Great post Michael! I don't have a well thought out response, but I think I write my own fears a lot. I'm a person who spent a lot of my life motivated by what could go wrong instead of what could go right, and part of working on that fatalistic thinking has led me to horror/suspense. I think it's a kind of therapy in a way, to personify inner fears into monsters, tragedy into the fantastical hero's journey. I write characters who are fighters. They don't always win, but they always try. And that's what I aspire to do. To just keep chugging, even when the going gets tough.
My partner gets anxiety sometimes (don’t we all) and one of the best ways for her to get back to baseline is to watch horror movies, the scarier the better. I definitely do think there is a kind of therapy in suspense, perhaps because in fiction the anxiety is actually followed through to a climax and resolution--which real life anxieties do not always get.
I definitely see how Stimp is has the just keep chugging mentality, and I think that is what made him so interesting right from the get go. I still think about him getting hit by that car and just doing his best to carry on when he can!
I'm using the substack to fill in the backstories of the characters of the novel I've written and the novels I'm going to write. It brings me energy to create canon on the fly, revisiting characters I've created and leading into future projects. Keep going!
I think it’s really important to find a way to maintain writing energy, perhaps even one of the most important aspects of writing. Anything that does that is worthwhile, and Substack really does feel like a great place for that work.
Who is your main character, or your most unique? How much backstory do you generally write?
Thanks, I've been using substack to tie in characters of one novel to the next. For example a story I wrote a couple of months ago shares a first novel character and his wife going to dinner with another couple. There's an element that will play in my novel release next year. In tomorrow's short fiction, a character from my first book makes a cameo. But it also teases conflict that plays out in the next novel.
It's fun to interconnect all of these short stories and novels together and weave a full alternate universe.
What you’re describing is part of why Substack is so interesting to me. We all know an author creates so much more world than we as the reader ever really get to see, but here we’re able to get more of a look inside a writer’s world.
Great post Michael! I don't have a well thought out response, but I think I write my own fears a lot. I'm a person who spent a lot of my life motivated by what could go wrong instead of what could go right, and part of working on that fatalistic thinking has led me to horror/suspense. I think it's a kind of therapy in a way, to personify inner fears into monsters, tragedy into the fantastical hero's journey. I write characters who are fighters. They don't always win, but they always try. And that's what I aspire to do. To just keep chugging, even when the going gets tough.
My partner gets anxiety sometimes (don’t we all) and one of the best ways for her to get back to baseline is to watch horror movies, the scarier the better. I definitely do think there is a kind of therapy in suspense, perhaps because in fiction the anxiety is actually followed through to a climax and resolution--which real life anxieties do not always get.
I definitely see how Stimp is has the just keep chugging mentality, and I think that is what made him so interesting right from the get go. I still think about him getting hit by that car and just doing his best to carry on when he can!
I'm using the substack to fill in the backstories of the characters of the novel I've written and the novels I'm going to write. It brings me energy to create canon on the fly, revisiting characters I've created and leading into future projects. Keep going!
I think it’s really important to find a way to maintain writing energy, perhaps even one of the most important aspects of writing. Anything that does that is worthwhile, and Substack really does feel like a great place for that work.
Who is your main character, or your most unique? How much backstory do you generally write?
Thanks, I've been using substack to tie in characters of one novel to the next. For example a story I wrote a couple of months ago shares a first novel character and his wife going to dinner with another couple. There's an element that will play in my novel release next year. In tomorrow's short fiction, a character from my first book makes a cameo. But it also teases conflict that plays out in the next novel.
It's fun to interconnect all of these short stories and novels together and weave a full alternate universe.
What you’re describing is part of why Substack is so interesting to me. We all know an author creates so much more world than we as the reader ever really get to see, but here we’re able to get more of a look inside a writer’s world.
I’ll keep an eye out for your story tomorrow!