Warning: Distressing content ahead. If you are triggered by mental illness topics, horror, etc., use caution when proceeding.
Every writer has a beginning to what made them write and become an author. Whatever that reason was, good or bad, a story was born. Authors want to share their stories with the world and give a glimpse into their lives. However, this could lead some authors into remembering some traumatic events they may have lived through, and this isn't an easy task. Sometimes, writers have to take a step back and regroup, and come back to their work-in-progress when they are ready. Below is my story, and I hope you enjoy it.
The Beginning
Many years ago when I was a freshman in high school, my English teacher at the time made the class write a fictional story. I wasn't exactly good at making up stories like uplifting fictional stories or other genres. One genre I was good at was horror/paranormal works. I never shared them at the time because they were a bit grim. I made a gamble and decided to write one of my stories for the assignment.
The memories are a bit fuzzy, but the gist of the story I wrote was a girl in high school who was in communication with her best friend's spirit after she died. What the girl found out, through the spirit was she was murdered by someone. The ending of that particular story was the spirit wailing to her friend to help find her murderer. I remember I left it as a cliffhanger.
A couple of days later the teacher called each student up to his desk to talk about their story. He would talk about some improvements he recommended and their influence behind the stories. He called my name and I walked to his desk. Needless to say, he was a bit surprised by the story. It wasn't perfect, by any means. I mean, I was a freshman for crying out loud. He gave suggestions on how I can improve my grammar, which wasn't too bad. I always had a problem with commas (still have a slight issue today, but that is for another post).
One thing the teacher told me was I had an interesting plot. He said it was incredibly descriptive, and wanted to know if I had more of the story. Of course I did, otherwise I wouldn't have left it with a cliffhanger. Over the year, he assigned this same assignment, and I continued my story of the girl and the vengeful spirit. On the third and final assignment, he did the same thing as before. He called the students up to his desk and they talked about the story and improvements. He called me up to his desk and sat there concerned. He asked me if I was OK. I remember when he asked that, and I told him I was fine. He asked if I was depressed or dealing with anything at home. I told him I was fine, and looked at him funny. Yes, I was dealing with depression at the time, but do you think I was going to tell him? Nope.
He said the stories felt too real, and it creeped him out. You see, here's the thing about that particular statement. My story did what it was supposed to do, and I was quite proud of it. Over the years after high school, I stopped writing. Back then, I didn't know the avenues to publish short works like there is today. So, all of my writings were lost to time, never to resurface again...until I had my son.
The Horror Idea
My son was a junior in high school, and he had to do a Halloween story. He brought me his laptop and wanted to know what I thought about it. I read it, and there were some improvements I recommended. Then, I got an idea. I told him to wait ten minutes, and I'll write something that could help him with his assignment. In about ten minutes, I rewrote his story using his elements and showed it to him. He did that spine-chilling movement he does when something creeps him out.
His story was about two guys going to a party, but they are followed by something. When they leave the party, the thing that was following them ended up being a grotesque being where its skin was falling off, and the thing ends up chasing the two guys. One of them trips and falls, and the thing ripped him apart, started eating him alive. The other guy runs away, only for the thing to catch him. In the final paragraph, I designed it where the guy was alive in the hospital, and his friend was there. He thought it was a dream. However, something grotesque starts happening to his friend, and he realized it was not a dream. Quite the story, isn't it? I will be posting the story in full in a near-future post.
After he went back to his room, I started to think about that little story. It was my son that helped me realize how creepy my writing can be, and how immersive the environment is. Soon, I started brainstorming a rudimentary outline of the Lucid Universe. The rest of it is history, and the Lucid Universe Series was born. I'll always be forever grateful to him and reviving my writings.
Is There More?
There's always more. As of yesterday, the first draft of "Nightmares of the Lucid Child" has been completed and going into edits. This book is due to be released by Halloween of this year. I also have several side projects that are in the works, including short stories linking back to the Lucid Universe. One story is going to be very surprising, and will be published on Kindle Vella.
As for the story that my son made, I will be publishing it here in a new post. I was very proud of him for coming up with that story, so stay tuned to that later today. If you want to support what we do, contributions are more than welcome, and don't forget to follow me here. I hope everyone has a great day, and stay tuned for more content! I'll cya soon!