When Rowendrey Spoke Back

I cannot say when Rowendrey began. I only know it came on like a torrent — a rush of images and ideas that seemed to build themselves faster than I could write them down. Wonderful imaginings kept feeding the joy of creation until I was thoroughly enamored with my own world.

But not being a writer, weaving those fragments into coherent prose was its own mountain to climb. I spent hours — whole nights sometimes — editing and re-editing. And even when a letter was “locked,” it never truly was; something new would spark, and I’d find myself unlocking it again for a small addition, a partial rewrite, or the quiet removal of a line that no longer fit.

I learned quickly that writing is an endless process. The addition of an important detail in Letter Ten might require subtle changes in all that came before — and so Rowendrey grew the way stories often do: alive, restless, and always whispering for more.

At some point the words began to echo back, and I realized Rowendrey had taken root. It was no longer a project on paper, but a place waiting to be explored. The next question was not how to build it — but how to listen.

— W.O. Rowen

Author’s Note:
ChatGPT has been an invaluable asset — not a ghost writer, but a collaborator in clarity. I send lines of ideas, and what returns is a clearer shape of what I was reaching for all along — the starting point for hours of editing and rewriting. The images and words we shaped together helped me see what Rowendrey was becoming, and once seen, it began to grow on its own.