EXTRAS

A black background with a gold decorative horizontal line and a small gold square in the center.

The Writing Process

A look further behind the curtain straight from the author, Gregory Stark

From the Desk of Gregory Stark

Before you explore the rest of this page, I wanted to share something honestly: this book was not created in a straight line.

The last year has been full of breakthroughs, setbacks, rewrites, research, difficult decisions, and a lot of learning. I went into this process thinking the hardest part would be writing the story. What I discovered is that bringing a book to life means learning far more than the craft alone. It means learning how to revise, how to shape a manuscript, how to publish, how to build something readers can actually find, and how to keep going when the process becomes bigger than you expected.

Somewhere in the middle of all that, I realized the story I was telling was not one book at all. It was a trilogy. That realization changed everything and ultimately led to the creation of Oneirion Press, LLC.

I wanted this page to show that the finished version of a book does not appear all at once. It is built through time, discipline, risk, and an almost unreasonable belief that the story is worth finishing.

If you are here reading any part of this, thank you. It means more than you know.

The Writing Journey

A glowing book at the bottom center is connected through a golden, lightning-like path to various objects above, including handwritten notes, a magnifying glass, a pen, a laptop, a notebook, a smartphone, and multiple sheets of paper, all set against a dark background with golden sparkles.

The Writing Journey Behind The Counterwritten

September 2025
I decided to stop talking about writing a novel and actually do it. The story began as a much smaller idea, even branching for a while into early game concepts and character design, but I kept getting pulled back to the book itself.

October 2025
I bought the tools, tested different platforms, and found a writing setup that finally felt natural enough to let the work move.

November 2025
This was when the draft really took off. I wrote in every spare moment I had, following instinct more than structure. The story was being built from momentum, curiosity, and years of questions I had been carrying.

December 2025
By the end of the year, I was deep into the manuscript and heavily researching Northwest Indiana so the setting, history, and details felt grounded.

January 2026
I hit the first major obstacle: the point of view was wrong. Realizing I needed to rethink the perspective meant going back and reworking a huge part of the manuscript.

February 2026
Even with the setbacks, I finished what I then thought of as the full first act. By this point, the project had become real to me in a way it never had before.

March 2026
I kept writing while working full time, and I started seriously researching what publishing would require. That was the month I realized this dream was much bigger than just finishing a draft.

April 2026
I pushed past the halfway point, started shaping the book for publication, and began learning what I could and could not do alone.

May 2026
This became one of the most intense writing stretches of the entire process. Early mornings, late nights, and long sessions at the keyboard carried the middle of the story forward.

June 2026
I completed the full draft at over 200,000 words. That was the moment the project changed from an idea into a finished novel draft that could actually be built into something real.

July 2026
Revision became its own discipline. I rewrote, cut scenes, clarified structure, and started understanding how different writing and editing really are.

August 2026
Book One was completed. Oneirion Press, LLC was established, the website was underway, and the book began taking shape as more than a manuscript. It started becoming a real world project.

Now
I’m still writing. Book Two is already underway, and the vision has grown beyond a single story. I want to build something that helps people connect with reading, writing, and the courage it takes to make something real.

Read the First Chapter

A stack of aged paper scripts with the top page titled 'The Counterwritten' by Gregory Stark, showing the opening of a story and a chapter one excerpt. A pair of round, gold-rimmed glasses rests on the papers, with a black fountain pen placed diagonally on the top right corner.

Every story begins somewhere. Step into Crown Point, 1979 and meet the four teenages whose choices will bind memory, mystery, and the unseen together.

OPEN THE CHAPTER