How I Wrote "The Veneziad" – the making of an Epic Poem

The video introduces "The Veneziad," a project that began during the speaker's senior year of college as a creative writing capstone class. Having completed his main degree requirements and transitioning to full-time work, the project was undertaken for enjoyment. A friend suggested adapting "The Aeneid," an idea the speaker found appealing. He aimed to capture elements like epic poetry's writing style, a historical setting, plots of journeys and war, and characters serving as metaphors for their cultures. To find a topic, he compiled a three-page list of historical settings featuring journeys and wars. Despite the initial "overkill" in topic generation, he narrowed it down to settings he felt confident writing about within a semester, settling on Venice. Specifically, he chose a lesser-known 14th-century war that had a significant, albeit indirect, influence on Venetian history. The original story concept was divided into half journey and half war, with characters starting elsewhere and returning to Venice to fight and protect it. Recognizing that narrative travel time could be "boring," he decided to give the characters something to discuss during their journey. This led to placing them on the far side of the Black Sea and having them sail back across the entire Venetian world, passing island dominions and historical locales like Constantinople. This transformed the journey into a reverse travelogue, allowing characters to discuss the histories of Marco Polo, the Fourth Crusade, the Greek islands, the Adriatic, and the Venetian lagoon, moving backward in time towards Venice's origins. This provided narrative depth beyond a simple scene transition and established historical context for the stakes upon their return. A challenge arose with the initial two-character dynamic: a father, Alessandro, and a son, Niccolo. Inspired by the "God of War" video game, this dynamic felt "thin." With encouragement from friends, a third character, Serena, was added. Serena enriched the family dynamic, introducing father-daughter, brother-sister, and whole-family interactions. This created a "tidy triangle" of characters, each representing a facet of medieval Venice: Alessandro (defender) symbolized the city's merchant heart, providing for and protecting Venetians; Niccolo (victorious) embodied the warrior, representing glory and dominion over the Mediterranean; and Serena (tranquility) represented Venice's peace. These traits, while true of medieval Venice, were challenging to reconcile into one society, making them a fitting allegory for a family. With the story concept and characters in place, the writing process began. During a winter break, a one-page outline of the entire story was created, followed by an expanded eight-page outline, dedicating two pages per chapter or book. This detailed the plot points, dialogue, character emotions, and scene-to-scene flow, making complex story choices visible and malleable before writing. The story was then written linearly, from beginning to end, to maintain the "vibrant lyric quality" of epic poetry and align with the speaker's video script writing method. From January to April 2018, the first version of "The Veneziad" reached 17,000 words, exceeding class requirements. Encouraged by friends, family, and professors, the speaker decided to pursue it further. After a year adjusting to post-college life, he revisited the story for polishing. The editing process spanned several years, from 2018 to 2020, with the decision made in early 2021 to either send it to agents or self-publish by 2022. The speaker was determined not to let the project languish or to excessively pursue traditional publishing if it wasn't working. In 2021, he began workshopping, crafting a query letter and synopsis, and seeking literary agents specializing in historical fiction with an interest in poetry, avoiding romance novels. He sent queries in batches of 20, adjusting his strategy based on responses. The story's "novella" length (just under 30,000 words at the time) was recognized as a difficult sell in the traditional market. One agent expressed liking the concept and Venice but doubted market acceptance, confirming the speaker's suspicion that traditional publishing wasn't the right path. He then focused on YouTube videos and got married in October. In 2022, with the wedding complete, he aimed to self-publish "The Veneziad" but was also eager to start his next epic poem. He spent a few days in the mountains, sketching out a new story, researching its setting, outlining the plot, and writing the initial scenes. He challenged himself to write this shorter story (initially aiming for 7,000 words) entirely in meter, successfully internalizing iambic rhythm. However, the project's scope grew, resulting in an 18,000-word story, fully in meter, after a few months of intermittent writing. This coincided with two bouts of COVID-19 in spring 2022, during which he completed the final scenes of the second story. The details of this second story remain a secret. With the second story's first draft finished, he returned to "The Veneziad," focusing on publication. Brandon Sanderson's "Secret Projects" Kickstarter inspired him to consider Wraithmarked, a boutique independent publisher that partnered with authors using a similar Kickstarter model. This strategy resonated with his experience selling enamel pins. Despite having a clear strategy, he didn't contact Wraithmarked for a year, using that time to complete one more draft (Draft 5) to ensure he presented the best possible version of the story. This period was affected by "Long Covid," impacting his video output. He recovered by fall and finished Draft 5 in spring 2023, while traveling globally for a wedding. Upon taking "The Veneziad" to Wraithmarked, they "loved it." The primary concern was the book's length, as fewer pages limited space for spine art. The speaker proposed commissioning an Italian translation to be placed side-by-side with the English, immediately doubling the page count and solving the spine issue. Wraithmarked agreed, and he was paired with editor TL Greylock, who understood the project's blend of poetry and classical literature. Editing with Greylock resulted in many notes, most notably the need for an epilogue. The original ending, inspired by "The Aeneid's" abrupt finale, was impactful but would benefit from an "encore chapter." In January 2024, the speaker wrote the epilogue, following his established writing process: concept, character outcomes, outline, detail, and linear writing. The epilogue's scope expanded as he enjoyed exploring the new status quo and character interactions, reaching 7,000 words, about a quarter the length of the main story. He felt the epilogue's story "already existed," like he was simply "freeing" it from the marble, attributing this to his six-year familiarity with the characters. With the sixth draft of "The Veneziad" and the epilogue complete, the Italian translation, "La Veneziade," by Irene La Preziosa and Luke Ranieri, was also nearing completion. The speaker, while not fluent enough to write it, could read it and praised its modern standard with "fun archaisms" for historical feeling. The next step was to announce the book to the world. This involved a series of three Venice-themed videos discussing the Venetian Republic, the theft of Saint Mark's bones, and the Basilica di San Marco. The Kickstarter campaign for "The Veneziad" exceeded all expectations. Pre-campaign estimates suggested sales "over a hundred thousand dollars," possibly reaching the "high 100s," but not "into the 2s." The campaign's first few days were normal, but a video released on day four caused a surge. Unlike typical campaigns with an initial spike, plateau, and final jump, "The Veneziad" saw a "steady slope up through the middle weeks and a final five days of pure spikage." The speaker refreshed the Kickstarter page hourly for three weeks, continuously surprised by the momentum. They surpassed goals, including crossing $200,000, reaching bookmark stretch goals, setting a record for Wraithmarked's biggest campaign, achieving full-color printing, and ultimately exceeding half a million dollars in sales. "The Veneziad" grossed half a million dollars, placing it at "one 80th a metric Sanderson." The campaign's success led to raises for the entire Wraithmarked company and enabled investments previously unconceivable. The speaker will receive 15% of the total gross, or $75,000, which is at the high end for publishing. He emphasizes that money wasn't the primary motivation, noting that videos are more profitable hour-for-hour, and enamel pins are even more so. The decision to write books stems from a love for the art, the creative process, and the joy of creation. He acknowledges that publishing pays less than YouTube but affirms it's "absolutely worth it." While videos are ephemeral, he wanted to create something unique and lasting—a "little artifact" that would stay with readers forever. He concludes by stating that he has now made such a book and plans to write more. "The Veneziad" will soon be available in their merch store.