I'm Writing My First Ever Novel

On my journey as a writer and starting Project Vampire Western

Yes, it is as the title says. I’ve officially begun working on my first ever novel which I have dubbed Project Vampire Western.

To be completely honest with you, I didn’t mean to start writing a book right now. I had plans. Plans to focus on my studies, start a YouTube channel, and work on a short story collection.

However, plans change when lightning in a bottle strikes.

So, how did I get here?

Well, since the Summer of 2024, I have dedicated myself to writing seriously. No more unfinished stories, fragmented scenes, characters in my head, and maladaptive daydreams. I was going to be a writer.

But I had no idea where to start. How could I ever expect to have my books out on shelves one day if all I ever had were snippets and my imagination? It was actually my amazingly supportive and wonderful partner (you’re the best!! <3) who gave me some great advice: start small.

That was when I wrote a 100 word story that began my journey:

Immolation

Her green eyes turned to poison, until even the heat of the flames could not match what corroded away at her heart.

He had no power over her, or anyone like her— not anymore.

Elysande slowly walked over to the man who purified her body through God’s touch. She clutched at her own, remembering that grace only too well.

“You…ungrateful…whore!” he spat out, coughing up ash in between his venom.

She trembled at first, wishing she had not fought back. But then, her palms turned upward with fire and she remembered…

“Only your immolation will cleanse you now.”

Then, I worked my way up. 200 words, 800, 1,600…up until my longest story to date, The Phantasmagoria of Victoria Grimmsworth, sitting at around 6,400. I’ve written 40 short stories in total. And they are far from perfect. But they’re complete and each one has taught me something different, something invaluable in its own way. In retrospect, I feel that I am reaping the rewards of what Ray Bradbury said about short stories.

“The best hygiene for beginning writers or intermediate writers is to write a hell of a lot of short stories. If you can write one short story a week—it doesn’t matter what the quality is to start, but at least you’re practicing, and at the end of the year you have 52 short stories, and I defy you to write 52 bad ones. Can’t be done. At the end of 30 weeks or 40 weeks or at the end of the year, all of a sudden a story will come that’s just wonderful” — Ray Bradbury

Following that advice has forever changed my relationship with writing. It is a craft I respect and care very deeply about, and I am even more dedicated to remain its humble student, to never stop learning, to never stop trying to string those perfect words together, even knowing I will always fall short of that bright horizon in the distance. Even if I never quite reach there, I’m going to damn well try.

If you were or are anything like me, then I cannot emphasize this enough: write short stories. Maybe not one every week, but as many as you can. I guarantee you will learn so much about the writing craft, about what makes a story, and most of all, about yourself as an artist with a unique voice.

Believe it or not, the gothic mistress you see before you used to dream about writing fairytale romances and being whisked away into magical lands. Those were the kinds of stories I retreated into when the real world was too much to bear. They were the kinds of stories I thought I wanted to write.

That was, until I actually started writing. What came out of me was a plethora of characters inhabiting dark worlds. Stricken with grief, with loss, clinging to love like it’s their last dying breath, and teetering on the edges of liminality. I surprised myself. Why did my imagination go there?

From a story about a disillusioned knight carrying guilt and grief over the loss of his sister, to a hunter being forced to cut into his wife’s womb for the sake of their daughter in a post apocalyptic world? These were certainly not the kind of stories I imagined myself writing.

But that’s the thing.

You don’t really know what stories are inside of you until you start writing the damn thing. Even the little ones matter.

All of my characters in the Evermorian Universe are parts of myself, parts of what I have observed in others, and emotions I had yet to name. I’m grateful for everything I have learned up to this point, for my supportive partner, and for my incredible critique group who have pushed me to be the best I can.

Now, two years later, I have an especially pesky story gnawing at me to be told…

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In its most simplest terms, Project Vampire Western is a story about two vampires joining together on a quest for revenge against their makers.

These vampires actually had their roots in a Vampire: The Masquerade game I was playing online with friends. I absolutely love TTRPGs, so I jumped at the chance to make some characters.

Eventually, when I started working on what I thought would only be a short story version, my main protagonist Dolores began to take on a life of her own. She immediately refused to do what I originally had in mind. So, I kept listening, and what began to take shape was a narrative about revenge, love, and the sacred cycles of life and death.

I’m doing my best to avoid telling you too much when ideas are still brewing in my head, when the entirety of the story has yet to be found. I know how it will begin and how it will end, but everything in between is up for debate, it’s whatever I excavate along the way. The characters still have a lot to tell me and I’m just along for the ride.

Through the course of a year, this story kept evolving and sticking to my mind like an invasive gnat, until recently, I finally got my draft to a place that felt like there was something more. I realized that I had a novel idea, one with legs, even if the beginning was still flawed, messy, and unfinished.

After that, something clicked. Everything unfurled before me in a way that was beyond my control. It took some going back and forth, but after learning from my mistakes, I set about doing this whole novel writing thing properly.

This past week has been a lot of me staying up way too late, being frustrated that I have homework to do instead, and trying to tame, to hone in, to methodically aim my lighting in a bottle. For the first time, I finally understand what it means to not be able to think about anything else. I’m sure there will be periods where I don’t work on it and where I want to rip my hair out from how frustrating it is, but it’s still worth doing, whether it becomes my debut novel or not.

I think part of the reason I was putting off doing this for so long was because I wanted to avoid the pitfalls I see so many writers fall into. They get so lost in the aesthetics, the concepts, and the tropes to the point that the actual writing becomes an inconvenience they have to get through.

Don’t get me wrong, you know I love a good aesthetic…

(case in point)

But it was not something I wanted to have happen again.

I’ve done it before.

I’ve let my idea die because I kept getting lost in what my book could be, trying to outline and force a story structure that just doesn’t want to be there, or at least, it wants to show up in its raw form instead. I’ve let myself be overwhelmed by the amount of research I had to do that it paralyzed me.

This time though, I’m going to work smarter, work harder, and just do the damn writing!

A concept and a vibe alone isn’t enough, at least not to me. It all means nothing at the end of the day if the writing itself isn’t achieving what it set out to do, if it isn’t proving itself through its craft.

Yes, I am very much excited to write about bloodsuckers, death magic, religious corruption, gunfights, and outlaws, but it’s not what I hope will make the story truly tick. I just want to satisfy Dolores’ need to be heard.

I look forward to the drafting process, but first…I need to get a foundation of solid research…

This book will be grounded in the history of New Mexico inspired by the deep ancestral roots on my mom’s side of the family. Of course, because this story has vampires and death magic, it will not be strictly historical.

If we’re looking at the spectrum, think somewhere in between Bridgerton and Downton Abbey. History will be playing a part in shaping the background.

This is the first step I want to take before revising and redrafting Chapter 1. I’ll also give you another clue without revealing too much. Dolores’ story begins in the Colonial Era, not the Old West. After I’ve got another solid draft of the first chapter, that’s when I will be deep diving into Old Western history.

In order to give you a bloody taste of what’s to come, here is the opening draft sequence that will set the tone for the rest of the novel:

The scent of wild roses hung heavy in the stifled air. As Dolores struggled to flutter her eyelids open, dim candlelight faintly illuminated the adobe walls. Fighting against the lethargy gripping into her very bones, she managed to crane her neck just enough to see the wooden crucifix hanging above.

She was in the church. But why?

A low, humming chant crept into her ears. Although she could not make out the exact words in her haze, that voice was unmistakable.

Fray Salvador…

I know it will need a lot more revisions, but I think it’s a solid start.

In my next update posts, I will be going more in depth over my research process, my notes, and my inspirations while walking you through my current Scrivener set up. (Thank you to my writing group for convincing me to start using it!! It is amazing, if you haven’t got it—then get it!!)

Now that I have realigned my priorities I will start posting updates for all my readers free and paid alike with snippets, behinds-the-scenes, and reflections so that you can all join me along this beautiful, bumpy road.

I’m doing this so that I can be brave enough to put my intention out there in the universe. I won’t lie, I am absolutely terrified of starting this project. For so long I envisioned it wasn’t my time yet, but my characters seem to disagree.

Let’s see where they will take us together.

Thank you <3

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If you enjoyed this update post, check out some of my next ones:

Researching Like a Writer