Chris Sarantopoulos's Blog, page 20

Published again!!!

So many things happened in the past week and all of them great!

I have good news my friends; I’m going to be published again. Voluted tales, a literary magazine, has honoured me by accepting a short story of mine and it’s scheduled for publication before the end of the year. I don’t have a definitive date yet but once I have one I will let you know and give you a link to the story itself. For the time being, if you are interested in taking the time in checking the magazine out, their web address is at here.

I’m very excited about this acceptance, as this story is dearest to me and also the one that sparked the novel I’m currently working on. I spoke about it here. It’s the one short story I have worked the most on and it’s also the very first one that I ever sent out to magazines, not to mention that it’s also the second story I had ever written in my life (the first one was just so I could practice some exercises I had read about and I needed a completed story). As a result it’s also the one that has accumulated the most rejections. I was lucky enough for some of them to be personal rejection letters, which had very helpful comments that I later used to improve not only that story but also the ones that followed. It was thanks to this story that I managed to be published earlier in the year by Beyond Imagination. So you can understand how partial I am to this story.

Over the past months that I have been trying to find a home for it and ending up getting rejected, I very often thought about hiring an editor to help me pinpoint the mistakes I was unable to see. It would have been of great help to me to see how proper editing is done and see the small details he/she would add and make the story shine. I think it would have helped me considerably, cause I would have learned something new. Guess I’ll have to wait a little longer for that to happen but at some point down the road (not too far down the road, mind you) I hope will have the chance to work with such a professional. I think I can learn things from it.

In other news, the novel I’m working on progresses somewhat slower but hasn’t stopped. Writing on a cellphone is not easy (my eyes can testify to that, lol). I finished two more scenes, so that’s about 6200 words in total. It’s not great but it’s not bad either. Currently I’m stuck because of my nemesis, the dialogues. I can never seem to get them right or at least good enough. If you have any insights to offer with material on how to write good dialogues, please share :)

I also came up with an idea for another story (whether it will be a book or short story or something in between is something that I haven’t decided yet). Never before had I ever felt the need to wake up because of an idea getting lodged into my head (no, it wasn’t a dream), but it was enough to get me out of bed and start taking notes about it, while my eyes were still closed. To be honest, I hadn’t had a new idea for a while (I have taken notes on many things and ideas since I started writing) and this one was god-sent. The only bad thing is that I can’t (or rather, I shouldn’t) work on it any more, until the current project is finished. Otherwise I’m risking not finishing anything. I am very excited about it though. Seems promising but only time will tell if it will be good enough.

Finally, a friend I came to know through this blog that has supported me considerably during my darker mood swings or when I got discouraged by rejections, has just published her first novel. Her name is Dee King and her book is a YA novel. The author’s blog is here. You can find all the necessary information about the book there. If you have the time or the curiosity, stop by her blog and check her book out. I’m really proud of her. Finishing a book is not an easy thing to do, as I’ve now come to understand :)

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: acceptance, literary magazine, literary magazines, novel, post apocalyptic, publication, published, rejections, short story, The Darkening, Voluted Tales

Scene Elements

Ever since I started writing (granted, it’s not that long) I found it easier to break my work down into scenes and work my stories with that in mind. So, today’s topic is SCENES and their ELEMENTS.

1. First of all, any scene should have characters (the driving force behind any decently written story) that readers can identify with. In other words, each reader should be able to find at least one thing in the character’s behaviour that he or she can honestly say ‘that makes sense to me; I would act in the same way.’ If we miss that, then we feel detached from the story and sooner or later we are going to put the book down or at least claim that the story wasn’t nice.

2. A scene also needs to be exciting. How can this be achieved? By having conflict in the scene. Keep in mind that conflict doesn’t mean crisis. They are completely different. An interesting character is a conflicting one and it’s the character’s role (technically, it’s our role as writers/storytellers) to bring the character’s conflict into the scene. If the character is one who values life as sacred and is instead forced to make a choice that will result in the end of another life, then this is conflict. If a character is brought up as an honourable and never act behind the scenes, forcing that character to go against their personal code of conduct to preserve the greater good or the status quo, will result in tension, suspense and ultimately conflict. Which in turn means the scene is interesting.

3. A scene should be clear enough for the reader to know who’s to cheer for and who’s to mourn. It doesn’t matter if later in the story these roles will be switched. All that matters is that the scene will be clear in showing who’s who.

4. It goes without saying, that any scene uses strong sensory details; hearing, taste, sight, touch, smell. Use it all at the right time, in the right amount. The story I’m currently writing (The Darkening) takes place in a world where humans can only live in darkness. Sight is virtually non existent, so all the other senses have to make up for it.

5. There should only be enough back story that will drive the plot forward. This was something that used to plague me when I first started and I think to a certain extent, it’s something that everyone has to deal with as they begin. It’s a more prominent mistake with any of us writing high fantasy, or create new worlds for our stories. The rule ‘avoid infodump’ should always be in our minds with this one.

6. It’s vital to have some kind of foreshadowing going on, if not at every scene, certainly at those that are more vital in showing us things about the characters or the plot. Don’t overdo it though, cause then you end up infodumping and the reader may get bored.

7. Do I need to say anything about author intrusion? I think not. Points 5 and 6 are somewhat related to one another by the blunt intrusions we often as writers/storytellers make. So no author intrusions. Avoid things like ‘and as it’s known, crocodiles are vicious killers’ (sounds, terrible, doesn’t it?)

8. A scene becomes more interesting if we guide the reader through a familiar setting, by showing the things that are unusual. There’s hardly anything strange or unusual in a bedroom but what if the character was to enter such a room and see that the bed cover is creased and messed up at one side? Something happened there and we just showed it to the reader.

9. I had read somewhere that when describing a scene it’s best to show the important aspects of a scene first and then the less important ones. It makes sense but I think this may come down more to how each writer handles that. One thing for sure is that the way we handle this thing has to be consistent.

10. A scene should have turning points for a character in the dramatic action, as well as the character’s emotional development. Have a character that appears to be selfish, do the right thing, after the character has fought with himself inside.

If you know of any other elements for a scene that don’t fit in the above, please comment below.

Filed under: Advice, Uncategorized Tagged: backstory, character, character conflict, character development, characters, conflict, foreshadowing, infodump, Plot, scene, scene elements, sensory details, story, turning point, writing, writing advice, writing tips