It also meant that I had to think about the characters more in depth than just sex-hungry son, or daring mom, or carefree babe aunt. Why would mom allow any of this to keep going? She had to not be getting enough from dad. I had no idea why; she was hot enough to attract her son's attention after that initial handjob.
There was no description of Jeremy (besides the size of his dick which was required to get the mom's attention when her hand fell there!) as that I wanted the reader to put themselves into his shoes and imagine it was their mom doing the things in the story. Jenny had no description at the start because she was just mom to Jeremy; he didn't see her as anything other than cook and maid, just 'mom'. Only after things happened did he start to really notice her. He had always 'noticed' his Aunt Jess, which is why she is described from the outset. The brother and sister were just another obstacle to mom and son having their ways with each other (which came to be an obstacle to the writer also; with coming up with ways that they were conveniently absent so that Jenny and Jeremy
could
do things!).
As the story progressed (and became more than just a stroke story), I had to flesh out the characters to become real people and not just porn actors. As I thought about them, little details popped up. Jojo's little speech impediment and love of stuffed animals, Johnny's stubbornness and being somewhat of a slob (though as it turned out, not always the case!), and of course, Justin's obsession for golf.
As to Justin, who for the longest time didn't have a name, even in the initial draft, he was just dad and stayed that way until after many chapters had been published. Only when it came about in the story that I had to have a name was when I did finally settle on one! Whichever chapter that his name was first used was when I actually decided on it; right up until when I submitted that chapter (though for the theme of the characters, it always would have started with J!). The dad was always just a shadowy figure that mother and son couldn't let catch them. Many have complained about why he is even in the story, and it has always been that dad was why they couldn't be open with what they did together. Even if I started this from the beginning again, Justin wouldn't change much or go away. His character is minor, but his role is pivotal. It was also dad and his 'fling' that led to the breakup and then to Jeremy finding Erin.
I never intended this to just be endless scenes of Jenny and Jeremy together. There needed to be some kind of conflict or it would quickly become boring! When it was clear that the short story was going to expand, there needed to something that would eventually come to a head and need resolution before leading to the ending. I didn't know what the ending was going to be when I continued on after chapter six, or much of anything else. I came up with what I thought was the only reasonable ending; that he finds a girlfriend his own age (but not that would necessarily be a life partner). If Jeremy is carrying on with mom and aunt, then why would he bother looking? He had to be forced to, and that meant that he and mom have to have some kind of break, or interruption. That would lead to having an ending, but not as to how to lead up to the break, or even the cause of it. It caused a slight problem, because as I took longer to get to the break, I came up with more ideas for scenes! A few chapters were a bit overboard there in the middle. I've said before that there were some complaints about it, justifiably so and I agreed, but I don't feel bad for having those chapters. Most of the issue was that I came up with the idea of the week-long Spring Break after Justin took the first business trip, where he was going to have the 'fling' originally. This meant the delay of the break between mother and son until after the school break. If this had been all planned out at the start, I would have just altered when the story started in the school year to account for that.
It wasn't intentional at the beginning for the family to not have a surname. It was just a short story and having them be
Wilson's
or
Smith's
didn't matter. Things went on and there was no reason to come up with one (until at one point late in the story, that I just ended up skirting around!). Eventually, it got to be that bringing up the family name in say, chapter sixteen, would seem jarring, and I just skipped coming up with one. In my head they still don't have one! Even with how intimately I now know them. Call them whatever you like! (:
Also, I gave no location of where the story happens so as to not be limited by real world geography. They live close enough to a city for a short trip there, but also close enough for grandma to live out in the country (even if it is more than a short drive!). There is a lake relatively close, as is a zoo, Erin's aunt's lakehouse (though never specified how distant that was), golf courses, and of course Willie World. The weather is mild, even in Feb/Mar when most of this occurs, so as to imply a more southerly locale, but like their surname, Jeremy and his family live wherever you desire. Maybe even next door to you!
Beyond the initial story idea given above, I came up with some scenes that seemed interesting and then tried to piece them together in some kind of order. That is, until I came up with the idea of Jeremy spending time with his mom and aunt together. But how to accomplish this? Dad had to be gone and the kids couldn't be around either. Dad has a business trip, okay, easy enough. The kids? I was stumped. Then I came up with the grandmother (and at this point she was just a way to get the brother and sister out of the way for what turned out to be an entire weekend!). The amazing weekend was going to end at that time with mom finding out about dad cheating while he was gone (as happened later). I should have kept it this way from an editing point of view, but I came up with a number of additional scenes (most notably, the week of Spring Break!) that I really wanted to include but that couldn't happen if Jenny broke up with him at that point. Thus, I stretched things out and included another trip for dad. Even to me, it seemed long (as many had told me!), but I still like that I included those scenes. And it did add the effect that too much of a good thing can get old, or boring. It was a nice counterpoint leading up to the heartbreak of Jenny ending things between them.
I plotted a good chunk ahead of writing it, up until the breakup. After that, I had no clue what would happen.
I knew right away that Jeremy would need to find a girl, whether she ended up being anything or not. But how do you continue after having your heart tore out? For either of them? I knew I had a few scenes that I wanted to tell, but that they didn't include Jeremy, I didn't know how to tell them from his viewpoint as the whole story had been. Have Jenny tell him in a conversation (that would seem dry and boring)? Have Jeremy somehow discover what had happened (and with no way to justify him seeing mom and aunt together)? I then reread the whole story up to that part and remembered the little bit from Jenny's POV (before she went to her sister's and then having sex with her son in chapter 5). But could I manage a whole long section to tell those scenes when there were also other pieces that didn't have to be from her viewpoint?
The scenes from Jenny's view were plotted with the rest of the story, up to the breakup in chapter nineteen and as I jotted them down, I then realized something that I hadn't known until that point: that Jess had feelings for Jenny! I was just as shocked as you when you read it! I thought about it for a long time. Was that where I wanted to go? It caused a slight hiccup in the writing while I tried to resolve this surprise. I looked back over Jenny's story progression, and that of Jessica, and found that there were offhand references made early on that, unknown to me, suggested that twist. Jess dancing half-naked around the house when they were young, the boyfriend stealing. Then I even realized that it was the cause of Jess's marriage failure. The pieces just fit too well to try to avoid the twist. I might have worked it out to be otherwise, but sometimes the story writes itself and the writer just puts the words on the page. That is what I did. But that also meant that their whole episode also couldn't be told from Jeremy's viewpoint. Thus, chapter twenty-one!
