Hello, friends.

It’s been just under a month since we last spoke, and in that time, I have finished the first draft of my collaborative novel, tentatively titled Inemuri with John Crinan.

Folks, this one is an absolute whopper, weighing in at over 167,000 words. Given my last two books were under 80,000 words and the two before that considerably less, this is new and uncharted territory for me. I spoke to Josh Malerman last week about his excellent creative nonfiction book, WATCHING EVIL DEAD, and I said to him I could write an entire book on ‘writing Inemuri’. I think when I look back in ten years, I will see writing Inemuri as one of the defining moments in my life as a writer. So many lessons learnt. So many new experiences. I’m too close to the experience now. Hell, let’s be real—I’m still IN the experience now. This is just draft one! But when I’ve processed it all, or as I process it all, I’ll have a lot more to share and say.

For now, the biggest lesson is this:

IF YOU START WRITING A STORY, YOU MUST FINISH WRITING A STORY.

This is not new writing advice. This should not be a revelation. Hell, a famous Chuck has taken to the streets, ringing a bell, and shouting “finish your shit” for years. He once got so vocal about it, he was ejected from a public restroom because people misinterpreted the message and got both figuratively and literally uncomfortable. (This may not be true. Don’t sue me, Chuck. I love you.)

But, the thing is, whilst writing Inemuri and finishing Inemuri, I really felt the importance of ‘finishing your stories’ like I had never felt it before. It radiated through my entire being.

Inemuri is a book that if you looked at the premise and the plan on paper, you'd likely conclude we probably shouldn’t have started writing the book, let alone have finished it. It doesn’t so much transcend genres but rather it defies genres and categorisation. If you think my releases, House of Bad Memories and Daddy’s Boy flipped genres several times then Inemuri says, “hold my samurai sword and sushi, you ain’t seen nothing yet!”

Honestly, if you looked at the way I approach story writing and you looked at the way John approaches story writing, you might well conclude we should not have collaborated together on anything. I’m a meticulous planner that likes to get every beat into the story before writing a single word of the first draft, and John plays fast and loose. A mostly pantser with some key scenes, ideas, and a feel for the aesthetic and mood of the story he wants to tell. Hell, John even feels comfortable writing scenes out of order. Something that is absolutely unheard of for me. I write every draft linearly, in the order intended. The only thing approaching ‘out of order’ is a second, third, or fourth draft in which I’m inserting a new scene or shifting scene order, but for draft one, it’s as in order as possible. Not with my mad brother, John, though, God love him!

But John and I have a deep respect and love for one another, and we both had and have absolute confidence and enthusiasm for Inemuri. On top of that we are not afraid to be very blunt and critical with one another. That could be the key to a successful collaboration right there—belief, enthusiasm, and brutal honesty. Though BEBH isn’t very catchy. Could we call it Belief, Passion, and Honesty? BPH. Which also means benign prostatic hyperplasia. Which means your prostate’s enlarged and you might have trouble peeing. Catchier if you know what BPH is, I suppose, and a weird aside if you don’t (but, hey, if you like weird asides, you might enjoy my latest book DADDY’S BOY, available now).

So, John agreed to join me and plan out the novel beat-by-beat. And by God, we did it. We had a plan that was so detailed and had such a high word count, it could have qualified as a Bram Stoker Award nominee.

But when I’m writing, despite wanting a full plan before putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard as the reality may be), I am all for deviating from said plan. If in the divine process of writing, the characters, the creative muse, or even the great Jugonshi himself, intervenes and says we must go in a different direction then THAT is what we must do.

And so in the writing of Inemuri, that is exactly what happened. We followed the plan, and then we deviated, and we deviated, and we deviated. And there were several times when I was looking at the plan, where the story had got so unwieldy and complicated that I said, “I have no idea how any of this works or makes any logical sense?” And, believe you me, during those times there was the temptation to throw in the towel, to abandon the story, to start from scratch, to re-plan.

But something amazing started to happen. Every time I felt like I should quit—every time I was backed into a corner—a solution presented itself. A solution that was already written in the text, I’d just been too close to it to see it.

And as this kept happening again-and-again-and-again-and-again, we just started to trust in the story more. So, when there were moments when we felt like the plan made no sense or we’d been written into a corner, we kept writing anyway. We looked to the plan and we looked to the creative muse and divinity to see us through. And every time, they did.

And so now we are left with this glorious, messy, beautiful, absolutely unhinged first draft. A first draft of infinite possibilities. And yet, for all my saying it is messy and unhinged, there’s a divinity and a logic in it.

So, now, I will never abandon a story idea again, and in the near future I’m going to go back to some of those previously left behind novels—those partially written manuscripts—and I’m going to finish them or at least excavate them for ideas because I see that whilst the power of self-doubt and the resistance may be strong, the creative muse is even stronger, and the story knows best. The story believes in itself even when you stop believing in it. And if that’s not a reason to believe in the story and keep writing then nothing is.

Folks, like Inemuri, this newsletter is a little messy and all over the place but beyond anything else, I am full of hope. Full of hope for my own writing, full of hope for YOUR writing, and full of hope and BELIEF in the power of creativity and the power of finishing your stories.

Now, check out all those wonderful podcast episodes and articles on This Is Horror below.

If you like what I’m doing, if you want to support my writing then support Michael David Wilson on Patreon. If you want to support the This is Horror Podcast and help make it my full-time endeavour then support This Is Horror Podcast on Patreon.

Keep believing in yourself. Keep writing. Don’t abandon your stories!

Have a great, great day.

Michael David Wilson

P.S. If you like this newsletter and want to support my work and This Is Horror, please become a This Is Horror Podcast patron. It would make me happy but only do it if it will make you happy, too. ​

P.P.S. If you’re ready to take your writing to the next level with some professional editing or a writing consultation, you can find out about my rates here and reply to this email. ​

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