Why I Wrote The Shadow Watcher

 Hello everyone. I wanted to share a little about myself and the feeling behind The Shadow Watcher. Where it came from, and why it became what it is.

The Shadow Watcher isn't the first written work I've done, but it is one of the few I've been ready to put out into the world. What pulled me toward writing it was a simple decision: I wanted to write something that scared me. A book that leaned into fear instead of running from it. That's how the shadows came in. I'm scared of the dark. I've had brushes with what felt like sleep paralysis, that sense of a shadowy figure standing at the edge of the room. I wanted to take that small, quiet fear and give it form.

But once I had the concept, something was missing. I knew, very strongly, that the story had to be set in Japan. I love Japan. I have other stories planned in other countries, but for this one it had to be Japan. Specifically the older Edo period, the era of shrines and persecution. That world held something I couldn't get from anywhere else.

Then came the question I sat on for a while. Was this a horror novel, or was it a fantasy? I wanted readers to feel the fear, but I didn't want to write straight horror. So I went with fantasy, and that opened the door to the next idea: tradition.

Why tradition? Some of you might know the movie Fiddler on the Roof. I've always loved the song about tradition. As I got older, got married, started building a family of my own while staying close to the one I grew up in, I started noticing how some traditions get changed and some get lost entirely. There was one small tradition from childhood I was sad to see fade. We used to go out for candies on Monday nights after dinner. Nothing big. But it stuck with me, and somewhere in that thought I realized that tradition, the keeping and the losing of it, was what I wanted at the heart of this book.

So I needed someone who carried tradition. A priest was the obvious answer. Too obvious. There are already so many books built on priests. I wanted something else. Someone who watches. Someone who observes. That's where the Watcher came from. I grew up loving shows like Supernatural and Grimm, and that idea of an inherited duty, a role passed down quietly through generations, was exactly the shape I was looking for.

The shadows themselves became more than just fear. They became a form, a kind of magic. If you've watched Solo Leveling, the Shadow Monarch's army is close to the imagery I had in mind. Airy, half-formed, but present. I didn't want to push the book into dark fantasy though. I wanted it to sit in fantasy, closer in feeling to Jujutsu Kaisen. You'll probably see some of that influence pulling through into the next book too.

This is why The Shadow Watcher is what it is. An introduction. It's not the full lore of the world. It's a doorway into it, the first piece of what I'm calling the Covenant Chronicles. I wrote it to scratch a feeling I felt was missing in a lot of fantasy I was reading, where everything started to feel like the same theme repeated. I grew up on anime. I've watched a lot. Some of it was completely original, some of it borrowed familiar ideas. With this book, I wanted to take something nostalgic, the things I grew up loving, and turn it into my own. Something that feels close and far at the same time.

The Shadow Watcher was the right place to start. I have more coming. To be honest, I have over 10+ drafts of different stories sitting in my files, and I'm working through which ones to bring out next, and in what order. The Covenant Chronicles has plenty of room to grow, and there are angles and perspectives I'm excited to explore.

That's what I wanted to share. I know this could have been a video. YouTube exists, plenty of people do it. But for me, writing posts like this clears my head in a way recording never has. So thank you for reading.

If any of this resonated with you, drop a comment. Are any of you fans of Solo Leveling? I'll admit, I'm a huge fan of that manhwa. Or if you're more of a Jujutsu Kaisen reader, which one do you prefer? Personally, I love Jujutsu Kaisen for the animation and the techniques. The lore is incredible. But when it comes to where the story is going, I think Solo Leveling pulls ahead for me.

Curious to hear what you think.

Image: Solo Leveling: Ragnarok (REDICE Studio / D&C Media), via Rei Penber, GameRant (August 20, 2025).