I honestly didn’t put a lot of thought into deciding what the challenges were: I simply wanted something that was action-heavy, that would showcase the magic system, and that would require teamwork. “Scavenger hunt” fit, so I went with it. By now, we’ve seen most of the magic system at play in basic ways already: […]
A lot of this book was written by accident and this chapter is the perfect example of discovery writing in action. It has two scenes: an opening scene where Rahelu’s mother is helping her prepare for the challenges and a closing scene at the Guild when the challenges begin. Rahelu and her mother In the […]
One of the most unintuitive things I have discovered about myself as a writer is that I am, apparently, incapable of sticking to an outline. I just can’t do it, despite my tendency to being structured and methodical in my approach to most things in life. I’ll make comprehensive lists of things that should happen […]
In contrast to the previous chapter, this next chapter was one of the easiest chapters to write. Very little changed from the original draft to the published version. When I say very little changed, I don’t mean that in terms of actual count of words added, deleted, and moved around. I’m more referring to the […]
If there was one chapter that summed up my experience of writing Petition, it was this chapter, which has the dubious honor of being the most revised chapter in the entire book. For the most part, I write very clean first drafts. That doesn’t mean they don’t require editing—they do!—but I generally have a good […]