Ask the Author: Laini Taylor
Answered Questions (22)
Laini Taylor
Hi Kelly! No plans for ANZ this year, sorry. I hope I can come back soon though! And spend more time this time! :-)
Laini Taylor
Hi Cristina! I struggle hugely with perfectionism, and it made me stop writing for YEARS. I just never could break through it, and just rewrote the same page or chapter, plus I hadn't figured out how to figure out "what happens next." It's HARD. Finally though this desperate yearning to just do it built up in me and I committed to finishing a novel. The important thing for me is that I can't listen to the advice you hear so much: "Write a fast first draft and make it better." This doesn't work with the brain I have. I've learned by now that I have to let myself edit as I go, and I don't move on from one chapter to the next until i love it and it feels right. It's slow, but I can manage it. It's always hard though (*almost* always, there are rare periods of flow). Anyway, how many years until I wrote something I was proud of? I don't know. I've always loved language, and I'm sure I wrote paragraphs and sentences I was proud of, but I didn't finish anything or ever get very far in, so that wasn't much use! My advice is to develop a habit of completion, even if you're writing short pieces first, to get used to finishing things, to having a beginning, middle, and end, so that you know you can do it. If you need to revise a lot to make it better, do it. Just do whatever needs to be done. I wasted a lot of time wishing it were easier. It isn't (for me at least!), so now I just try to do the work instead :-) GOOD LUCK!!!
Laini Taylor
Daughter of Smoke & Bone came out of a day of writing for fun. I'd been struggling with another book that wasn't working out, so I gave myself a day to write something just for fun, without knowing what that would be. What appeared on the page was this blue-haired teenage art student arguing with her father, who turned out not to be human, and they were so vivid and alive, I wrote all day, filled with magic and delight. I had no story for them, no context, but I started asking questions, trying to figure out who they were, and gradually a story began to evolve. I eventually decided that Karou would live in Prague because I had been there to research Prague as a setting for another story which I didn't end up writing. It's perfect, being a real city where teenagers live and go to school, and having at the same time the dark Gothic fairy tale vibe that suited the story perfectly :-)
Laini Taylor
I would like to be able to fly, but I would also like to be able to stop time so that I can get more writing done :-)
Laini Taylor
I definitely am. I'm a major believer in following your dreams, and have been really lucky to have been able to do so. I mean, I made decisions when I was younger to structure my life in such a way to do so, working jobs that would give me the most time to write, versus pursuing a career or "backup plan." It wasn't easy, but I was lucky to have the support of my family and my husband, who is an artist and felt the same way as me about pursuing a creative career, even if it was a more risky path, and meant years of not having much money. I mean, I think that if you're a dreamer, if you have a dream, then that's what you are, and that's what you have. You can't "unhave" it or "unbe" it. You can deny it or ignore it, but that will have consequences forever. It's possible you won't regret not trying to pursue it, but I kind of think that if you don't try, you'll always regret it.
Laini Taylor
Building a whole new world was both a lot of fun and a lot of work! With making a new world, I'm looking for a balance between new/strange and familiar enough that it's not constant work for the reader. You know, if every single thing were brand new and unfamiliar, it would be exhausting. There would be so much explanation and description to read. It's a no-go. And yet I do want it to feel new and strange, so I'll try to find a few things that work as cues that we're in unfamiliar territory, like the humans in this world having two hearts, etc.
The idea of "Weep," this lost city, and what happened to it and to its name was exciting as I set out writing this book :)
The idea of "Weep," this lost city, and what happened to it and to its name was exciting as I set out writing this book :)
Laini Taylor
Hi Shirin! No, I don't look at reviews on goodreads. I try to keep my head inside my stories. It's easy to get derailed by random feedback, so I just avoid it.
Laini Taylor
Hi Mikayla! Thank you!!! I'm not sure how to answer. I do a lot of thinking/brainstorming about the story, and writing *about* the story, trying to figure things out and stir up ideas, but most of the good stuff comes in the actual act of writing, messing around with words on the page/screen. I LOVE to tinker with language, imagery, metaphor. All that comes when I'm actually IN the words, in a scene, moving words around. The language is so important to me, I let myself spend a lot of time playing, getting it how I want it. A lot of the story ends up arising out of the prose too.
Laini Taylor
Hi Mikayla! Thank you!!! I'm not sure how to answer. I do a lot of thinking/brainstorming about the story, and writing *about* the story, trying to figure things out and stir up ideas, but most of the good stuff comes in the actual act of writing, messing around with words on the page/screen. I LOVE to tinker with language, imagery, metaphor. All that comes when I'm actually IN the words, in a scene, moving words around. The language is so important to me, I let myself spend a lot of time playing, getting it how I want it. A lot of the story ends up arising out of the prose too.
Laini Taylor
Hi Tigress :-)
I do hope to get back to the DoSaB world one day and catch up with those characters, possibly write about the next war and the godstars and how it all plays out. I'd also love to write more stories and novellas, like Night of Cake & Puppets. I'd especially like to write Mik & Zuzana's wedding and see what everyone is up to!
I do hope to get back to the DoSaB world one day and catch up with those characters, possibly write about the next war and the godstars and how it all plays out. I'd also love to write more stories and novellas, like Night of Cake & Puppets. I'd especially like to write Mik & Zuzana's wedding and see what everyone is up to!
Laini Taylor
Yes, I have a number of books in mind that I want to write, but I'm not sure which order they'll come in, or if something else that I haven't even thought of yet might step in and light my mind on fire and get written first. It's hard to say now, since I'll be at work on this one for a while. I wish I could freeze time and write all the books in my head and get them all out in the world. I wish I were faster!!!
Laini Taylor
I've always wanted to be a writer, for as long as I can remember. So...this *is* the dream :-)
Laini Taylor
Hi Nadja! Honestly I can't remember if the original inspiration was a dream. It's possible. I've had this character--the muse of nightmares--in my head for like 20 years, and it's possible she was from a dream, but I don't know. I just know she's stayed in my mind, and when I was thinking about which ideas I might want to write after DoSaB, she was at the top of the list. (Originally she was the main character, but Lazlo stole the book!!)
As for the cover, no I didn't help. The amazing designer at my publisher did it. They sent me two concepts and I loved them both, but this one more. It's gorgeous. I love it!
As for the cover, no I didn't help. The amazing designer at my publisher did it. They sent me two concepts and I loved them both, but this one more. It's gorgeous. I love it!
Laini Taylor
I thought I knew!! But I was wrong. The whole time I was writing, I thought it was a different girl who fell. But as I got near the ending, it became clear what had to happen. It was heartbreaking for me too...
Laini Taylor
Get Brazil to invite me!! :-)
Laini Taylor
Hi Athena! I truly hope so. There are some tricky issues with the original publisher not wanting to either rerelease the books or give me back the copyright so that I can have control of the series myself. But I hope that eventually something may be done. I miss Magpie and everyone!
Laini Taylor
It will be out in Spanish in July! Yay!!
Laini Taylor
Hi Tiffany! The characters are definitely primary--the characters and their situation. I love world building, but the world has to fit the characters and grow out of the narrative, and along with it. I don't do all the world building up front, but just what I need to get started. I discover so much along the way that shapes the rest.
As for naming, I love coming up with names. One of the first things I do for a project is start a notebook of it and start a list of names in the back--not with anything specific in mind, but just a big list of cool-sounding names from a bunch of different sources, that I can add to and draw from throughout the writing. I'll look at lots of things: plant names in other languages, cool "dead" languages, maps of exotic countries for village names no one will ever have heard of, astronomy, lesser known mythology, names from other linguistic traditions, fantasy name generators, a million different places. I'll circle the best ones, try to nail down names that I need to get started, and come back to them throughout the writing.
Notebooks!!! I only use hardcover Clairefontaine journals. They're from France and are good quality without being fancy, if you know what I mean. Perfect paper weight and lines (which I need), but it's not like handmade paper you'd be afraid to write on, etc. This is them:
https://www.amazon.com/Clairefontaine...
Cheers!
As for naming, I love coming up with names. One of the first things I do for a project is start a notebook of it and start a list of names in the back--not with anything specific in mind, but just a big list of cool-sounding names from a bunch of different sources, that I can add to and draw from throughout the writing. I'll look at lots of things: plant names in other languages, cool "dead" languages, maps of exotic countries for village names no one will ever have heard of, astronomy, lesser known mythology, names from other linguistic traditions, fantasy name generators, a million different places. I'll circle the best ones, try to nail down names that I need to get started, and come back to them throughout the writing.
Notebooks!!! I only use hardcover Clairefontaine journals. They're from France and are good quality without being fancy, if you know what I mean. Perfect paper weight and lines (which I need), but it's not like handmade paper you'd be afraid to write on, etc. This is them:
https://www.amazon.com/Clairefontaine...
Cheers!
Laini Taylor
I would love to come to Germany! I hope that one day my German publisher will bring me over :-)
Laini Taylor
Well, I wasn't sure. I thought it was...one of the other 2 possibilities. I didn't decide for sure which one, but I was leaning toward one of them. But like a clap of thunder, late in the writing, I realized who it really had to be... :-)
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