A Well in the Flesh

A Well in the Flesh is now 5,000 words old and counting. I’ve been surprised how well its writing – being a 21st century story, and character (rather than plot) driven. For something that was initially just a diversion – a vehicle to flush my imagination clean (like lobular irrigation) – it’s entertained me considerably over the last couple of days and evenings. So much so, that I think it’s become more than just a diversion.

That wasn’t planned.

A Well in the Flesh came from a single image which was quite graphic. Without giving too much away from the story, the image was of a tidal wave of flesh, pink like scar-tissue, rolling down the high-street of a Peak District village - quite like Castleton - the flesh folding around grey-stone walls, feeling its way between iron railings and breaking through windows to pour into living-rooms and shops. And there was a sound – of distress, not from the people fleeing from its merciless advance, but from the Flesh itself…
…I’ll stop there, because my rule of thumb is: if I explain too much, it looses its potency – I loose the will to continue writing the story (because it’s already been told).

This Peak-horror novella shouldn’t be too long – perhaps 30,000 words (a mere drop compared to The Secret of Mhorrer’s 160,000 words). I didn’t want a mammoth project – I have too many of them as it is – and I didn’t embark on this with a view to publication. Though I might – just might, mind – seek an independent publisher if I think the novella is any good. Hence why it hasn’t gone up on the website yet.

Like I said, A Well in the Flesh is lobular irrigation, and I’m just content to write this little horror down for now. To see if I can shed some conventions that have bound me during the writing of both The Secret War and The Secret of Mhorrer – which are perhaps the most mainstream stories I’ve ever written.

I’m not sure what my audience is with A Well in the Flesh, perhaps at the end it might just be me – perhaps friends or family.

But if it works out, it might grow beyond that…

…Like the Flesh itself.