For Fellow Creatives

Constant, fast-paced action can be exciting in small doses. But eventually, it can become exhausting. If every scene is loud, urgent, dangerous, or dramatic, the reader never gets much time to process what is happening. Everything becomes important. And when everything is treated like the most important moment in the story, strangely enough, nothing feels quite as important anymore.

"Before Life Through the Eyes of a Wolf... Before The Werewolf of the Castle... Before A.T. Pike Studios... I was just a guy who wrote in his spare time. And really, I still am."

Without spoilers? Here is the current version: A cursed werewolf king, a human pacifist marked for sacrifice, and a holy monster hunter collide in a castle where death may be the easiest way out.* *Subject to change. Welcome to The Werewolf of the Castle ©, TM. 🐺🏰

...The Backstory: What Almost Stopped the Book From Happening When COVID hit and the lockdowns began in 2020, I very clearly remember thinking to myself: "If the world really is about to end, I should at least try to put my manuscript together." So I did.

...At its heart, the collection is about survival and reflection. It is about examining where we have been, recognizing who we have become, and continuing forward even when the path remains uncertain.

...The details of our lives may differ, but the emotions beneath them often connect us. Most people understand some form of love, loneliness, fear, loss, hope, regret, or perseverance. The wolf’s story may not be that different from our own...

For me, the goal is not only to write one story and stop. The goal is to keep building. To keep learning. To keep sharing. To keep reaching for something meaningful.

Those things are wonderful, of course. But that is not the only way writing lasts. Sometimes our writing outlives us because it helps someone. That is the heart of it for me. Write something that helps people. That help can take many forms.

The moment another person reads a story, even an unfinished one, it no longer exists only inside the writer's mind. Something changes. The characters are no longer imagined by one person alone. The world is no longer confined to a private document, a notebook, or a half-finished draft hidden away on a computer.

I've said this before, and I suspect I'll say it many more times throughout my writing journey: The goal is not perfection. The goal is progress.

[...] Make the audience feel something. Help them see something differently. Leave them with something worth carrying forward. For me, poetry is the most direct route to that destination. [...]

...We want readers to believe those worlds could exist. Sometimes, all it takes is the smell of damp stone, the flicker of a dying torch, or the worn grooves in a wooden floor to convince them.

This is one reason I enjoy writing darker fantasy. Darkness creates conflict, and conflict reveals character. [...] The darkness itself is not what interests me. The response to it is.

Take a peek into the psychology of fantasy writing