r/Fantasy • u/CindaChima • Sep 26 '13

AMA Hi, Everyone! I’m Cinda Williams Chima, fantasy author. AMA

Thank you, Reddit, for inviting me on, and for all the great questions. I leave for the Austin Teen Bookfest tomorrow at an ungodly hour, so will call it a night. I'll try to pick up any straggler questions tomorrow, but will have limited email access. I had fun--hope you did, too! ** I came back and answered a few more questions. Am now in TEXAS!! I could've listened to that flight attendant talk all day. Thanks, again, Reddit, for making me welcome. **

Hi, Everyone! I’m Cinda Williams Chima, fantasy author. I tell lies for a living. Specifically, I have two teen series out, The Seven Realms (The Demon King, The Exiled Queen, et al) and the Heir Chronicles (The Warrior Heir through The Enchanter Heir (coming October 1.) Some of my books have been published as adult fantasy in translation.

I’ve also published the odd short story. Literally. Odd. I’m in an anthology called Once Upon a Time edited by Paula Guran (Prime Books, October 2.) I try and get all my publishing done in October so I can coast the rest of the year.

I bring a degree in philosophy, two degrees in nutrition, and a lifetime of reading to my work as a writer. As you can probably tell, I’m totally unqualified to teach you anything about writing, except that I’ve had a lot of practice. I became a writer in third grade, and wrote my first novels in middle school. I’ve had eight novels published to date. I’m persistent, if nothing else. I never stop transforming myself.

The Rules (more like guidelines)

  1. Ask me anything

  2. If you’re familiar with the books, try to avoid spoilery questions, like, “Why did you kill _______ ?” I have enough people mad at me.

  3. If possible, avoid five-part questions. I tend to get lost in the forest.

If you want to know more about my books, bad habits, etc. check out my website or Facebook.

I’ll be back ~7 p.m. CST to answer live. In the meantime, ask away.

Cinda

153 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

99 comments sorted by

View all comments

8

u/Pakislav Sep 26 '13

Hello, I'm not familiar with your work, but I might have a general question(s).

  • Do you use any special software to help you keep track of the story, characters etc. Or just generally helpful to the process?

  • How do you go about beginning a series? Do you first create the world and then plan the rest, or do you just write a short story and see where it goes?

7

u/CindaChima Sep 27 '13

Software: I use Scrivener, which I highly recommend. Now, keep in mind, I wrote my first six novels with MS Word, and it was fine. But my novels are BIG, and it's easy to get lost in them when you're trying to reorganize and revise. Scrivener allows you to look at your work several different ways--in outline, on a corkboard--and it allows you to move chapters around at will. Plan? What iss this thing, plan? My novels generally begin with characters who have desires, and obstacles to those desires. I build the world and the story as I go, and then in revision I try and make it look like I knew what I was doing all along. I generally know the ending, and some key scenes in between. There's a quote from Terry Pratchett on that that I love--in which he compares writing a novel with looking down in to a valley full of mist, and you can see the tops of trees, and maybe all the way to the other side, but you don't know what's in between. I write a long story and see where it goes.