Steven James Scearce

I was recently asked to write a guest blog article for the Inkpunks. The following are the opening paragraphs to the article; at the bottom is the permanent link for the whole article at the Inkpunks website.

On March 1st of 2011, I began writing a novel-length supernatural horror story called Cottonwood. I’d spent two months in planning and preparation. I’d drafted a seven-thousand-word treatment in three-act structure and revised it until I thought it was water-tight. I created a chapter-by-chapter outline and a stack of 5×8 note card “call sheets” for each day’s writing. I made a map of the town where the story takes place. I wrote character profiles.

Going into the actual writing – a plan that netted me 192,000 words in 255 days – I felt confident. I had, for Christ’s sake, thought of everything.

I hadn’t.

At 9:30PM on October 17th, I watched in terror as the cursor stood blinking next to the last word and the final bit of punctuation. The room was dead silent. I’d been stabbing at the keyboard for 36 weeks straight. It was done. I wanted to celebrate but couldn’t.

I called fellow horror writer Jacob Ruby for advice. “I finished Cottonwood,” I said. “What the hell do I do next?”

At the time, Jacob was still working on his first novel. “Take a break,” he said.

It was too easy. “What?” My head felt like it was full of hot roofing nails. “But the story is fresh in my mind. I have all this momentum built up and…”

“Take a fucking break,” he said. “You’ve done enough. Jesus, you worked for eight days while in Hawaii for your brother’s wedding. Step away from the story. Read a fantasy novel. Go see a bad movie. Write some short stories. Anything else.”

I hung up… [more]

Read my whole guest blog “I’ve finished writing my first novel. What the hell do I do next?” at Inkpunks.  

About Inkpunks:
The Inkpunks are a collective of authors, editors, free-thinkers and creative professionals, whose members include John Remy, Galen Dara, Andrew Penn Romine, Christie Yant, Erika Holt, Adam Israel, Morgan Dempsey, Sandra Wickham, Wendy Wagner and Jaym Gates.

In 1975, the DeForest brothers are on the run. Walter, the older brother, is wanted by police in Virginia for the near-fatal beating of a U.S. Senator’s nephew. Benjamin, the younger brother, is a potent psychokinetic who can manifest the spirits of the dead – and AWOL from a clandestine military unit that intended to weaponize his abilities for the conflict in Vietnam.

The two brothers find refuge in Cottonwood, Kansas, a small farming community with a past haunted by the eighty-year-old mass murder of a carnival sideshow troupe aboard an old railway car. When the railway car is recovered from the depths of the Black Vermillion River, a select few descendents of the original Cottonwood elders wish to keep their secrets buried along with the bodies. But Benjamin’s unique abilities hone in on the lingering spirits and bring to life a cruel troupe of supernatural creatures that aim to destroy Cottonwood as revenge for the conspiracy that led to their demise.

As horrific revenge murders begin to occur across town, the people of Cottonwood turn against the DeForest brothers. Walter must work fast to uncover the truth about Cottonwood’s terrible past and save his younger brother from a staunchly-religious but ultimately corrupt lawman who does not wish for his family name to be blackened by the unearthing of a murderous conspiracy – nor does he wish for authorities to question him about a number of hitchhikers that have gone missing in his County.

The DeForest brothers must escape Cottonwood before the ghosts of the past have the streets running red with the blood of the wicked and the innocent alike.

In the end, Cottonwood will fall. Few will survive.

[Madame Ileana ilustration courtesy of Galen Dara]