If you asked me, “What is your favourite short book that you’ve written’ my answer would probably be One’s Confined Life. Not because I think it’s my best work, but because I think it has the coolest story I’ve written in a while.
Welcome back to my usual irregular series where I speak about one of my novellas/novels. This time we’ll be taking a look at One’s Confined Life. As always, there will be spoilers, so if you haven’t read it, then go do it now! It’s super cheap and a short read. You can find out more in the Novels Section
Alright, so here is your last spoiler warning, so now let’s begin.
As I said in the first part, I think the story is pretty cool. I had a ‘fresh’ time writing it because I was always excited for the ending. To me, Peter’s ‘fate’ is basically perfect. It’s a special kind of sadness and loneliness that fills you with frustration but also understanding. You wish there was another way, but perhaps there wasn’t.
Like with most things I write, the ending was made first. I knew how it would end before I even started writing. This idea was one that I pulled out of my ‘magical ideas folder’ which consists of all ideas I’ve ever thought of. And, just like most other things I write, it came to me in a dream!
Yup, like most of the Alterum books, Oscar Pat books, The Hunting Trio, and The Story of a Hero Named Fishy, this came to me in a dream.
The original dream was similar but also different. The final area, the strange village beyond the door, had more involvement in the dream. In the dream, I was chasing someone into this strange world. I chased them far into the distance, into one of the strange wooden villages where I lost them. But there, I started to wonder about the world around me, confused about why it was there and why I was there. I stayed with a happy family that ate dinner carefree, and I remember thinking, “How is this place dangerous?”. In the final book, this doesn’t happen like that. It’s similar but different.
The harder part of the story was the build-up. I had to get to that point. I needed Peter to be dangerous and to show it, but I also didn’t want Peter to go insane. Typically in these overpowered MC situations, something happens to the main character that makes their powers rage. It’s a typical cliché in a lot of anime. But I didn’t want that, because Peter wanted a normal life, one where he wasn’t trapped. So, I made Peter a bit of an idiot. He isn’t dumb, but he is rather self-centred. I mean, he wanted to free a potentially dangerous vampire just to help himself.
Finally, I wish to speak about another inspiration. One similarity that I made between the world I saw in the dream and the world I imagined when I woke up was The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. Before you fight the final boss in Majora’s Mask, you are taken to a strange, field-like area, the complete opposite to everything you’ve seen before. There is peace there. A single tree stands at the centre of this area in Majora’s Mask, as kids play under it.
If you’ve read some of my other books, you’ll probably see a lot of similar empty fields. I’m a big fan of empty warm fields. I believe there is one in the first Alterum book, Death Day, Continuous School and possibly others. There is something otherworldly and isolated about them that draws me to them. I suppose it’s what I imagine true peace and happiness would be like. So, if you ever have to talk to an English teacher about my work and they ask you what fields symbolise in my work, you can tell them it symbolises peace, happiness, but also relaxation that comes from isolation.
One last little interesting point. There were plans to have this be a sequel to The Hunting Trio. There are similarities between them, and I did write a way to link them. But that was scrapped. So whilst they technically aren’t related, you could say they are due to their similarities.
That’s all I’ve got for this one. Thanks for reading. If you have any questions about this book, please ask below or over on my Twitter.