The Making of Cleric Journal Part One
Originally published at J.A. Pitts. You can comment here or there.
Early August I was sitting in my office trying to puzzle together the mysteries of why some writing sings and some does not. I was lamenting twists and turns of my writing career so far and was beginning to wonder if anyone was even paying attention any longer. Melancholy is an old friend of mine and I was swimming in deep waters. This is not the same as depression in my book. I was working every day, day job mostly, and researching genetics for my new novel I’ve been struggling with for over a year now. I just had no love for writing. I didn’t hate it, I recalled the joy of putting down words, but I would sit at my computer and consider what to write and nothing was coming to mind. It had stopped being fun coincidentally about the time Tor dropped my series.
One of the cool things that I’ve done most recently was stepping in to help my buddy Ken Scholes by finishing an essay he’d been asked to write for a little collection of Role Playing Game guide from Kobold Press. Kobold Guide to Combat was one in a series of guides to help story tellers and game designers/players with their world building and game play. The essay was about Reconnaissance and Scouting. I had loved writing that essay. It didn’t take a lot of time because I’d been gaming for decades. I’d considered nearly all aspects of character creation and motivation ever since I was in 7th grade. One of my best friends came home with this small white box set of books around a new game called Dungeons & Dragons. We were avid readers, consuming any book that looked vaguely like science fiction or fantasy. This game was a game changer. My brain shifted with those miraculous books.
So the essay on recon and scouting was a walk in the park. I loved it. It was like breathing.
Also this year I’d gotten together with a couple of friends, Robert Fairbanks and Ken Scholes for a little basic D&D. First time in decades, and I loved it. I had such a good time I’d gone out and purchased the new Players Handbook for the 5E edition just to read about the game and how it has evolved over the years.
Fast forward to August 3rd. As I scrolling through Facebook, wasting time and letting my brain fall into neutral, I was struck with inspiration.
I would write a journal, something fun for me to write, and hopefully something fun for others to read. One of the things I’ve worried over is that my blog is fairly static and I just don’t have the drive to blog like some do. But I do know story. I created a character in my mind that very instant, a poor misguided soul who is ready to take on the wide world, but who has nearly nothing going for him other than an overwhelming optimism and lifetime growing up in a hidden cult. Useless Lump was born in that instant and I wrote the letter he would leave to the head of his order as an explanation for why he was leaving them at only eighteen years of age.
I think I wrote that first letter in twenty minutes. Almost 1200 words and I didn’t even have to think. I posted it on the blog to go out the next morning and started a daily journal from my would-be cleric. Now, seventy-two posts later, I am wrapping this portion of UL’s adventure, ending on a cliff hanger, of course. Over the next few days I’ll write a daily “behind the scenes” blog entry just to share my process. Never fear, Useless Lump will continue his adventure on Monday, October 19th.