Minimum Wage series: comments and criticism

Glad you liked it.

I know I got carried away with the introduction, but I wanted to provide some sort of context beyond "Oh, there's this girl who's a maid for these rich people, and one day an air hose falls down the back of her pants and she can't get it out, and she ends up cracking the whole house open". I was thinking about how the owners would react, and what if the husband was delighted instead of angry, and from that I got the idea of a sexually repressed Senator and his frigid wife. I guess I went overboard with Karen's life story, but again, I wanted to get a feel for who she was, why she was working for these people, and why this job was important to her.

Karen was launched when her leather pants ripped open; they were restraining the inflation somewhat, and when her ass and thighs jolted upward, their inertia carried the rest of her body along with them. I guess I could have been clearer about that. It's a little contrived, I know, but I had to set up phase 2 of the inflation, and I thought this was more dramatic than just having her guess the wrong button.

The bit about the curse is supposed to be left to the imagination. I have a few ideas for the form the curse takes floating around, so I *might* come back to it someday.

Part 3 has been submitted and should be up once LK clears out the 44 articles ahead of it. Yes, I know, butt inflation AGAIN, but this is the last time for a while. The situation was loosely inspired by the movie "Adventures in Babysitting", if you're curious. Everyone let me know what you think.

Part 4 is up. Clothing inflation is one of my favorite types, so I'm not sure why it took so long for me to get around to it. As you may guess, the story is heavily inspired by funkyobrian's work, but the idea of shoes as ballast was shamelessly ripped off of "Conspiracy: Peer Pressure", one of my favorite recent stories. Enjoy.

I bet you thought I'd given up writing, didn't you? A sequel to Race Queen is in the story archives now. Once again, let me know what you liked and what you didn't.

The newest chapter is finally up (it was actually posted almost a month ago, but wasn't approved until now). If you're wondering why I'm posting part 3 after part 4, it's because LVK didn't approve of the content of the original version, so I set it aside until I thought of a plot for the revised version. If you're interested, you can see the original version here.

As for why it took so long, basically it was a severe case of writer's block. If you've read my other stories, you know I have a preference for non-consensual inflation involving "active" inflatees, who are free to fight their predicaments but either fail or make the situation worse. But this time I really went overboard with the contrivances, so the story read like a Rube Goldberg machine set to the Benny Hill theme. It was really hard for me to decide what to leave in and what to cut, but I eventually got it down to a manageable state.

While we're on the subject, do you guys enjoy that aspect of my stories? It occurs to me that the overabundance of plot could be interfering with the enjoyment of the inflation itself. I could try to write simpler, more traditional stories, if they would be better received.

Part 7 is up. If you're wondering why part 7 when part 6 isn't out yet, that's because it's up for a complete rewrite, and I'm sort of attached to the story order I planned out. This is possibly the longest story I've written yet, but I think you'll enjoy it, if you can stay awake through the whole thing.

I had three goals in mind for this story. The first was to develop a sense of suspense throughout the story, hence the protracted length, and the very gradual method of expansion. The second was to introduce a second party to the inflation, something I haven't really done since my very first story. It was tricky for me, since I'm not really into the "deliberate inflator / unwilling inflatee" sort of plot, and I had difficulty coming up with a plausible reason for the other character not to be concerned for and give aid to the first. The last was to add flatulence as a plot element. I'm no fan of scatological stuff, and in MW5 it really didn't work out as I planned, but all the same, it can add an interesting conflict to the story. On the one hand, it's embarrasing, but what if it's the only thing keeping you from popping?

As always, let me know what you think and any suggestions for improvement. Thanks.

Thanks for the compliment 8) As to the lack of popping, that's because I'm planning to cap off the series with a "grand finale" featuring all the inflatees thus far. Can't go bursting my characters before I'm done with them :wink:

I'm glad this one was to your liking.

Is there anything in particular about my stories that doesn't interest you, such as my writing style? I know my prose tends to be flatly descriptive, it's just the way it comes together in my head. I've actually considered commissioning someone like HeliumGirl77 to rewrite my stories, but that might be a little weird. I'm not sure if there's a precedent for commissioning a story from a plot.