Keith Blenman
My upcoming novel, Necromantica, actually started with a text message. I have a muse, my very lovely girlfriend. She's into fantasy, Drizzt, Salvatore, and that general type of world. Anyway, one night I couldn't sleep and she sent me a text to try and think of a story about her and I storming a castle. You know, slip away into fantasy and end up having some really bad ass dream. Well I didn't sleep at all that night, but instead came up with an idea for a quick story that I could text back to her. I started typing the message and decided it was far too much to put into my phone (a crappy old flip phone with a keyboard you practically needed a magnifying glass to see). So I started to write it as an email, thinking it'd be a good three or four page story I could entertain her with. Then after writing three or four pages I realized what I had was probably a bit more than I'd intended.
The first draft consisted of four or five emails written over two weeks, totaling sixteen pages. I hadn't put too much thought into it as I was writing them (I really just wanted to entertain my muse) but when it was finished I caught myself still pondering the story and developing the characters (at the time they were simply named "You" and "I."). So I started writing little flashbacks that took place between each of the emails and pretty soon I had a thirty something page novella. So I showed that story to a few friends and asked if it was worth continuing. I got some good feedback and well... three years later I'm ready to publish my little text message story as a fifty thousand word novel. All of that said, I suppose the short answer is, "A pretty girl texted me an idea and I really, really wanted to make out with her."
The first draft consisted of four or five emails written over two weeks, totaling sixteen pages. I hadn't put too much thought into it as I was writing them (I really just wanted to entertain my muse) but when it was finished I caught myself still pondering the story and developing the characters (at the time they were simply named "You" and "I."). So I started writing little flashbacks that took place between each of the emails and pretty soon I had a thirty something page novella. So I showed that story to a few friends and asked if it was worth continuing. I got some good feedback and well... three years later I'm ready to publish my little text message story as a fifty thousand word novel. All of that said, I suppose the short answer is, "A pretty girl texted me an idea and I really, really wanted to make out with her."
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