Thank you so much for sharing this creation story! I see parallels to Susan Dennard's discovery that her writing brain needs to have many different projects to alternate between, rather than being 'stuck' on just one book at a time.
My own WIP needs 30K cut to be querying length, and the deleted scenes have similar word count to the book itself. Some of those early versions are so night and day different, you can't recognize them as the same story. But they were necessary to distill the heart of it.
sometimes you need to write the scene even if the reader doesn't need to read the scene! Being able to recognize that is an important skill. Best of luck with the paring down-- I'm sure you won't regret it.
Thank you for this! I am young, and want to be an author. I always get frustrated by messing up my plot in a draft, but seeing a successful author like you experiencing it, it gives me motivation.
P.S. You're my favourite author and your books have made me want to be an author :)
Writing can be frustrating! But if it's helpful to know this, "messing up my plot" is basically what we're all doing, all the time-- especially when writing rough drafts. People talking about how messy first drafts can be, but I think every time you write one, you think...surely no one else's are THIS messy, though. But they 100% are.
Best of luck with your writing and I'm so glad to hear that my books were inspiring for you. :)
Currently in the throws of editing my first book. Which has had a 20 year gap to breath! I'm actually very pleased with the first two thirds now. It's mostly the last third that's making me groan. Or be bored to death. I wouldn't mind but the scenes are pivotal and emotionally loaded 😂 thanks for the article nice self confidence boost. Especially as my work is plot driven!
20 years! Damn! I'm glad you're happy with the first two thirds. There's always a section that feels terrible, in my experience. Good luck with the rest!
Yes 20 years. Can't believe it's been that long. Your article was very inspiring. No less because my writing style is plot driven which apparently is meant to match some of your earlier works. But to see you reworking a novel in iterations like this is really interesting. Although I guess that's what I'm doing myself as I'm on my third draft. Thanks!
Very interesting, Veronica. I was delighted to come across this, as it was your Arch-conspirator that fired my determination to get a novel written this year, when I came across it on a bookshop shelf in the summer of 2024 and thought 'Yes! That's just what I'm looking for!'.
My book is now (just) finished, and as you describe here, it started out as a fairly literary dieselpunk story, but then I hit a wall and was losing enthusiasm. I found it then morphed into satirical SFF, while retaining the same core elements, and versions of the main hero and villain.
Reassuring to hear that more experienced writers follow similarly winding paths before arriving at their destination.
I shall look forward to reading Seek the Traitor's Son next year.
Oh, I love that Arch-Conspirator was that book for you! Delighted to hear it. Congratulations on finishing your book and the journey you went on with it sounds pretty great.
Love this, and am definitely sending this to my students. This really resonates with my own revision process—I'm constantly starting over from scratch, overhauling and rebraiding, questioning every element. I think books are most successful when we let ourselves fully enjoy this process of play and boundless reimagining. Thank you for sharing!
Thank you! and I'm so glad it resonates with you, sometimes I get a little bit discouraged by the way people talk about writing, like it has to be a slog and you only enjoy it once it's done. I sometimes feel that way, but I also want to see people playing around and appreciating it in the moment. So I hope your students find ways to do that (and you, of course! and, let's face it, ALL of us could use more playfulness right now where we can find it)
Loved this deep dive so much. I feel this way about ny fantasy WIPs. They've been so different with each draft, sometimes characters are siblings, sometimes love interests are different, or maybe theyre from completely different countries they were originally, but I know by the time the story feels right that all that swapping will have been worth it!
I'm glad I'm not the only one who does new drafts just to find out "what if these two people made out instead" or "what if I switch where these people are from"
Thank you! And yes, it's a little like seeing a director's cut or something-- different versions of the same story. But with books, the differences can be more extreme, because you don't have to rely on scenes you've already shot.
"Weary" is a good way to describe that feeling. I do think that being able to play with a draft like this is a privilege-- it requires a lot of time and energy that most people don't have to spare. But I'm glad I got to experience it, and it reminded me that efficiency doesn't actually have to be a value for me all the time in writing.
I do hope your weariness subsides soon and you can find the good creative energy!
Yes, that part! I recently got a little ping during a meditation reminding me, “masterpieces are encouraged to take time / don’t rush your greatness” - feels so good to indulge in our own art (but also wild that we’ve been conditioned to believe that if we’re not rushing there’s something wrong). Thanks for your thoughtful reply!
This resonates — especially the part about how messy drafts can feel like they never converge. Getting stuck revising the same sections over and over is one of the hardest parts of writing for me too.
What’s helped me most is breaking the process into clearer passes (big picture structure → clarity in key ideas → polish) so I’m not trying to edit and write at the same time. It reduces the feeling of constantly re-solving the same paragraph.
I’ve been maintaining a small writing workflow system built around that separation, so sharing here in case it’s useful to others dealing with the same loop:
Ten Drafts! And, big changes at that. You pretty much wrote the book ten times! That's awesome. I don't have the stamina to work on something that long, even though draft I attempt does come out better than the one before.
I just started getting back into writing fiction again and recently got an honorable mention for one of the literary magazines I submitted a short story too. :)
Also, loved the Divergent series and look forward to reading more from you!
V, thank you for sharing this insight into your drafting process. I have found that most experienced writers flat out refuse to share their first drafts with new writers. Often times that is the very first obstacle that new writers are struggling to surmount - what doors a draft (first, second, tenth) look like? Is that what I have? Please continue to share these thoughts, advice & encouragement. Thank you so much!
Thank you so much for sharing this creation story! I see parallels to Susan Dennard's discovery that her writing brain needs to have many different projects to alternate between, rather than being 'stuck' on just one book at a time.
My own WIP needs 30K cut to be querying length, and the deleted scenes have similar word count to the book itself. Some of those early versions are so night and day different, you can't recognize them as the same story. But they were necessary to distill the heart of it.
I can't wait to read this.
sometimes you need to write the scene even if the reader doesn't need to read the scene! Being able to recognize that is an important skill. Best of luck with the paring down-- I'm sure you won't regret it.
Thank you for this! I am young, and want to be an author. I always get frustrated by messing up my plot in a draft, but seeing a successful author like you experiencing it, it gives me motivation.
P.S. You're my favourite author and your books have made me want to be an author :)
Writing can be frustrating! But if it's helpful to know this, "messing up my plot" is basically what we're all doing, all the time-- especially when writing rough drafts. People talking about how messy first drafts can be, but I think every time you write one, you think...surely no one else's are THIS messy, though. But they 100% are.
Best of luck with your writing and I'm so glad to hear that my books were inspiring for you. :)
Currently in the throws of editing my first book. Which has had a 20 year gap to breath! I'm actually very pleased with the first two thirds now. It's mostly the last third that's making me groan. Or be bored to death. I wouldn't mind but the scenes are pivotal and emotionally loaded 😂 thanks for the article nice self confidence boost. Especially as my work is plot driven!
20 years! Damn! I'm glad you're happy with the first two thirds. There's always a section that feels terrible, in my experience. Good luck with the rest!
Yes 20 years. Can't believe it's been that long. Your article was very inspiring. No less because my writing style is plot driven which apparently is meant to match some of your earlier works. But to see you reworking a novel in iterations like this is really interesting. Although I guess that's what I'm doing myself as I'm on my third draft. Thanks!
So helpful! I’m also edit weary but this gave me a boost! ❤️❤️
you got this!
Very interesting, Veronica. I was delighted to come across this, as it was your Arch-conspirator that fired my determination to get a novel written this year, when I came across it on a bookshop shelf in the summer of 2024 and thought 'Yes! That's just what I'm looking for!'.
My book is now (just) finished, and as you describe here, it started out as a fairly literary dieselpunk story, but then I hit a wall and was losing enthusiasm. I found it then morphed into satirical SFF, while retaining the same core elements, and versions of the main hero and villain.
Reassuring to hear that more experienced writers follow similarly winding paths before arriving at their destination.
I shall look forward to reading Seek the Traitor's Son next year.
Oh, I love that Arch-Conspirator was that book for you! Delighted to hear it. Congratulations on finishing your book and the journey you went on with it sounds pretty great.
Can't wait!
<3 :)
Love this, and am definitely sending this to my students. This really resonates with my own revision process—I'm constantly starting over from scratch, overhauling and rebraiding, questioning every element. I think books are most successful when we let ourselves fully enjoy this process of play and boundless reimagining. Thank you for sharing!
Thank you! and I'm so glad it resonates with you, sometimes I get a little bit discouraged by the way people talk about writing, like it has to be a slog and you only enjoy it once it's done. I sometimes feel that way, but I also want to see people playing around and appreciating it in the moment. So I hope your students find ways to do that (and you, of course! and, let's face it, ALL of us could use more playfulness right now where we can find it)
This was an excellent article on things I haven’t been able to quite explain. And an encouragement! Thank you.
Thanks for reading! <3
Loved this deep dive so much. I feel this way about ny fantasy WIPs. They've been so different with each draft, sometimes characters are siblings, sometimes love interests are different, or maybe theyre from completely different countries they were originally, but I know by the time the story feels right that all that swapping will have been worth it!
I'm glad I'm not the only one who does new drafts just to find out "what if these two people made out instead" or "what if I switch where these people are from"
This is amazing!! You changed my POV!
Actually, it reminds me of movies test screenings! There are TONS of cuts before we can see the final cut...
Your new novel sounds super cool!
Thank you! And yes, it's a little like seeing a director's cut or something-- different versions of the same story. But with books, the differences can be more extreme, because you don't have to rely on scenes you've already shot.
As a writer feeling currently rather editing-weary, this was such an encouraging perspective shift. Thank you for sharing!
"Weary" is a good way to describe that feeling. I do think that being able to play with a draft like this is a privilege-- it requires a lot of time and energy that most people don't have to spare. But I'm glad I got to experience it, and it reminded me that efficiency doesn't actually have to be a value for me all the time in writing.
I do hope your weariness subsides soon and you can find the good creative energy!
Yes, that part! I recently got a little ping during a meditation reminding me, “masterpieces are encouraged to take time / don’t rush your greatness” - feels so good to indulge in our own art (but also wild that we’ve been conditioned to believe that if we’re not rushing there’s something wrong). Thanks for your thoughtful reply!
This resonates — especially the part about how messy drafts can feel like they never converge. Getting stuck revising the same sections over and over is one of the hardest parts of writing for me too.
What’s helped me most is breaking the process into clearer passes (big picture structure → clarity in key ideas → polish) so I’m not trying to edit and write at the same time. It reduces the feeling of constantly re-solving the same paragraph.
I’ve been maintaining a small writing workflow system built around that separation, so sharing here in case it’s useful to others dealing with the same loop:
https://www.patreon.com/cw/WriterPromptVault
I appreciate that some drafts were 90 pages. Exploring ideas for a story feels daunting if I have to write the 300-page entire book every time.
Ten Drafts! And, big changes at that. You pretty much wrote the book ten times! That's awesome. I don't have the stamina to work on something that long, even though draft I attempt does come out better than the one before.
I just started getting back into writing fiction again and recently got an honorable mention for one of the literary magazines I submitted a short story too. :)
Also, loved the Divergent series and look forward to reading more from you!
V, thank you for sharing this insight into your drafting process. I have found that most experienced writers flat out refuse to share their first drafts with new writers. Often times that is the very first obstacle that new writers are struggling to surmount - what doors a draft (first, second, tenth) look like? Is that what I have? Please continue to share these thoughts, advice & encouragement. Thank you so much!