Rules End, sort of. · 7:04pm Sep 25th, 2019
Well, we did it, here we are at the end of the Rulesverse main storyline. This was kind of a weird writing journey for me because I prior to Rules of Engagement I had only ever written a single smut scene, that being the single chapter of Featherfall between Sunset and Gilda. Prior to that, believe it or not, I'd never written a smut scene before. I'm going to talk for a long while here about my thoughts and impressions of the Rules series, but if you want you can skip to the last paragraph to see the spoiler for my followup series to the Rules canon.
Ready?
Okay.
A big part of the reason I began this series was the explore that side of romance. I mentioned in a comment that I identify as Ace which sort of throws a lot of people for a loop when they read my Rules series, and so the sex-side of writing has always felt a little further from my hands than anything else. With that being said, that's not to say that sex isn't a powerful way of establishing relationships, dynamics, and exploring a character's vulnerabilities and desires, and ultimately that was why I wanted to challenge myself to write something that was so far from my usual comfort zone.
In Rules of Engagement, the sex scenes existed to explore the contentious dynamic between Sunset and Aria, how their personalities clash and melded, and how they would jockey for control while still remaining conscious of one another's needs and desires. They 'fought' but they did so in a loving way, because they were both creatures of conflict. Both Aria and Sunset need that passion and dynamism in their lives to stay fulfilled, and between the two of them they strike the balance they both need, and I tried to show that in how they made love.
Rules of Etiquette had a similar rule, in that Adagio and Octavia both needed one another. Adagio needed Octavia's love and adoration because that the kind of person she is. She's a domme, a top, but as much as she needs to be adored, she needs someone to dote on to feel whole. Octavia needed someone to love and adore, a passion to devote herself to because it's the type of person she is. Their sex scenes were meant to represent that inasmuch as they could.
Now it is true I could have told the stories and shown these traits in other ways, but that was kind of the point. I wanted to prove, maybe as much to myself as anyone in the audience who might read my content, that well-written sex scenes contribute as much to the development and growth of a character as any other well-written conflict. When well-written sex scenes, at least to me, display a character at their Most and their Least. They at their Most passionate, their Most intense, their Most vulnerable. They're at their Least hidden, their Least distant, their Least masked. Some stories have to work through tens of thousands of words to find an organic place to show a character in that state.
Rules of Hospitality was a little different. It was a divergence from my challenge to myself. Having written Engagement and Etiquette and thrown myself headlong into writing sex scenes and finding the balance of their usage in literary work, I took a breath, stepped back and gave myself a new challenge. You see, it's not exactly 'Sex' that gives the Most and Least effect, it's Intimacy. I wanted to divorce intimacy from sex and find it in romance, which was where we got SciTwi and Sonata's fluffy, dramatic tale of love and woe. I'm honestly not sure how well I succeeded , I don't think that's something I can say accurately one way or the other from my limited perspective, but I hope it came out well.
And that's that, on to the SPOILER!
And now what you've all been waiting for, or not if you just skipped over here and ignored my writer's-ramblings.
Life is a story, and romance even moreso. There's no real ending to these matters, there's only the before, the after, and the 'everything inbetween', and when three Sirens are involved it's no secret that matters can become truly complicated.
Sunset, Octavia, and Twilight love their Sirens, but nothing is ever easy forever, and sometimes you can't just follow the rules that are laid down. Sometimes life is shades of gray and little better than making it up as you go along, and all you've got to on are...
Ohhhhhhh boy, this gun be gud
Heh, well, sounds interesting. :)
And thanks for the insight into the series!