I guess I'll hang out here

I might post once in a while. I'm not sure. I've written a "book." It's almost done. Maybe I should say that I've almost written a "book." Well, actually, it's over 50k words so I can almost call it a "novel," right? Isn't 50k the threshold?

I've almost written a "novel."

It's an account of what I can remember from the last few years. It's written in first person. I tried third person but wrote myself into a corner after only three pages. I've let a few friends look at the manuscript and all they give me are compliments like, "I loved it!" Or, "I couldn't put it down!" I'd wish they'd stop with all their kind words. I need people to tell me how "that part sucks," or "this part sucks," or ask me, "Man, do you really think you should tell everybody about that? Are you nuts?"

I used to barely post that much on a different forum for a while. Everybody was way too nice to each other. Some lady posted some of her stuff in the critiques section. The reviewers gave her some kind words. I read it - the first nine pages was a detailed description of her walk down a snow covered driveway to pick up the mail. It started - like most novels - with a description of the weather. Five hundred words about the current barometric pressure and what she thought about the wind chill. I think it was chillier than usual - if I recall. Luckily, for my sake, last night I was able to destroy the brain cells that contain her story with some Jameson. Actually, the Bacardi wiped out most of it - the Jameson was only used for insurance purposes. Anyway, I quit reading after the first five pages when it became clear that the protagonist wasn't going to slip, fall, bleed-out, and die - like I'd been hoping.

Am I too edgy for you guys too?
Thanks for reading!

-stephen

Thanks everybody. I might actually post the first chapter as soon as I figure out what the genre is. I'm not claiming that I've written something so fantastic that I need my own genre, but it's certainly weird. Technically, it's a memoir, but it's really fiction, but not really. In that regard think Bukowski's 'Post Office.' I'm not comparing myself to Bukowski.

It's actually metafiction - it has all the symptoms. It's also loaded with black humor. Then there's the fantasy aspect, which are really daydreams. Some of the characters show up later in the un-reality of the book. One thing I know for sure - it's edgy & visceral. Maybe that's another thread, we'll call it "guess my genre."

Manix said:

Now you've piqued my curiosity. Is your memoir about living out your fantasies, or going postal? (maybe those two are one and the same?) Or you mean to say you quit your job before going postal? Is black humor also called "dark" humor, or did you have something else in mind?

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Thanks for the interest! Now I see that my attempts to clarify what my "book" is like have made it less clear.

I meant to say that Buk's stuff is presented as fiction but it's basically a memoir. My true story stuff is in there, but the reality and fantasy of the story, and that of the characters is severely blurry. A couple characters know that I've written about them, and in one case, something I wrote leads to his death, which I appropriately feel bad about. Dark humor is the right word. In another instance, a character informs another what I wrote and then I get into trouble again. Err, I mean the MC gets in trouble.

The whole thing confuses me too sometimes. I posted the 1st chapter in memoir SYW, if you wanna check it out.