Writing Equinox (The book version)

I originally wrote Equinox the whole way back in 2012 as a screenplay at the start of my writing career. It was only the second full-length story I ever wrote, and I didn’t know whether anyone else (especially in the professional world) would see it as any good.

I was about to give up writing after only a short time, but I wanted to write just one story that I could be proud of. A story where I would throw all my best ideas into and hold nothing back. I mostly took inspiration from films (because it was a script) like Star Wars, Metropolis, Blade Runner and especially, Equilibrium. It was a very freeing experience as I had no expectations on my shoulders and my greatest ambition was to get a “good” rating back from an international screenplay competition I decided to enter it into.

The judge’s scorecard came back to me on Christmas Eve. The overall score in the competition was based on a percentage. I only hoped to get around 50, maybe 60% at a push. But it floored me when I got back a score of 84%. It is the single most important story I’ve ever written as everything else that followed was thanks to the motivation and validation Equinox gave me as a writer. I’ve toyed with the idea of converting Equinox into a novel ever since I started writing books. I have tried occasionally with no success. But after finishing Disturbed Waters, I couldn’t fight the urge anymore. The timing felt right, so I got stuck in it, and it flowed quite well.

There are a few changes to the screenplay, but I think the story is better for it. I knew I would never be able to capture that feeling when I was writing the screenplay, but it was great to return to the characters and world I had built that had lingered in my mind ever since. I also started to remember some fun facts about the story. Cleo, the main female protagonist, got her name after the first car I had at the time of writing, a red Renault Clio. I never expected to keep the name, but it grew on me and seemed to fit the character. Another name that stood out was the capital city, Divenire. It was named after the arrangement Divenire by Ludovico Einaudi, a favourite piece of music at the time.