My name is Eric Jackson, and I’m an amateur writer. Previous to this project I have written for close to 15 years for no other reason than the fact I love writing. Only one thing has changed, I’m writing Dimanagul not only because I love to write but also because I finally have a substantial concept that I feel is worth sharing.

When I first came up with the concept it was very simplistic. It was literally, “Wouldn’t it be neat if you could save your progress before doing dangerous things? Just like in a video game?” The idea sort of took off and it was fleshed out into something much more than that. The initial project name was “Saved Point” as a result.

I started to think about it. We don’t have extra chances because life means something. We don’t really feel a lot of empathy for video game characters because they get as many chances as the person playing it has the capacity to not get frustrated. This mechanic cheapens death. If you have the safety of knowing you can just save your progress then death would slowly start to lose its meaning.

But of course death hurts. Or at least I imagine it does. *laughs*

That is why I shift the focus of the story to that. You don’t want to cheapen death even if you can. Once you do that it takes away the most precious thing about life; the fact that it is limited.

When I dove into this project I was (and still am!) naive. I wrote over 500,000 words and thought hey I’m done with my first book! Feel free to laugh. After doing some research I realized that I actually have enough material for four books. It took a great deal of prodding and poking to get the 120,000 words of the first book in a place I liked it as (by comparison) it is much slower paced than later chapters. I also love character interactions and I’d love to just throw all five party members into the story immediately, but that is simply not an option. The Fourth, Hush, shows up in the first book and joins in the second. The final party member joins in the third book.

I’ve learned a great deal about building worlds while looking at the project as a whole. It excites me that finding errors and discrepancies only make me feel empowered. It makes it seem like it’s another stop towards making the world of Pange real. As a writer I feel you don’t create worlds. You merely act as a travel agent. In order for them to be convincing, the world must have already existed.

Thank you for your interest in Dimanagul, the story of Derrek Graymer and helping me get it out there. I’d appreciate any insight, criticisms and questions.

Eric Jackson — dimanagul@gmail.com