Dealing with novel challenges is nothing new for A Drift of Quills. I know, you read the fabulous stories, and they’re just so darned good that you can’t put them down until you reach those last two words: “The End.”
Easy for you to say, Oh Gentle Reader! Behind the scenes though, you are quite likely to find an author contemplating murder, natural catastrophe, or even a lightning bolt from the heavens (is that natural?) to strike down a difficult plot problem. And those suckers pop up when you least expect them, whether you plot carefully or write with wild and careless abandon.
So here’s the question of the day: What has been the biggest writing challenge with our current novel?
Novel Challenges? Do Your Worst!
My experiences in the novel-writing game are relatively few, but so far, every novel has posed at least one challenge. I’m not talking about the Usual Life Challenge that pops up every time you choose a cool project and Things Happen. Like the furnace goes out, or you get the flu, or you remember at the last minute that a Quills Post is due tomorrow… No, I’m talking about novel-specific snags and pitfalls. Like the Beisyth Web in As the Crow Flies, or the (top secret now) timeline issues in Flesh and Bone.
This time, right-this-minute, I find myself surrounded by a virtual cloud of delicate perfume as I contemplate Crow’s erstwhile lady-love. Yes, she’s making a comeback in the next story which, technically, I am only plotting right now.
Gimme a break! Flesh and Bone (The Mage’s Gift Part 2) just released on Tuesday!
But I am plotting. Muahahahahaaaa!
It involves a kidnapping. Jewels. The demons Baron Duzayan set loose, of course. An island. And then there’s Tarsha. Her beautiful, perfume-y, traitorous self is circling the team, looking for juuuust the right entrance. Is she trying to help or hinder? Is Crow really as cruel and hard-hearted toward her as we think, or is he actually a sucker for a pretty face—and will he fall for her all over again?
What am I to do with Tarsha??
I’ll tell you this—She will not get the best of me!
PATRICIA REDING
Author of the Oathtaker Series
Patricia’s website
Where does one begin? There are so many: (1) ways to stumble; (2) reasons to delay; and (3) opportunities to turn one’s attention elsewhere. It seems in one way or another, all of these things have happened to me as I’ve worked on Volume Four of The Oathtaker Series.
As to my “stumbling,” I spent a year on a work that I am very pleased and proud of. Unfortunately…
P.S. BROADDUS
Author of The Unseen Chronicles
Parker’s website
I am currently working on a distinctly different story than anything I’ve done before. This new novel is not at all related to The Unseen Chronicles, and while I certainly miss Essie Brightsday and the cast of characters we met in A Hero’s Curse and Nightrage Rising, I am loving the new setting. Inter-dimensional travel, a mad scientist, two brothers, a detective, a runaway…
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Have you got a question for the Quills? What would you like to ask us? Post in the comments below!
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