Sunday has come and I’m excited to welcome author Joanna Hathaway back to NovelKnight today to celebrate the upcoming release of Storm from the East, the second book in her Glass Alliance series!
The first book, Dark of the West, was one of the most unique takes on YA fantasy I’ve read in recent years and I can’t wait for its sequel to hit shelves this coming Tuesday!
Joanna is talking about crafting a world/series today and there’s also a chance to win a copy of Storm from the East so keep on reading!
On Crafting a World or Series
by Joanna Hathaway
When someone asks me how I plotted the Glass Alliance series, I have to make an honest confession: I truly didn’t know what I was signing up for when I began. While I’ve always been a very intentional writer—wanting to know where I was going with my stories, and why—I never imagined the level of sheer thrilling chaos that a series brings. Wrangling both characters and worldbuilding across multiple books can sometimes feel a bit like herding wild cats (not just ordinary cats—wild ones!) In my rookie writer fantasies, I’d always envisioned Dark of the West as one giant War and Peace-style novel, but, apparently, publishers aren’t too fond of those doorstoppers anymore. Imagine that, right? Instead, I had to admit I was far from a Tolstoy, and think very hard about what this story would look like when broken down into reasonable-sized pieces.
Here are a few things I’ve learned along the way…
1. Each book needs to have a complete story—some conflict that begins and ends within that individual book—while the larger conflicts continue onwards to span the entire series. Readers want a satisfying experience for each instalment, the feeling that something has been resolved or accomplished, but with enough leftover burning questions that they’ll want to read the next book, too. The same thing goes for characters. Characters should be developing and growing with their own mini-arc in each individual book while still following a much larger arc from the first book to the last book. This seems deceptively simple and obvious in theory, but is actually the sort of thing that will make a poor writer rip their hair out. (Trust me. I have bald spots now!) With the Glass Alliance series, I wanted to take a privileged girl from princess to revolutionary sniper, and a war-averse general’s son from failing pilot to committed commander, and these aren’t transformations that happen overnight. I had to decide fairly early on: who would be in the driver’s seat for these books? The plot or the characters? The world or the interiority of the people inhabiting it? Not really a surprise here if you’ve read Dark of the West, but I chose the people, and that meant making sure the plot (the conflicts in each book) would primarily serve their growth, nudging them along the larger arc of the series.
2. This resulted in a few key trouble spots for me, namely the fact that when I write my initial drafts, they read like… well, actual memoirs. They read as if my characters are real people reflecting on the history of their own world and their place in it, full of daily details and routine moments. While this helps me flesh out and understand their environment more, it’s not exactly the height of great dramatic fiction. And this revelation, when it hit me, wasn’t all that surprising considering I spent most of my teen years reading memoirs, rather than fiction. (I was a complete history nerd, I confess!) Which brings me back to the first point about establishing conflicts with beginnings and endings in each book. I often have to go back on subsequent drafts and determine where my characters will have a greater impact on the plot and strengthen their role in the drama. These aren’t truly memoirs, after all, and the stakes really do need to be there. It’s been a great learning curve for me, something I’ve had to work at with each instalment, though I do think my tendency towards the opposite direction has (hopefully) helped keep the novels feeling a bit more grounded, as if it is a history that might have actually happened in a world not quite like ours.
3. Which leads me to the world itself. If you know me at all, you’ll know that I live and breathe history! It’s been a passion of mine since I was thirteen-years old, and much of this series is meant to be an impression of our own world (though not a perfect reflection). I always borrow carefully, since I’m very conscious of the fact that our world’s history, even if we’re talking about long-ago events like the World Wars, has left profound wounds and scars on actual people around the world which linger to this day. I take the weight of these subjects seriously even though I’m writing in a fictional world. Any time I feel like I’m getting too “close” to an actual real-world event, I attempt to blur the lines and put a different spin on it, maybe borrowing from a whole other century. For example, my pilot Athan comes from a revolutionary nation called Savient, and while it might have been more clear-cut to just make Savient the “Germany” of this WW2-inspired world—aggressive, militaristic, ambitious—it would have also brought along quite a few things which I wasn’t comfortable utilizing for a fantasy world. Instead, Savient retains the militaristic foreign policy and visual details (grey uniforms, twin-cannon fighter planes) of 1940s Germany, but its ideology is pulled more from the Soviet Union with a strong push for class and gender equality, and a commitment to encourage this revolutionary shift around the world (while still hiding other shadows, of course). I also borrowed a bit from Napoleon Bonaparte—a dictatorial general in a land of monarchies. There might even be a thin layer of US foreign policy overtop as well… The point is, our real world is complex and varied and pulsing with countless motives. It was important to me to that the Glass Alliance world mirror that complexity while also feeling like its own creation.
4. For the final point, let me tell you something that is particular to my personal writing process: I absolutely, definitely, always need to know the ending! Not every writer works this way (nor do they need to), but for myself, I had to know where I was headed with this series from square one. I wanted to be able to bury little things along the way, mysteries and clues that would help the entire trilogy feel like a whole once we reached the conclusion. This is entirely personal preference, of course, and one of the reasons I don’t usually listen to the behind-the-scenes secrets for my favourite books and films. I don’t want the magic ruined! (I’m still sad to this day that the Luke and Leia kiss happened simply because George hadn’t yet decided they were siblings.) So, I’ve structured this series to the best of my ability, to avoid accidental dead-ends or missed opportunities. My characters still surprise me often, of course, which is why writing is so much fun. They take on a life of their own, and I try to structure the big things while leaving room for improvisation as I discover what they want to show me about their journey to get there.
Well, those are my rambling thoughts on crafting a world and series! I’m far from an expert—I can only share the few things I’ve picked up during this journey of experimenting and failing and forever trying from another angle. But that’s the thrill of writing, and especially of writing a series. Find the joy, expect the chaos, and be intentional as you pull it all together! ☺
About the Book
by Joanna Hathaway
Series: Glass Alliance #2
Published on February 11, 2020 by Tor Teen
ISBN: 9780765396440
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 496
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult
Battles, revolution, and romance collide in Joanna Hathaway's stunning, World Wars-inspired sequel to Dark of the West
Part war drama, part romance, Storm from the East is the second novel in Joanna Hathaway’s immersive, upmarket YA fantasy series that will appeal to readers of Sabaa Tahir, Marie Rutkoski, and Evelyn Skye.
War has begun, and the days of Athan’s and Aurelia’s secret, summer romance feel a world away. Led by Athan’s father, the revolutionary Safire have launched a secret assault upon the last royal kingdom in the South, hoping to depose the king and seize a powerful foothold on the continent. Athan proves a star pilot among their ranks, struggling to justify the violence his family has unleashed as he fights his way to the capital—where, unbeknownst to him, Aurelia has lived since the war’s onset. Determined to save the kingdom Athan has been ordered to destroy, she partners with a local journalist to inflame anti-Safire sentiment, all while learning this conflict might be far darker and more complex than she ever imagined.
When the two reunite at last, Athan longing to shake the nightmare of combat and Aurelia reeling from the discovery of a long-buried family truth come to light, they’ll find the shadow of war stretches well beyond the battlefield. Each of them longs to rekindle the love they once shared . . . but each has a secret they’re desperate to hide.
Tour Schedule
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Giveaway!
Enter to win 1 of 3 copies of Storm from the East!
US only. Ends February 19, 2020.
This giveaway is sponsored by a third party. NovelKnight is not responsible for winner selection, or provision and shipping of prizes.
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