It’s Alive: My Substack Essay on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein Is Now a Film

Content note: This video includes some nudity and graphic, grotesque imagery, including monsters and corpses. AI was used to create the film’s visual scenes and to help with research. Every word of the script is my own.

Last month, I wrote an essay about how Mary Shelley came up with the brilliant story of Frankenstein when she was only 18 years old. It wasn’t quite the story you’re used to hearing. I had a slightly different take.

She didn’t just wake up from a dream with a brilliant idea. There were a lot of things happening in her life and in the world around her.

It started in June 1816, when eighteen-year-old Mary Shelley was stuck inside a lakeside villa with Lord Byron and Percy Shelley. Outside, it rained incessantly in the middle of summer, thanks to a volcanic eruption in Indonesia a year earlier.

So, while they were stuck inside, they challenged each other to write a ghost story. Every morning, when someone asked if she’d thought of one yet, her answer was no.

She called this writer’s block a “blank incapability of invention.” But there was actually a lot going on beneath the surface. She was having nightmares about the baby she’d lost days after it was born, imagining warming it back to life. She was also listening to late-night arguments between literary geniuses Lord Byron and Percy Shelley, about whether a corpse could be reanimated.

Then one night, somewhere between waking and sleep, Frankenstein came to her. After that came eleven months of writing every day while her life kept coming apart around her. And out of it, Mary produced Frankenstein.

Mary believed invention comes out of chaos, from “dark, shapeless substances,” and I keep wondering what all of us are carrying around right now that hasn’t found its form yet.

Then the essay I wrote became my own Frankenstein. My husband took my words and stitched them into a short film, and I spent a surprising number of evenings watching corpses twitch on our living room TV.

I hope you enjoy it.

Evolving loudly.With Love & Rebellion, ❤️Ashley

WATCH THE SHORT FILM ON YOUTUBE 👇

👉 Production, post-production and visuals by Silver Kim.

👉 Story written and performed by me

📚 Books mentioned in this video

* Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: Amazon US | Amazon Canada

* Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King: Amazon US | Amazon Canada

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

A little collective solitude

What struck me about Mary’s creative process is that even on the mornings she had nothing to write, she had company: people reading, arguing, and attempting their own stories in the next room. I think most of us could use a bit more of that.

Are you working on something? A book? An essay? A business idea? Some project you keep meaning to get back to?

Twice a month, I’m opening a Co-Work room for paid subscribers. We’ll say hello in the chat; share what we’re working on (if we want); and then work for an hour. You get an hour of protected time, while helping keep yourself and other’s accountable to the work you say you want to do!

Our first session is Friday, October 30th at 8 a.m. PT / 11 a.m. ET.