Freewrite on writing!

Hey, Steemit! It’s been a while since I did an aimless freewrite. Truth be told, these are some of my favorite posts I contribute to my blog. They’re directionless, and they give me an opportunity to vent. On nights like this, @vermillionfox and @guthrie are sound asleep. Sometimes, after midnight, I get manic and that lends itself well to the creative process. Steemit is an outlet for those episodes, and it keeps me writing. It’s like a warm up exercise. The only problem is, that warm up tends to happen late at night. I’m going to try and keep this one relatively brief because I do want to work on the novel project.

My latest obsession has been the writing, but I haven’t had the chance to do much of it. I’ve been thinking about it constantly. One of the things I love about this novel idea […two, actually], is that I committed to doing them at the same time as @lovejoy decided to do his own. This lead to a friendly wager with the initial deadline for a first draft coming this June. Writing a novel is completely new for us, and it’s something we both admitted we’ve always wanted to accomplish. Likewise, it’s something I’m sure we’re both equally unfamiliar with as far as a personal process. I sent him a text this week to remind him we have 177 days left.

His response was about how much of writing is about what you don’t say, and that makes a lot of sense. Everything for me now is world building, character development and plot structure and continuity. Much of that is in my head, and in my notes app, across my phone, iPad and Mac. It’s like I’m just filling the table with thousands of puzzle pieces and eventually, I’m going to put them together. The reality is, though, I have until June 30th to put them together, and I can already feeling that deadline encroaching on me. That’s a good thing, because without a deadline, neither of us will finish a first draft.

Another obsession I’m on, and it relates to writing, is a solution to finding my own discipline in writing. This is something I’d love to sit down with @ericvancewalton, @ezzy or @tarazkp and talk about. When I took a serious crack at comics, I imagined it’d be easy because I could illustrate something that looks “good”. I’ve done it my whole life. I found that storytelling and speed where skills also required to be a comic book artist, and I didn’t have them at all. In writing, I’m struggling to find my own process. The connected laptop, for me at least, is turning out to be more of a hinderance than a help.

If you get a minute, watch this lecture with Will Self. The entire lecture is fantastic, as are most of his lectures […I find him to be quite an asshole, but the kind that’s self-aware and gets a pass because he’s so spot on]. Pick it up at 32:00 minutes with the writer including a Morris traveler in her novel, and how that novel was never written. I’m trying to find a solution to capture the essence of what makes my Kindle Paperwhite such an incredible experience for reading, but in a writing form. I want an e-ink screen and a bluetooth keyboard. That’s it. @mada sits at @caffetto writing his novels on paper, and though that’s not the approach for me personally, I see exactly why he does it.

Well, I could continue ranting about this, but I’m going to stop myself so I can, in fact, add some more to either of these books. I spend all day maneuvering menial tasks and errands, thinking to myself, “I can’t wait till I get home and things are quiet so I can finally write.” This is my time to write, so I’m going to post this and do just that before I get too sleepy. I’ll leave you with an excerpt; a prologue from the Lovecraftian horror story I’m writing with @ghostfish. Just something to give a sense of the world, and to prove that I am actually writing. Thanks for reading!

“The community of Christians shall have no association with those who remain in disobedience and a spirit of rebellion against God. There can be no fellowship with the wicked in the world.” 

             

—Schleitheim Confession

1685. The Puritans of Hull, gripped by pestilence and famine, cling to their faith. Save Shadenfreud, the self appointed community’s leader of Hull, fulfilling his promise to cleanse the human spirit, put to death three sisters known as Oiguina by the Wampanoag people. Drowned at Save’s hand, the Black Sachem sisters cursed the townspeople with their dying breath. 

As Puritan life, already a testament of will, became unlivable for the Puritains of Hull, the curse of Oiguina reclaimed the life, water and land that was taken from them. Rot overtook the crops as the soil and wells were poisoned by the witches’ final asperity. Starvation, unnatural parasites and desperation consumed the population of Hull; all but one.

The Good Shepard, Save Shadenfreud lived a comfortable life, hoarding the resources of his community. As hunger and sickness took the young and old, those that remained fixed blame for the curse of Hull on Save. Finally, lead by the emboldened pastor Lovejoy, the town massed, marching on The Good Shephard’s home. 

Skinny bodies carrying torches and farm tools chanted “Cleanse the soul”, as they gathered at the door. Their eyes wild and bellies aching, as the bovine Save nervously peered from the window. Pastor Lovejoy presides over a salivating horde of followers. Save cried for mercy, held to wood of the dining room table by dozens of emaciated, malignant souls.

This was the night of The Feast. With crude blades, the fatty flesh of Save Shadenfreud was carved away as he writhed, powerless. As the pain began to dull, he could only hear the sounds of gluttonous mouths pulling, chewing and swallowing. Darkness washed over Save, and in his last moments of consciousness, he quietly spoke the words, “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood live in me, and I live in them.”