The Boy Next Door - Story Notes

so, as promised in part #2, I'm going to use this blog as a bit of window to my creative (I use this term loosely) world, attempting to deliver a bit of analysis and insight into each of my previously-written stories.

then, of course, if I ever get off my arse and begin writing regularly again, I'll be able to deliver a bit of insight into particular stories/chapters as I'm in the process of writing them?

sounds great, right?

well, I'll let you be the judge of that.

anyway, where do I even start with The Boy Next Door?


The Boy Next Door was a one-shot short story, published on gayauthors.org in early September 2009. based around a real-life personal trauma, it was the story of an old lady and her next-door neighbour, charting the significant moments of a boy's childhood through his interactions with the old lady.

in terms of inspiration, it was very much based around the relationship between myself and my adopted grandmother, with the story's climactic scene occuring in real-life approximately 72 hours before I started writing. in a way, I think the entire story was an emotional release stemming from that incident.

in terms of plot, it's probably 90% based in fiction, with most of the real-world inspiration relating to Connor's character attributes and not the plot itself. I think it's fair to say that Connor is loosely based on myself.


Some interesting facts about The Boy Next Door:

- unlike my previous attempts at writing fiction to that point, The Boy Next Door was put together in chronological order, with scenes being literally written in the order that they appeared on the page.

- The Boy Next Door symbolised the first time that I'd ever included a small child in any of my stories. being the youngest of two kids, I don't have any experience with younger siblings to draw inspiration from, but I was really happy with how 'young Connor's character came across. ironically, I actually think the scenes with 'young Connor' are the strongest of the entire story.

- The Boy Next Door was written very quickly, with the entire 7,800 words coming together in a little under 18 hours. if you take out meal breaks, sleep, etc, the actual writing time is probably something like 8-10 hours. to give you a comparison, I can spend anything up to 50 hours writing and refining a chapter of The Things You Fear The Most.

- The Boy Next Door is the first story of mine that I ever allowed my mother to read, and most likely the last. it wasn't that her reaction was negative, it was just... she didn't really have a reaction, at all. maybe she didn't even read it. either way, after I handed her a paper copy, she never spoke of it again.


on a final note, I thought I'd include this passage from a forum post that I wrote at the time of the story, explaining the simplicity of the writing process:

"None of it was intentional. I basically sat down at the start of the story, and decided to just write. Whatever came out, I promised myself that I'd post it. Happy, sad, depressing, whatever. I think that's a large part of the story's success, actually. There's none of the bells and whistles I usually impart, none of my 'here, look at this flashy trick!' style, it's just... words. Lots and lots of words. No mish-mash of POVs, no 'I've edited this to within an inch of its life' structure, just... words.

Organic, almost."


as you'll find out further into this blog, the writing process would never again be that simple.

Peace