Is anyone out there doing Camp NaNoWriMo? This is my first time doing camp instead of the November event, and I'm doing something completely different this time! I'm writing (as I guess you may have noticed) a Kindle Vella. It's posted on the Amazon Kindle Vella website in episodes. (I'll post a little ditty about that later on Facebook and Instagram.)
So, I am writing and then editing and editing and editing and then posting each episode as I'm finished. Anyone who knows my style of writing knows how incredibly uncomfortable this makes me! I like to have the whole meal spread out before me and then pick and choose what goes on the plate because let's face it; that first information dump is a whole lot of garbage.
When I write, I think of it as carving in marble. In the beginning there’s a lump of ideas that I think I may be able to form into some semblance of a reasonable story. Then I spend a long time considering the medium; what kind of stone best suits my story. Can it be wrapped up in five thousand words or less? Is it more of a novella? Or is it to be my Lord of The Rings or The Stand? (Just kidding, I’m so not ready for something like that!)
Next, I consider the tools I will use. My carving knife--should it be First Person or Third? My sandpaper--should it be present tense or past tense? I don’t make the decision myself; the story tells me what it wants to do. This is about the time that it begins to take on a life of its own. But I still have control.
I have to consider my characters-- the subject of the carving. Who are they? What do they look like? They have lives. Even the bit players have a life of their own when they aren’t participating in my story. I don’t have to include everything about them, but I have to know.
What’s the purpose of the sculpture? What do I want people to think when they look at my words and translate them through some sort of magical symbolism we call language? Do I want them to fall in love? To be surprised? Terrified? Maybe I want them to laugh. Or maybe a little bit of everything. (Who am I kidding? Of course I want to terrify people.)
Once I’ve chiseled away at something slightly resembling a story, using a painfully crafted outline, I can begin to shape and scrape away the imperfections. It’s just as tedious as it sounds, but the results seem to speak for themselves.
But now, this time, I’m falling from a plane, and I don’t know if my parachute works! I think it does, I hope it does, but I didn’t really give it a thorough check before I leapt. And that makes me nervous. For all I know I might chisel the head right off this thing without meaning to and want to start over. But there are no do-overs this time. And it’s probably a really healthy exercise for me to write with only a vague idea of where I’m going. Allowing myself to make those scenic overlook stops along the way instead of speeding as fast as I can toward a predetermined destination with a carefully crafted map.
So now you can start reading my story before I even finish writing it. I hope that you will forgive any egregious errors. I’ve tried my best to find and eradicate them, but this is an experiment. Let’s see what grows! You can check out my new serialized story, Gladys the Vampire, a horror comedy on Kindle Vella on April 9th, 2022. Also, if you missed it during the holidays, check out my Christmas horror short-Santa Claws is Coming to Town.