When the Sub Doesn't Fit the Mold

I am faced, once again, with writing a story surprising difficult for me.

There are so many nuances and inflections that go through a sub's thought processes as she's in entering subspace, little things that can have a big effect on the rest of her journey. Paths in her head divert and converge, depending on responses to the smallest observation or variation in the scene as it unfolds.

A scent of adrenaline in the air. The clenching of a jaw. A short raise of the Dom's eyebrow. The way he purses his lips; the way he looks away when he utters a single word, or the way he meets her look head on. The light coming from the window. The height of the pillows, scattered across the bed; or, perhaps, the fact that there aren't any. So many things that can alter a sub's reaction in different ways and compelling ways.

Things get even murkier when the woman in question does not fit the standard "sub" stereotype. Maybe she's not really a sub at all, but what I call a "Surrenderer." These women don't walk the middle of the road, but live on the extremes; they will fight back, hold their ground, and not give an inch. But once they surrender, they relinquish everything: heart, mind, and soul. There is very little negotiation that can guide these women, because with them, it is all or nothing; they give their complete self, but only to select few. 

Or maybe she identifies as "Prey." For these women, it is all about the raw, physical, and yes, often brutal, elements of the dynamic. She wants to be chased, hunted down and captured. She wants to be outwitted and outmaneuvered. She wants a predator who can prove he is above her in the food chain, and has earned the right to play with her the way he does, the way a leopard will play with its food before it eats it. She is strong, fast, smart, she has what it takes to survive; she is game for the apex predator alone.

The woman I'm writing about now falls somewhere between Surrenderer and Prey. Or maybe she has elements of both. I'm not quite sure yet. I know she's not the average sub, and so writing her out takes a bit of thought and careful planning on my part. But it's fun, too. It's fun, and exciting, and exhilarating. At the end of the day, I'm so happy doing what I do, writing what I write.

And really, that's why I go on doing it.