Given the recent addition of not only the original The French Cousin story, but AnubisX’s take on the same, I figured I’d do a little break down of my own version of the tale: Where Waves and Breasts Crash.
Now, there are posts on the blog talking about the story, but mostly in a “it’s coming”, “now it’s almost done”, “people liked it” sort of way.
So for those that have already read those posts, I apologize for any overlap. That warning given, let’s go!
This is a story that I did NOT want to write. That hesitance came from a few places.
First, I am pretty good (at least in my own mind) at coming up with stories and character — causes and clashes. And though some stories I absolutely love, I very rarely come out of them wishing I was in control of the follow-up or a rewrite.
Second, I was new to the community at the time the idea of remaking the story was presented to me, and I thought it seemed overly presumptive to decide that I, in all my nubiness, could take on such a herculean task.
Third, it had a lot of elements that just weren’t my style. The band of girls watching, for example.
Fourth, The French Cousin undoubtedly had moments of absolutely brilliant sexual tension and tifighting glory. But, it was frankly, a mess. In a LOT of ways that out of respect I won’t list. Because I know, that if I just posted an unfinished story, it too would be a flaming trash fire. So I get it and place no judgment at all on FightWriter (the original author). With that said, there was still just a lot of work that had to be done to make the story something near the quality FW would have got it to, had he been able to finish it.
Which, was the request given to me by a very close friend Emily. They wanted the story finished and asked/begged me to do it. I agreed to look through the story and give her my thoughts on what I could do.
Upon that read through I realized, I could not just finish the story and put my name anywhere close to it. The story was just lacking in ways that were directly contrary to the things I feel important about my own stories and had elements that were just super un-Rivval-ish. That being my take, I came back to Emily and told her I just couldn’t adopt what had been written whole-cloth and then add the last few chapters. I would instead have to rewrite it completely and change almost everything about the story.
Which, at Emily’s prodding, I then did. With her by side and watching over my shoulder, I wrote 10,000 words! Using the tone and feel of The French Cousin, but almost none of the actual words or much of its premise.
I’d say Emily and I got to about the 3/4’s mark, but then she and I drifted apart, mostly because of my starting of this site and absence from elsewhere.
Months passed, and eventually I decided I needed to take the 10,000 words I had written, get the story finished, and publish it. If only to make sure all my work didn’t go to waste. HOWEVER, upon returning to my Google Doc, I made the painful realization that basically everything I had written was literal garbage. lol. And though it entailed a complete rewrite of my rewrite, I eventually whipped all of those poorly chosen and ill-organized words into shape.
Once done, I was confronted with a choice. To follow Emily’s original requests, or betray them. Those being:
- Don’t get carried away with my usual sensual-leanings and keep the two enemies throughout.
- End the story in a tie.
The first I kept to, restraining myself from having Mary and Erin turn into a chest-pressed puddle of lesbian goo, as I am want to do.
The second, however, I struggled with. As for one, I had a specific ending calling to me, but also because I knew how much some people in our community hate ties. Like hate hate.
At the time, Emily and I weren’t speaking, so I had no way of speaking to her about a compromise she might find palatable. And though perhaps it was the wrong call, I decided to go with the ending I had in mind for the story. One which had a definitive winner. (I will add though, that even that ending was considered to be “like a tie” — though I would argue it wasn’t)
Apart from that minor concern about endings, I wasn’t really sure how the community would take the tale. It was a remake of a legendary story, one that several of our authors told me they were planning on rewriting themselves. (AnubisX‘s only recently being published — it be found here).
It was super long. It was a titfight, which is an under-served element of our community. And also, it wasn’t violent enough to be a catfight story or sexual enough to be anything like a sexfight. And though part of me thought it might just come out and drift into nothingness, it was very well received.
In fact, I think it’s one of my most popular stories, if judged by initial reception alone.
It hasn’t had the same long-tail as some of my other tales like Peace Talks, Backseat Battle, Who is This?, or even Pretender.
But for a story I really didn’t want to write, it turned out to be one of my favorites.
Oh, and as final P.S., I finally got to ask Emily what she thought of the story! And … she didn’t like it because it wasn’t a tie. ha ha.
You live, you learn, you write, you die.
<3 @ Emily
Ties are for suits and losers it was a good ending and a great tale.