With the COVID-19 pandemic, my work schedule has drastically decreased, freeing up substantial time in April that I'd need to spend in isolation anyway. This means I have all the time I could ask for to work on a project of my choice. I decided it might be the perfect time to redraft and flesh out a novel project I've had in mind for the past few years. It's most easily summarized as Mad Max meets HP Lovecraft (largely in reference to the broad cosmic horror tropes, but tales like The Dunwich Horror and At the Mountains of Madness comes close to the weird things I have in mind). It's the first in a larger creative initiative to embrace surrealism more, to differentiate myself from other sci-fi and fantasy writers and create a more unique brand. This might even become a series if it works out well.
I've worked on this concept on and off again since 2017. It was originally an experiment to see if I could write serialized short stories based on one character and his world. The more I added to it though, arcs emerged that I realized would be better told as one whole novel rather than a bunch of disjointed shorts. The possibility still exists to make supporting short stories that branch off from this, but for now I have but one straightforward journey in mind. A number of ideas and scenes materialized into something more concrete, becoming the novel entitled Heathen.
Origins Of The Heathen
Around 2017, I read more articles and study on the concept of cosmic horror. It is a genre I was vaguely familiar with--there are aspects of it that I've always appreciated in much of my favorite media. But I never really parsed it out in such concrete terms. In the period between 2016 and 2019, I couldn't help but to notice a number of new cult films produced that emphasized Lovecraftian aesthetic and themes (most notably The Void, Annihilation, Mandy, The Endless, and The Color Out Of Space). Combined with a renewed appreciation for John Carpenter's work (especially the Apocalypse Trilogy--The Thing, Prince of Darkness, In the Mouth of Madness), I wondered what would the world look like if the monsters and horrors from these stories actually succeeded in conquering or destroying Earth.
However, I didn't want to make typical Lovecraftian monsters the sole threat. Monsters alone can be slain, even when they're huge, formless, and multi-tentacled. The real threat of these things (and the idea that I find most compelling) is that something can exist that extends beyond our own three-dimensional space, and thus we can't even perceive their whole forms or comprehend them. That is a concept Lovecraft explored in his own way. For me though, the monsters are at their scariest when they're invisible, can appear or disappear at any time, and their mere presence disrupts reality in ways we can't understand. Thus, the focus for Heathen is on reality changing, shifting, and our world becoming a hodgepodge of other realities (actually, this is probably something inspired by reading several PKD books). Earth becomes an unrecognizable wasteland full of ruins, dangerous creatures, and physical impossibilities. Above it all is a race of 11th-dimensional beings that casually crush and disrupt our world without a care for humanity.
Look, It's Rook In A Book
In the midst of this world, the titular Heathen character is molded after many of my favorite anti-heroes--guys like Mad Max, Ashley Williams (of the Evil Dead films), Kenshiro (Fist of the North Star), Guts (Berserk), and Roland (Stephen King's The Dark Tower). The common tropes I see with all these characters is that they're macho loners who fight monsters and other forms of evil, and often times straddle lines of insanity. Insanity, in turn, is a common element in Lovecraft stories, and that's probably where I found a connection. My character is a lone drifter and a tough survivalist like these dudes, who also fights monsters and deranged cultists.
The big twist is that the Heathen is in his element in his world because he is insane--what drives a normal person crazy will no longer affect him, and normal things will seem abnormal to him. There will be times in the text where this is emphasized with a recurring pattern of lines--in the old drafts I have, they read line this:
They
could not break him--he was already broken.
He could not be driven mad--he was already insane.
This ultimately means that the book may take on a more deconstructionist tone, almost to the point of satirizing cosmic horror cliches (the drafted chapters I have feature the character taking out a stereotypical Lovecraftian monster--a big tentacled thing a bunch of cultists worshiped as a god--like it's just another Tuesday). While this may give the book an edgy, somewhat funny voice, there may be a challenge in underscoring what there actually is to the scared about when the main character is not scared of anything. Fortunately, this is where I see the reality-bending effects becoming more important--the character will be pushed to the limits even further, and it could be rather harrowing. Juggling the tone may be something I have to sort out in the editing though.
The main character is called Rook throughout the story. It's a shortened version of Rukenada--an extraterrestrial name given to him by one of the alien beings he encountered, and he truncated it in defiance (this word was also derived from a Scrabble game once, and I had used it to name a World of Warcraft character for a while--it was fun). The guy's real name is something more unassuming though--Trey Smith. There's a whole backstory behind the character and his identity, and it's one of the things I felt came together rather nicely. The title of Heathen came out later on--I always felt it would make for an interesting title for a book and a person, but I realize it fits this character for two reasons:
- In a world full of cults worshiping monsters and false religions, Rook is a man who sees through them and defies their beliefs. To them, he is a literal heathen.
- Thematically, Rook is also a character who's stuck in the old ways and doesn't change to the altering realities around him.
In The Plots Of Madness
Up till now, I tend to be a pantser. In writer's jargon, that means I just make stuff up as I go and don't bother planning anything (going by the seat of one's pants). Unfortunately, this has probably hurt my projects more than it helped--I have many manuscripts stuck as unfocused, sloppy messes in dire need of rewrites and re-planning. This extends to my last NaNo project, which had just a faint outline, but came out rather flaky regardless because not enough thought was put into the worldbuilding, side characters, and plot structure.
Heathen promises to be a more satisfying prospect for me because I have a plot structure mapped out, complete with well-defined acts, specific turning points, important reveals, stakes, and above all, reasons that go into the characters and their decisions. It's probably the most concrete plot structure I've committed to paper, and it's helped me realize the usefulness and importance of plotting. There are connections and motivations revealed that I couldn't have come up with by merely pantsing through it--I feel that the work will be all the stronger for it.
 |
| Spoiler-free, the shape of a heathen's journey. |
I find myself more excited for this book because it still adheres to a formula I like--it's still a type of adventure story, where multiple characters band together and they embark on a journey, where they have unique encounters (which can be wonderful or terrible--since there's a horror slant on this, there might be more of the latter) and a lot of peril.
Soundtrack for Desolation
Music is probably the biggest thing that inspires and gets me excited for my own stories. Naturally, I assembled a playlist for Heathen based on the mood, style, and ideas I knew I wanted the book to embody. It consists mostly of dark ambient electronica, soundtrack music, industrial, and maybe a hint of synthwave. It can be heard on Amazon.
I've pulled from a few artists I know and love--most especially Trent Reznor (NIN and HTDA, some soundtrack stuff), Atticus Ross, Massive Attack (especially the Ritual Spirit EP), John Carpenter (mostly the Lost Themes albums), Moby, Photek, Orbital, lvl, Comaduster, Vessel, Portishead, Collide, and some other groups that are new to me. Soundtracks for films like Mandy, Book of Eli, Revenge, and Blade Runner 2049 have been very helpful in striking a dark, otherwordly mood. The Annihilation score (especially "The Alien" track) probably unsettled me the most and has been the biggest inspiration behind envisioning the book's monsters.
If the book could have a theme song, it'd be a tough choice between NIN's "Into the Void," (which as always been a favorite of mine--probably more because of the catchy hooks), Twenty-One Pilots' "Heathens," (which, once again, is just catchy, but the lyrics seem more fitting to represent the characters and their journey), or Mike Shinoda's "Nothing Makes Sense Anymore" (which I'm sure was written to describe Mike's turbulent emotions following Chester Bennington's passing, but to me the lyrics invoke the sense of a changing world, and thus seems to resonate with the themes I have in mind).
I did slap together a playlist based on Rook's character as well, which consists of metal (more NIN, but also Linkin Park, Fear Factory, Static-X, Rob Zombie, Zilch, and the like). It's mostly just for fun, but there is an uplifting feeling it invokes at times that I hope to match in the story's trajectory (especially in light of the theme of optimistic nihilism, or the idea of finding one's own purpose in life when life offers none).
Slipping Away
Starting April 1st, I will put forth the effort to nail a first draft down for this story. It would be my fourth attempt to do so, but what's different now is that I have a plan and a lot more concrete ideas. I still need to do some brainstorming behind the side characters, the events of the second act, and certain aspects of the worldbuilding. These are things that could either cause a block later, or just be fudged through in my usual style of pantsing.
It feels mostly realized in my head though. When listening to the book's playlist, reading certain stories in the genre, or watching select movies, I am reminded of the bleak visions I have and the manic characters populating a broken world. There will be dark and scary things in it, and there will be moments where things happen that make no sense. But I hope that readers will be able to root for the heroes and follow them to an uplifting conclusion. I have no idea how long the editing process could take after April, but with everything I've learned over the past five years, I expect it may go smoother than my older works. I hope that by this time next year I'll have a finished product to show off and be proud of--one that may be the start of my own brand of surreal fantasy and adventure.
No comments:
Post a Comment