Biography

My name is Bronx-Dean Jensen. I am an English major with an emphasis on education. After graduating with my bachelor's degree I hope to begin my journey pursuing a career in teaching. Even though teaching is the direction I've chosen for my career, creative writing has always been will be one of my greatest passions.

Abstract

Your Misery is intended to be a literary thriller novel. What I have written for my capstone project is the first chapter. The main focus of this novel is to discover how grief affects and changes people throughout their lives. Miatchi and Kit, the novel's two main characters, are two individuals who both have suffered greatly in the past and as a result, have allowed grief to continually dominate their lives.

While coming to terms with his wife's recent terminal diagnosis, Miatchi becomes increasingly involved in a series of brutal murders. Detective Kit Farroway has been tasked with heading the investigation, and with his every inch of progress, the noose around Miatchi's neck continues to tighten.

Inspirations

My inspirations for this project included numerous Korean thriller movies and TV. shows, a few of Dean Koontz's thriller novels (Watcher's most notably), and I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson (A Young Adult Romance Novel). Throughout my writing process, I continually looked to Koontz's Watchers in order to get inspiration for developing emotional characters with deep connections to one another within a thriller novel. My primary focus when writing Your Misery was to have it be a heavily character-driven novel, while also maintaining momentum with thriller elements. This is something I think Koontz does exceptionally well, so when looking at his works I tried to focus on how he weaved in character backgrounds, descriptions, and emotions seamlessly while also propelling the plot forward.

I'll Give You the Sun, was the novel that inspired me to write Your Misery from the first-person perspective. During my work on this project, I turned to this novel when trying to decipher how to switch scenes between two primary first-person narrators, how to maintain a distinct voice for each, and how to enlighten the reader with their own unique thought processes throughout the story.

Korean thriller movies and TV shows helped me improve my general understanding of how thrillers are typically structured, and what authorial choices writers make when it comes to moving the plot forward piece by piece.

Writing Process

The English 399 Editing Studio course helped me keep myself on track while I worked on this project. The classes weekly check-ins as well as it's extensive amount of writing challenges helped me work on and approach this project in new and refreshing ways each week.

My initial hurdle when working on Your Misery was getting used to writing in the present tense (since this is something I have never done before). Looking back on my early progress there were a lot of mistakes with verb agreement and I had a lot of trouble when it came to structuring my sentences around the confines of the present tense.

Through the help of my professor and peers I have confidence that I have greatly increased my ability to write in the present tense as well as in the first person. Through my work on this project I have greatly increased my ability to develop characters in a focused manner that gives meaning to their creation, as well as my ability to navigate first-person narration and present tense writing.

Excerpt

"There are hours that pass by, often on many days, where I sit and watch her in her sleep; a fading light breathing life into the stillness of the room; a fragile bird singing its last song with silent whispers in a dream. A small shimmer from the moon makes its way through the blinds, and I am transfixed as I watch it dancing in silver, intertwined with a talisman of hope, speaking to me as if to say… hold on. And I’m trying. I still remember the promise I made you Elia, when I bought you that silver. So I won’t leave you…But I’m scared. I’m really fucking scared. Because I know when you’re gone, I won’t be able to resist the temptation. Razors live behind my eyes, and the cuts manifest themselves every day, on my arms and my legs, oozing those horrors which paralyze my heart; the red tears that mourn your passing. I know you wouldn’t want that. But I have crossed that threshold before, and you yourself have witnessed that I am not made to endure. So if the time comes, when you are gone and find yourself in the clouds, will you welcome an unwelcome guest, and forgive me as I join you? " -Miatchi

Page updated

Report abuse