Writing "The Watchtower"

Creating my first serialized fiction

I began writing “The Watchtower” in the winter of 2023. At the time, I was mildly obsessed with listening to podcasts where they read stories from r/nosleep. While the subreddit has been around for ages, I had never considered posting on it. That was, until 2023.

After listening to a myriad of stories ranging from bone-chilling to mildly entertaining, I decided I wanted to be one of those writers. I loved the idea of a forum dedicated to horror, written by mostly unknown authors. However, as I began to contemplate my own story, I realized that I had never actually written anything scary.

I’m an avid fan of horror. I find that the genre has a way of exposing parts of our culture that we tend to shy away from. There’s no such thing as ‘taboo’ in horror—blood, guts, rage, and violence are not only allowed but expanded upon, and often play an integral role in the story.

While I’ve always been a fan of surprising twists and depictions of darkness, I had never considered what it meant to create something in that genre. For a while, I’ve been writing (and rewriting and rewriting and rewriting) a handful of novel-length science-fiction and fantasy stories. “The Watchtower” is my first attempt at horror. (Or more accurately, horror-adjacent.)

Initially, there were many things that inspired this story. I’ve spent quite a bit of time in the American Southwest (Arizona, New Mexico) and felt inspired to use the landscape as the backdrop to my story. The desert is beautiful in a contrasting sort of way. It’s a place of extremes—hot, sunny days and cold, starry nights. I liked the precarious balance with nature that is needed to survive in the desert.

It wasn’t long before I had my setting and the start of a story.

After writing (a very different version of) “The Watchtower”, I published the first chapter on Reddit. Quickly, I learned that the subreddit r/nosleep has more rules than I anticipated. My story was removed, and I began my first real edit. After a thorough rewrite, I was certain that the story now fit within the forum’s parameters.

Once again, the story was removed.

I reread the rules and attempted to find where I went wrong. Eventually, I burnt myself out on the story as a whole, and it sat in a folder for a long time.

Eventually, I came back to it with fresh eyes. I made some edits. I cleaned up parts I felt like needed it, and I ended up posting it on some smaller forums online.

This was fun. It was nice to have something I wrote read by strangers. However, I was longing to build something more than just a few posts strung together to make a story.

After a bit of searching, I came across Substack.

Because of the change of format, there was a bit of editing that I did to “The Watchtower,” but for the most part, it remained the same as it was. Initially, I had considered changing it to be told in third person (that is my preferred perspective to write in), but ended up keeping it in first person.

I’ve only had my Substack account since October of 2025, and already, I’ve met some incredible people. The community here is so kind, and I’ve had a blast reading what other writers are working on. So, if you’re here because you’ve been reading my work, I want to thank you personally.

Every ‘like’ and comment means the world to me. While I’ve always started my stories for myself, it’s something special to come across others with whom it resonates. I’ve always believed that art is meant to be shared. This is only the beginning of what I have to share with the world.