Ask the Author: Linnea Hartsuyker
Answered Questions (7)
Linnea Hartsuyker
I am working on something else, in revisions from my agent right now! Similar time period, totally different part of the world. Thanks for asking!
Linnea Hartsuyker
Sometimes! But I also try to multi-task. I listen to podcasts while I spin or knit complicated things, and I can read while I knit simple things.
But they also steal from each other in other ways. Because I learned to spin, I was able to describe what is was like for my characters in The Half-Drowned King.
But they also steal from each other in other ways. Because I learned to spin, I was able to describe what is was like for my characters in The Half-Drowned King.
Linnea Hartsuyker
One of the best things about being a writer of fiction is that it provides a framework for my whole life. When I read a book or engage with any kind of art, I'm taking it in as entertainment, but also always trying to learn from it, to make myself a better writer. When something happens in the world, or in my life, I think about not just what it means to me and to others, but how someone could explore and understand it in fiction.
Something else I love is how my own writing can surprise me. I often don't really know what I think about something until I write about it. Similarly, I don't really know a character or story until I write it. I tend to write my rough drafts very quickly, and what comes out in that first pass is messy, and repetitive, and often doesn't do what I want, while also containing buried gems, new insights or pleasing turns of phrase I didn't notice when I wrote them.
Something else I love is how my own writing can surprise me. I often don't really know what I think about something until I write about it. Similarly, I don't really know a character or story until I write it. I tend to write my rough drafts very quickly, and what comes out in that first pass is messy, and repetitive, and often doesn't do what I want, while also containing buried gems, new insights or pleasing turns of phrase I didn't notice when I wrote them.
Linnea Hartsuyker
This is going to be the most cliche-ridden advice, but...writers write. If you write, you're not an aspiring writer, you are a writer. My advice is to find a reason to write that does not depend on outside validation. Write because you want to read the story you're writing. Write because you want to explore an idea, a world, a character. Learn to do it better, and learn from other people's input, but even doing that is a good way to make sure that what you write will be a story you want to read.
Another of my favorite pieces of writing advice is that everything you write is necessary to get to the words after that. Write 1000 words, a story, a novel, and feel like it fails on some level? That's okay--without writing those words, you could never have written the words you wrote next.
Another of my favorite pieces of writing advice is that everything you write is necessary to get to the words after that. Write 1000 words, a story, a novel, and feel like it fails on some level? That's okay--without writing those words, you could never have written the words you wrote next.
Linnea Hartsuyker
I am currently inputting my editor's suggestions on the sequel to The Half-Drowned King, and working on the third and final book in the trilogy.
Linnea Hartsuyker
When I don't write, I become unhappy, so that is pretty motivating! I try to write a certain number of words per day, or edit a certain number of chapters. By working on a project every day, my mind stays in the story world, and inspiration comes from everywhere--everything I read, every interaction I witness contains seeds of something that can be used in the story. A lack of inspiration is usually a sign that I haven't been spending enough time with a story, and/or that there's a problem with it I need to solve.
Linnea Hartsuyker
When I was in my teens, my family began researching our ancestry and history, and traced our lineage back to King Harald Fairhair, the first king of Norway in the 9th century. I always wanted more information about him and his era than what history books and the Icelandic sagas gave me. That desire grew into The Half-Drowned King and its sequels.
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