Ryan Day's Blog - Posts Tagged "ryan-day"
Heart-Shaped Holes - An Introduction
I started writing Heart-Shaped Holes a few days after my nineteenth birthday (this is where I point out I hate admitting my age in case it damages people’s perceptions of my work). I was kicked out of school at sixteen, but it never bothered me because I always knew that I was going to make a living telling stories, yet three years down the line everyone around me was moving on with their lives while I was moving in circles. That birthday was a wake-up call telling me I had to start working hard on my writing if I was ever going to live up to my own expectations. The three months that followed is still a blur to me. The next time I remember taking a breath was when I put down the final word of the first draft.
I always thought I would be a horror writer, and I suppose that’s how people would define Heart-Shaped Holes. But it’s not the horror of monsters and nightmares, rather the horror of looking in the mirror and realising you’re not the person you always thought you would be. It’s something everybody has felt at some point in their life, and that is what makes it scary. Because you don’t have to use your imagination.
I’m somewhat reluctant to admit that the easiest part of writing this story was getting into the head of the protagonist, simply because he’s me. He’s me if I was ten years older and wanted to be an actor. He’s me in ten years if this writing gig doesn’t work out. So I suppose that’s the reason I chose to write this story, it was an opportunity to confront my atychiphobia and self-destructive narcissism while also seeing if I had what it took to write something longer than twenty pages.
So that’s the story of my first book, which sat in my computer gathering virtual dust for two years until a close friend suggested I try self-publishing online. Since then I’ve self-released another e-book, a short story titled Impossibly Happy. I have no idea what will come next - I have another novel gathering virtual dust and several other projects on the go - but my guess is although this is the first time you’ve heard of me it certainly won’t be the last.
I always thought I would be a horror writer, and I suppose that’s how people would define Heart-Shaped Holes. But it’s not the horror of monsters and nightmares, rather the horror of looking in the mirror and realising you’re not the person you always thought you would be. It’s something everybody has felt at some point in their life, and that is what makes it scary. Because you don’t have to use your imagination.
I’m somewhat reluctant to admit that the easiest part of writing this story was getting into the head of the protagonist, simply because he’s me. He’s me if I was ten years older and wanted to be an actor. He’s me in ten years if this writing gig doesn’t work out. So I suppose that’s the reason I chose to write this story, it was an opportunity to confront my atychiphobia and self-destructive narcissism while also seeing if I had what it took to write something longer than twenty pages.
So that’s the story of my first book, which sat in my computer gathering virtual dust for two years until a close friend suggested I try self-publishing online. Since then I’ve self-released another e-book, a short story titled Impossibly Happy. I have no idea what will come next - I have another novel gathering virtual dust and several other projects on the go - but my guess is although this is the first time you’ve heard of me it certainly won’t be the last.
