03/27/2023 — Today, I want to do a little bit of a deeper dive into my book and how it was born.
To Favor Blood & Flowers is the first of three books in my young adult, romantic fantasy trilogy. In writing this book, I set out to tell a story from the perspective of Carina, our lively main character. The book is primarily written in the first person, so readers will get to see and experience Carina’s family, life, and the unforeseen circumstances that are forced upon her. No spoilers, but Carina’s not too fond of surprises…
A lot of my favorite books are written in the third person, but personally, I LOVE writing in the first person. There is something about slipping into someone else’s experiences and roles that is so refreshing to me. Call it escapism if you must. I definitely love a good daydream into my book world when things get busy in my own life.
Sometimes, writing in first person comes in handy. Say my earbuds got ripped out during the middle Taylor Swift’s “Getaway Car” (Awful, I know). Now, I’m upset and have some feelings I need to get rid of. Enter writing! This might be a time I sit down and “become” Carina when she’s dealing with an annoying lord and suitor. Channeling my everyday emotions into my writing has been a great way for me to connect with Carina and make her emotional responses as real as possible.
It’s not always easy to write in the first person, as much as I love it. For those who don’t know me very well, I’m an individual who feels a lot of emotions in general. Reading a sad book? I’m crying. Listening to a good song? I’m crying. Watching an animated children’s movie? You guessed it: crying. A handful of the scenes in To Favor Blood & Flowers were especially difficult to write because I had to “become” Carina while she experienced some of the most traumatic and shocking things in her life. I spent a lot of time, as the author, debriefing about all that Carina has seen and how it has influenced her growth as a person. It has helped me become more aware of my own reactions to trauma in my life.
All right, all right. That’s a lot of heavy writing talk. Let’s move on to something more fun… world building!
For those of you less familiar with the term, world building encompasses the background information that the plot of a fantasy novel stands on. It often includes history of species, history of the land, languages spoken, architecture, botany, religion, etc. World building is the big and the miniscule things about the people and the places your characters live.
Building the world in To Favor Blood & Flowers took several years for me. I had an original world built with my first draft, but it kept getting more and more complex as I edited and added layers to characters. Finally, I had a history for my book that went back thousands of years. Oops. There is a full history of royals and religions and events that I created for this trilogy, although readers might only get glimpses through the books Carina reads or the lessons she attends.
My favorite part of building a fantasy world from the bottom up has to be the fashion. I know...of all the cliche things I could love to create, I always come back to what everyone is wearing. My Pinterest boards for the To Favor Blood & Flowers trilogy are overflowing with gowns, shoes, rucksacks, and crowns. Sorry to disappoint my Pinterest fans, but the boards are private! Carina loves a good fancy dress, especially in book one, so I made sure to do a lot of research into the fashion influences of Carina’s court and home at the castle, as well as how her outfits and style change throughout her character development and the places she travels to.
What would be your favorite thing about building a fantasy world?
Much love and happy reading,
Gail ❤
P.S. - What else do you want to know? Send a message to let me know!
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