Peat’s Reddit Books AMA
Posted by Meg
Back in July, Peat made his Reddit Books debut with an AMA (Ask Me Anything). Lots of fans asked questions as well as a few newcomers. We’ve selected some of the best answers for your perusal! You read the entire AMA here.
Eirenakmuay: What inspired your creation of your books magic system revolving around wards?
PVB: Symbol magic appears in almost every culture in human history, so it’s always struck me as a little odd that it wasn’t that well explored in popular fantasy. I think people relate to this form of magic naturally.
RabidNewz: Do you have any plans for what you want to write after the Demon Cycle has come to a close? Do you plan to continue writing in the Demon Cycle universe, or are you going to take a stab at something totally different?
PVB: I honestly don’t know what I will do next. Not counting Skull Throne, I am currently under contract for two more Demon Cycle novels (the fifth in the quintet, and one stand-alone), and have plans for at least as many in-world novellas. At the rate I work, that is enough to last me the next 5 years or so. I don’t really have plans beyond that. There is certainly a fertile world for me to plant in here, as there are plenty of aspects of the Demon Cycle world I have yet to explore, but it may be at that point I want to take a break and try something new.
worthygoober: My first question is one of your routine. Many authors speak of falling somewhere along a linear spectrum with discovery writers and outliners at the extremes. My question is, where do you fall on the spectrum, and what is your preparation routine like when getting ready to write/plan a new book?
PVB: I think I am probably further along the outline spectrum than most (all?) authors. For instance, my stepsheet for The Skull Throne is 159 pages long and over 41,000 words. This is essentially a 159 page bulleted list of every damn thing that happens in the entire book, broken out into POV chapters.
Using that as a skeleton, I begin layering prose over the bullet points, chapter by chapter. So by the time I start “writing” I have a full map of the road ahead.
But this does not mean I don’t discover things along the way, and change course now and then, when I think it will be better for the story.
It’s not that I don’t do discovery writing, it’s just that a lot of it is done in the planning stage.
By way of comparison, the stepsheet for The Core, my next book, is currently 19 pages and about 5,000 words, and I haven’t even started working on that book. It is just my original notes from when I first pitched the quintet, along with any ideas that have popped into my head for the final volume over the ensuing years.
After I finish ST, I will spend a few weeks writing the full Core stepsheet, outlining the whole book. This will be the discovery stage, where I can make mistakes, throw shit out, and juggle chapters around. After that I will start the prose stage, where I worry less about WHAT happens and more about HOW CHARACTERS FEEL about what is happening.
The Skull Throne has a release date! March 24, 2015 in the U.S./U.K. with translations to follow. Pre-order the U.S. edition from Random House today.