On Writing

There is a maxim by Francis Bacon that goes like this.

"Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man."

By the way, this is second-hand information from a book I was reading this morning.

For me, while I have read books and exchanged opinions with others before, the act of "writing" always felt like the most difficult of the three mentioned above.

Yet, lately, I have been more obsessed with writing than ever before. This is because, for about a month now, I have been uploading my own work to a certain ghost story submission site.

Ghost stories are stimulating content that allows you to experience terror through text alone.

Coupled with the recent ghost story and occult boom, the site is quite bustling. New works are being released at a pace of seven or eight or more per day.

But why did I start doing something like this?

Looking back, the trigger was a single book.

It was a book I found at a Book-Off in the Isezakicho shopping district in Kannai, Yokohama, titled "Don't Go There" (by Arano Inoue).

While browsing the paperback shelves, I felt a sense of destiny just from the title and description. Moreover, the content far exceeded my expectations.

I was completely conquered by this book.

The content consists of six short stories depicting people whose fates are twisted by inconvenient and merciless truths.

However, although I have read various horror stories since I was in elementary school, starting with "School Ghost Stories," none of the episodes in "Don't Go There" featured ghosts, murders, or even supernatural phenomena, yet they felt extremely terrifying.

It was as if I had discovered a new horizon.

At the same time, an urge welled up within me: "I want to create a world like this with my own writing!"

And so, I began to write.
When I get like this, I just have to take action.
It has always been the same whenever I have worked on music or art in the past.

Thus began a life of writing stories diligently every day, sometimes until 2:00 in the morning.

However, it wasn't just my lifestyle that changed.

First, everything I used to pass by without a second thought—the expressions and actions of people around me, the entire world—transformed into valuable material and ideas for writing stories. If you treat everything as a fountain of inspiration, you can't let your guard down about what kind of encounters you might have each day. It even helps kill time during work hours.

Next, the time I spend facing words and sentences has increased. What words to use, how to arrange them, whether it is difficult to read as a whole, how to express things so they are understood... there is no end to the obsession. Personally, I try to keep things simple. Also, I realize that reading is not just about following the text, but is filled with things to learn, such as word placement and sentence structure.

By starting to write, the world around me and even my daily life have changed.
To be precise, I have started to pay more attention and interest to them.

Perhaps Francis Bacon's words were not wrong.

Right now, I am occasionally uploading short stories of around 1,000 characters to the aforementioned ghost story submission site, but my current goal is to finish a story of about 20,000 to 30,000 characters within the next year. I have a concept.

Of course, I am aiming for the world of Areno Inoue.

Well then,

See you next time!