C.S. Lewis on his Narnia books:
“I’m afraid there will not be any more of them. You see, once a story stops telling itself to me inside my head–like a tap turned off–I can’t go on. And if I tried to, it would only sound forced. Anyway, seven is a good number.”
— C.S. Lewis, 1959
There’s a lesson there that applies even to copywriting:
Once a story is done, that’s it, shut up.
On the other hand:
I thought that was the case with my Enoch Wars novels.
Figured I’d write 7 and be done.
Then, out of the blue a couple years ago, I wrote an 8th novel and that is how the Omega Edition (all 7 plus the bonus 8th, along with appendices, a timeline, etc) came into being. And that 8th novel is the one I am by far the most proud of, with the others being something I enjoy but frequently wince at in a “dayem, what the hell madness was going on in my brain?” way, with the weird & deranged images my mind spewed out when writing them, as I get the audio book files (they are all being turned into audio books by a professional voiceover artist who I found amongst my Email Players of the horde — i.e., I always try to hire from within the fanbase…) and I hear what I wrote. And lately, I’ve been getting the bug to write another book for the Enoch Wars series. Although I may put that off until writing some epic fantasy or else some fiction based on my Villains books that’ve all been on my mind.
Another thought:
Been on a Sylvester Stallone kick lately.
Including reading his book (multiple times), his interviews, watching his movies, documentaries, etc.
He never intended to write any Rocky movies after the first one.
The world would be a much duller place, and a much worse place IMO, if he’d stubbornly and lazily decided not to write/direct more.
The first Rocky movie proves art can change lives.
I often wonder how many pre-diabetic and other “cardiac events waiting to happen” types were inspired by that movie to get off the couch, seize control of their health, and stave off horrible obesity-caused evils like amputated limbs, strokes “trapping” them inside their own bodies (like what happened to the late Patrice O’Neal), orphaned kids, broken marriages, and the list goes on.
I don’t know what the moral here is.
Except, never say never…
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Ben Settle
