Benji Carr's Blog - Posts Tagged "fiction"
The impact of IMPACTED
It’s very, very odd that, if this goes well when IMPACTED releases in July, there are gonna be strangers who know my characters but don’t know me.
Like, people are gonna just have Wade Harrell in their head, making mistake on top of mistake, and I won’t be around to explain where he came from or what he’s about.
I love that idiot. In many ways, I AM that idiot. And no one is going to have me at their side to apologize for everything Wade does.
When I started this book nightly at a 24-hour Dunkin Donuts, I was writing it in cliffhanger chapters emailed to a handful of my friends. I wouldn't let them offer me comments or guidance until the whole thing was complete. I just asked them to tell me to keep going because, sometimes if you get criticism before you're ready, it can derail the entire process.
I didn't notice that people were actually into what I was doing until I was well into the writing. It was a fun way of creating, but I was still safe and among friends. And they could ask me why my characters acted in certain ways.
But, pretty soon, this book is going to belong to a lot of you. And my characters are going to have to fend for themselves, without me around to protect them.
It's a weird, exciting feeling.
Like, people are gonna just have Wade Harrell in their head, making mistake on top of mistake, and I won’t be around to explain where he came from or what he’s about.
I love that idiot. In many ways, I AM that idiot. And no one is going to have me at their side to apologize for everything Wade does.
When I started this book nightly at a 24-hour Dunkin Donuts, I was writing it in cliffhanger chapters emailed to a handful of my friends. I wouldn't let them offer me comments or guidance until the whole thing was complete. I just asked them to tell me to keep going because, sometimes if you get criticism before you're ready, it can derail the entire process.
I didn't notice that people were actually into what I was doing until I was well into the writing. It was a fun way of creating, but I was still safe and among friends. And they could ask me why my characters acted in certain ways.
But, pretty soon, this book is going to belong to a lot of you. And my characters are going to have to fend for themselves, without me around to protect them.
It's a weird, exciting feeling.
Impacted out now.
So this is the release week for my debut novel, and everything has been exciting and delightful. I really hope that people enjoy Impacted, though I understand that I've written a risky book about a difficult topic.
When you're writing on your own, with no idea that anyone will ever see it, you keep yourself on your toes by taking risks, making wild leaps, exploring truths that people don't often discuss.
Impacted helped me explore a lot of my own feelings. It helped me cope with a great deal and proved very cathartic.
At the same time, I tried to balance it out with a lot of tacky humor to keep things fun. Early readers responded to that. My publisher understood what I was going for, and he responded to it.
And so now the book is in the world. And I hope those who love it REALLY love it.
When you're writing on your own, with no idea that anyone will ever see it, you keep yourself on your toes by taking risks, making wild leaps, exploring truths that people don't often discuss.
Impacted helped me explore a lot of my own feelings. It helped me cope with a great deal and proved very cathartic.
At the same time, I tried to balance it out with a lot of tacky humor to keep things fun. Early readers responded to that. My publisher understood what I was going for, and he responded to it.
And so now the book is in the world. And I hope those who love it REALLY love it.
