Today I’d like to welcome Gretchen Powell to the blog as part of the Terra blog tour! Today she’s going to tell us all about her writing process:
Every author’s writing process is different. Some people require long outlines or storyboards to make sure that everything is in place before they even write a single word. Some take an idea and literally fly with it, letting the characters and plot come to life as they type away. There is really no right way to write (heh, say that 10x fast!), only the way (or ways!) that work best for you as an individual.
For me, writing Terra, it was really a combination of things. I had what I thought was a pretty solid outline formulated when I began writing. Of course, as I continued to write, that outline changed more and more, until the story I originally thought I would be telling was almost completely unrecognizable in the text (believe me—this is a GOOD thing). Ultimately, I would say the book is a higher percentage of “made it up as I went” than “carefully planned from the beginning” but it took both approaches to make it into the book it is now.
Since Terra was the first book in its series, I also had more freedom to figure things out as I went. Now that I’m working on the sequel, Underground, I am finding myself being more thoughtful and careful as to how I plot things out, because I know that not only do things have to link to what has happened in the first book, but they also have to carry through into the third. It’s a whole different kind of beast, and thankfully, it keeps the ride exciting!
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Here’s more about Terra :
A broken and desolate Earth. A young girl struggling to survive. A lost boy with a powerful secret.
A discovery that will change everything.
In the distant wake of a plague that has decimated the Earth’s population, humanity is split in two: The rich and powerful live in skycities that float overhead, while those who remain on the ground have gathered in settlements strewn across a dying planet. Eighteen-year-old Terra Rhodon is a terrestrial–a denizen of the barren groundworld–who makes her living as a scav. Long abandoned by her father, her caregivers gone, Terra supports herself and her younger brother, Mica, by scouring the earth for discarded scraps and metals to recycle for profit. One day, while on a routine scavenging run, she discovers something that shocks her home settlement of Genesis X-16. When the value of her discovery is revealed, Terra’s world is turned upside down.
Terra suddenly finds herself asking questions no one will answer. Her search for the truth leads her to Adam–a beguiling skydweller unlike any she has ever met. But Adam has secrets and a quest of his own, and with him by her side, the world Terra thought she knew begins to unravel. Soon her discoveries unearth a terrifying conspiracy that has the potential to shatter everything–a revelation that will test the bonds of loyalty, family, and love.
Not convinced to read it yet? Read the first two chapters online!
Caught Between the Pages 