This here is probably the final word on the writing of Slouching Deathward and anything I say after this will be about the process of trying to get it published. I am now finished the line edits and waiting for Monika to finish proofreading it to ensure I made no major flubs. Once that is done I will sit down and over the course of a day or two, make the final changes to the manuscript. So now is as good a time as any to make some final statements.
ON THE TEXT
What I’m going to wind up with is a highly polished story. I’ve never spent so much time revising, editing and rewriting. I’ve tortured over every single word choice, I’ve written and rewritten sentences, trying out different word-orders and I’ve spliced paragraphs together in a dozen different configurations to satisfy my desire to make sure everything is right and in the right place. As a result I’ve managed to whittle my prose down to the bare necessities. I’ve killed any superfluous plot points and murdered pointless subplots. What I’m left with is a stark and bare story that, had I wanted to waste my breath, could have easily been a 70,000 word novel.
This is a story full of short, minimalist sentences and unadorned paragraphs that (I hope) will move readers along at a good clip. I figure it’s comparable in length to Camus’s The Outsider or Orwell’s Animal Farm but could probably be read in about half the time because the sentences and paragraphs are so fluid.
Also, this is the first time I’ve paid attention to plot or attempted to use the device of suspense in any way. I dare say, I’ve almost written a page-turner. Lest that should come off as arrogant bragging, I’ll point out that I have, in the past, deliberately avoided writing anything that could be considered a page-turner. I feel that a lot of stories that have strong plot-driven narratives tend to develop plot at the expense of character development. Having always wanted to write character-driven stories I have often forgone plot altogether—particularly in short stories (in fact, I defy anyone to point out a short story by me that has anything resembling a plot). I tell my stories out-of-order and stay away from linear narratives to put the focus on the people.
I have done that here, too; albeit to a lesser extent. I keep the present events moving along in order but occasionally flash back to random points in the past to develop character. I think it worked well, though it’s not as complex as my narratives have been in other attempted novels, it works better.
And while the characters and the plot work together, each assisting the other’s development, I have trimmed back none of the ideas. I don’t beat readers over the head with my “message”; but it does underlie every single word of the story—it’s concentrated. I suppose that’s the advantage of choosing my words so carefully this time around.
Don’t let that scare you off, though. There’s still a very simple tale here about family, love and justice. You don’t need to be able to appreciate the deeper themes to enjoy the story.
Speaking of themes…
ON THE THEMES (WARNING: THEMATIC SPOILERS AHEAD)
If you’d prefer to discover the themes of the story for yourself you’d do well to skip ahead to the next section. However, I have been asked by a couple of people about the themes of the story so I will break my own rules and discuss it a little here.
I will not spoil the plot; I will only point out the hum of the generator.
I have been asked if this is a science fiction piece. I suppose, if you consider books like 1984 and Brave New World science fiction, then yes, it is. It is set at some indeterminate point in the future and there is some extrapolation on current technology. There is some science and it is fiction. Though I have to admit, I am prone to using Atwood’s term, “speculative fiction” as there’s no science in the book that I don’t see being developed today.
The major themes are represented in the title, really. “Slouching Deathward” is a mash up of two apparently separate ideas that seemed to follow the theme of my story. The first is Don DeLillo and his assertion that there is “a tendency of plots to move toward death.” The second is W. B. Yeats’s poem The Second Coming.
As often happens to me as I formulate an idea and attempt to view it through the lens of my own philosophy, I find pieces of an idea strewn here and there in the literature I read and the news I see on television. I happened to be attempting to apply the second law of thermodynamics, entropy, to the economy and political systems when I read The Second Coming.
Forgetting the religious implications of the poem and thinking instead about what “second coming” implies—the end of the world as we know it—I began to get a sense of an understanding of entropy on Yeats’s part.
Entropy is, of course, the tendency of systems to move from order to disorder or a measure of that disorder. Lines in the poem like, “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold” (which, at this point anyhow, serves as the epigraph to my book) and “The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity” sort of gave birth to the story in my head.
So the title is made up of both Don DeLillo’s idea that all plots move toward death—an ending, disorder, entropy; DEATHWARD—and the final line of Yeats’s poem, “And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?” Hence: Slouching Deathward.
The ideas of chaos and disorder are explored throughout the story, every word weighted to add a sense of either order or chaos; and the feeling that we are moving form one to the other at ever greater speeds. Every system breaks down eventually—good or bad, there’s no escape.
Of course, as with everything I write, existential themes are explored as well; integrated into the examination of chaos. The idea of characters searching for meaning in an absurdly meaningless universe; choosing eventually to create their own meaning—in part by rebelling against the absurd.
All that being said, I am extraordinarily proud of this little book. I think it’s the best thing I’ve written to date and I hope someone out there will take a chance on it. I am eager now to write something a little longer and a little more complex. I am eager to attempt to outdo myself.
Soon the book will be sent off to publishers and I’ll start working seriously on something new. Now is the time to start wishing me luck on both accounts.
ON THE TEXT
What I’m going to wind up with is a highly polished story. I’ve never spent so much time revising, editing and rewriting. I’ve tortured over every single word choice, I’ve written and rewritten sentences, trying out different word-orders and I’ve spliced paragraphs together in a dozen different configurations to satisfy my desire to make sure everything is right and in the right place. As a result I’ve managed to whittle my prose down to the bare necessities. I’ve killed any superfluous plot points and murdered pointless subplots. What I’m left with is a stark and bare story that, had I wanted to waste my breath, could have easily been a 70,000 word novel.
This is a story full of short, minimalist sentences and unadorned paragraphs that (I hope) will move readers along at a good clip. I figure it’s comparable in length to Camus’s The Outsider or Orwell’s Animal Farm but could probably be read in about half the time because the sentences and paragraphs are so fluid.
Also, this is the first time I’ve paid attention to plot or attempted to use the device of suspense in any way. I dare say, I’ve almost written a page-turner. Lest that should come off as arrogant bragging, I’ll point out that I have, in the past, deliberately avoided writing anything that could be considered a page-turner. I feel that a lot of stories that have strong plot-driven narratives tend to develop plot at the expense of character development. Having always wanted to write character-driven stories I have often forgone plot altogether—particularly in short stories (in fact, I defy anyone to point out a short story by me that has anything resembling a plot). I tell my stories out-of-order and stay away from linear narratives to put the focus on the people.
I have done that here, too; albeit to a lesser extent. I keep the present events moving along in order but occasionally flash back to random points in the past to develop character. I think it worked well, though it’s not as complex as my narratives have been in other attempted novels, it works better.
And while the characters and the plot work together, each assisting the other’s development, I have trimmed back none of the ideas. I don’t beat readers over the head with my “message”; but it does underlie every single word of the story—it’s concentrated. I suppose that’s the advantage of choosing my words so carefully this time around.
Don’t let that scare you off, though. There’s still a very simple tale here about family, love and justice. You don’t need to be able to appreciate the deeper themes to enjoy the story.
Speaking of themes…
ON THE THEMES (WARNING: THEMATIC SPOILERS AHEAD)
If you’d prefer to discover the themes of the story for yourself you’d do well to skip ahead to the next section. However, I have been asked by a couple of people about the themes of the story so I will break my own rules and discuss it a little here.
I will not spoil the plot; I will only point out the hum of the generator.
I have been asked if this is a science fiction piece. I suppose, if you consider books like 1984 and Brave New World science fiction, then yes, it is. It is set at some indeterminate point in the future and there is some extrapolation on current technology. There is some science and it is fiction. Though I have to admit, I am prone to using Atwood’s term, “speculative fiction” as there’s no science in the book that I don’t see being developed today.
The major themes are represented in the title, really. “Slouching Deathward” is a mash up of two apparently separate ideas that seemed to follow the theme of my story. The first is Don DeLillo and his assertion that there is “a tendency of plots to move toward death.” The second is W. B. Yeats’s poem The Second Coming.
As often happens to me as I formulate an idea and attempt to view it through the lens of my own philosophy, I find pieces of an idea strewn here and there in the literature I read and the news I see on television. I happened to be attempting to apply the second law of thermodynamics, entropy, to the economy and political systems when I read The Second Coming.
Forgetting the religious implications of the poem and thinking instead about what “second coming” implies—the end of the world as we know it—I began to get a sense of an understanding of entropy on Yeats’s part.
Entropy is, of course, the tendency of systems to move from order to disorder or a measure of that disorder. Lines in the poem like, “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold” (which, at this point anyhow, serves as the epigraph to my book) and “The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity” sort of gave birth to the story in my head.
So the title is made up of both Don DeLillo’s idea that all plots move toward death—an ending, disorder, entropy; DEATHWARD—and the final line of Yeats’s poem, “And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?” Hence: Slouching Deathward.
The ideas of chaos and disorder are explored throughout the story, every word weighted to add a sense of either order or chaos; and the feeling that we are moving form one to the other at ever greater speeds. Every system breaks down eventually—good or bad, there’s no escape.
Of course, as with everything I write, existential themes are explored as well; integrated into the examination of chaos. The idea of characters searching for meaning in an absurdly meaningless universe; choosing eventually to create their own meaning—in part by rebelling against the absurd.
All that being said, I am extraordinarily proud of this little book. I think it’s the best thing I’ve written to date and I hope someone out there will take a chance on it. I am eager now to write something a little longer and a little more complex. I am eager to attempt to outdo myself.
Soon the book will be sent off to publishers and I’ll start working seriously on something new. Now is the time to start wishing me luck on both accounts.
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