Over the course of the past couple of weeks I’ve written and published my first book, well short story really; although I prefer the much classier sounding description of ‘novella’!
Like many of my endeavors, this was in fact an experiment. What may come as little surprise to those that follow my blog, before writing a work of fiction, I devise a very comprehensive blueprint for my story. I painstakingly define an extremely rich universe full of lore, conflict, geography and intrigue and then populate it with characters backed by countless pages of backstory and psychological profiles. I then continually subdivide each aspect of the plot down to individual scripted scenes as though it were a screenplay, and only then do I write my first words on the page. Nothing is by accident, it is highly efficient purpose-built software.
In practice, this approach has helped me create a great many fantastic worlds, but sadly very few written stories. By the time it comes down to writing the story itself it feels like all that is left to do is the rote work. All of the fun creative activity that compels me was in the preparation. In a sense I finish the book before I start writing and the act of writing holds little appeal for me.
So, as an experiment, I decided to sit down and just write whatever came to mind without forethought or a complex plan. What I ended up with was this now published Lovecraftian story surrounding an academia cult leader, a drug dealer who supplies the occult underworld, and a bevy of other supporting characters that magically sprang from the pages.
I found the exercise particularly captivating because since I myself had no idea what was going on I was affectively also a reader excited to see what was going to happen! I suppose this prioritized my writing to something I would enjoy reading rather than something that was meticulously perfect; it isn’t perfect at all, but I decided to embrace that instead of deplore it. Sure, I reworked some things as the story unfolded, but I didn’t want to lose the essence of the spontaneity. I wanted my first words and ideas on the page to shine through organically and to give my writing permission to evolve in style and character from beginning to end. Poor commercial choices for publishing something of general interest, but I stand by that decision for the 1st edition.
I am actually quite happy with the finished work, and since I quite literally wrote it for me, that will do. None the less, I wanted to have the experience of publishing it and who knows, other’s may also enjoy my fantastical story of Pleistocene relics, cheese, Mesoamerican gods, comet 153P, poorly made Manhattans, time travel and briefcases full of reality-bending alchemy!
If you would like to check it out, here is a link to the ebook. I am asking $3.99, the price of a cup of coffee these days which I feel is fair to go on this journey. If though you are a mooch and want a free copy, that’s really just as flattering, just let me know and I will email you a PDF! Please do note, that the story waxes dark, disturbing and at time uncomfortably erotic, read with caution.
