Gravity Goat (1) – Getting an idea

Getting an idea.

I thought it was best to start my blogs where every book starts. Getting an idea. An idea that grows a little out of hand. Needing more and more words to be told. A world that comes to life, characters that do things you don’t always see coming. Before you know it, a first draft is finished, editing has started, you’re making a cover and then, the book is published. 

Suddenly, the world you’ve created is now living its own life. Far away from your fingertips. Now, instead, near the fingertips of the readers. The story has left you behind. 

That is, at least, how it felt once I finished Poveglia’s Plague Doctor. I had put hard work into the story for five years, and all of a sudden, it was gone. Sprinted its way into the world. 

That hour of the day, which I would usually fill with writing, was now empty. Waiting for something new to fill it in. 

Still lingering to slip back into the world of Poveglia’s Plague Doctor, feeling like I hadn’t really finished all there was to do, I was set for something new. What I did not know yet. Something I would not know for quite a while. 

I spent countless hours coming up with characters, situations, worlds, everything. But none of it was a complete story. They were all fragments of something bigger that did not exist. Something I could not figure out. 

During this time, I was writing a short story here and there. Feeling that some of these fragments did deserve to be written. But nothing truly brewed up from that. I had just started up with the idea of creating a short story bundle (Something that is right now, still in the making, planning on being published, hopefully, later next year). Gathering everything that I had written over the years into a book. Showing the progress made over the stories. 

So, I started to dig around in the pile of short stories that lay scattered on my computer. Putting them together in one neat document. It was then that I found something I didn’t know still existed. 

A short story called “Gravity Goat” caught my eye. I remembered the story instantly. A short story about a girl who talks to ghosts using an Ouija board. The ghosts lead her into the basement of an abandoned hospital, where she finds a floating goat. A new friend. 

I remembered the story very clearly. Because as I put the last period down, I remember thinking, “This is by far the worst story that I have ever written.”. I thought it was so bad that I was even embarrassed to keep it on my computer. I was quite confident in the fact that I had deleted that story right there and then. 

That is why I was so surprised to see it hidden somewhere, tucked away a few folders deep. I got curious if my view on the story had changed any, as it had been a couple of years since I had written it. So, I sat myself down and read the story and thought, “This is indeed the worst story that I have ever written.”. I may have found it just as bad, but this time, there was something that drew me to the story. Something that kept me from throwing it away. 

So, I once again read it. 

I did hate the story and how it was written. But there was also something about the characters that I loved. The story didn’t quite fit them. Still not having any idea what my second book would be, I thought I would give it a shot. 

I began figuring out what their story should have been. What was missing from that little snippet of their lives. Before I knew it, I had a bunch more characters. I lot more things that would need to happen. Thirty-five chapters worth of story that needed to be written. 

In one afternoon, I had turned the worst story I had ever written into the outline of a book I was dying to write. A story that delved deeper into psychological horror, the genre I want to write in. With characters I was eager to meet. 

So, I began writing, filling each chapter one by one. Changing little as I went. Before I knew it, I was halfway, the story getting bigger than I had expected. And now, I find myself with a completed first draft that is twice as big as Poveglia’s Plague Doctor was. 

Once I had found that idea that sparked the flame, everything started moving. Finding a story that needed space rather than forcing a story to be stretched out into a book. 

I have put the first draft away for now. Letting the story rest for a month before I will pick it up again. To go back all the way to the start. Giving the story what it needs in order to grow. 

“Gravity Goat” will be the next book I publish. 

Join the mailing list and follow Donkey Books on social media to keep up-to-date on my work, as more updates will soon follow!

Translate
Scroll to Top