09/11/2023 — Happy almost-kinda fall! I have a few quick updates before I jump into some more questions. I reached out to my marketing coach and my cover designer last week and am awaiting replies. We are getting to the point where we are planning out next steps… anyone interested in ARC reading? (ARC = Advanced Reader Copy, let me know if you want to hear more about this!) It won’t be very soon, unfortunately; I still have more edits to get through and then time set aside to get the book formatted. My personal goal for a release of To Favor Blood & Flowers is early 2024, but I make no promises.
As for my cover designer, I am hoping to get a second draft of the cover very soon. I’m a little excited. (That’s a lie, I am refreshing my gmail as we speak.) If you’re getting this email, you’ll be seeing the cover before anyone else! More info to come.
Now–to the questions!
What have you found to be most challenging about writing fantasy?
I think one of the most challenging parts about writing fantasy is also one of my favorite parts. The fantasy genre is built on things that are make believe or impossible in our world. Often, magic. As a person who likes to be in control of things, fantasy writing allows me to be flexible with my character’s reality. I can create powers and myths and creatures out of my own imagination and bend what is possible.
Of course, the flip side to fantasy is that every creature and story and power has an order to it. When I create a magic system, I have to also create its rules. How far do powers reach when they are used? How is someone able to obtain powers (passed along genetically, chosen, or other)? What are the limits to a person or a creature’s magic? Very rarely is there a magic system that has no rules.
Keeping track of them all can be difficult. To Favor Blood & Flowers has a few different magic systems, and I have had to make rules for all of them. I try to have one document with all the information in one place, and that seems to help a bit with the details. However, there always seems to be a character who has an exception to the rule, so I have to add yet another caveat to the magic document. What can I say, these characters have a mind of their own!
What do you do when a new idea jumps out at you while you’re still working on a book?
I would love to say that I’m the kind of writer that stuffs a new idea into the back of a closet so I can keep working on To Favor Blood & Flowers… but I definitely cannot say that. Sometimes a new idea comes to me and I feel it so much that my brain isn’t capable of focusing on other things or projects. I’m often lost in the emotions of the new character and the tensions of whatever is happening within this new idea. I’ve found that getting the new idea out of my head helps me to focus on other things, and the best way to do this—write!
Some new ideas have taken me a couple hours to get out of my system, but others have taken me days. I typically will write out my idea exactly as I had it first. If it was an idea that came from a dream, I write out the dream exactly as I remember it. Then, I expand. I find names for characters, write physical descriptions, decide on general physical locations, jot down major plot points that seem probable, and more. I know it seems like a lot of work away from my current project, but in the grand scheme of things, it is more advantageous to write when the emotions and the passion for the idea are high. I have always found that that is when I do my best writing.
After I’m done getting out the basics for a new story idea, I head on back to To Favor Blood & Flowers. I might never write the stories I jot down, but they are there in case I ever want to.
How do you know a scene is edited and done?
I don’t know if I ever feel like a scene is edited and done. I always seem to find at least one minor thing to swap around or change, but that might just be me. Repetition seems to be the thing that tells me a scene is close to being done.
In editing To Favor Blood & Flowers, I’ve had to reread and edit my scenes hundreds of times (no joke). I edit as I go through it, adding in emotional responses, actions, or bits of dialogue, then I keep reading. I always chuckle to myself when the next paragraph has almost the exact same thing written that I added in. Gail from months or years passed had the same exact idea. That is how I know that the scene is almost there.
I was going to add another question, but I seem to be rambling in these last few. I’ll let you all go to enjoy your day! I hope you find a little magic in it 😊
Much love and happy reading,
Gail ❤
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