Searching for Sanctaphrax

Sanctaphrax is the fictional floating city-state in The Edge Chronicles—a fantasy series where it serves as the seat of knowledge and academia.

For me, writing is a constant search for Sanctaphrax.

This task is not easy. Forcing yourself to sit down and type every day is not easy. I stare at a blank screen, take a five-minute walk, sit back down, and try to find the words—the idea of what to write. Part of me wants to go full Hemingway and write a scene from an imaginary novel:

”His eyes were cold as he stood in the dark alley in front of the dead body. No one around. Rain drizzled. He checked his watch—still within the prescribed timeframe. Robert exhaled slowly. On to the next person on the Tuesday List.”

Terrible. Perhaps with extreme practice, we could make something happen… someday.

I don't know.

I think for now I'll stick to business, life, discipline, and my own exuberant thoughts. Fiction is extremely hard. Well, all writing is hard. Writing with the purpose of producing something meaningful is hard. Caring—really giving a shit because you want to offer something to the world that might help at least one reader—that is hard.

So onward we go, compass in hand, guided only by a cardinal direction. It’s not much of a map—that’s life—and I feel more like an explorer following a hunch, wondering, “What’s next? What lies beyond the mountaintop?” Perhaps I’ll find Sanctaphrax, or perhaps just another mountain range to cross.

Either way, I'm committed. The ship has sailed. No turning back, no need to burn any boats—what I'm leaving behind, I have no desire to return to.

Sanctaphrax, here I come.