Mike
asked
Andrea K. Höst:
How much planning went into the Touchstone series? Because of the format it started out in, it doesn't seem like it could be completely off-the-cuff, but I also have trouble imagining the type of planning that would go into something like that.
Andrea K. Höst
Touchstone started off as a fiction blog. My initial concept was simply to write every day of a person's life, no matter how boring that day was - to not skip the things that writers usually elide or compact for the sake of easy reading.
There was no planning whatsoever to start off with, just a girl, and stepping her through a gate and every day I discovered what happened next. This is pretty much how I usually write, for the first chapter or so of my books - I rarely have an ending in mind when I start.
But naturally I think about what could be coming as I write, and usually by chapter three or so I have some idea of some of the major events we're heading for. Often the explanation for all the things going on don't come along until later, though.
With Touchstone particularly, a great deal of what happened revolved around me thinking of something interesting, writing about it, and then when I bored of that, thinking up a new spanner to throw in the works. I didn't know what a Touchstone was actually _for_, for instance, until Lira showed up.
There was no planning whatsoever to start off with, just a girl, and stepping her through a gate and every day I discovered what happened next. This is pretty much how I usually write, for the first chapter or so of my books - I rarely have an ending in mind when I start.
But naturally I think about what could be coming as I write, and usually by chapter three or so I have some idea of some of the major events we're heading for. Often the explanation for all the things going on don't come along until later, though.
With Touchstone particularly, a great deal of what happened revolved around me thinking of something interesting, writing about it, and then when I bored of that, thinking up a new spanner to throw in the works. I didn't know what a Touchstone was actually _for_, for instance, until Lira showed up.
More Answered Questions
Lisa Penfold
asked
Andrea K. Höst:
I saw your FAQ about audiobooks: ...sad sigh. If you do get around to them, I very much hope that they will be narrated by Australians! Also, will "All Foes" become available through Amazon? For your amusement: I have managed to cut back on re-reading your Touchstone set. Instead of re-reading them every time I recommend the series, I "only" re-read them every third or fourth time...
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