I enjoy it when other writers talk about their writing process, and I wanted to take a minute to geek out about two of my favorite stories from my most recent collection, “When Hope Burned White.”

#1. That Time I Met A God

This was the 2nd story I wrote for this collection, and it gave me quite a bit of trouble at first.

Since I was using inspirational art to get started, I really did not know where to go initially because I wanted to make sure I was not being culturally appropriative.

I knew I wanted to do something with a god and the beach, but that was it.

I went on a couple walks about it because that is what I do when I hit a writer’s block, and the story slowly took shape in my head. It started with a casual first-person tone, and it slowly became a moment of transcendence for this college boy, who had been trying not to think too much before now.

I think it really is the tone that I like most about the story, but also the ridiculousness of the final moments. I do not know about other people, but there are moments in the midst of life when I have a random thought, and it is suddenly life changing. That is what I wanted to capture here.

#2. Enlightenment

This story has a lot in common with the former. It takes on a similarly casual tone with a protagonist who is just as lost.

But I knew exactly what this story was about as soon as I saw the artwork.

This time the protagonist is having a mid-life crisis and trying to find some combination of redemption and transcendence. But no-matter how hard they look, they cannot seem to find it.

I really felt this personally because sometimes the harder I work to find something, the more difficult it becomes.

The ending is what makes this my favorite story. Clearly this one dips into the realm of the absurd more than my others. Eating the book is ridiculous, but it shows how desperate the protagonist is, and to me it made the moral of the story perfectly clear: there is no answer to life’s questions, life is absurd, and we have to learn to make the most of it.

Which stories from the collection were your favorite? And what would you like to see more of?