This week I released the 7th chapter of “Everyone Thinks I Dream of Chocolate.” I have always wanted to take my experience and the original short story and expand it into a novel. The decision to make it into a project for this website, however, I did on a whim.
I don’t expect this version of the story to end up published in a traditional or even independent form. In a lot of ways, this version of the story is more of a chance to get my ideas down in some way. I am editing everything myself which I would never want to do with anything that I plan to officially publish in any capacity. I am a writer, not an editor. Even if I was, I don’t trust myself enough to edit my own work. There is a reason why movies separate the role of directors and editors.
If anything, serializing it is a form of practice for me. It is a way to push myself into a habit of writing consistently. I never had that chance in college, often prioritizing school work and social relationships. Despite that, I never devolved into one of those writers who only ever talked about writing. I took plenty of classes in college that gave me opportunities to write my own stories rather than simply criticize the writings of others (often dead).
Still, I always lacked consistency. Some times, I wrote often. Others, I didn’t write at all. I spent alot of my time exploring other art forms of course, like film but as I get older, I find that writing simply makes the most sense for me. It is the purest form of narrative creation and all others mediums are flashier extensions.
Dedicating one posting day to a serialized story forces me into consistently write. Even more so, it forces me to ignore the fear of imperfection. I have always wanted to make longer form content like novels or series. However, the long term planning and quality is something that always bogs me down. I have so many novels that I have started and barely made it through the first act. I want everything from start to finish to be perfect. It is much easier to fathom a project that is is 5, 10, or even 40 pages long.
While I enjoy the nature of short stories, my true passions are in novels. My habit of abandoning these projects ultimately undermines my ability to practice the medium. How can I get better at this medium of longer form narrative if I can’t even see it all the way through? I’m hoping with this schedule, I will have to confront this self imposed obligation I have instilled upon myself.
The subject itself is also fresh enough that it is still in my mind, yet enough time has passed that I can look at it with a retrospective lens. Having the narrative being based in real life also removes any need of depicting fantasy elements, something that I find to add a layer of difficulty to the overall fiction writing process. The audience already has a context for most of the things I describe so I can focus more on the actual events rather than spending paragraphs describing things.
It might seem like a small thing but adding fantasy elements always adds scope to a project, resulting in a tower that gets harder and harder to maintain in a stable manner. In addition, there is always the temptation of adding things to a fantastical world, again threatening the stable foundations of a good narrative. By placing all of this in a real context, I can focus on what really matters: the story and characters.
The amount of content I have also runs about two and a half years worth of experience. Being a work of fiction based on real-life, I am not obligated to recreate reality to a T. I can manipulate the events to make for a better story. I can create composites and amalgamations of real people to protect their identities but also to fit my narrative needs. However, the basis of all of this are very real and to recreate that, at least spiritually, gives me a set of boundaries. It is some what comforting to know that I won’t get lost in the depths of my own fathomless imagination.
Having all of these things based on real things also means that I can simply enjoy the process of writing. I don’t have to think about creating everything from scratch, including the characters, overall story, smaller arcs and narratives, and themes. These things are already there and I have lived them. If anything, I am acting more as an investigative journalist, taking these experiences and documenting them. The fun is that unlike a journalist who is burdened with accuracy and unbiased reporting, I have the privilege of creative freedom and thematic interpretation.
More than anything, I simply want to finish something that takes honest effort and passion over the course of a period of time. If it is messy, fine. In an ideal world, it will technically be my first draft of a novel. Some might find that to be a rather low bar of achievement but many who have been where I am will now how hard it is to reach that bar in the first place.
I think it is a good project to reach my milestones. If I can do this project, maybe I can eventually reach the knowledge and experience to create from the deepest fathoms of my imagination untethered.
Danger Wonka 