I had to start with an image. As Fuskator takes me down a far more sexual path I just went to google images. I actually saw this image early in my search, but it was from a stock image company and had a large watermark over the center of it. Not wanting to spend all my time getting rid of the watermark I searched on. After changing my search terms several times I came across it again, but this time in full size (it was over 3000 x 2000 pixels!) and with no watermark. I loved the blurred background and really liked the expression on the woman's face. To me it showed both a nervousness of her situation and a new found pleasure. So I pulled it into Photoshop and started to work at the story.
My first swing at this yesterday involved a spy. He was just about to get caught and bit down on the pill hidden in a fake tooth expecting it to kill him and save him from being tortured. Instead of poison though, the pill was filled with something that changed him into a woman, allowing him the perfect disguise and a method of escape. The problem I had with this story was the setup. I felt that I would need several paragraphs to set the scene right... making it known that he was a spy, that he was on an undercover mission, that his cover was blown, and that he was at wits end and ready to take the final sacrifice. By the time I got halfway through that setup I was bored with it. And if I'm getting bored, I can imagine that any reader would be equally bored. So I saved the image back and went on to other things.
This morning when I pulled the image up I didn't even try the whole spy angle. Instead I double checked Jay's preferences. I'm fairly comfortable with what he wants and doesn't want, but I wanted to look over some of the plots that he likes and lists. The one that really caught my eye was "A one-way mind transfer has me meeting my (unaware) original self." It would work perfectly for this image as the 'masculine' form of Jason wasn't shown, letting him put any face on the model that he wanted. And since I haven't written a story like this, that seemed like a good way to go.
Setting the scene was easy from that point. I just looked at the image (girl riding behind a guy on a motor cycle) and focused on why she would be doing so. Well I don't ride bikes, but I've heard from several friends about how enjoyable it is. And that it's only more fun when you have a girl riding behind you. So I put Jason in that situation of wanting that, and then a clever salesman helping him out by ensuring that a woman would take that ride with him.
The story came out fairly easily, although I do feel that I could have written quite a bit more about Jay discovering his new body. I knew it was already on the long side, so I just glossed over that a bit and let him get on the bike and enjoy him/her selves.
Design wise, I didn't do much although I thought it would be really fun to somehow utilize a Harley Davidson styled font. Well... Harley Davidson has a really dull font, but as I was studying it, I realized I could just drop out the name and add in my title. It would still be a dull font, but the logo would make the title fun. Instead of using the real Harley Davidson font, I just used 'Impact'. It was similar enough and didn't involve me installing something new.
I like the cap. I think it comes across well and should be enjoyable to Jay. I of course would love to see a sexual side to it, but I'll just let my imagination make up a second panel that takes place after the 'Dream Ride'. I hope both Jay and you enjoy it!
While I have you hear, I figured I'd just update you on my whole design attempt. My page views did rise since I last talked about this in my monthly report. But I also posted five times in six days and I've found that daily posts really drives page views. So just to see if it gets any effect, I'm going to go with colored preview images. They'll still be 400x400 and still only include a portion of the image along with the title. It's going to be a bit more of a pain as the colored titles won't have a black and white background to contrast against, but I think it's worth it to see if it gains any difference.
I'll let this run for about three weeks before reviewing it (roughly the same length of time I tried the black and white preview images). Let me know what you think.
I love the submissive quality of this post. How wonderful to simply grab on to your man and let him take you where he will.
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