Hypothetiverse Fiction

Over the space of the last days, I've gone on a bit of an adventure with my writing. I started a novella on Thursday at about three in the afternoon. I knew it was a novella as I started to write it. It felt like a novella. I wrote a bit over four thousand words that day. I picked it up again early on Friday morning, the same novella, the same feel to it, and got nine thousand words done. Yesterday, I got another four thousand or so words done, before and after work and Doctor Who (side note: that episode was AMAZING!). I might have gotten more done, but there was a particular situation that required my full and immediate attention. I don't regret it.

I finished the book this morning, with another two thousand words added on. The total, by my word processor's count, is 20436 words. And I thought, Wow, I wrote a book in less than 72 hours. Okay, it was a short book, but it's a book nonetheless.

The cover has since been designed, and the files uploaded to Createspace.com. I have a coupon to get a free proof copy of my NaNoWriMo novel, but I'm using it for this instead. There will be one copy of this book, and that is it. I have one person in my target market, and he's been told this. Before I do anything with this book from here on, I have to know he's okay with it.

Why only one person? It's Hypothetiverse Fiction. This is the term I'm using to describe the story; it's narration that follows an idea of looking in the hypothetical future of an event that itself may be hypothetical. The book is something of a bildungsroman, but not always entirely personal. Much of the other person's life is discussed, and details are assumed where the truth isn't known. Names are changed, some facts are hidden, but ultimately the story comes down to a few things from real life that haven't changed.

For a start, one of the characters shares the same traits of crazy as I do, while another shares some of the general traits of the other person. How I feel about him and how it is sometimes, wrongly assumed he feels about me are discussed in the book. The consequences of an unexplained event make up the plot of the book; neither of the characters are safe from suffering as a result of it, but neither are pushed over the limit. Okay, one might appear to be...

To make things interesting, I've toyed with time a bit. There are three dates in the book, but the narration doesn't follow them linearly. It starts on the last day, moves to the first, visits the middel day, but doesn't only visit them once. Only the third of the mentioned days is there once, but from the perspectives of two characters. I jump from character to character, place to place, examining emotions and thoughts and this big, secret history from the first day to the last, a whole life before it, and the pains that result from the big event on the last day. At the risk of sounding like a pompous, self-obsessed, egotistical maniac, this book is very interesting. A little bit maddening, but very interesting.

So, four days of hypothetiverse. You'd think I'd be tired. Okay, I am, but not because of this. It fascinates me, enthralls me, entertains me, teaches me; I can't get enough of it, and I'm going to write more. I have two ideas for similar books, books that I don't know what they'll be like. One examines the very strange idea of love, while another is an exploration into religion, death and second and subsequent chances. Then there are a couple of other ideas I have, one which tries to put words to a night out I have only heard about, but that i wasn't present for, while another goes on a completely different route: it's a YA Fantasy. Say what?

So, summer is here for another ten weeks or so, for me. I wonder how many first drafts can get written between now and then while I continue to live my life as I had been doing (though with significantly less time spent on Facebook...)