{"id":48256,"date":"2026-08-27T11:31:06","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T15:31:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/?p=48256"},"modified":"2026-08-27T11:31:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T15:31:08","slug":"teenage-beast-the-home-stretch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2026\/08\/27\/teenage-beast-the-home-stretch\/","title":{"rendered":"Teenage Beast: The Home Stretch"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

This morning I finished the main body of the first draft of my horror novel, Teenage Beast<\/em>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Tomorrow, I will start the epilogue, which will hopefully tie the story up in a nice little bow.<\/p>\n

Then I will start polishing this thing with another draft or three. I will probably approach that the same way I did with the first draft — early in the morning, barely awake with a coffee cup in my hand.<\/p>\n

It has worked thus far.<\/p>\n

Now the trick will be to find very patient friends and family who will be willing to be test readers of my tome.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, I will share some of the drawings I have done of late.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I managed to lay another small sketchbook to rest. This one originally belonged to my son, who partially scribbled in it some time back in his grade school years. I had some crayon doodles in there as well, in an attempt to inspire him, but he had no ambitions toward art, so the sketchbook sat around the house mostly unused until I found it.<\/p>\n

It was only 5.5 by 8.5 inches, so it fit readily in the bag I take on my commute, and it became my next victim.<\/p>\n

It wasn’t my favorite sketchbook. I’m not crazy about Strathmore’s 400 Series, in that the paper is thin and doesn’t take ink as well as some of the other sketchbooks I have used.<\/p>\n

Despite that, I am happy with some of the drawings I did in it. They fed into my morning writing very well.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This morning I finished the main body of the first draft of my horror novel, Teenage Beast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":48259,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[49,16,6405],"tags":[1338,6421,6418,1270,6114,6377,907,6420,6425,6429,6415,6414,6419,3661,6427,5693,6428,6416,2034,5,6426,4866,3669,215,3613,6423,25,6422,699,5937,5978,6407],"class_list":["post-48256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-it-came-from-the-sketchbook","category-sketch","category-teenage-beast","tag-1338","tag-black-and-white-art","tag-comic-book-art","tag-comic-books","tag-creative-process","tag-creative-writing","tag-drawing","tag-fiction-writing","tag-first-draft","tag-from-the-sketchbook","tag-horror-comics","tag-horror-fiction","tag-horror-novel","tag-illustration","tag-independent-author","tag-independent-comics","tag-indie-author","tag-indie-comics","tag-it-came-from-the-sketchbook-2","tag-joe-williams","tag-novel-writing","tag-pen-and-ink","tag-philadelphia","tag-punk-rock","tag-rust-belt","tag-self-publishing","tag-sketchbook","tag-sketchbook-art","tag-strathmore","tag-teenage-beast","tag-writing","tag-writing-process"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1ed1x-cyk","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":48355,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2026\/09\/16\/teenage-beast-102-days-later\/","url_meta":{"origin":48256,"position":0},"title":"Teenage Beast: 102 Days Later","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"September 16, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"I started writing Teenage Beast on June 7th of this year as a lark. It was going to be a comic book script, but as I started writing scene directions, I found myself getting more and more into the heads of the characters. Either it was going to be a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "It Came From the Sketchbook"","block_context":{"text":"It Came From the Sketchbook","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/it-came-from-the-sketchbook\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/My-Sweet-Embraceable-You-02.jpg?fit=640%2C904&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/My-Sweet-Embraceable-You-02.jpg?fit=640%2C904&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/My-Sweet-Embraceable-You-02.jpg?fit=640%2C904&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":48387,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2026\/09\/22\/teenage-beast-the-tuesday-doodle\/","url_meta":{"origin":48256,"position":1},"title":"Teenage Beast: The Tuesday Doodle","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"September 22, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"The writing of my Teenage Beast novel continues as I work my way into the second draft. I'm spending my first waking hour working away at it. It's becoming more cohesive, and I'll get there. Slow and steady wins the race. At night, I crack open the sketchbooks and visit\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Doodle Tuesday"","block_context":{"text":"Doodle Tuesday","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/it-came-from-the-sketchbook\/doodle-tuesday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Bobby-Mid-Transformation-web.jpg?fit=640%2C880&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Bobby-Mid-Transformation-web.jpg?fit=640%2C880&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Bobby-Mid-Transformation-web.jpg?fit=640%2C880&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":48205,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2026\/08\/20\/teenage-beast-words-and-pictures\/","url_meta":{"origin":48256,"position":2},"title":"Teenage Beast: Words and Pictures","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"August 20, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"As I have written before, I have been writing a horror novel -- Teenage Beast -- since June 7th and frankly, I am surprised by my progress. I thought I would spend several days staring at a flashing cursor, not knowing what I would peck out on my keyboard. After\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "It Came From the Sketchbook"","block_context":{"text":"It Came From the Sketchbook","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/it-came-from-the-sketchbook\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GET-SET-GO.jpg?fit=1200%2C760&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GET-SET-GO.jpg?fit=1200%2C760&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GET-SET-GO.jpg?fit=1200%2C760&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GET-SET-GO.jpg?fit=1200%2C760&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GET-SET-GO.jpg?fit=1200%2C760&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":48527,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2026\/10\/28\/teenage-beast-four-months-twenty-one-days-and-three-drafts-in\/","url_meta":{"origin":48256,"position":3},"title":"Teenage Beast: Four Months, Twenty-One Days and Three Drafts In","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"October 28, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"It's been a while since I posted, but work continues on Teenage Beast. My morning ritual continues, and I'm now into the third draft, which is something I never imagined I'd be saying when I started writing this thing back in June. What began as a comic book script has\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "It Came From the Sketchbook"","block_context":{"text":"It Came From the Sketchbook","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/it-came-from-the-sketchbook\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/In-the-tall-grass-2.jpg?fit=800%2C1113&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/In-the-tall-grass-2.jpg?fit=800%2C1113&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/In-the-tall-grass-2.jpg?fit=800%2C1113&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/In-the-tall-grass-2.jpg?fit=800%2C1113&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":48125,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2026\/08\/11\/two-months-five-days-and-38329-words-later\/","url_meta":{"origin":48256,"position":4},"title":"Two Months, Four Days and 38,329 Words Later","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"August 11, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm still writing. Somehow I have managed to keep to my morning ritual. Sadly, if this were a gym membership, I would have crapped out on it long ago. Writing is a lot less physically taxing, but it is mentally taxing. I've been managing to meet the challenge thus far.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Doodle Tuesday"","block_context":{"text":"Doodle Tuesday","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/it-came-from-the-sketchbook\/doodle-tuesday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/slam-dance-action-Bobby.jpg?fit=800%2C1150&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/slam-dance-action-Bobby.jpg?fit=800%2C1150&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/slam-dance-action-Bobby.jpg?fit=800%2C1150&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/slam-dance-action-Bobby.jpg?fit=800%2C1150&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":48048,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2026\/07\/21\/what-are-words-for\/","url_meta":{"origin":48256,"position":5},"title":"What Are Words For?","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"July 21, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"A simple question from my wife led me to discover just how much progress I'd made on Teenage Beast. It turns out I've been so focused on telling the story that I forgot to keep score.","rel":"","context":"In "It Came From the Sketchbook"","block_context":{"text":"It Came From the Sketchbook","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/it-came-from-the-sketchbook\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/tookapic-screen-933307_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/tookapic-screen-933307_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/tookapic-screen-933307_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/tookapic-screen-933307_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/tookapic-screen-933307_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/In-the-tall-grass-det.jpg?fit=640%2C349&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}