The Inspirations Behind My Writing and My Trilogy’s Hero

“Every page of this book contains an impossible twist, and it ends with a cliffhanger that will leave you wishing for more.”

“Minion melted my face off.”

“The author had me feeling like I was watching an action movie with each nail biting occurrence.”

Inspiration for Dr. Kayden Archer?

Just a few of the reviews for iUniverse author Justin Treece’s first book in his Shudagon Trilogy. We invited Justin onto the iUniverse Blog to talk about how he started writing and how Minion came about.

Read on for the first post in Justin Treece’s two part iUniverse guest blog series.

The Inspirations Behind My Writing and My Trilogy’s Hero
By Justin Treece

“I started writing when I was very young. I was never trained. In college, I only breezed by English courses.

I have never considered myself a “writer.”

And I still don’t.

I consider myself a storyteller. I have always been interested in constructing my own stories and using whatever medium in my grasp to share, whether its literature, music, or visual art.

I’m sure many writers and readers would disagree with this approach, but you don’t get to undiscovered country by following the herd.

Writing Style
Some great advice I received early on was to write a book that YOU would want to read. When I read, I like to be able to charge through swiftly.

I try to have a constant jogging approach to storytelling, as opposed to a graceful walk that includes stopping and admiring the scenery at every opportunity. Description is obviously necessary, but I try to keep it at a minimum.

Trust Your Readers
I guess if I were to give any advice for someone that wants a fast pace story, it would be to keep your narrative in action mode and mash in lean description where you can, but don’t feel like you have to create an exact image.

Readers are creative people too.

Trust their imagination to fill in the holes. And use dialogue to develop your plot, if you can.

Inspiration for My Character, Dr. Kayden Archer
I should say that the kid in me wanted a very intense superhero type character.

My fascination with religion is certainly another inspiring ingredient.

All in all, I really wanted to push towards creating something brutal, yet reflective of mankind.

The original idea for Kayden was to hide a very compound person who appears to be well-rounded, successful, and content.  And very quickly destroy his “walls” to release this power fueled by his grief of a lost love and his anger towards mankind.

Then, have this character try and fix the problems with humanity, but, unknowingly, his actions would be damaging the very thing he is trying to cure.

It’s the “two wrongs don’t make a right” lesson with a horrifying edge.

Readers will learn a lot more about Kayden Archer in the next book, for Minion: Root is a first-person narrative from Kayden’s point of view.”

Justin Treece’s iUniverse Bibliography:

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  iUniverse Minion by Justin Treece, received Honorable Mention at 2012 Hollywood Book Festival

  Minion