For any budding writer, there comes a point when you simply stop and ask yourself:

“Can I go on writing?”

For me this question comes every time I attempt the illusive novel I’ve been working so diligently on. I can create a thousand stories and histories for a world, but to create a single novel feels like trying to climb a mountain while towing a mack truck. With the right tools, maybe.

Nevertheless, I had actually stopped working on it for a few days and began to feel my muse creeping up on me. Well I decided to devote to the other side of writing, reading.

With the new household iPad in tow, I gathered a number of the books I own in PDF form and some I didn’t. One of the books that caught my eye was actually a book by Stephen King. On Writing seemed like exactly what I wanted, one writer’s journey into success.

I could not have been more wrong.

I read in about seventy five pages, then skimmed roughly thirty more. What I realized? Stephen King was a terrible writer. The one thing I gathered from his book however, was he was an excellent editor. Not a bad note to take from a book, but I had wasted some time reading it. I could have spent it coloring or writing my own work.

After I rinsed the words from my eyes I decided to give Ray Bradbury’s book, Zen in the Art of Writing, a go. I mean after reading Stephen King’s memoirs, nothing except Twilight or Fifty Shades of Grey could be worse. I sat down and started reading. Then I kept reading. Then I had to do dishes… yet I continued to read. Then I sadly had to go to work.

I had only managed to read a third of the book, but I realized that Bradbury’s love for writing matched my own. Even at his age his imagination ran wild, frolicking in the meadows of his mind, arm in arm with his muse. Reading his word play and seeing his passion come to life in these humble pages, it completely rejuvenated me! I spent my evening thinking of ideas I would immediately put into play as soon as I could.

But first…

I continued reading, completely entranced by this man’s words. I realized many things while reading his book.

One, I’m no where near publication ready.
Two, write more short stories… and then write more.
Three, write one thousand words a day.
Four, ignore the temptations of wealth.
Five, read more.
Six, do not search for the ultimately unique idea, that is nearly impossible.
Seven, embrace all the senses when writing.
Eight, everyone should read this book.

I continued through to the end and felt more satisfied in the conclusion than in any fiction I’ve read recently. The man stood and delivered from his soapbox, a message that should never be lost. I’m still absorbing what he crammed into those tiny pages, but he gave me exactly what I needed.

Inspiration.

You see, I’ve been overwhelmed with the creation of an entire world. I think I may not believe in God now because one being simply could not create so much without getting distracted by their own creations. One man has two children and suddenly there are hundreds of stories of them separated from each other, together and then in pairs. Then, they arrive at an inn with a blind barkeep who has large scars across his face.

What’s his story?

Well he was attacked by a werewolf and now after taking a sideshow cure, he must remain indoors as he only transforms if he is bathed in the light of the sun.

But what of this sideshow?

Calcorious Malinex, the leader of the circus, began the show when he happened upon a free elephant and a bearded lady. Thinking his luck too good to be true, he continued on until one night he was viciously attacked by a wolf. After slightly curing himself, he now infects others so that he may then sell them the vaccine which may cause death, dismemberment or some random transformation alteration.

What about this glorious cure for werewolves?

Well, when Calcorious began experimenting he found that he had somewhat cured himself, gaining control over most of his transformations. That is until any lunar or solar eclipse, when he uncontrollably transforms and releases the pent up aggression. Other symptoms include daylight transforming, hairless transforming, were-human (always wolf, except human on full moons), control over transforming (except on full moons), weekly transforming and finally weather transforming.

So, I find myself going crazy trying to focus on the story I am trying to write. A long time ago I told a friend of mine that if we wanted to make a game, we couldn’t start out with something huge. We should start small, so we could work as a team and hone our individual skills before embarking on an epic quest to create the one game to rule them all.

It’s ironic that despite being the one who gave the advice, I never followed it either.

I’ve been trying desperately to write the “one novel to rule them all”, and in doing so, began to despise the one hobby I truly love: Writing. As I read of Bradbury and his almost obsessive compulsive writing habits, I realized that his short story writing habits would help me greatly.

So, that brings us to this week.

I finally decided upon an ending I wanted to write and after that, the rest began to fall into place. I imagined the ending I had being the very top brick in a pyramid and from there I began to almost build backward and forward. The story quickly ran away, with me trying to hold on for dear life.

In five days I easily wrote over 8500 words, only really stopping to work, clean, live and edit. This made me consider many things. In five days, I had written one tenth of the first Harry Potter book worth of words. Also, I didn’t stumble over my own creations. I only added what back story was necessary and kept only the main characters with interesting names. I also cut down my word count by changing the main character’s mentor to Jason instead of The Mentor or Her Mentor.

Anyway, without further ado, here is my latest short story. I’m not a praying man, but please, if you read it feel free to leave me any feedback either through the website, my email or even facebook. Any sort of feedback both positive or negative would be extremely appreciated as my plea on facebook fell on deaf ears!

The aptly named “Circle of Vengeance” is a story about an eight year old girl who’s father leaves with a mystery man, only never to return. Ten years of training later she is ready to confront her father’s killer, the self proclaimed greatest swordsman in the realms, and sets out on the journey to his mountain top castle.

It may sound like the typical story of revenge, but please, read it and get back to me! Thanks so much and I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s post!

One final note, this story exists thanks to Mr. Bradbury helping me get past my own hurdles. Thanks Mr. Bradbury. I wish I could have met you when I had the chance!