Of all the things that might have developed from writing a book, I never imagined that I'd break my keyboard in doing so.
When I was young, I used to write poetry. Lovie-dovie whims
of a reclusive teenager scrawled into a notepad with a certain inner
satisfaction for it all. The length of which was no more than twenty lines a
pop.
Transitioning
into stories took a good decade. I always found it too hard to write for long
periods of time due to my hands getting tired from gripping the pencil too hard.
- A bad incident with a kitchen stove when I was eight. My first laptop changed
all that. Within six months I had written fifty thousand words. The flow came
to me after I realized that all that had been holding me back was the
limitations of my fingers. It's from there that things became different. A
grotesque urge to write filled my being, and the words poured as liquid iron
from my mind, cast into beauty before my eyes.
The next year
saw the creation of my first published novel, Demon Vampire. A story that had
originally been slatted for about 120,000 words. - That goal however was a
damning one.
Six months
came to pass and I was well over my mark. I was less than halfway through with
the plot and more words kept flowing. I found it hard to limit my output. I've
heard well of writers having difficulty continuing their novels, but I had come
to let my story walk itself instead. This is how I broke my keyboard in this
process.
1.7 million
keystrokes was the magic number at the time that two of the keys fell off. The
right shift key and the enter tab popped off half way. I found it morbidly
funny that I killed my keyboard by repetitively pressing and lifting my fingers
against it. Exactly what it was designed to have done to it.
242,000+ words rounded out Demon Vampire. It was entirely due to my character dialogue. All of them had a lot to say. Other authors might force plot on their novels, pushing and bending the characters to fit a scenario. I do the opposite. I create my characters in a way that lets them react to a situation I provide. In that way, I only instigate a scene and let my creations play it out. In that it would be fair to say that I let my masterpiece runaway with itself a bit. Through that choice, my actions killed my keyboard and landed my writing permanently in the epic category.
242,000+ words rounded out Demon Vampire. It was entirely due to my character dialogue. All of them had a lot to say. Other authors might force plot on their novels, pushing and bending the characters to fit a scenario. I do the opposite. I create my characters in a way that lets them react to a situation I provide. In that way, I only instigate a scene and let my creations play it out. In that it would be fair to say that I let my masterpiece runaway with itself a bit. Through that choice, my actions killed my keyboard and landed my writing permanently in the epic category.
Virgil Allen Moore
http://demonvampire.com
http://www.facebook.com/virgilallenmoore
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0062F60O2
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5231992.Virgil_Allen_Moore
https://twitter.com/#!/demongift/
https://twitter.com/#!/Demon_Vampire
https://twitter.com/#!/Virgil_A_Moore
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