Sadia asked Intisar Khanani:

How did you come up with these stories? What was your process for writing these stories?

Intisar Khanani Each of my stories has a different genesis / starting point. Some began with a single dream-like image that I had to play with and unpack (Sunbolt), some are based on a classic fairy tale (Thorn, others I haven't published yet), some started from having a sense of a character and setting, and then coming across a particular detail in my life that brought the full plot into focus (The Theft of Sunlight is a good example).

As with the genesis of each story, the writing has also been different. Sunbolt was a dream-concept that haunted me for years, and then poured out of me in the space of a couple of weeks. Thorn I wrote as a writing exercise to see if I could actually write a novel--at a chapter a week, the draft took the better part of a school year, and I went through around 16 rounds of revisions to bring the story to where it is now. The Theft of Sunlight was somewhere between the two--it took a few months to write, a year to revise. Nothing poured out of me, but the writing itself was stronger, so revisions took less time.

I suspect every book will be it's own journey for me. I have a book that has been incredibly difficult to revise (Sunbolt #3)--it's the book that has made me question my abilities as a writer because I simply can't get it "right." That's okay, I realize now. It just needs more time, needs to be processed differently, needs to develop on its own timeframe, and so that's what I'll do. I won't give up, but I won't tear myself apart over it either.

I hope this answers your questions. Thanks so much for reading!

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