Author Spotlight: Christopher Sunami’s New Philosophy Book
Christopher Sunami is someone who has spent countless hours of his life helping other writers online.
I met him on the writing critique website, Scribophile, where Christopher posts his works to be read, gives valuable feedback to others, hosts contests, runs three writing forums, asks thoughtful and thought-provoking questions, and engages the writing community in transformative ways.
When I first came across his profile, I was intimidated. I read his critiques from afar, learning valuable information from each of them. His presence is one of honesty: he does not back down from telling the truth of his opinion, but instead uses the lessons he’s learned throughout his life to challenge others to improve their writing.
I ended up working with Christopher when I did an edit of Leah Jackson & The Temple of Whiteness, to be released soon (more on that later!). I also participated in a book outline workshop that he runs based on the methods of Snowflake and Story Genius. Both of these activities were incredibly helpful for me as I worked on expanding my developmental editing skills.
Christopher has an upcoming book release on April 25, 2024, and another book in the pipeline, so I sent him some questions for an interview.
What is your new project?
I have two current projects (two major ones, and innumerable smaller or more distant ones) and they are quite different from each other. The immediate project, which will be released on April 25th (2024) is a collaborative effort. Several years ago I started doing some paid blogging for a website run by a popular philosophy podcast, the Partially Examined Life. At some point I asked the hosts why they didn't have a book out, and it turned out they wanted one, but had never been able to put one together. I pitched them on a project with me as an editor, and we shopped it around for several years. Finally, I decided it made sense to publish it myself.
In today's world, you have to have a good platform to sell your book, and I've never been great at social media. But these guys have a terrific platform, with hundreds of thousands of dedicated listeners. What they didn't have was a book, or the time and the expertise to put one together. It was an ideal partnership, and it's been a lot of fun for me to work on. I'm legitimately hopeful it will be a bestseller. They have enough fans that I'm confident it will sell enough copies to make it worth the time. But I'd love to see it breakout to a wider audience.
You are now able to buy The Partially Examined Life: 15 Years with Your Favorite Philosophy Podcasters here.
The other book is completely different. I wrote it because I was having trouble with my previous book, a sprawling, multicultural epic fantasy that had spun completely out of control. At some point, I had to set it down, and I decided to start over with a complete learning project--a contemporary YA romance plotted out with a strict 4 Act structural model.
The first draft was reasonably well-structured, but didn't have much vitality, nor did it feel real and authentic to contemporary teenagers. So in subsequent drafts, I shifted the time period, added magical realism, shading into outright fantasy, got rid of several major characters and added some new ones, moved some plot points around, and changed the voice into first-person. I like it a lot better now, and so do my crit partners--and I learned a tremendous amount doing it.
I was hoping to publish it traditionally, with an agent and hopefully a Big 5 contract, but it didn't come together. So I'm going to publish it myself. Hopefully, if the prior book does well, it will help establish me in the publishing space (although it's usually not a good idea to put out books that are so unlike each other). I'm pretty happy with it as it is, but I'm going to do one more big rewrite, and hopefully fix any remaining issues. It's been great approaching this as a learning project because it's really allowed me to be open to making big sweeping changes as needed.
How long have you been a writer and how did you get into it?
I was productive early in life. I won a couple of young-writer awards as a kid, and had a play produced by a youth theater program as a teenager. It all culminated when I published a critically acclaimed picture book in my early 20s. I fully expected literary stardom to ensue. Instead, I spent the next few decades in the wilderness--several fully unpublishable novels and philosophy books, as well as a couple of self-publishing projects that didn't attract much notice.
I even gave up writing for several years, but when it became clear I wasn't going to be able to quit writing, I decided to approach it with a new attitude. I embraced the process, rather than the result, and gave up on the idea that every word I wrote had to make it into print or be judged a failure and a waste of time. Perhaps most importantly, I joined an online community of writers, Scribophile, and began getting consistent feedback on my writing. I had spent literal decades never getting any significant feedback, and it really hampered my forward progress.
What is the most difficult part of writing for you?
The toughest part of writing for me is that so much of my experience of writing, both mine and other peoples, is created inside my head, so it can be hard knowing what is being conveyed to the reader. Some deficiencies I've had to work extra hard at are creating good visual descriptions and maintaining a strong overall structure. I have a gift for discerning structure in other people's work, but it never seems to help with my own! In a lot of ways I'm a more natural editor than writer.
In terms of project process, I'm a big planner and outliner, but always seem to lose my way anyway...my imagination is so fertile I have trouble taming it and keeping it under control. For the past few years I've been working with a structure called "Snowflake" which I really like a lot. It's a way to grow a story organically using an iterative process. I've always been a huge fan of fractals, so it's a natural fit.
What has life taught you about writing, and vice versa?
I've learned that you have to put in your best effort at all times, and pay attention to the details, regardless of results or people's reaction. It's just not worth it to do less. I've also seen that real life is like good character arcs. We fight our deepest needs, and have to be forced to the point of no other options in order to finally let go of our wants, and work on our flaws.
What advice do you have for writers?
I have so MUCH advice, just in general, but definitely for other writers. The biggest one is get good, consistent feedback. Not having that held me back for so long. And embrace the process. Every word you write is valuable regardless of whether it makes it to a final reader or not.
Christopher’s forthcoming books:
The Partially Examined Life: 15 Years with Your Favorite Philosophy Podcasters (by Wes Alwan, Dylan Casey, Mark Linsenmayer and Seth Paskin, edited by Christopher Sunami). Release date: 4/25/24
With over 50 million all-time podcast downloads to date, and an average of 350 thousand downloads per month, The Partially Examined Life has earned its place as one of the world's most popular philosophy podcasts. Their long-requested debut book brings an elite selection of the best episodes from the past 15 years, including celebrity guests such as Lucy Lawless and Dr. Drew and philosophical heavyweights such as Peter "Animal Liberation" Singer and Patricia Churchland, opining on a wide range of topics including Art, the Free Market, the Nature of Reality, Responses to Evil, and much much more. In addition, this collection also highlights a focus on philosophers and topics underrepresented in mainstream discourse, including non-Western philosophical traditions, such as Daoism, Confucianism and Hinduism, and timely topics including racism, sexism and intersectional identity.
Leah Jackson & the Temple of Whiteness. Release Date: TBD
A Black teenager relies on her imagination as an escape from real-world problems, but when dream figures invade her posh new suburban school, she finds herself unwillingly drafted into a quest to liberate her classmates from their prejudices.
Christopher Sunami is a philosopher and writer from Columbus, Ohio. He is the author of the critically acclaimed picture book How the Fisherman Tricked the Genie, which was named a Notable Book by the National Council of Teachers of English, and which was nominated for the Georgia Book Award, as well as Hero For Christ: A Social Justice Devotional, which was a finalist for Best Religious Non-Fiction in the Indie Book Awards. He is a member of the Scribophile online writing community, where he moderates the groups "Diverse Futures" (for underrepresented writers), "Philosophers of Scribophile," and "Structured Writing Using Snowflake." He is married to artist April Sunami (@ajsunami on instagram).
