{"id":40136,"date":"2022-03-31T06:30:07","date_gmt":"2022-03-30T17:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=40136"},"modified":"2022-04-27T16:58:13","modified_gmt":"2022-04-27T04:58:13","slug":"qa-thursdays-reprised","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2022\/03\/31\/qa-thursdays-reprised\/","title":{"rendered":"Q&A Thursdays Reprised #1: Phoebe’s Question"},"content":{"rendered":"

2019 already feels like an age ago—although it’s not so long in the life of the “…on Anything, Really”<\/em> blog—and one of the WALL related features that year was “A Month of Q&A Thursdays<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

Basically, I invited readers to post in questions, and some of you did. \ud83d\ude42 They were such great questions, too, that I really feel they merit another look, hence initiating this refeature.<\/p>\n

I’ll be interested to know what you think of them, if you wish to leave a comment or @ me on Twitter: @helenl0we<\/a><\/p>\n

In terms of the Q’s and my A’s, I’ll follow the original order and start with Phoebe’s question.<\/p>\n

\"daughter-of-blood-by-helen-lowe\"

USA<\/p><\/div>\n

—<\/p>\n

The Daughter of Blood<\/em> & WALL Series Q&A (Reprised): Phoebe’s Question<\/h3>\n

Phoebe:<\/strong> Do you plan your books out in chunks or do you plan out the arc for the entire book at once? They\u2019re pretty hefty \u2013 just thinking bc could impact the addition of random side characters for plot progression etc.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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UK\/AU\/NZ<\/p><\/div>\n

Helen:<\/strong> They are pretty hefty, so no surprises that the writing thereof can be a hefty process too.🙂 In terms of planning, I\u2019ve had a pretty clear idea of the story and the big hits of what\u2019s going to happen since the outset, a statement that\u2019s true of both the series as a whole and the three books completed to date. So there\u2019s always an overarching plan for the story as a whole, with a secondary overarching plan for each book within that, that\u2019s pretty much \u201cwhole and compleat\u201d in my head. <\/span><\/p>\n

The tricky part is always the material between those big hits. I think of it as being on a journey, with all the stops (e.g. cities and points of interest) clearly marked, but there\u2019s often a variety of ways, such as roads or hiking\/cycle paths or riverboats, that can get you there. And although I can have an idea of the preferred route between main story events as the characters set out, the route itself can generate unforeseen circumstances that affect how the story is told. <\/span><\/p>\n

Characters, for example, tend to develop a life of their own, so they can react in ways that surprise me, including how they interact with other characters. Sometimes, too, those interactions can be profound enough that the story must adapt to accommodate them. And because the development of a story is an organic process, no amount of forward planning can anticipate all those potential interactions and adjustments, so I believe its better not to try but give the story space to breathe and grow. <\/span><\/p>\n

Having said that, that doesn\u2019t mean I can\u2019t and don\u2019t\/won\u2019t firmly rein in characters and plot lines when they seem bent on developing a \u201cside story\u201d that does not advance the main storyline. In fact, realizing I\u2019m being \u201cpixie-led\u201d by a plot thread or characters is a major tool in my Author Survival Toolbox.🙂<\/span><\/p>\n

A Daughter<\/em> specific example that I hope may illustrate the evolutionary process and the role of minor characters is the Grayharbor section where Kalan and Faro\u2019s paths intersect. The fact that they would meet there, that the meeting would involve the Sea fleet and Kalan returning to the Wall by ship, and that the interactions would also include ill-disposed warrior kind, was part of the story arc from the outset. <\/span><\/p>\n

Elements that evolved out of the previous book, The Gathering of the Lost<\/em><\/a>, included that Kalan would be travelling with two Emerian warhorses, and that the ill-disposed warrior kind would be the Sword warriors returning home: my initial story arc was undecided as to whether the warriors would be Night, Blood, or Swords but the evolution of the story pretty much decided the matter. <\/span><\/p>\n

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USA<\/p><\/div>\n

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UK\/AU\/NZ<\/p><\/div>\n

And although I knew Kalan would interact with minor characters such as innkeepers, port workers, and the Sea Keepers, the \u2018who exactly\u2019, their dispositions, and the parts they played, all evolved out of the story, the town, and its culture.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2019 already feels like an age ago—although it’s not so long in the life of the “…on Anything, Really” blog—and one of the WALL related features that year was “A Month of Q&A Thursdays.” Basically, I invited readers to post in questions, and some of you did. \ud83d\ude42 They were such great questions, too, that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-about-my-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40136"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40197,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40136\/revisions\/40197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}