The Return of the Paramour - second edition

I have reworked the story to improve the plot line. The new story has ten chapters. The eight chapters of the first edition have been adjusted to snap into the new plot line.

What is the story anyway?

The Return of the Paramour is illustrated fiction, on young women ("paramours") who are obligated to regularly have sex with their patron. They do so in bondage, because the old medieval laws on seigneurial privileges and bondswomen are no longer in effect and modern (contract) law is not binding enough.

The link (single PDF file for all 10 chapters)

The Return of the Paramour (full) 

Synopsis

1. The paradox of freedom

In which the narrator is captivated by a new kind of erotic roleplay, and offers his assistance to an adult video producer that focuses on this roleplay.

2. The legacy of paramours

In which the narrator learns that the kinky roleplay is inspired by the new bondage toys of an earlier group, and that this earlier group was in turn inspired by a naughty practice in France before the revolution.

3. What men want...

In which a second, and more direct, source of inspiration pops up. That second source drew from the same original group (of chapter 2), but they got the key points wrong.

4. The Princess

In which the narrator meets the author who researched the concept of paramours in the past and in contemporary society (which was covered in chapter 2). Being a paramour is a lifestyle, the narrator learns from her, it's a position that you stay in for months (or years).

5. Role Play is fun!

In which the narrator simply copies a "letter to the editor" without any commentary. That letter positions paramour play as roleplay, but suggests that your mind can play a trick on you and that you become what you play.

6. The gold cage

In which the narrator uncovers another story about either a lengthy roleplay or a kink lifestyle involving full-time bondage. Intriguingly, the story involves both the girl gone missing in chapter 3 and the author/researcher who the narrator met in chapter 4.

7. Submission & consent: a thin line

In which the plot thickens, as the narrator finds out about rumors on an unauthorized study on bondage and sex (both non-consensual). The university where it purportedly all took place calls it a hoax, but it is clear that something is being covered up.

8. Unbound women

If this whole paramour thing is not roleplay, who are the women that become paramours? The narrator ponders on this question and concludes that there are plenty of women that can slip into slavery without anyone noticing or caring.

9. Arm use is overrated

In pondering on whether bondage is a suitable and effective means for sex slavery, the narrator uncovers a short-lived underground development, and by uncovering it, he breathes new life in it.

10. The other beginning's end

In which the narrator, after reaching a conclusion about the viability of the modern concept of paramours, dives right in.

The conceptual changes

The original idea (of the first edition) was to have eight individual short stories, each in a chapter, as pieces of a puzzle. When you had read them all, you might see how it all fits together. But... it still required a bit of imagination to piece the puzzle together, and if fact, the story left out a few pieces.

The second edition is less experimental. For most chapters, you can still read them and understand them without having read the others, but there is also a logic progression. You'll understand the second edition better if you read the chapters in sequential order.

Why a second edition

While writing the final chapter (of the first edition), flaws and weaknesses in the "logic" of the story were already quite obvious, but I set out to finish the story regardless. My motivation is to learn by doing, but that you won't learn as much from an unfinished project. The idea was to move on to a new story.

After it was done, though, one thing led to another. A few simple writing errors were fixed; a sub-plot was improved by adding a sentence or two. Now that I was already tweaking a story after "finishing" it, the next step of splitting the last chapter in two, did not seem a big thing. Except... that an extra chapter implies that the story is really a "revised edition", so then... why not rewrite the story as it should have been in the first place?

If you have already read the first edition...

If you have read the first edition, what's there for you in the second edition? Chapter 4 is fully rewritten (though I reused one picture), and chapters 9 & 10 are new. The other chapters are modified to some extent (some a lot, some a little), but they stick to the same topics.

I now view the second edition as "the story" and the first edition as a rough manuscript. In the future, I might pretend to have forgotten that I posted that rough manuscript on the Internet.