![]() You cannot just publish a book without a book to publish! The problem is, it is actually hard to finish a book. She recommends to finish writing the book before you worry about getting a publisher. Make it a goal to finish a book before you think about publishing. Publishing and writing are two different things… Enjoy the writing, the fun part. Shannon says that publishing is actually less fun than writing. She used to be able to write 2 books a year, KOTLC and the Let the Sky Fall Series, but now she has to rush to even get one book done per year! She thought it would get easier to write her books as the years went on, but it actually got harder, because she kept setting the bar for her writing higher and higher and has to work harder and harder to make her books better than her last ones, which I totally agreed with! Shannon said that she tries to get a word count in every day, and tells herself not to stop writing until she has met her daily goal. Laini asked about writers block and how she pushes through it. She told us about how she finished the final draft the day it needed to go to the printer, but there were typos after the fact because of the rush! She told us that she was really glad she was done writing Flashback, not only because it is a huge accomplishment to write an 800 page book, but also because she would get to sleep again! She noted that the closer it got to the deadline, the less she got to sleep, until she was only sleeping 2 hours a day! She also admitted that she didn’t leave her house the entire month of August! Luckily for us, the publishers gave her more room and now there are seven books out! She had to decide if she wanted to shrink the series into about three books, or is she wanted to leave noticeable breadcrumbs, so that if she did end up extending the series she would have ways to branch off from the books. She new that her books were going to be a long series, but she didn’t know how long! She was lucky that her editor committed to multiple books, but the deal was only about three books, depending on the demand. Shannon also talked about thinking to the future. One of the first ideas she rejected in the editing process was that elves didn’t originally have emotions or dreams! In fact, Sophie Foster’s original name was, get this: Agnes McWeeney. Shannon admitted that the published version of the first book in the series is actually draft #20! She had to do a ton of editing before publishing. She started talking about how Shannon went through the editing process. Keefe was the gift the story gave me! Shannon Messenger He was originally going to just be a minor character, but he ended up having a pretty big role in the series. Keefe’s name actually means, “good looking one” according to Shannon Messenger. She originally thought that Him could be a hall monitor, but then she realized that he needed to be someone who would skip class and meet Sophie in that hallway where they first met. She didn’t know his name, so she made up a character named Him. Here’s the story: She was writing the book, and she needed someone to help Sophie get to the hospital wing after she had gotten lost. The existence of Keefe is because I stopped outlining. In fact, the very existence of the beloved character from the book series, Keefe, was because she had stopped outlining and planning. She started applying this philosophy to her own books, which he felt made her story less stiff, and more flowing. That way, you won’t forget anything about how you want your story to be like. She says that when she was studying making movies and scripts, she had been taught to write EVERYTHING, and then worst case scenario, things get cut, which is really good advice. Shannon says that she is a planner, and likes to have specific outlines for what she wants to happen in the story, and she was delaying writing the story so that she could have perfect outlines. ![]() Shannon responded by saying that she had been juggling the idea of elves and Lost Cities for a couple months, but was stalling, and was still in the world building process. Laini Taylor asked how she came up with the idea for KOTLC.
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