So now that I've given away the secret of writing a novel, let's talk about what I didn't give away. But first, my steps to writing a novel. They're very simple steps. Honest. Anyone can do them. 1) Ruminate on the idea and plot for a couple-three months. Jot out notes. 2) Codify the notes, knowing what to keep and what to throw away. 3) Use the notes to knock out a quick outline/plot. This is just a simple narrative so you don't have to worry about anything like word choice or the perfect metaphor or how one thing reflects another because nobody really cares about that. Yes, it's true. 4) Take your outline/plot and expand it out. In the case of MY DROWNING CHORUS, it was about fifty pages d
Okay, let's take come care with the personal brand this time. I love horror. I love all things horror. Let me reinforce your love of horror. There. All good? Put the hatchet down. Careful with that axe, Eugene. One of the things I've found with all the books that I've written under my own name (as opposed to the ones that my name doesn't show up on and never will so don't even ask) is that I end up reinventing the process of writing them each time. This does great things for my incipient anxiety and confidence, let me tell you that. I don't know if it's restlessness or propensity towards boredom. Tough to tell. Of course, this makes me wonder if I can keep cranking out work in the same world
Yeah, this thing is still on. Just been busy. Finished the first draft of MY DROWNING CHORUS, that being the second in the continuing series of HAZELAND books, following librarian and forger Cait MacReady through the LA of the recent past haunted by things with and without name. Pretty happy with how it turned out, even if I had to shed a bunch of stuff that I'd wanted to include but maybe wasn't that important to begin with. I was going to go through a little breakdown of the process behind the book, but I'm wondering if that's even necessary at this point. Not a lot of demand for that sort of thing, honestly. People don't want to hear about the struggles behind it (there weren't that many
