Introduction to: The Haunting of Romney Wood

The serials project.  Ten to twelve thousand words a month, without an outline or any focused idea on the plot.  The goal is to get into the habit of writing the long form, but it’s also something of an experiment.  I’ve long believed in “organic writing.”  That is – writing comes from some untapped and uncontrollable part of the brain.  You are born with it, you are compelled to do it, and the only way to be a successful professional is to combine the writing demon with a mind capable of understanding the fundamentals of business and marketing.

This is not about being professional, though.  This is GS.  I’m just fucking around.

I approach each project with a title and the names of four chapters.  Each chapter must stop at the 3000 word mark, no matter what.  So the challenge is to go with the freeform writing style, but then not get lost in tangents.  Everything has to wrap up by the end of the act.

So far, it’s been a thrill to sit down and let the story go the way it wants to.  Though as far as readability… I don’t know. There can be some bumpy roads at times.

All that said, “The Haunting of Romney Wood” is an old idea.  After The Blair Witch Project, I found myself thinking – what if those fucking kids had manned up?  Burned down the witch house, stalked the woods with a shotgun, burned the weirdo grotto… What if the kids freaked out and caught the witch – or whatever – off guard?

The seed of that story is something I’ve written before, and it morphed into my lousy novel which I was serializing on Fridays before I got lazy.  So I sat down to copy that, and then found myself taken by the idea of the witch.  What the hell was her problem?

If you have any brains, then you’re not religious.  Religion, in my opinion, is some weird Neolithic holdover. At this point in our evolution, it’s pure fantasy.

It’s that lack of belief which also causes me problems with horror movies.  One has to believe in absolute good and absolute evil to really fly with a horror movie. Those supernatural slashers – Jason, Freddy, Michael – started out as people.  People with choices who faced consequences, who suffered. Why do they mindlessly stalk us? What’s the motivation?

Of course, taking the viewpoint of the monster is as old as the hills.  But, again, this is GS.  I can do what I want.  “The Haunting of Romney Wood” begins with a version of an old West Virginia ghost story, and then I found myself spending some time with the witch.

Next week – do the hills really have eyes?