An Honest Reflection post-GFP

After not connecting with Bryan and Olivia for 1,030 days, we talked about resurrecting Garage Fiction. Olivia shared the trials and tribulations of being a professional Kindle author. It helped me clarify what I wanted as an author. I left the conversation with a clear directive from Bryan:

What do I want my fiction to be?

• What do I want as an author?
• What do I want my stories to do to the audience?

This led me to ask myself…

• What makes my writing uniquely me?
• What makes the way I think and see the world unique and interesting?
• What would I want to leave in the audience’s mind after they finish my work, what would cause that stayability I want to affect them?

Things I like in my stories

• References, Easter eggs, and rabbit holes

• Based on history, creates an alternate history, or inspired by history

• Story itself must work without audience picking up on all of the above

• I don’t want to ghostwrite, edit, nor become a Kindle millionaire who writes “good enough” fiction that feeds the mass market the entertainment they want. This isn’t a business for me.

• I recognize I may never make money doing this.

• I want to create something I’m proud of artistically

• I want the prose to be phrased well, not just workmanlike/functional prose.

• I want books that have strong themes and social commentary. I want to piss off the church, institutional evil, or whatever.

• I want the misfits, loners, and weirdos of the world to know they’re not alone and they can find their own family

• I understand this may not go anywhere and this completed novel may go nowhere, but I will have written at least one novel