I know I’ve talked about this before. But honestly, it never gets old. Now I love talking about this. In the past, not so much. That’s mostly because of how much I disliked the story after I first finished writing it.
I’m reminded of this meme …
Me in a picture. At least at the time I first wrote Earth 8-8-2: The Genesis Project.
Follow me on a trip through the creation of the Earth 8-8-2 Saga.
The first story in the Earth 8-8-2 Saga started off as a potential short story idea for the very first “Concordant Vibrancy” anthology. Since the theme was unity, I thought to myself, how cool would it be to create a science fiction story that unified science fiction with dark drama and fantasy? Perhaps taking elements of both and intertwining them into one creation …? Thus, “The Genesis Project” was born.
Immediately the story took shape in my head. I saw the scientist, Dr. Scott, in his laboratory getting busy with his experiment. But, since Dr. Scott was not from this earth, rather from a parallel earth, he didn’t look like us. At least not completely. That was when the concept of the multiverse theory was incorporated into the story. Soon there was this entire universe of meshed theories and ideas compacted into a novelette sized story. Like a whirlwind, “Earth 8-8-2: The Genesis Project” was written. I finished the whole thing in a day because the idea was burning in my cerebra like a soldering iron.
Here is the funny part.
We’ll call is “#TheWritingRollercoaster”.
At first I was super excited about the Earth 8-8-2. I mean, it fit the subject matter, was a cool idea, had some powerful characters and some awesome diction. I was honestly all in.
↓↓ My Face.
Then I read it. I don’t know what happened but after I read the whole thing I suddenly hated the entire story. I was unimpressed with my own writing, couldn’t stand the characters, hated the whole notion. I felt crushed and defeated. The words that reverberated in my mind were, “This is utter shit!”
↓↓ My Face.
I was a hop, skip and a jump away from trashing the whole thing. Then my best friend and I talked about it. She was all, “Y, I think you’re being too hard on yourself. I am sure it’s a great story. Send it to me. Let me read it.” My reply was cut and dry, “Okay, fine. But you’re gonna hate it too. It’s a piece of shit.”
↓↓ My Face.
In less than an hour she was done reading the story so she calls me. She’s all, “It’s great. I loved it.” My immediate thought was that she was just being nice. I wasn’t all too convinced and told her so. She was like, “Look, just give it a day or two and re-read it. In the meantime, just write a different story for the anthology. Besides, this one is too rich a story to be in an anthology anyway. I can see this being something extensive.”
“Sure, if you say so.” I replied, not completely convinced.
↓↓ My Face.
Regardless, I took her advice. I wrote the other story, which I did actually really like for the anthology and submitted it, then went back to “Earth 8-8-2” to re-read it.
New day, fresh perspective, I guess. Because when I was done reading the story I was suddenly shocked at how good it was.
↓↓ My Face.
Just like that the fervor was reignited and I was like, “Hooooly shit! This could really BE SOMETHING!” In that moment everything changed. I was overcome with enthusiasm for the story and how great it could be. Just like that I planned out the entire saga, the titles, the content, the outlines, the whole bit.
↓↓ My Face.
Several years later I am now about to release the 3rd book in the saga and I couldn’t be more thrilled.
I’m all like, “3 down and 4 to go!”
↓↓ My Face.
Okie dokie, smokie … I’ll catch up with you all again tomorrow.
