Posted on by Chris Sarantopoulos · 3 Comments

The importance of writing on a daily basis

Now that the excilaration, thrill and happiness of the previous (and so far only) publication eases, I found myself not knowing what to write here in the blog. So today I thought it might be a good idea to say a thing or two about the importance of daily routine in writing.
When in late March 2013 I took the “leap of faith” and started writing for the first time, I kept reading advice about how important it was for not only the professional writer but for the aspiring one to have and maintain a daily routine around writing. The people who advocated that said that it helped them to be in touch with the story or finish the story in time or not get bored by it etc etc.

I on the other hand advocated at the time that inspiration and, to a certain extent, willingness to sit down and write was not something that would come to the writer whenever he/she summoned it but when it chose to visit the writer. The phrase “I’m not your whore to summon me whenever you desire me” (unfortunatelly I can’t seem to remember who said that reffering to his/her muse but I think it was a Greek poet) was the phrase that kept coming to mind back then. I knew I had to write something each day to be in touch with the joy I got out of writing but I wouldn’t push myself to extremes to write a thousand words. I did however force myself for a time to write a very short story (flash story some would say it) of about 700-1000 words almost each day so I wouldn’t get rusty, IF and only IF I had an image to describe (I like coming up with stories derived from images or photos). I did this thinking that IF I ever manage to land a contract to publish my work, I would have deadlines to follow and it would be better if I were to have some practice on writing on a daily basis. Too many ifs were in my head at that time. Not many things can happen with ifs…

All this changed when I read Stephen King’s memoir/advice called “On Writing”. In it, King said that writers should write each day (weekends and holidays included) up to 2000 word and read as much as possible. He too mentions the reasons I wrote earlier but he also argued that one couldn’t aspire to be a writer without doing that. And for some reason, it was THEN that I decided I wanted to not only write for my pleasure, content on dreaming of being a published writer (at some point in the oh-so-distant-future) BUT I also had to make it happen. I don’t know what kicked in or what happened that moment when I read that line in that book but it was enough to shove me into a different mode. If one was to argue that book failed to teach me anything new, regarding techniques used to write decently, it certainly did NOT fail to motivate me. I don’t know how or why, I just know it did.

I’m glad it did.

Now I write each day 1500-2000 words each day, unless I have some editing to do for a rejected short story (they come in heaps). But, given that I’m not Stephen King nor will I ever be, I have found that working on a project day in, day out for longer than 1 month, I get bored and when that happens I can’t produce more than 300 words. It is then that I take a break and work on something else, usually a new short story or edit something else previously done. I do that for a week or maybe two. Then I’m back at the project I took a break
from. If for whatever reason I have to miss a day’s writing, the rest of the day turns sour, I’m grumpy and I feel guilty for not writing.

Does it work? So far, yes. Does it pay off? YES! Without a doubt, yes! Once I call it a day, I start reading for an hour or an hour and a half (in addition to my reading before I go to bed which is another hour or so). Have I seen improvement on my writing quality? Yes, but that is subjective. Rejections keep coming. I know, however, that it’s probably due to me being at the beginning of a very long and arduous road and due to me writing in a different language than my own.

Knowing that most people who decide to write have day jobs, families etc, I would add to Mr. King’s statement that it’s not important just how much one writes BUT it’s important that it happens on a daily basis, even if it’s for no more than 20 minutes.

I now firmly believe this road leads somewhere. Don’t know where yet.

Posted on by Chris Sarantopoulos · 4 Comments

Published!

This past week has been a very exciting one. My first short story got published in Beyond Imagination Digital Literary Magazine Issue 4 (http://www.beyond-the-imagination.com/). You can get a copy of that magazine at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KR3HLNY/ref=pe_385040_118058080_TE_M1T1DP

As you can all understand, I’m still very excited over this publication. The OK from the editors had come on March this year. Considering that I have been writing since March 2013 and the fact that English isn’t my native language, this acceptance made me happier than ever. I knew I was doing something right and that someone liked my strange stories. I only hope that more will follow and this wasn’t my only one.

I’ve always had (and still do) reservations regarding the use of English language, since no matter what, I will never be able to use it as efficiently as a native speaker would. Thank God for editing, revisions and of course my friend’s keen eye and help!

I hope you all enjoy the story and the magazine.

Posted on by Chris Sarantopoulos · 3 Comments

Writing about dreams

I will continue last week’s theme about dreams. Like I wrote last week, the story I’m writing deals with dreams. In it, one of the main characters acts as a conduit between the dream world (which is a plane of existence separated from the four planes that define the material world) and the real world (though one may argue how real can a fantasy world be).

That particular character is supposed to be a tragic one; she has sought for this plane for all her life, eager to gain power and knowledge (that’s what motivates her) and when she finally finds it she fails to realise what this new world actually is and what its denizens plan to do. It’s a bit ambiguous if she found the dream world or if it’s the other way around. That’s up to the readers to tell, when they will judge the character.

Which brings me to the next problem I’m facing: how does one describe a story that is both easy for the reader to understand where things are happening (real world / dream world) and maintain limited omniscient (third person) POV?

One of the ways I chose  to deal with this problem was to change the tense of the narrative.  Another was to occasionally break the narration by interjecting small paragraphs (no longer than a sentence perhaps) that described what the physical body did while the mind was in the dream world (twitches, sweating). I have to admit I’m not sure about this last bit though. It feels odd and… wrong, I guess, to break the narrative.

I have been reading for quite some time a long series of fantasy books (cause that’s pretty much the only genre that really excites me) called Wheel of Time, by Robert Jordan. I started reading this story after I decided I wanted to try writing and without knowing that the story was about dreams. I can honestly say that I was happily surprised. The way Jordan describes his version of the dream world (he has given it a very strange name for me to type it here without messing it up) and the interactions of the characters with it is by maintaining the tense and adding things that could only happen in a dream. To me this makes more sense.

Another book I’m currently reading (or listening to, since I have it as an audiobook) is Bag of Bones, by Stephen King. In it, King chooses to change the tense and it works for him. The problem is that whenever the main character has a dream, music kicks in and the listener understands that something’s different. Would it have worked just as good if I was reading it instead of listening to it? I don’t know.

I’m at a loss to be honest and I don’t know which one is best. What do you think? What would you use? Leave a comment if you have an idea. Do you have someone you know who is either writing or has written something about dreams? If so, could you please hook us up here so we can exchange ideas?

Also, please take a minute to answer the poll I had posted last week about a new section that will deal with ideas. So far only one person (thank you by the way 🙂 ) has answered it.

Thank you all and take care!

Hello everyone

This week I’d like to give some information about what my book is about.

First of all, I should say that the genre is fantasy leaning towards sword and sorcery BUT not entirely. No more than A Song of Ice and Fire is, at least. I use multiple POVs in order to tell significant events that happen in the world. The world I’ve created bases its magic on the elements, which means there are four distinct types; earth, fire, water and wind. The way I have explained it is that the characters’ world resides at the centre of a balanced scale with four tips. Each tip represents an element and consequently another world dominated by that element. The characters’ world (the real world) resides on the fringes of these four elemental worlds, thus having access to all four types of elements. Pretty straight forward so far.

What happens if another plane enters the equation? That is one question a part of the story is about, though not the main plot line. The other thing is this: what if nightmares were real, living entities? Where did they come from? What if there was a way for them to enter the real world (the characters’ world)? What would happen then? My guess is madness would come to life and that is what I have made the story be all about. How would individuals deal with it? What would happen to a kingdom that is on the brink of civil war, if the key players were to be “possessed”, so to speak, by maddening nightmares? This last question gives rise to another one: who controls the nightmares?

These, along with the different characters that will tell the story (different POVs), are some of the main plot lines that will have to be answered by the time I finish all the books. Oh yes, I forgot to mention… It’s going to be more than one book. Which is nice when you think about it but nigh impossible to sell to the agents and publishers since I’m unknown in the literature circles. The risk is too high for them. The length of each book will be far greater than the standards agents ask from newcomers (if I ever become one). Again, think of George R. R. Martin’s books (around 1000 pages) as well as Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time book length (more than 1000 pages).

To tackle this, I have also started outlining (whenever time permits) another story, a stand alone one, based on one of my short stories. I will talk about that at another post. I should be able to keep it at normal length (around 100k words, which is about 250 pages I think). But first I want to finish with the draft of the first book of the series and see where it takes me from there. If anything, I’m honing my craft, so no waste of time there 🙂

Also, I’m still waiting if anyone wants to share ideas with the rest of the community. If so, please let me know, so I can set up a new page in my blog where we could share stories and ideas.

Take care!