Tag: books

Shifting to Short Stories

Procrastination can be a terrible thing. Because this book project is more of a hobby and passion, a combination of life and other hobbies tend to get in the way of my progress on my book. I tell myself on the way to work in the morning that “I will work on the book tonight after dinner”. But I end up doom scrolling. I keep telling myself “I’m going to spend this weekend working on the book”. But I end up doing chores, visiting family, or knitting while watching youtube. It’s discouraging. This project that started out as a writing exercise and later became a book that I dreamt of publishing, and still do, feels like it’s book stalled by my own laziness. And I’ve become comfortable in that laziness, though I’m not happy or even content about it. I have always wanted to be a published writer. But I’m standing in my own way.

Another thing that has been discouraging me is the the rise of AI and the decline in freedom that people have with the books they can own. I’ve been watching booktube talk about this topic at length. And in my mind I think “What’s the point of publishing my anything? No one will see it and if they do it won’t gain traction. AI will see it and use it to make its slop, thus burrying my work even deeper into the abyss of the internet.”

I write because I enjoy it. I love the worldbuilding and character creation. I love the challenge and the creativity. Writing and reading have been my companions for many years. And they are often companions that people around me do not understand or care to know anything about. I do not want my dreams that these companions have helped me foster turn to dust by the possibility of dystopia. I am going to try something. I am going to try to write some short stories set in the world I am building, Hollow Mortes, and publish them on my website for others to read for free. I think this will get me out of my slump and help me to grow as a writer, help my website grow, and get me closer to finishing my book.

Dreams are like houseplants. They can live for a time in neglect, but they still need care from time to time. My plants need tending, and I will do all I can to keep them alive.

Please feel free to visit my site’s About page and learn more about Hollow Mortes. I also have the 1st chapter of my book available to read on my Works in Progress page. If you like what you see please leave a comment and subscribe. It helps a lot.

Thank you!

-V.D. Flask

Struggling with Character and World building

It’s always been a dream of mine to be a great novelist. I’ve always loved the idea of creating worlds that are rich in history and unique cultures. My current work in progress “Dear Mr. Avalon” is set in a world that I’m trying to make unique and not come across as some poorly copy pasted fan version of something that already exists. This is where my struggle begins.

The world I’ve created is called Hollow Mortes. It’s a form of reality detached from ours where all manner of creature and monster live. Some stay to the shadows, forests, and mountains, while others have decided to make civilizations. I’ve made a rough sketch of my world map that’s located on my Lore page. I also have all of these ideas about the creatures and people that inhabit this world, that I’m struggling with the idea of how much is too much world building? and Is this really important to the story I’m trying to tell? And that leads me to another area I’m noticing problems with my writing; the people.

Although Hollow Mortes is inhabited by monsters, not all monsters are mindless, primitive, or lacking in culture. The creatures I primarily focus on in my writing are werewolves and vampires. Now, most stories about werewolves and vampires, at least in the mainstream, are romance stories where the romance comes first and everything else is secondary. I want to reverse that. The main character of my story is turned into a werewolf and something I want to explore is the impact that transformation has on a person. How does one maintain a semblance of their humanity where something so monstrous has happened to them? I don’t want to write about romance. And I know I can’t be the only one that wants more from the average monster movie or novel.

But this is also something that I find myself struggling with in my writing and that I need to practice and hone; I’m terrible at writing character drive story. I feel like a lot of my current writing is very plot driven and not character driven. And any character driven writing is more “tell” and not “show”. I’ve gone ahead and posted the 1st chapter of my Works in Progress page. Feel free to check that out and if you can, provide some feedback? I’d really appreciate it so I can improve. I’m deeply passionate about this project but I need to improve my skills if I’m to publish a quality novel.

Thank you for reading, and if you have any feedback, please feel free to share.

Check out my website here: About

-V.D. Flask