The Stories I Want to Write
What I Want to Remember About the Type of Writer I Want to Be
Transcript of journal entry 6/4/23: Writing Manifesto
The stories I write about aren’t the kind that people would openly tell if they lived through it. They are the stories of secrets, folklore, abomination, and cursed lots. To write them should cost something, should take a part of me and leave it on the page in exchange for what I offer the reader: an exciting, thrilling tale of exquisite madness and beauty said through painful truths. After reading my stories, my readers are meant to not only feel but be drawn to act in some way to ease that feeling.
I only want to tell true stories, exactly the way they happened to imagined people in worlds far and away. If my stories were like a car, I’d be the driver, and my characters would make up the engine and everything that makes the story go. My world and description, the ephemera that colors the story, will be the trim and flashy dings of the car. The readers are my passengers whose lives, emotions, and mental well beings are in my hands. I drive down unlit roads with only my memory and headlights to guide us. If we make it to the end, the reader will want to give thanks and cling to the ground: “What a fucking ride?! Thanks for not killing me, but I really appreciate what you’ve shown me. It’ll stick with me.”
Each story is its own car traveling down its own road. There are maps here, but I’ve transcribed them from the mouth of imaginary dead people who only live in the scene to travel on as guests in their own stories.
When the story comes to find me, I want to be open and brave, not shirk from the responsibility to get it all down and share it as I can. The stories I choose to create should aim to have an impact on emotions and thoughts surrounding self, relationships, and home. They’ll do that by showcasing great (neither good nor evil) people battling/fighting for the people and places they believe in. They’ll do that by showing the smallest intimacies having the biggest effect. They’ll do that by having by having the character say and do the things that hurt the most but cause the greatest growth.
When people see my name on the bookshelf, they’ll choose my work when they want to think and be entertained. Readers will know me by my prose and ability to craft dark stories with beautiful and descriptive language. When I offer comfort, it’ll be after a hard-won night.
The feelings I want my works to elicit:
Wonder
Excitement
Fear
Catharsis
Elation
Anticipation
I won’t write a story that doesn’t excite or scare me
I will keep up with my peers and cheer them on
I won’t measure myself against others
I will keep a writing journal like this till I die
I won’t make enemies of my readers
I will read more than I write
I won’t forget who I am
I will be the best at what I do
I won’t give up
I will craft stories that leave my readers with wonder
I won’t keep my writing knowledge to myself
I will write with wild intention
I am a writer who questions
I am a writer who knows her world
I am a writer who crafts characters people want to know
I am a writer of terror and wonder
I am a writer
I am a writer who sees where she is going
I am a writer of all things
I am a writer who travels
I am a writer who encourages
I am a writer who researches
I am a writer who experiments
I am a writer who yearns
I am the writer of the story you want to read next