Interview With a Shrink Master

I use ChatGPT as a kind of social media manager for my website. It helps me to brainstorm ideas. As such, I’ve inputted a lot of info about the site over the past few months and so it has a good idea of what it entails. I asked it to ask me a series of interview questions for a blog article and it did. The questions in bold were asked by ChatGPT, the answers are purely my own!

Tom, can you share with us the genesis of shrinkingmen.com? What was your inspiration, and how did you go from idea to the amazing site we see today?

I’ve always enjoyed writing. I’ve been writing poems and short stories since I was able to write. I’ve written a few novels (contemporary fantasy and science fiction) and a book of short stories. Thing is, I was never able to make any money from writing. Don’t get me wrong here: I don’t just write to make money; it’s something I love to do; that spark of creativity is something I absolutely need in my life. But let’s face it: it sucks for spend all of your free time working on a novel; writing the first draft, rewriting it, editing it, formatting it over the course of a couple of years and then discover that due to the complete saturation of the market, it’s extremely difficult to get your name out there.

What I needed to keep me interested was a way to make some money from shorter fiction so that I could write in bursts in my free time around my full-time job and still make money. But how?

Well, they say sex sells and I knew from experience that it does. I’ve paid for audio files and videos and images relating to my specific fetishes in the past and I realised that the gay macrophilia/microphilia/size-related fetish community was tragically underserved when it comes to top-quality fiction. Sure you can find websites with amateur fiction online. Some of it is good, some of it isn’t. But we all like to find a writer whose style we enjoy and know that there will be a consistent, regular stream of content we can consume.

And if sex sells, niche sex is easier to sell. You can get noticed faster by search engines when people type in your particular keywords.

I set up a website with Godaddy (the irony of the name wasn’t lost on me) and was drawn to their option of a baked-in secure web store offering Paypal, Apple and Google payment options as well as secure card payments via Stripe. I could start uploading my stories to right away.

Now, I have to be honest and say that in the first few months, I had quite a lot of teething problems with Godaddy. They accidentally deleted my entire site when I just requested a package change and then made me pay extra to get it back! Their online customer service is horrendous and I lost countless hours waiting in queues to be helped with multiple issues.

The site has been running very smoothly since then, but if I were to set up from scratch again today I’d definitely look around at other web hosting companies.

After the site was up and running, I decided to add art to my stories and this led to the idea of art packs aimed specifically at people with size-related and muscle fetishes.

Later I got the idea to make Fetish Audio recordings for those who prefer to listen.

So now I was covering reading, listening and visual stimulation. Something for everyone.

I then set up a Patreon site to give access to my Shrink File stories and art and some kinky extras for the higher tier patrons.

All of this has proven popular and I have some great ideas for the coming months.

As the writer of Shrink Files and Shrinkwave, could you delve into your creative process? How do you go about developing the unique and engaging stories we see in each issue?

I’ve been into size-related fetish stuff for as long as I can remember. I often wonder if I was influenced by the amount of macro and micro content on TV and in movies when I was growing up. It seemed to feature quite regularly in cartoons and movies like Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.

And as a young teenager, I developed an obsession with men with huge muscles. I would buy bodybuilding magazines for the photos of them. I loved how big and powerful they were and how hot their giant muscles looked. This led me to start working out myself and now I get some pretty keen muscle worshippers signing up to my Patreon to be shrunk and dominated. They love it and I get a kick out of it too.

Oh yeah. The creative process. Well, I’m never very short of ideas (pun intended). I have a shortcut to the Notion app on my phone which will let me send ideas to my Notion inbox as soon as I have them. I also get inspired by books I read and shows I watch when I wonder what would happen if a size-altering element were added to the plot.

One huge advantage of writing kinky fiction is that sexual arousal is a massive motivator and writing is very rarely dull or tedious. And because I write short stories for the site I don’t have to worry too much about continuity issues or keeping track of characters, which can be an issue when working on a novel.

My Shrinkwave series is a little different. I decided I wanted to do something that was serialised and the idea of a gay size-shifting superhero really resonated with me. Sure, we’ve got Ant-man but the dude is as straight as can

be. I want some kink and spice in my size-shifting and I couldn’t find it out there, so I wrote it myself.

I’m proud of the first season of Shrinkwave. It comprises five issues and blends hot fetish scenes with some real character development and a strong plot. I’m looking forward to starting work on season two in August.

And just today I publish the first issue of HoloKINK. The idea behind this was to create a format that was image-centric but with comic book-style captions to tell a story. This way it will appeal to fans of the art packs but give them a narrative thread to follow too without too much heavy reading. Best of both worlds!

I’m lucky enough to have a pretty good set-up with a Mac mini M1 chip paired with a large curved monitor. Add a comfortable chair and that’s all a writer really needs. Oh! And I use the Notion App for all my shrinkingmen.com writing: Shrink Files, Fetish Audio scripts, blog posts, promo emails. I even use its database function to keep track of my monthly earning to offer rewards and discounts to customers as the month progresses.

It's clear from the content of shrinkingmen.com that you're passionate about size-related fetish content. Can you speak about how this interest has impacted your writing, and how you aim to represent these fetishes in a positive and inclusive way?

To be truthful, I don’t often think about being positive or inclusive when I sit down to write. I try to come up with the germ of an idea that excites me and just start writing and see where it takes me. The exception was the Shrinkwave series, where I sketched out the plot and characters in advance to have an idea of where I was going as I wrote each issue, but even that changed more than once.

Inclusivity is important but if I’m not writing what excites me and what interests me then my writing will be dull. I think I’ve covered quite a lot of gay fetishes in my content so far: shrinking, macrophilia, muscle growth, muscle theft, muscle worships, smoking, feet, leather, rubber, weight gain, mind control, IQ loss, small penis humiliation (that’s one I love but which I’m aware a lot of people aren’t a fan of), humiliation, master/slave, bondage, vore, dumb jock, cash pig… and I’m certain I’m missing some out.

As for how my interest in these sorts of gay kinks has affected my writing… it hasn’t really. It’s intersected it, merged with it. I tend to write in a simpler way, a more to-the-point, faster-paced style when I write erotic stuff than when I’m writing a fantasy novel. But even that changes depending on the individual story. ‘Giant’s Cove’ in Shrink Files Issue 17 is a much gentler and slow-paced story than most of the others. ‘Shrunk in Space’ has a sci-fi style. Some other issues are written as reports; some from a first-person perspective, others from a third-person perspective.

I love writing Shrinkwave because it’s narrated by Barry himself, with his often irreverent and sarcastic tone. It’s fun to write.

Size play, muscle growth, macrophilia, and microphilia are all very niche interests. How do you ensure that your content appeals not only to enthusiasts of these fetishes but also to newcomers to this genre?

Truthfully, I’m not writing for those who don’t already have an interest in these kinds of fetishes. That would be silly. Sexual fetishes and kinks are very personal and if something doesn’t turn us on, it doesn’t turn us on. It would be silly to invest time in trying to appeal to a wider audience and I’d be doing a disservice to my current audience if I did that. My entire approach for shrinkingmen.com is to appeal to a niche audience and that’s what has been successful so far.

I’m really lucky in that I have great readers/customers. Many of them receive our free newsletter updates (sign up for free on the shrinkingmen.com homepage if you haven’t already) and some buy every new product as soon as it’s released.

I’m also extremely grateful to my Patreon subscribers. They help me to continue to do what I love and to make it worth my while even though it means giving up weekends and holidays to write.

Can you give us a little insight into what your day-to-day life is like running shrinkingmen.com? What are some challenges you face and how do you overcome them?

Well, on Saturdays and Sundays, I get up early to work for at least a couple of hours on the site. This could be writing a new issue of Shrink Files, working on new Micro, Macro & Muslce art packs, updating the site itself, writing a blog post, sending out a newsletter…

Each weekday morning I also try to post something on social media and reply to messages. I also update Patreon frequently with new artwork, the latest issues of Shrink Files, etc.

As I mentioned earlier, some of the challenges I faced early on when related to the running of the website and the incompetence of Godaddy. These days I’m trying to learn about SEO and social media marketing and promotion to try to help grow my audience.

I read articles and watch YouTube videos when I have time to learn new tactics and to try to learn about the business side of things.

Shrinkingmen.com has a lot of interactive elements, like contests and goal-oriented campaigns. How important are these features in building a community around the site? Can you share some of your favorite community moments?

I think it’s important to try to keep things fresh each month. I have a different theme each month and try to use a visual graphic to keep track of progress: a muscle man who grows as each sales target is met, for example. I tie these targets in with discounts and promotions on the site to thank customers for their loyalty.

I have a red button on the homepage that should only be pressed by those willing to be dominated and controlled. There are also fetish buttons you can press to get recommendations of content you might enjoy for muscle worship, shrinking, etc. And there’s a polls page on the site too. I want to update this when I have time.

I do have a few ideas for other interactive elements which I hope to introduce within the next few months.

Lastly, what does the future hold for shrinkingmen.com? Can you give us any hints about upcoming projects or plans? We are, of course, eager to see where you take us next!

Hmm. I don’t want to give anything big away, but interactivity and world-building would be two key phrases I’d use to hint at the future of shrinkingmen.com