Writing with Jake 101:

 Writing with Jake 101: The Pitchfork Mistake

When I look back now, I realize how bad of a mistake it was.

I thought I was too smart for my own good.

I released The Pitchfork Diaries and Kill Vella thinking they were short-story collections. Truth is they weren’t.

They were fragments. Half-formed ideas I dressed up to look cool.

They should’ve been called Pitchfork Ideas and Kill Vella: Scratch Notes Edition.

At the time, I just wanted to put something out there. I had these scraps, these half-rotted story seeds, and I thought, why not?

And out of that batch yeah, a few were worth saving. Stillborn Divine. Scarecrow. Kill for Jesus.

Those were the ones that bled enough to live.

The rest? Lessons. Proof that I was impatient, arrogant, hungry, and learning in public.

But that’s what writing is public evolution.

You put out the broken bones, and if you’re lucky, some of them grow into monsters worth remembering.

💀 Ink is blood. Growth is pain.

— Jake Bannerman