The Directions My First(ish) Novel is Taking

For those of you who haven't been living under my rock, I'm writing a novel based on a short story I wrote for college.

It's still going pretty well, honestly. Despite some stressors and events in my personal life, my mind keeps coming back to the story with more ideas of how to expand it. I'm constantly adding layers to the plot and characters in my mind, and I've been puzzling together how they'll add to the overall story, and in some cases I'm realizing just how much potential this novel has to become something more.

At the risk of regretting it and not being able to live up to promises, I'm going to share details that are very subject to change regarding the direction of the novel right now, with you, my loyal readers.
Again, this is subject to change, and this is a really personal project to me. Pretend I'm naked while you read this so you feel as awkward about it as I do, since I'm exposing a bit of what goes on inside my noggin.

My Brain: It's not empty! It's full of potential!

For starters, I'm mixing genres. I've only drafted up a few chapters (and one is facing a pretty large rewrite), but right now the novel is heading in a sort of comedy-drama direction that feels completely natural to me, since I love dramas and thrillers but I'm a positive and humorous person. It's also a love story as could only be told in the 21st century that sheds light on a subculture that society has yet to acknowledge on a larger scale, and to top it all off, it only feels like the beginning of something bigger.

My primary influences are the Millennium trilogy and everything by Chuck Palahniuk, which should give you an odd idea of what to expect.

I don't expect success. That would be foolish of me. What I expect is to continue to surprise myself. I just happen to be checking off all the boxes that I've had in my head for what makes a good novel great, and I'm excited to see if I can pull it off.

If I don't pull it off, at least you'll have these lovely blogs to read over and over again until you rot away!
-Ryan