As 2021 winds down, so do popular trilogies by four YA authors: Roshani Chokshi, Mackenzi Lee, Natasha Ngan, and Kiersten White. We asked each of them about the origin of their series, the writing experience throughout, and what comes next.
Roshani Chokshi
In September, Chokshi’s Gilded Wolves trilogy, which began with The Gilded Wolves and The Silvered Serpents, ended with The Bronzed Beasts. Beginning in the late 1880s during the Exposition Universelle in Paris and ending in Venice, a band of five searches for an ancient artifact that has the power to change the world.
Do you remember your original inspiration for the series? Where did it all begin?
Ironically, the inspiration for the series came from the desire to write something fun, lighthearted, glamorous, and magical. I set out to write National Treasure fanfiction and ended up with a Faustian, existential crisis of a trilogy with a bonus middle finger to colonialism.
How and when did the title for each book in the series develop?
The first two titles came from emotionally charged scenes in the stories. The last title came from the panic of wondering how I would incorporate “bronzed bears” into a plot device before a friend suggested “beasts” as an alternative. I think of all three books, the title of the finale is the only one that doesn’t appear in-text. If I am wrong and my brain is merely glazed over from deadlines, feel free to throw cyber tomatoes at me.
Did the reader response to the first book impact your writing or perspective as you went on to write subsequent books? In what ways?
It certainly impacted my perspective concerning how we make art. Social media has destroyed a necessary barrier between artist and audience. It is humbling to see the reach of a story, but in observing reader responses, I discovered a vicious anxiety to explain myself, point to my scars, clutch the pages of my research, the observations of my sensitivity readers, and hold them up as armor to digital damnation. Now I do not look. It’s not my place. I owe my readers nothing more than my best efforts.
Are you a plotter or pantser?
I am a plotter sans pants. Meaning, I make a path through the woods of a story, but I put on the wrong shoes and a flimsy dress and I forget all about the brambles on the way and have to clip them as I go lest I get scratched.
Has your writing process changed over the course of writing this series?
It has made me more and less precious with my writing process. Less precious in that I can stomach the grotesque, misshapen lump of words that comprise a first draft. More precious in that I am arriving at a place where I am comfortable fighting for more time to give to a project rather than churning them out at the expense of my sinews and sanity.
How does your approach vary depending on whether you are writing for a middle grade or young adult audience?
It doesn’t. At the end of the day, I measure a story’s merit by how much it makes me feel and how effectively I can articulate those emotions.
What is your hope as this final book reaches readers?
There is a beautiful, treacherous alchemy in writing stories and releasing them in the wild. Those words are nothing more than ink on a page, but they can turn to gold or lead in a reader’s heart. They can turn to magic. I hope this book makes magic for them.
Mackenzi Lee
The Nobleman’s Guide to Scandal and Shipwrecks (HarperCollins/Tegen, Oct.) is the final book in the Montague Siblings trilogy, following The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue and The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy. This concluding volume takes place years after the events of the first two books, as Adrian Montague, the younger brother of disowned siblings Monty and Felicity, learns of their existence and sets out on an adventure to find them.
Do you remember your original inspiration for the series? Where did it all begin?
My ideas tend to come to me as one thing that then magnetizes and attracts a bunch of other things that have been sitting around in my head for a long time. There is very rarely one initial moment of inception. If I had to point to one thing, though, it’d be my senior year of college as a history student, as the teaching assistant for a class that was exploring the Grand Tour in the 1700s, delving into different worthy destinations. I hadn’t known anything about the Grand Tour before this, but I’d just come off a year of living abroad and was feeling very excited about the transformative power of travel on young people. I wasn’t a fiction writer at the time, but I was fascinated by how a parallel to my experience existed in the 1700s. I shuffled the idea of an adventure story structured around a Grand Tour away in my brain, returning to it years later.
When did you realize that this story had series potential?
It feels like a miracle that this story ended up being a series. After Gentleman’s Guide, it was my publisher that approached me about doing a second book. I assumed they’d want another book about Monty and Percy but they requested a book about Felicity. Assuming I knew best, I started drafting a book about Monty and Percy, but I quickly realized that I was undercutting one of the things I most wanted to do with Gentleman’s Guide, which was to write a historical story with an unambiguously happy ending for the queer characters. But, as soon as you do a sequel, you have to introduce conflict again... And if it was a relationship that was the center of the story, then you need to introduce conflict into that relationship. It was immediately apparent that wouldn’t work; I didn’t want to create conflict between Monty and Percy just for the sake of another adventure. So, I wrote about Felicity and it ended up being really fun!
After Lady’s Guide, I was looking for a way to stay in the world to do one more story. During a q&a on Instagram, a reader asked what had happened to [Monty and Felicity’s] little brother. I thought, “OH!” and went to ask my editor if she wanted to do this one more time.
How and when did the title for each book in the series develop?
I turned Gentleman’s Guide in as an untitled manuscript. When we were brainstorming titles, a friend of mine said, “You need something about vices and virtues.” The “Gentleman’s Guide” portion was inspired by a guide to the Grand Tour, a piece of 1700s source material that I used when researching the book, called “A Gentleman’s Guide to a Tour Through Italy.” I needed the same title structure for the next books and went through so many ideas before we hit Petticoats and Piracy.
I recall that in our PW interview from 2017, it was titled The Ladies’ Guide to Crinoline and Crime.
Yes! Thank goodness we changed it because who can say the word crinoline?
Did the reader response to the first book impact your writing or perspective as you went on to write subsequent books? In what ways?
Absolutely! Gentleman’s Guide was my second book and also my breakout book. My first book was wildly unread so having vocal readers who wanted to talk to me about [Gentleman’s Guide] and share their favorite characters and parts of the story was a very new experience! One of the most fun parts was seeing what readers would react to because there are always details I don’t expect will make an impact but do. I’ve found that it’s actually quite rare that authors and their fans have the same favorite parts and characters. When I went to write Lady’s Guide, it wasn’t that the fandom made choices for me, but they did reassure me. For example, in Gentleman’s Guide, I coded Felicity as an asexual character, thinking it was something [about her identity] that I would sprinkle in. But so many people picked up on it and were excited about the representation. They wanted confirmation of her being an asexual character, so I decided to make [her asexual identity] a more explicit part of Lady’s Guide than I might have otherwise. There are also characters who had only brief scenes, but whom readers became very attached to, so I’ve been able to do unexpected callbacks. It feels a bit like having inside jokes with your fandom!
Are you a plotter or pantser?
I used to describe my writing process as driving in the dark, only being able to see as far in front of you as headlights illuminate, needing to keep driving forward to see further. But then I started writing for Marvel, which requires me to outline intensely because it then has to go through many levels of approval before I can begin writing. So, I’ve became an outliner out of necessity, but it’s ended up being effective. In fact, I’m furious about how well outlining works because I hate doing it. It’s part of my process now, but it was against my will.
Has your writing process changed over the course of writing this series?
Everything changed once I got a book deal and I had to start thinking about my writing as a commodity. Once there were readers and an editor and an agent involved, I got stuck because I felt like I was doing everything backwards. Before it was write what you love, throwing it all at the wall to see what sticks. Now, I had everything I had been working toward, and it messed with my head. When you’re trying to get published, you think that once you get an agent, you’ll be happy. Then you get an agent, and you still don’t feel like a real writer. You think a book deal will do the trick, but then you realize that’s not enough either. Nothing makes you feel like you’ve made it; there is always someone around you achieving on a different scale than you—it’s hard to keep your eyes on your own paper and your own success. So yes, the industry part of being a published author and the commodification of my art changed how I approach writing, especially in terms of finding a way to access the unfiltered creativity and joy that I had before being published. Still, there are moments when I feel like I lose that while in thrall of the industry.
What would you do differently the next time you approach writing a series?
I’d plan and pitch it as a series from the start, instead of going back and having to retcon things. I’d be more intentional with my choices in book one because I’d know I’d have to carry on until book three.
I’d also try to listen less to negative voices. I’m a human, so every once in a while I decide I’m going to hate myself and go on Goodreads to read one-star reviews. Of course, those reviews exist because your books aren’t going to be for everyone. But when you’re writing a series, the people who didn’t like things about the first or second book ended up becoming more active roadblocks in the process of writing the third. The echo of negative reviews is loud in a series because it resonates down the line. With standalones, you can kind of move on, but with a series you have to keep going.
Were there times you had to pivot to accommodate unexpected plot turns or character developments?
Well, Nobleman’s Guide is now coming out a year and a half after it was originally planned. When we announced it, the book was written, and I thought it was fine. Then I changed my mind and ended up scrapping almost the whole thing and rewriting it top to bottom. I rewrote it almost clean slate three or four times in total. When you do such a big rewrite, it’s interesting to see which things change and which don’t. The core of this book has always stayed the same: it’s a book about mental illness, anxiety, and self-esteem through generations. It’s a story about how to love someone who is mentally ill. That core never changed, but I got caught up in the infinite ways the set dressing around that could look. I got a bit in my own head about it being the finale and needing to end strong for the fans. I got too caught up in the story machinations and feeling like I wasn’t making the right choices, even though there are no right choices.
How do you feel as you close the chapter on these characters?
I’m feeling a bit melancholy, to be honest. This series has been a substantial part of my life for the last six years or so. It completely changed my life in terms of how it affected my career, putting me on people’s radars to positive and negative effect. It sounds silly, but these characters have become constant friends. In this industry, where things can be so unpredictable and brutal, always having the Montagues to go back to kept me going sometimes. Saying goodbye to them is a little bit sad and lonely; it’s like breaking up with someone and only wanting to talk to that same person about how you’re feeling. I’m slowly moving on.
What is your hope as this final book reaches readers?
As a trilogy, I hope these books encourage people to think about history as having a diverse cast, inspiring them to look for diversity within history and to recognize themselves within those stories. I hope they realize that we are not the first generation of queer people or women who want to live life on their own terms or people who live with mental illness, but that people have been dealing with these experiences for as long as there have been people.
Finding these little commonalities is my favorite thing about history, because you start to think of people in the past as human beings and as the past being comprised of millions of people with individual lived experiences instead of a lumped group of people experiencing things the same way. I hope this helps readers reclaim their own stories and histories while setting the example that historical fiction can be fun. It’s not all dour, sad stories about wars and terrible things.
What’s next for you?
I have a contract with Marvel that I’m finishing up. I’ve written three books about different anti-heroes within the Marvel universe, portraying them as teenagers deciding their paths. The first book is about Loki, the second is about Gamora and Nebula, and the third will be out next year, but I can’t talk about it yet. It’s all I’ve been thinking about lately, but I’m just twiddling my thumbs waiting to talk about it!
Natasha Ngan
Ngan’s Girls of Paper and Fire trilogy, a fantasy featuring queer heroes and inspired by Chinese and Malaysian history and mythology, comes to an end with Girls of Fate and Fury (Little, Brown/Patterson, Nov. 30). The finale picks up after the shocking final pages of Girls of Storm and Shadow, which left Lei and Wren’s futures uncertain in the face of terrorizing peril.
Do you remember your original inspiration for the series? Where did it all begin?
I had this moment of seeing a girl kneeling in front of a demon king. I was intrigued by her, who he was, and the power dynamic at play. When an idea first comes to me, I don’t usually know the genesis, but now that I look back, I can see how much I was influenced by wanting to write something that felt true to my heritage and the cultures that I’ve grown up in. For me there’s always a very visual element to the kernel of an idea. The first line usually comes to me early, too, and rarely changes.
It feels almost inevitable looking back, like I was always going to write Girls. I had come to the end of my contract for my first two books, which were only published in the U.K. and Germany, so I wasn’t on contract. I had written a book that my previous publishers didn’t buy, so I could do whatever I wanted. Today, Girls doesn’t seem like the most challenging of books, but, at that time, when my agent and I were trying to sell it, it was one of the only f/f fantasies [in YA], plus it deals with heavy subjects, which many publishers felt would be too difficult for young readers.
This book is often mistaken for your debut because it became an instant bestseller and was your first U.S. release. What was that overnight success like?
It took me and my agent, Taylor [Haggerty], a year to sell Girls, which had so many rejections, all along the same lines: it is too difficult a book to try to publish. We got one offer, that’s all, which wasn’t enough for me to live off without a second job. I didn’t expect anything of it, but Jimmy Patterson did so much to push the book and my amazing readers got it out to other people. I felt so proud when I hit the [bestseller] list, not for myself, but for the girls the book represents. It felt like such a win for Asian girls and for survivors [of sexual assault]. Editors and writer friends have told me that, now, when books come to them pitched as comps to Girls, it’s a positive. I’m just so glad because there were so many doors shut in my face during those early days, which doesn’t feel like so long ago. I take no credit for it, but I feel thankful to have been a part of this movement to where we finally have choice in f/f fantasy because so much more of it exists.
How and when did the title for each book in the series develop?
The first title has always stayed the same. I often come up with the title very soon after I determine the concept. I’m not sure if it helps me shape the book thematically or whether I even do it consciously.
I immediately liked the dichotomy of paper and fire, but when we had the conversation with Jimmy—James Patterson, who was my publisher at the time—we were worried too many other books out there had a similar title scheme, but we couldn’t come up with anything that fit as well. For the second and third books we changed my original titles, which were more literal, like Girls of Sand & Snow. We wanted something more thematically interesting, like Storm & Shadow. For the third, we brainstormed words that were important to the series, hinting at things while not giving too much away. I’m glad we landed on Fate & Fury because so much of the book does deal with the concept of fate and it really comes into play in the last book. And the reason for fury is pretty evident!
Did the reader response to the first book impact your writing or perspective as you went on to write subsequent books? In what ways?
Oh, massively! Before Girls was published, I hadn’t sold a lot of books. Girls didn’t sell for a huge amount of money either, so I didn’t know that anything was going to come of it. It was a difficult, niche book that has reached so many more people than I ever thought. The response was so overwhelming that it made writing harder because I didn’t want to let anyone down. And, while you’re writing and on deadline, you see reviews for the other books, even if you’re not actively seeking them out. It’s very hard to turn off other words and opinions to just sit down and write.
There was also so much pressure because these books deal with many sensitive subjects that are so close to my heart, so I knew the responsibility I had in portraying this story. I wanted to make sure survivors felt they were well represented.
Are you a plotter or pantser?
I’m a complete pantser and it’s funny because everyone assumes I’d be a plotter! I’ve recently been helping my friend who is leading a workshop about YA literature. Her class is studying Girls and they’ve told me that it follows all the right beats—and I’ve not planned any of it. But, I think, on some level, after you’ve written a certain number of books, you get a feel for the flow of it. Still, for books two and three I had to tap into my reluctant planner mode, particularly for book two because it’s the bridge book and carries so much on its shoulders. Book three provided a little more freedom because I was coming to the end and could let things evolve more naturally. My original draft of book three was 150,000 words and is now on par with the other two books at 110,000 words, but I meandered all over before I found my way.
Were there times you had to pivot to accommodate unexpected plot turns or character developments?
Every moment of writing is a pivot for me! When I say I plot, I mean something very, very bare bones; it all fits on one page. As I write, I get a feeling for what’s going to happen next. It’s all about staying true to the characters and following their lead. Book three was full of surprises though, especially for the end. It was really satisfying to have this denouement for all the characters. I did jot down what I thought would be the natural finish for their arcs and stories while I was writing the first two books, but when book three came I never looked at those notes and the only thing that stayed the same was the very end.
Best moment since Girls of Paper & Fire was published?
Any time I have a heart-to-heart with a reader. I feel so touched by the stories readers come to share. When I write, I feel like I’m in this vacuum, especially because I don’t live in America and I don’t go to many festivals, nor am I part of any writing groups. I feel so humbled whenever someone tells me that reading my books helped them understand their identity or come out to their family. To be a tiny part of that is incredible.
Worst moment or part of writing this series?
Deadlines! Also, with a standalone, I write the book and then it’s done, and I can move on. With a series like Girls, I had to continue despite whatever was going on in reaction to it. As much as I was receiving wonderful feedback, I was also getting negative feedback, including homophobic backlash and people complaining that the book was inappropriate for teens. Needing to continue writing against deadlines with that energy being directed at you is really hard. It’s part of the reason I’ve withdrawn from social media: I need to write in my own little space because otherwise I hear all that and I’m incredibly sensitive to hurting someone’s feelings. Those opinions are valid, but they’re hard to hear in the morning when you need to write 5,000 words that day.
There’s also the flip side of having the privilege of meeting readers in that some stories they share are incredibly hard to hear. I wouldn’t call those experiences worst moments, but they are difficult moments because I feel like I don’t always know how best to help, or I worry I wasn’t the best person to give them support. It’s very difficult to navigate when you’re in a signing queue.
How do you feel as you close the chapter on these characters?
Very relieved, for the most part, but I did have a moment the other day where I started crying. It didn’t happen directly after finishing the book or the edits, it was just a completely random moment while I was sitting and talking to my partner about what the books have done for me and felt a sense of accomplishment. It hit me that it was done; the story had come to a close. Like a lot of other female YA writers, I struggle with imposter syndrome, tending to diminish in my head the good things I’ve done, so it hit me that I’ve come to the end of this journey, but not alone. And it’s incredible that we’ve done this together. I rarely say “my books,” because they’re our books— mine, my publishers’, and my readers’. I’m excited to move on to other stuff and to have a bit of space mentally, but it’s bittersweet.
What’s next for you?
I have nothing set up in terms of contracts, but I can say that I’m working on another f/f fantasy that will be a standalone because oh my gosh am I ready for a break from writing a series! I also have another f/f story in the anthology Fools in Love, coming out in December. Almost all the stories in the anthology are queer and from such a diverse range of genres. I’m also working on a middle grade novel, which I’ve wanted to do for a long time. It’s about video games and mixes in Chinese mythology.
Kiersten White
The Excalibur Curse (Delacorte, Dec. 3) ends White’s Arthurian trilogy, which began with The Guinevere Deception and The Camelot Betrayal. In this final book, Guinevere will set things right—defeating a rising evil, remaking a kingdom, and undoing the mistakes of the past—no matter the cost.
Do you remember your original inspiration for the series? Where did it all begin?
Initially, I had pitched a spy series. My publisher was on board—and [my agent and I] were getting ready to put together a proposal—when my editor reached out and said, “We still want three books from you, but we think you should do fantasy next.” It ended up being a weird situation of needing to put the cart before the horse because I had a three-book fantasy deal before I had an idea attached. But, as soon as I knew I’d be writing a trilogy, I seized my chance to do Arthurian!
I’ve always loved Arthurian legends, but a lot of the adaptations frustrate me in that they don’t treat women well. I immediately knew I wanted it to be about Guinevere because even the more feminist adaptations don’t do her justice.
How and when did the title for each book in the series develop?
I always called the first book The Guinevere Deception and it was always the Camelot Rising trilogy because it’s very much set during the creation of the Camelot most would recognize. We had a fear that naming the first book The Guinevere Deception would make it sound too thriller-y, but we went around in circles coming up with 20 other titles before landing right back on The Guinevere Deception! We figured that the cover art would convey that it was fantasy, so it didn’t matter so much what the title was. I like that it makes it very clear that she’s the heart of the story.
The other two books weren’t titled right away, but I brainstormed with friends while keeping to the same pattern. I wanted them to be recognizably Arthurian.
Did the reader response to the first book impact your writing or perspective as you went on to write subsequent books? In what ways?
I wouldn’t say reader response really factors in at all for me because, when I’m writing on a one-book-a-year schedule, I’m generally well into planning or drafting book three by the time book one comes out. Book two is done, so it doesn’t matter what people love or hate about book one—it’s already too late! With my first trilogy, Supernaturally was already done by the time Paranormalcy was published and I had some panic. Not because of what people hated, like you might assume, but because of what they loved. I worried that I hadn’t used characters they loved enough!
The really freeing thing about trilogies is that book three is never going to sell as well as book one. The first book is always going to sell better because more people will pick up book one and not continue with the trilogy than those who will continue to book three. And, so, by the time you get to book three, it’s clear that readers who make it this far clearly like what’s going on. There’s a real freedom to knowing that everything is on the table, so you can just go for it.
Are you a plotter or pantser?
I have ideas on simmer all the time. Right now, I have 10 fairly well-developed ideas that I haven’t written a word of, just hanging out in the back of my head. Maybe someday I’ll get to them, or maybe not. Or maybe I’ll realize that two of the ideas are meant to be one big monster idea. Once I know my main character, where it starts, and what I’m aiming for, I just write. The way that I get there is a like a long walk in a dark wood. I take whatever trail seems the most interesting, sometimes taking the wrong trail and needing to backtrack. For me that’s the most joyful part of drafting.
This series was borne of many years of loving Arthurian stories and knowing that I wanted to tell one, while also having done a historical retelling with the And I Darken trilogy and a very faithful companion retelling with The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein. One of the things that attracted me to the idea of doing an Arthurian retelling was that there isn’t any canon; it’s always been community storytelling, like fanfiction, since day one. It’s freeing because you can’t mess up a canon that doesn’t exist! Arthurian literature has a long, proud history of wildly glaring anachronisms, so I leaned into that. I did do a lot of research into medieval and pre-medieval England to make sure I had a strong sense of setting, like how cities were run and how waste management worked. I wrote The Guinevere Deception over the course of a week at my friend Stephanie Perkins’s house; she took care of and fed me while I wrote all day, every day. It was one of the most fun writing experiences of my life.
Does your writing process depend on whether you’re writing a standalone or a series, or even depending upon genre?
I would describe my writing process as chaos. It should change depending on whether I’m writing a series or a standalone! I should think to myself, “Hey, you’re investing in these characters for years, you might want to make a series bible or write some details down,” but I don’t. That said, I think the big difference between writing a standalone and writing a series is emotional pacing. For a series, you need a character who has room to grow through three separate story arcs within an overall series arc that gets the character from who they are to who they need to be, landing on the threshold of adulthood. For each character, I ask how many arcs are needed to achieve that journey. Depending on how many arcs are needed, I structure the books differently. A standalone is a one-book arc, so the plot must take the character through all their pain and emotional growth in one volume. With a two-book series, I look at the first book as asking a question of a main character and the second book as answering that question. With a trilogy, the first book sets up the character and what they want, giving it to them by the end. Book two is when the character realizes, “Oh no, I did not actually want this, this is terrible,” and must figure out what it is they really want, while book three puts them through hell to achieve or get what they’ve discovered they want or need. Clearly, I have strong feels about the structures of standalone vs. duology vs. trilogy, but, as far as process, I have major regrets every time I write a series and hate my lack of organization.
How do you feel as you close the chapter on these characters?
This is embarrassing for me to admit, but I cry every time I read the final few chapters of The Excalibur Curse. It’s so weird to react so strongly to something I wrote, but I went through hundreds of pages with these characters. I love Guinevere and her journey from thinking she knew exactly who she was and what her purpose was to going through all the pain of real self-discovery. It’s a personal journey. It’s also been a weird series because book one came out and then, a few months later, the whole world shut down. All of the writing and promotion for books two and three has been from home and very solitary, which makes it’s ending more surreal.
What is your hope as this final book reaches readers?
I don’t care if my endings are happy, I just want readers to find them to be satisfying. As far as the series itself, it’s one of my quieter series, so I hope it lives on in libraries, so readers will continue to experience the adventure, love, and acceptance within its pages.
What’s next for you?
It’s going to be a busy year! I have Excalibur Curse coming out in December, then my debut adult supernatural thriller, Hide, is publishing in May. Wretched Waterpark, the start of my middle grade series Sinister Summer, comes out in June, then in July there’s Padawan, my teen Obi-Wan Kenobi book. Finally, in December, book two of the Sinister Summer series will come out!
