Hey, friends!

I hope you're having a great week and getting better for an even better weekend. The sun is shining here in Japan and we're at that wonderful time of year where the flowers are out and we don't need to use either the AC or the heating (just a few months a year but the planet and electricity bills are thankful).

Here are a few things I've been up to this week and links to this week's This Is Horror articles below.

What I'm Writing

In the summer of 2022 my life was drastically different. I was in the middle of the toughest period of my adult life. One of my few constants was my writing. I started two novels, a dark comedy which I'll soon be shopping around, and a a dark thriller. The former was my light relief and was a break from the chaos of my personal life, the latter I channeled all my anger into. The dark comedy took over and I left the dark thriller for another day.

A few weeks ago, I began working on the dark thriller again. Now almost two years later I am in a dramatically different and thankfully happier mindset. I see several flaws with the 60,000+ words dark thriller and have begun addressing them. Here are a few of the flaws and how I addressed them:

• The protagonist was too angry and down on the world to be sympathetic but not angry or crazy enough to be engaging in a Patrick Bateman "we love to hate him" way—either double down or dial it back.
• Too many secondary storylines and deviations that don't ultimately serve the story as a whole.—Choose the secondary storylines that really matter, make sure they serve and tie into the main storyline. Cut those that don't.
• The story is written in the present tense but may benefit from being written in the past tense.

Fast-forward to today and I have a brand new chapter-by-chapter plan for this novel. I'm writing it again from scratch. I don't see this as 60,000 words wasted but rather the process that was necessary for this particular story. I'm also in a completely different mindset than I was two years ago. This is the story I can write today. If I had finished it two years ago perhaps it would already be out in the world and in a different shape but it isn't, so this is how it goes.

Don't be afraid to return to a story and excavate what works from it and abandon what does not. Don't be afraid to be ruthlessly critical with your work and play the editor. And remember if Josh Malerman could rewrite Malorie from scratch and start again, then you can start again, too. Any time writing is never time wasted, it's time developing, it's time getting better, and it's time well spent.

What I'm Watching

After watching the disturbing, at times darkly comic, and always excellent Baby Reindeer, I am now watching Ripley. It is a very different mode of storytelling and some of the slow burn brings to mind David Fincher's The Killer but it is no less excellent than Baby Reindeer. I am on a great run in terms of TV shows: The Gentlemen, Baby Reindeer, and now Ripley. What a time for television shows!

Who I've Spoken to on This Is Horror Podcast

As of yesterday, Bob Pastorella and I spoke with Chris Panatier, the author of the recently released The Redemption of Morgan Bright. We spent a lot of time finding out about Chris's early life lessons and origin as a writer. We could have gone a little deeper into the book itself but the two hours always fly by when we're having a good conversation. Suffice it to say, I strongly recommend The Redemption of Morgan Bright. For fans of Shirley Jackson and Charlotte Perkins-Gilman.

Look out for that interview. And in the more immediate future, parts 2 and 3 with Adam Nevill will land soon.

Well, that about does it for another week. Don't forget to check out what’s been going on in This Is Horror world below.

​If you want to see other newsletters I recommend then you can follow this link. ​

But until next time, have a great day, friends.

Michael David Wilson

P.S. If you like this newsletter and want to support my work and This Is Horror, please become a This Is Horror Podcast patron. It would make me happy but only do it if it will make you happy, too. ​

P.P.S. If you’re ready to take your writing to the next level with some professional editing or a writing consultation, you can find out about my rates here and reply to this email. ​

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