The Fever King didn’t get published overnight. I was working on this book for years—scribbling away in notebooks on the Stockholm tunnelbana, revising and rewriting and losing sleep over all those dead darlings—querying, revising some more, revising some
This is EXACTLY the sort of thing I've always wanted to read from published authors! It's kind of incredible to see the early process and how much like that of many writers I know - as in, you write a thing, talk to some people about the thing, get feedback from people at a similar stage in the process, etc. Like, I know that's kind of how these things go because published authors were also unpublished at one time, but I think when you're not yet at the published stage, you feel this disparity between the two, so you wonder what that ~different process~ looks like. And it's actually really similar.
It's so cool getting to see into your writing and publishing journey through this post, and I'm excited to read part 2! Also, this puts into perspective how important it can be to have a support system in the writing community that pushes you and encourages you to keep going. Not sure if you'd ever be open to discussing what you look for in critique partners/what you feel makes a valuable critique partner/how you found yours (even though that process and those preferences differ for everyone) in a future post? That is, if it's something that you think is worth talking about as such a subjective topic, but I feel like it's something a lot of people (myself included) wonder about once they've gotten through (or even during) the drafting process.
This is actually amazing?? Thank you so much for taking the time to share your experience - as both an avid fan of your work and an aspiring author, this is an incredible, invaluable insight into the creative process that goes into writing and publishing a novel. I think the thing that struck me the most is the sheer number of critiques and revisions TFK went through - I'm a pretty longwinded writer who currently primarily writes fanfiction, so the thought of doing more than a perfunctory round of edits is intimidating!! But I also know that if I ever want to get a work published I will have to get used to the idea of constructive critique and "killing your darlings", as you said - and it's encouraging to see how you were able to use these things to make the story even better than it already was. I really enjoyed reading this, and I look forward to part 2!!
P.S. I was so sure the Calix POV excerpt was going to be from TTC and then IT WASN'T BUT I LOVED IT 😂 I have a weakness for young Calix POV so thank you for that ✨
This is EXACTLY the sort of thing I've always wanted to read from published authors! It's kind of incredible to see the early process and how much like that of many writers I know - as in, you write a thing, talk to some people about the thing, get feedback from people at a similar stage in the process, etc. Like, I know that's kind of how these things go because published authors were also unpublished at one time, but I think when you're not yet at the published stage, you feel this disparity between the two, so you wonder what that ~different process~ looks like. And it's actually really similar.
It's so cool getting to see into your writing and publishing journey through this post, and I'm excited to read part 2! Also, this puts into perspective how important it can be to have a support system in the writing community that pushes you and encourages you to keep going. Not sure if you'd ever be open to discussing what you look for in critique partners/what you feel makes a valuable critique partner/how you found yours (even though that process and those preferences differ for everyone) in a future post? That is, if it's something that you think is worth talking about as such a subjective topic, but I feel like it's something a lot of people (myself included) wonder about once they've gotten through (or even during) the drafting process.
This is actually amazing?? Thank you so much for taking the time to share your experience - as both an avid fan of your work and an aspiring author, this is an incredible, invaluable insight into the creative process that goes into writing and publishing a novel. I think the thing that struck me the most is the sheer number of critiques and revisions TFK went through - I'm a pretty longwinded writer who currently primarily writes fanfiction, so the thought of doing more than a perfunctory round of edits is intimidating!! But I also know that if I ever want to get a work published I will have to get used to the idea of constructive critique and "killing your darlings", as you said - and it's encouraging to see how you were able to use these things to make the story even better than it already was. I really enjoyed reading this, and I look forward to part 2!!
P.S. I was so sure the Calix POV excerpt was going to be from TTC and then IT WASN'T BUT I LOVED IT 😂 I have a weakness for young Calix POV so thank you for that ✨