A New Divide: My Great Expedition

I feel compelled to tell you this story. You see, instead of offering a few short sentences about my considerably normal life, I wish to tell you about myself in the ways that I know best.

This is a story, my story of how I came to write A New Divide.

For as long as I can remember I have always loved stories, since I can remember television and books. My dream for the longest time was to become a screenwriter in Hollywood (it still kind of is).

When I was 14 I wrote a bit of StarCraft fan fiction. It was a new take on the series and it took cinematic approach to custom downloaded maps. With new characters and vibrant worlds it was really something to look at – all based off my dramatic story telling style. I worked on this story harder than anything I had ever pursued. Then, one day, I had completed roughly half of it (recording all the audio and music myself) and my computer crashed, a virus had corrupted my hard drive and with no backups – I lost everything.

That left a hole and I began to stray from my writing trying to pursue an idea that could really work for me. When I was about 16-17 the people around me began to start preaching how “unrealistic” my goals are. My initial response was: “you have no idea what you are talking about, I can do this.”

After I got out of high school everything changed for me. I decided that I really enjoyed drugs, marijuana and acid specifically. These substances changed the way I thought about the world and at 19 years old I set out to claim my personal independence. I got an apartment with my two best friends at the time – Evan Traxler, and Mikel Birch. I had a job and I was making money, but I was struggling I was a line cook at Wendy’s my life pursuit soon became consumed by the need to make more money.

I spent a few years wading between jobs, and the stress it created for me was insurmountable – especially dealing with my roommates who eventually lost their jobs and I had to pick up their slack.

Eventually, because of how I felt about my friends, and because of my detest I held for my hometown, I decided to move upstate to get away from all of the madness my life had become – bogged down with debt and constantly reminded by mistakes I had made in the past.

I landed in Hamilton Lake Indiana. I got a place overlooking the beautiful lake; it was close to my new factory job and I was content with my living situation – but I was lonely. There was nobody around except for my landlord’s son and he worked opposite shifts compared to me.

In my lonely days spent looking over the lake I had an epiphany. I remembered the StarCraft fan fiction I had wrote 8 years prior and I decided to make it my own. I began to create the world and I called it A New Divide. A New Divide would be a tale about choice, and even 1500 years from now people are still just divided as they were when they left Earth. A New Divide is a lesson that teaches adversity to all of humanity following events that almost lead it to its extinction. The next step in human evolution will be its last.

However in February of 2013 my life would begin to fall into a pit where no light could be seen.

In one week I got fired from my job, acquired a $150 ticket, defaulted on a personal loan, and my rent got raised to $1000 a month plus all utilities; since I lived paycheck to paycheck that was a scary thought, with four months still left on the lease, and no way left to pay.

Throughout the next couple of months, I lost both new jobs and I was once again buried in debt. I sold everything I had ever owned, excluding the clothes on my back, and including my first car. And all the extra money I had left I spent on drugs, I needed to escape my harsh realities, not knowing how much more it would cost me.

I had one hope, to leave to California to live with my father, and after months of planning – the week I was supposed to leave I found out he lied about my asylum there and I was left with nothing.

I was homeless for weeks until my parents graciously agreed to take me in.

That was the lowest I had ever been and there was no light I could see. So, in the two months it took me to get a job at where I still currently work, I wrote the entire first draft of A New Divide on my broken cellphone.

That was two years ago. I slowly built up my life, paid off my debt, and lifted my confidence.

I found that we can make all of excuses we want for not pursuing the things we truly desire, but in the darkest of moments you can find the courage to do what is necessary. I thought of that, and writing this book was… instinct.

Life is all about what you make of it, and because I hit rock bottom I have an incredible amount of gratitude for everyone who supported me, and everything I own.

Now as for the creative journey I took through my mind trying to write this book, I’ll save that for another post. My point here is – inspiration gained from is experience is EVERYTHING. Why would people ever read what you have to offer if you have never been in their shoes?

I hope you all enjoyed this little bit about my life, and I hope it’s enough to make you appreciate everything that is right in your life. I’ll be posting here at least once every week writing stories and content that are relative to A New Divide.

If you have any stories you would like to share, please leave a comment below – I always love any opportunity to participate in the human experience.

With Love:

Nathaniel Patrick Sanders