“Not what I thought it would be. Must try harder. But I am happy with it. I’m always happy when I’ve finished a story.”

The above is my own critique of my first attempt at writing a monster story. Back on November 5th 2019 (https://johnrsermon.com/2019/11/05/some-kind-of-monster-this-monster-lives/), I blogged regarding how I was starting my story about a rampaging monster and a curious man looking to find out more about it. As the story progressed and ultimately finished, the monster itself was not harming anyone but trying to better those who it felt were doing the most harm amongst the human race (Abusive boyfriends, Fraudsters, etc.) There was one monster for each country on Earth and each went about trying to change the world by violence against material things only and making what it has deemed to be the eviler members of the human race face up to what they have done and change. The bigger the monster, the more hate in that country. The monster disappears once the evil is removed or at least made to retreat.

Now, this wasn’t my original plan for the story. I decided to start and see where the story would take me (#pantser #pansterforever #pantserandproud) and although I do like my story and wonder what it could have been. With the monster movies I’ve been influenced by having a lot of destruction and I do really like it when monsters fight monsters. Humans killing giants’ monsters seems a bit weird to me. But behemoths raging at each other is always something I sit up straight to watch on the big screen. And sit up straight to read about, really. Obviously, the remaining who knows how many re-drafts of the story can address this, but I can already see that it will be way different than my first draft.

Have you ever been in a situation where you’re writing a story and when you have finished, you immediately know that the first draft and the last will be many MANY miles apart? And possibly not even close to being related?

That’s how I’m feeling about my monster story. Sure, I am quite happy with it, but that’s what first drafts are for. I’m currently in the process of planning how I change things but keep the same themes. The monster was born from the negativity in the world. I think the other characters around the beast, the two people looking for more through curiosity and the women on a wild ride to try and kill the monster, will need to be fleshed out a bit. I feel like all I’ve done with the first draft is to draw an outline for them. The more drafts I do, the more detailed they will get. Hopefully. But, as I say, that’s what first are for. And I think I love them for it.

Hope you have a good day.