantasy to have a girl that can orgasm just from pleasuring you.

I'm also happy that I had a chance to show Amara exploring with her shapeshifting a bit in the shower. She's very much approached her shapeshifting in an "all or nothing" fashion, and this could easily be the start of her starting to view her powers differently.

Actually, tiny bit of a tangent here, but recently I've gotten a few comments that I felt particularly proud of. A few people have mentioned, in one way or another, that it's quite clear how Amara is staying true to her personality, but that she's also starting to think more and more like a succubus. This is something I've been trying to portray for a while now, especially in this second book, and I'm really happy to see that it's coming across. Sometimes it's easy to focus in on the moment to moment aspects of writing, and it was nice to hear that my larger goals are also coming through as well.

Finally, our last scene, a wonderful little nightmare. All my thoughts about fear and terror from earlier apply here as well. Thankfully, I've already had a few readers express that they really did find Amara genuinely frightening, and I'm really happy with that. I love that I have a character who can alternate between charity work and literal nightmare fuel in less than a day. I'm glad she scares you! Well like, in a general sense. I'm not trying to scare any one reader in particular, that just seems rude.

Nyx <3