It Often Deprives Me Of My Sleep
by Christopher D. Burns

Stories typically adhere to a format that allows for a manipulation of characters and situations. A story usually revolves about a central theme which allows the plot to develop. I have found that often, when you attempt to create a work of fiction, you find yourself hindered by questions of form. Do you use a first person or third person omniscient voice? Will you foreshadow what will come in the later chapters early in the book, or just before what you believe will be the climax? I recently began work on a novel and from the extensive amount of research and time I placed into understanding the era in which the novel is set, I found myself overcome by emotions that ranged from anger and frustration, to pride and happiness. I discovered a lot about what writing means to me. In an attempt to break myself out of a rather long writer’s block, I began to write about anything that I thought of, an attempt at fighting my way out of a corner. Hence the choppiness of this work. I revised the poems and the flash fictions but, I felt that it was important to maintain the concept of addressing what I was trying to understand and comprehend in each section. - from the Epilogue