Triumph Afterward

What a long, strange road it’s been!  I find it hard to believe that I’ve actually finished the series.  I didn’t really intend to make it one when I set out eight years ago to write Orc Dominion: Zentara.  I was just looking to turn some of my favorite fantasies into a story, not create an entire world and series.  Thank you to everyone who has rated or commented on my stories.  You’re the reason that one book became four and a half.

I have learned a lot since I first started writing, and though not everyone has enjoyed the themes, genres, or direction the story has gone I think the quality of the writing itself has gotten better.  When I started writing Triumph 2.5 years ago I thought it was going to be the culmination of all I had learned, and in a way it is.  But there was also some hubris there.  I thought that I would be able to sit down and write the perfect novel in one shot.

I realize now how insanely optimistic that was.  No one writes the story they want on the first draft.  It requires revision and revision to go back and ensure all the imagery, allusions, themes and so forth are consistent and well placed throughout the story.  I didn’t do as good a job of that as I could have.  I should have done more to develop the relationship between Amelie and Anne, more to develop the relationship between Augras and his parents, and I probably should have shown more of the politics in Ruar.  Drauken ended up being gone from the city so often that I didn’t have the POV in the city, which I think left the coup plot underdeveloped.

I also could have done a better job spacing the POVs.  Now, part of it is because the story was published chapter by chapter over several months, but I feel like there are too many large gaps where we don’t see characters and the reader loses track of them.  It probably wouldn’t hit so hard if the story is read all the way through, but it definitely could be better spaced.

Part of that is because my outline for the story fell apart almost immediately.  The story was supposed to start with Augras, not Amelie.  So Chapter 2 would have been Chapter 1.  But it occurred to me that Augras’ first chapter is a little slow, and I wanted a battle to draw people in.  I also thought people would want to see Amelie first, since writing about Princesses is kind of my thing.  So I switched it up, but that threw off the pacing of every chapter that came afterward, so the balance I had of which characters appear when collapsed.

Also in the original outline, the only stories that really connected were Amelie and Augras.  Brigitte never met Amelie or Drauken, Jasmara and Henry never met Amelie etc.  It was essentially going to be 4 stories happening simultaneously without much interaction.  After thinking about it though, I realized that was crazy.  So I had to rework the outline so that their paths crossed, which I think worked out pretty well and we got some good scenes out of it, as well as some good character development. 

Overall, I think I did a good job of running multiple interconnected storylines and forging it into a cohesive narrative.  It was a little dodgy for me at the end as I wrapped them all up though.  I didn’t want to have several chapters in a row where everything just collapsed for the humans and the orcs won.  That’s why I blended the last Drauken/Jasmara chapters to drag that out a little, and was able to use Brigitte to show a ‘human’ victory before going into Amelie’s downfall.  Hopefully it came across as natural and not an abrupt end to the story.

So what is next for Orc Dominion?  Well, as I said earlier it’s hubris to think you can just sit down and write the perfect novel on the first try.  I have already started revising Zentara, cleaning up the writing and adding in some of the lore I developed after writing it.  I definitely want to expand on the relationship between Jeanette and her parents, as well as add in a subplot where Jeanette is stringing along some of the 8 Duchies with marriage offers, playing them against one another, and maneuvering them into the position of all agreeing the orc alliance is the right move.  I also want to finally soften the ending scene to bring it more in line with the rest of the series, and expand on her time in the brothel so it doesn’t escalate to a gangbang so quickly.

If any of you have suggestions for how to improve any of the stories, please leave them in the comments or send them to me via feedback.  I like hearing your ideas, even if I don’t always implement them.  Once the stories have been revised I am going to try publishing them online.  I want to do it on Amazon, but that’s going to cause trouble at some point since they don’t allow incest.  The other option I guess is Smashwords.  If you’ve had any experience with them, let me know what you think!

If that goes well, then I will go back and write a sequel series set 400 years in the future.  Things will have changed dramatically…minotaur breedings with humans, orcs, and elfs created ogres, trolls, and satyrs.  Magic is much more ubiquitous, though it still retains its ritualistic nature.  Orc houses war against one another, while a resistance forms to break their control over the Western Kingdoms.

Some of you have wondered why or how there would still be humans and elfs etc.  Wouldn’t they have been bred out of existence?  The answer is that several generations into orc rule, the dominant traits that allowed orc features to assert themselves over human and elf features begin to weaken.  You already see this with Augras and the other children of Lyriena and Trogar.  As such, the Emperor passes a series of blood laws which regulate how much interbreeding there can be to prevent the orc race from getting too weak. 

This also serves to better control who has access to magic, since you need to have orc, human, and elf blood in order to control it.  Of course, most of the great families bend these rules, creating human or elf looking servants with magic that they use as spies and assassins.  One of those would be the heroine of the story, who struggles between loyalty to the orcs that raised her up and gave her position and the resistance which wants to use her to bring down the corrupt system.

The one thing holding me back is that the ‘style’ isn’t really my forte.  My stories tend to revolve around noble women falling into corruption.  This story would be about a servant using sex to get ahead.  It would be a bit different than what I normally write and find interesting.  While I think it would have more mainstream appeal to the Literotica community, it may not be what my fanbase is looking for.

I also don’t think my heart would be in it for a lot of the sex scenes.  I like the story, but without the corruption aspect the erotic scenes would be forced in.  So we will see.  I’ll continue thinking about it, and work on revising my stories.  Again, leave a comment if you have any ideas on what could improve them.  If you send feedback through Literotica and want me to respond, remember to include your email.  Thanks again to all the readers who made it through the series, and for all your support while writing it.