Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-30157838-20161007215711/@comment-30157838-20161014014305

Thank you so much for the in-depth details, I'll get to work on the grammar ASAP and (with permission, of course,) put it in the completed works for the collab.

As for your individual analyses:

Characters: Stephen King is certainly a large influence of mine when creating characters, since I enjoy the 'typical kid' archetypes. I think the horror hits a harder note when the ones affected by it are younger and unaccustomed as to what to stay away from and what not to. That being said, I also enjoy the other end of the spectrum and delving into the horrors of age and (of course,) the fear of death, as I tried to tackle in 'An Outlaw.' One of the projects I'm currently working on actually focuses on an older fellow, but I'm happy to hear that my child characters are good in this particular tale.

Mood/Atmosphere: I love Lovecraft to death, don't get me wrong, but I used to have a nasty habit of going too far with my details, and since then I've been actively trying to trim things down. I think I've hit a decent style as of late, but it used to be so bad that I would lay on paragraph after paragraph of meaningless pulp instead of actually sticking to the important bits. As for the 'childhood innocence' angle of things, I wanted it to capture some of the 'daily life' of the town instead of have the strangeness be an isolated incident. I like the idea of Hallowroots' (can't believe I got that wrong in the story, haha,) town being slightly...off, but not so much to the peoplem living there. To them, strange occurences like this are pure happenstance, it's only when viewing it from an outside perspective that things begin to appear off.

Setting: I appreciate the compliments regarding the first half, but I really wanted to comment on your analysis of the flesh tube. One of the reasons I have a fondness for Lovecraft's works is the idea of alien beings having an utter disregard for human life, a detatchment that we as people can't really understand. There have been plenty of horror stories that have malicious monsters, I think it's incredibly intriguing to focus on the monster not being hostile in the slightest, just sort of...there. In 'An Outlaw,' the stranger in the story regards a dying man in the desert as he would a random passerby, not treating the situation with any amount of emotion other than mild curiousity and perhaps sheer boredom. In 'The Children Found a Flower,' I wanted to make a point that the plant in the story was dormant and docile unless prodded or attacked. It has the potential to be a threatening force, but for the most part, it simply exists. I want to explore this further in my upcoming story, which for the most part takes place in an alien world, but I won't spoil any of that here.

Plot/Themes: I'm lumping these together because I really like the comparison you made about the tunnel and sex. I admit, I didn't go into the story actively trying to make that comparison, but I can see where you came up with it, and honestly, anything that makes my writing seem better than what I believe it to be is good in my book. I wrote it mainly after coming up with the idea of a lake monster of some kind, and after considering a typical mosntrous leviathan resting at the deepest point, I instead decided to have the monster be something a little...tighter, I suppose. More claustrophobic. Large monsters have their place, of course, but I became infatuated with the idea of a small paranormal 'rift' in the lake that happened to rest underneath this unassuming rope swing, something that the town residents would know about, but again, from an outside perspective everything seems gross and odd.

I hope that provided some form of insight as to how my typical thought process goes when writing these things, and I'm elated to have it almost in shape for the collaboration already. Sorry for the late reply, the last few days I've both been busy and thinking about what I wanted to say here, so thank you for your patience. As for the further in-depth analysis, I don't mind at all, but I recommend (since I really love how it's coming along so far,) waiting for my next story before considering anything larger. With any luck, it should be done by the end of next week or so, but since you said it'd be quite some time in the future, I don't see that being a problem.

As long as you don't claim credit and give me a name drop, you may use my works in any way you wish, for any future reference.