Control: Art and the Madness of Writing It

I, Dalton Lewis, am starting to write a new novel, something different — a fantasy epic that mixes traditional fantasy tropes with high art and literature. I need any advice that people can give on how to write a better quality of book. I want to surprise and entertain people and annihilate their minds with my words — and ideas, not words. I know that many writers work like crazy and never make it. I don’t want to be one of those people. Stephen King wrote a masterpiece named Carrie and almost threw it out before his wife told him to continue to write it. Why can’t the rest of us write a scary story that reflects so much about what is wrong with life? That story showed how terrible people can be and how some unpopular kids can react to being bullied. I need to tap into reality like that. I have nice people doing nice things. That doesn’t work — I need to show how terrible people can be.

The art of writing can be crushingly difficult to master. Millions try to write and fail. A couple dozen writers succeed beyond realistic expectation. The rest of us die slowly, hating that we can’t move people with our words. I can write novels that I pour my heart, soul, and being into, and I can watch no one bother to read them. I tried to write a slasher horror novel about how wrong the world of suburban Chicago is. I wrote a story about people I loved and cared for. I had a wonderful, unique writer murdered in the first scene — after she wrote a remarkable and totally forgotten novel. Why? Why doesn’t anyone read my books? Why do I suck so badly at writing? It seems like total unbelievable bullshit. I threw the last twenty years into writing art, real art, art that shows how stupid and fucked up the world is, and the world has screamed that it doesn’t fucking care.

The characters in Impressions of Suburbia lived their lives to the fullest and included teenagers and adults, attractive and ugly, and all manner of race, gender, and sexual preference. A mystery added intrigue and suspense — who would turn out to have killed these wonderful people? I answered it with a surprising and inevitable twist that I thought would entertain almost anyone.

Why? Why do most people fail? I almost don’t want to succeed because I don’t like the top one percent very much. They seem like whiny brats who get everything while the rest of us languish in perpetual blandness, unable to find anything extraordinary in our middling existences.

Why did I write eight books or so? I have written eight books or so in order to express myself to the world around me. I don’t know why I did so. I just wanted to show a little bit of myself to the world. I know that I am not big on communicating in the real world very much so this is my way of expressing myself to everyone in the world. I play strategy games and video games. I write. I read. I watch movies. I don’t do anything else with my life. I don’t have a job. I have my writing. I need to do something with this to make my life have some sort of meaning.

I don’t know why other people’s work is considered art while mine is considered fluff or pulp or something. I need to elevate what I write. We will see if I succeed.

I have a number of writing projects that I am considering. I want to write a fantasy series showing the breadth of the fantasy experience. Another project is a middle school novel about religion. Also in consideration is a sci-fi project without a lot of fighting. Also I could rewrite any of a number of my old novels and re-release them. I am considering all of these.

Thanks, and take care, friends.