On Mar 15, 2012, at 8:01 AM, jshkay wrote: > When you write your books, do you create a complete outline before > writing your story? One thing I've noticed in quite a few books is > foreshadowing, prophecy, and things related to that. Is that > something that comes about because an outline of the whole book has > been created, or does it come about because after writing the book the > author is able to make small changes to foreshadow something? I don't > exactly know how the process works, but after you have written your > first draft, are you going back and fixing inconsistencies as well as > adding things that you didn't know until after you wrote the book? > Also, how many iterations of the book do you go through before > reaching your final product? >
I don't use outlines. I know where a book is going to end, and simply start writing toward that ending. As for foreshadowing, that began in earnest in Shadow, but the events before that are a little hard to explain. From my point of view I write historical novels about Midkemia, so when I wrote Magician, I put stuff in there that reflected earlier history and later events. So when I got to the point it was clear I'd end up doing two or more additional rift wars, I looked at things I had done earlier that would serve as foreshadowing. One example: when demons started showing up, in Silverthorn, they were merely summoned critters, but by the time Shadow of a Dark Queen, demons were firmly in my head as having a larger role in the overall arc of the story. If that all makes sense. Best, R.E.F. www.crydee.com Never attribute to malice what can satisfactorily be explained away by stupidity.
