Update on THE LIGHTLESS Manuscript Book One of the Shifting Memory Universe

5/18/24

As I am certain it must be the same with many authors, I could write and rewrite my stories until my final days on Earth, and still I would find something that I would change or fix. However, tearing at the same spot in the dirt until I’ve dug a hole too deep to escape from is something I really dislike doing.

That being said, I have completed the latest draft of THE LIGHTLESS, and while it still teeters a few thousand words above 100k, I feel that it is in its strongest form yet. Nearly four years I have been working on this story, with other stories taking up some of that time as well, but this one is where I have placed the majority of my time and effort.

The possibility it will not be the starting point of which readers will see their introduction into my stories is high, and I’m okay with that. I have many stories to tell, and many entrance points into the universes I have created, and I would love nothing more than for any potential readers to have options. This is one of the main components in what I am trying to do writing stories within paralel universes that coincide once, and then pull apart, allowing stories in both settings to continue on their own, and readers to choose which they’d like to read about. Will these characters and settings ever coincide again? Therein lies the unlimited potential of my imagination, a tool I purposefully injected into my writing in order to let said imagination fly as free as it can.

I love writing, but only when I feel liberated and enthusiastic in what I’m writing. Coming from a career in music, where I was on stages playing metal music, and driving state to state, with new settings and new people every night, I will always crave that style of entertainment and self-fulfillment. I cannot be bored with writing, because I won’t write. Or I’ll write dreck that no one, including myself, will ever want to read (nor should they).

Characterization, POV, and Killing My Darlings

These are all things I have been working on since attending the TN Writing Workshop in Nashville, TN.

And while I feel more confident in my writing and this manuscript than ever, I know there will still be things I can improve upon. And that is what keeps me writing in a sense, the goal post is always moving, and there is always something to improve upon. Performing music was the same, as I always was striding to become a better vocalist, to improve my stamina, to put on a better show, to write better lyrics.

While THE LIGHTLESS may not be the book that breaks me into the business, it will always be the story that lit the tinder in my heart, and paved the way for all the stories that have come before it and will come after.