Petrol Wonderland

Author's Note

Hello, thank you very much for reading Petrol Wonderland! I'm so happy that a single person would even read the first few pages, let alone come so far. As an author, all you want is for people to read and (hopefully) enjoy your stories so thank you so much!

I hope the ending wasn't too disappointing, but I really felt it best from the beginning that it should be left open-ended :)

I began writing this book (/novella) on the 8th of August and finished on the 6th of September. A grand total of 29 days which is absolutely crazy to me! I feel like I've been saying for years that "I'll write a book this summer!" Then I never did it and I began to think I was doomed to be one of those people who'd always start a book, get 1-5 chapters in and then write myself into a corner. I've always had the problem that I could think of a cool start and ending but never knew how to fill the middle part and get my characters to the end.

But somehow I managed to write this in a month so I guess both past me and future me have absolutely no excuses! I was just a lazy bastard all this time :-(

So, yes, this is the first book that I've ever finished (in adulthood) and even though it's just a novella it's still a massive accomplishment for me. It's also the first horror thing I've ever written (and just a first draft) so I'm sure in just a year or two I'll look back on my awkward writing and plot holes and iffy characters and cringe. (Definitely when it comes to Cleo and Blake) Maybe one day in the far future, when my writing has improved, I will rewrite and refashion this story into a novella that's worth doing something with outside of Wattpad. It's on my bucket list to get just one thing published in my life :)

Anyway, this chapter is entirely self-indulgent and basically written for future me so I can see what was going on in my head at the time of writing.  Feel free to read on if you want, though!

My Insecurities: Horror

It's not great to start off with a negative but I really just need to say this thing first. My biggest insecurity with this is the fact that it's the first 'horror' I've ever written. Throughout this entire writing process, I wanted the book to come off as "scary" and not "ooooh look at this guys it's scary ooooh". To be honest, I feel like it came out as the latter in certain places haha

Seriously, don't ask me why Rabbit just kept pulling stuff out of his suit. I started and I just couldn't stop. It's probably the stupidest thing in the whole book and I laugh whenever I think about it actually happening but.... I suppose it makes him seem crazier so ... half-win?

I didn't want to take the book too seriously because I found it a lot more fun to write that way. But comedy is difficult and so is horror and I was trying as an amateur in both to mix them together. Not sure if it worked out but it was really fun giving it a try!

Blake and Cleo

My second insecurity was the characterization. Oh God, the characterization. Some characters were a hoot to write - Cleo and the Hatter especially were so fun. Cleo may not be the most likable person but she was definitely my favorite character in the whole book just because she was a massive bitch and it was so fun to put words in her mouth. She doesn't have a lid on her anger at all and I just adored her. Some characters really do just write themselves.

The Hatter was also pretty fun, a bit less fun than Cleo because he was 'meant to be crazy', but still super fun. He also had the best line of dialogue I think I've ever written:

"Just eat the fucking sandwich, bitch."

I know future me will hate that line but screw you future me because I laughed at that line for a good few minutes after I wrote it. Yes, I laughed at my own stupid joke, sue me. It was just so out of character and stupid in the middle of a serious scene and I considered deleting it. But it's the first draft. Maybe if I redo the book I'll have to delete it but for now, it gets to stay.