The birth of a creepy monster

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I came to a spot in book 3 from the Monsters and Demons series. There is supposed to be a monster in this one arc which will last a few chapters, but compared to a different arc happening at the same time, the monster was lackluster. This was bad, because the lackluster monster was terrorizing the main character.


I put the whole book on hold for a couple of weeks while I racked my brain for something suitable. At first I didn't even know the monster was the problem. I thought I'd hit a wall in the story and I wasn't sure how to proceed. I cut the scene where I wasn't sure what to do, but when that happened, the arc became disjointed.


One night, while I was staring at the ceiling and trying to fall asleep, this ugly face appeared in my head. It wasn't just an ugly face, but it had a body and certain kind of clothes. It even had a hat. It was grinning at me from some place. I was so creeped out, I shoved it out of my head and forced myself to go to sleep.

When I was in a brainstorming session, struggling to rip a good scene from my sleepy brain, I realized the monster was the problem. Then I remembered the face. And then I realized, "That's my monster!"


It's a different sort of monster from all the others in the story. It's reasons for being are very different from all of them. It has a fairly simple motivation, but a gruesome one nonetheless. What's most important is that my heart started beating again with the joys of creativity, because it had felt quite dead and none of the ideas I'd come up with could bring it back to life.

While I wrote this, I realized where the creature had been standing in the image in my head: The setting where the arc is taking place. Now I'm plotting out that arc. It's freakishly fun.

Now remember, Monsters and Demons: Nri Kryne is available for pickup over at Amazon world wide.




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