TOPIC - The Axioms of Sgt Tate

The following are the axioms (or rules) I followed as I was writing the story.  I adhered to most of them. For others where the story dictated, I allowed for some deviation from the rules.  And even other rules were broken, only to be fixed in the re-write.




The story ends after 11 days.

The story is called 11 Days . . . because it needs to have an end.  I had to keep that in mind.  Tensions had to build as the 11th day approached.  Major questions had to be answered (sometimes with more questions) by the 11th day.  While there is an epilogue set years later, it is designed to show what happened to the major characters and not to continue the story.

Along the same lines, the story should fill the 11 days.  Each day had to contain something to advance the story along. 

 Tate is a 100% Top.  He doesn't bottom.

Tate is the quintessential TOP.  I did not want him fucked at all, and he wasn't.  But there were some activities that he did that push the TOP/bottom boundary.   

The main example is Tate blowing Dan, and it's included to further the story and to fuck with Dan. 

Tate fucks every single major character at least once.

Being a master manipulator, it makes sense that every major character would be willing, or at least coerced, into getting fucked.

Each Day needs to have one hot scene.

This rule applies to each day except for one day.  There is no way to have included a sex scene in it.

Start each day with Dan waking, and end each day with Dan going to sleep.

Each character needs to have his own thrills.

I did not want to have each man be the same as the next, so as I wrote a new character I thought about what kind of thrills he would have.  I am not saying fetishes here, as I don't consider what these characters do as entirely fetishistic.  

Do not focus on one fetish.

Nothing bores me more than having a great story ruined by limiting the scope of the activity.  I have read one story where every single character was into boots either as a top or a bottom.  They meet a new guy on the street, and wouldn't you know he's gay and into boots.  Boring.  I am not saying boot play is boring, but the continual boot play over and over just does me in.

Do not include all fetishes.

On the flip side to what is above, not everything should be included.  I got several requests for over the knee spanking.  I would have loved to have included it somewhere, but it didn't seem right, so I didn't include it.

Tate is always in control, three steps ahead of everyone else.

I don't like coincidences in stories.  So I would have to plot them out as to why things happened.  To figure this out, I would try to figure out how Tate would manipulate the situation.

The reader is ultimately a masochist; give him what he really needs.

Alfred Hitchcock liked to torture his audience, and so do I. 

I did not write the story with Dan as a masochist or Tate as a sadist.  No, this is a story where I get to fuck with the reader's mind.  I get to manipulate their emotional and sexual feelings by using the fictional characters of Dan and Tate.   

Nothing prepared the readers for the scenes toward the end, and yet the build up and clues were there.  I built the emotional bond up between Tate and Dan so that they would be connected; this is the safe feeling the reader wants.  But then I had to destroy that safe feeling and take the reader on a journey of extreme masochism.  A number of readers told me that they had to walk away on break for some scenes, but something kept drawing them back into the story where the reader is made extremely uncomfortable. 

Do not tell everything that is going on.

I mean really.  To make any story interesting, don't tell the audience everything.  Give cues and clues to what is really happening before fully explaining it.  This was the prime piece of advice my creative writing instructor gave.  Make the people want to turn the page. . . .