Foreword

The Arcane Diary has been a work in progress for nearly fifteen years, never mind how long.

That it is now getting the chance to see the light of day makes me very proud to reach this accomplishment of completing the process of bringing something original of my creation into the world in this way, but also ashamed of the delays of distraction and ineptitude.

When something is meant to happen, it happens, and this is happening now.

I intend to produce a piece of work that is dear to my heart in a way different than I have seen done before. My hope is that even if the process is not successful that it should at least be novel. Puns will be kept to a minimum. I promise.

One of the biggest obstacles to writing is nagging self-doubt

Will my work get finished? Will it be any good? Will anyone like it or care?

These are the first hurdles a writer must overcome before having the audacity to create something new in the world.

The desire for acceptance and the greed for acclaim is another huge problem that alters the purity of the creative process or stalls it completely. Once this can be put aside, the only resistance is the piece itself.

I have learned not to overthink this and to do it and see where the chips land. A total piece-of-shit flop of creation is still a creation that wouldn’t have existed if you had become stuck in your head.

The process is highly cathartic once it begins. The story inside you is burning to get out – dying to become borne into the world and be shared with others. The reader gives it a life entirely outside of what a writer can ever imagine.

To deny the creation the opportunity will seriously constipate the mind

I was told to write and to write raw.

That was great advice at first. Trying to piece together many of the pieces into a coherent work is a challenge in itself, leading to much rewriting and editing.

Letting it happen naturally is the way to start it. Please don’t concern yourself too much about the final form it will take; that will come much later. This was a big stumble for me writing The Arcane Diary, wondering how I would make it happen and whether it would be profitable even to do it.

The world that was when this story began taking shape no longer exists. This new world now is much more conducive for creating original work and sharing it with as many readers as possible.

I have set out to do so by publishing using the web as a medium for creating a dynamic – and evolving – piece of work through time. It has worked surprisingly well with the story, as you will see.