Posted on by Chris Sarantopoulos · 7 Comments

Dreaded point

I have reached the point I dreaded the most. Despite my planning and all the outlining I did a year ago when I started drafting the Darkening, I’ve come to the conclusion that I have to delete part of the plot. I was just about to finish editing chapter 25 (past the midpoint of the book) when I realised that a part of the plot was weak, irrelevant and as such it had to go. Now I have to go back and re-revise and re-rewrite 25 chapters (I’ve been rewriting and revising for the past 4 months, so…), and change some of the causes and their effects that make up the plot, so the project makes sense again. The funny thing is, chapter 25 was supposed to be the place where that particular plot arc would come to an end. What was that you said? Better late than sorry? Well, it couldn’t get any later than that! Actually, it could, but I’d rather not think about it. Remember last week when I said I hoped I’d have the MS ready for the betas by the end of summer or early autumn at the latest? Yeeeeaah…. no.

Anyway, it’s Easter Sunday for us Greek Orthodox, which as far as festive days go, it’s the biggest and most important. I’m off to continue with the celebration 🙂

Posted on by Chris Sarantopoulos

Status update

I’ve been editing/revising my novel The Darkening for a few months now and I’m one chapter short of reaching the midpoint. So far, I’ve rewritten every single chapter. If I was to copy/paste the sentences that didn’t get altered, I doubt they would fill more than maybe two A4 pages. Maybe. So, technically, I’ve spent the last few months writing. Or rewriting, whichever way you want to see it.

It’s really amazing how much my style has changed in just one year, but I think the current version is better. *Chris leans over and whispers in your ear, “much, much better.”* The sentences are tighter, I’ve tamed my former nemesis of constantly using  “as” and “-ing” (but still not as much as I’d like), and the word count has dropped significantly (in some cases by as much as 1200 words per chapter, though I have to tighten it even further). I have also added more of the main character’s mood and voice through the prose. So far, nothing major story-wise has changed.

If everything goes as planned, I should have it ready for my two betas by the end of summer or early autumn. If they have any ideas about the story and other plot changes I should make, I will do them afterwards, during the second round of edits.

Other than that, I’ve started accumulating a few rejections for some new short stories, so I guess it’s business as usual 😛

Posted on by Chris Sarantopoulos

Worldbuilding

When the idea behind The Darkening formed and I visualised the story’s details, I thought it would be best to spend as much time on world building as possible. The basic rules of my post-apocalyptic world took shape at that stage, as well as the time frame for the main event. But a lot of the world and the problems it would create took shape as I started writing the story.

My main character lives away from the city, in an abandoned farm house, in its basement. If one could walk in broad daylight (not that it can happen, given the peculiarity of the world) and stood at the top of the house, a nearby city’s skyscrapers are the first thing that would catch the eye. I knew that from the start. I had a clear picture in my head about its appearance. All that remained in my head and none of it appears in the story. I had stories for a few of the residents as well. All these remain in my head and notes. Background story about the world.

Another thing I knew from the very start was that John would have only one prolonged memory, a tormenting one, and it would be of his family in another place. There was no reason to have him in a different place than the one he lives during the events of the novel, other than it just made sense, so I went along with my gut feeling, and I haven’t regretted it since.

However, John’s (my main character’s name) proximity to the city was a last minute addition as I wrote the first draft. I hadn’t thought about it at first, but then a question popped into my mind: what drove him there? If he survived, why leave his house, which had a basement, therefore shelter, to risk going somewhere else? Keep in mind that John has no memory of his past, aside from that one memory. He doesn’t know how he ended up there.

But I somehow had to come up with an answer, so I wouldn’t have readers going: “Hang on! If he had a basement in his home in the city, why is he now in another place?!” I’m doing my best to avoid questions like these, and that’s one of the things my brave beta readers will assist me with. Anyway, this led me to come up with a problem, in order the current state of my main character to appear as the solution to it. Kind of like reverse engineering. And the problem was, lack of food. Deprive a living being of either one of sustenance, water or safety and the environment becomes hostile for that organism. At least that’s what he has surmised so far. Ask yourselves this: should a catastrophic event was to take place, and pockets of survivors endured in the big cities, where would they get food from? Raiding half-demolished supermarkets is one thing, but how long would that last them? What would they do afterwards?

Based on that, I now have an even clearer picture of what the world looks after The Darkening. It no longer revolved around my main character and what happened to him, but at the back of my mind I have the idea of what is happening at the same time in that nearby city, and the rest of the world.

What do you think? What is the mental picture you get when someone tells you “post-apocalyptic world?” Do you think of a nuclear wasteland stretching for miles in every direction? Do you see a lash jungle with no humans because of a lethal toxin or a virus? Or perhaps a pockmarked planet from a meteor shower? What do you think the problems each event would create to the survivors, if any? WIll it be sustenance related or not? Let your imagination run wild and comment below of how you imagine something like that. Don’t be afraid to try a different approach. You might be surprised by the outcome and end up with killer shadows 😉

Posted on by Chris Sarantopoulos

Post-apocalyptic novels

My mind is full of edits and post-apocalyptic mental images. A few days ago, I finished Walter Michael Miller’s “A Canticle for Leibowitz.” Before that, it was Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road.” Now I’m reading P.D. James’ “The Children of Men.” Granted the last one isn’t a post-apocalyptic, but a dystopian. Still, the world as James describes it appears to be heading to the inevitable apocalypse, so… Did I mention that in my spare time (as much as that can be) I play “Wasteland 2?” See what I mean?

The reason why I got so caught up with these novels, is because I wanted to be more immersed in the bleakness these worlds create, and thus maintain said mood throughout my novel. The last thing I want for The Darkening is to have a couple of chapters where the characters speak in a light cheerful way as if nothing’s wrong, when in fact the sun is about to rise and kill them. Not unless the story demanded something like that at least.

So I turn to you, fellow readers and writers. I seem to have run out of good post-apocalyptic novels. Have you read any that you’d like to suggest? I’m not interested in dystopian (I will, once I finish with The Darkening, but not at the moment), but if you have a story like The Children of Men, where the future of mankind is about to become its past, then please let me know. Thank you!

Posted on by Chris Sarantopoulos · 9 Comments

Staying focused while editing

I suck at multitasking. I mean, REALLY suck at it. Sometimes I envy people who at the same time can be on the phone dealing with an important client, signing and inspecting documents, whilst thinking about a problem at home or about the kids, and at the same time (!!) arranging things for an office happening. I wish I had a fraction of that ability. How do you people do that? Seriously, HOW?

When I have to do something, I have to focus every bit of me to make sure it works the way I want it to work. It’s the same thing with my writing. I find it impossible to write and edit other material I have queued for the same day. I think I’m programmed to finish one thing first, as best as possible (my perfectionist side doesn’t always kick in, thank God), and then move on to the next task. What this means is that, now that I’m editing my book, I find it very hard (if not impossible) to write. It’s not that I don’t have ideas. It’s that I feel that by doing one, I rob the other from the time and effort I should be putting into it. Why edit for 4 hours when I can edit for 6? Why write for 3 hours and edit for 2 more, when I can write for 5? Why is it that although I know how important editing is I feel that I should be writing instead? That I’m falling behind? I think my mind is weird or just messed up 😛

Last week I told you about my editing process. I think we can all agree that such a process is time consuming. I finished the first draft in 5 months (I wrote half of it on my cell phone, which is why it took me that much), but I don’t think I’ll have it edited in a year. Two is probably more like it. And in that time? Will I get no writing done? At all? That’s scary.

What about you? Do you write your WIP, edit another work, then read or do you only focus on one thing, no matter how long it takes you? Are you like me or am I the only one?