About Red Queen
Yes and no. The main arc of the series ends with War Storm, and I’m so pleased with where the characters ended up. That particular ending was very important to me. I’m really glad I got to do it. But for those of you who want a little more, either with the characters who survived or the world itself, I wrote BROKEN THRONE, a collection of short stories and world information. It’s got glimpses into the past of RED QUEEN as well as the future of surviving characters, alongside maps, histories, family trees, diaries, and more.
Fingers crossed! This is a very slow process but I’m lucky to have a team as dedicated to the story as I am. We’re working on it as we speak!
Here’s the basic timeline –
Spring 2012 – I was approaching college graduation and after writing several feature and television screenplays for school, I knew I wanted to write a novel, the first type of storytelling I ever loved. And was still really intimidated by.
May 2012 – I graduated, and I landed a general meeting at a management company. After pitching several feature and TV ideas, I told them I also had an idea for a young adult novel. I decided to pursue this.
July 2012-January 2013 – I moved home to Massachusetts and wrote the first draft of Red Queen, which I passed on to the manager I had been working with back in Los Angeles. He was no longer working as a manager but passed the manuscript on to New Leaf Literary, who he had worked with in the past. Agent Suzie Townsend reached out after reading the manuscript, and we discussed doing a first round of edits.
February 2013 – After going through a round of edits with Suzie, she signed me as her client.
April 2013 – Two weeks of submission, manuscript sold to HarperTeen at HarperCollins in a 3 book deal, film option sold to Universal Pictures
EDITS EDITS EDITS (I believe I went through 3 serious drafts of Red Queen, and ended up cutting about 40-50k words from the first draft to the final)
February 2015 – publication!
It’s what I call any new project that I turn my attention to. Especially in early days, it feels like playing in a new sandbox where I can build or break anything I want. For now, this is how I’m referring to the new project that will be my next published work.
About Victoria
Hi, I’m Victoria Aveyard. I was born and raised in a small town in Western Massachusetts, but I moved to the West Coast to study screenwriting at the University of Southern California. As of Fall 2019, I’m a 29-year-old writer based in Los Angeles. I’m the author the RED QUEEN series, which includes 4 #1 New York Times Bestselling novels and the NYT Bestseller BROKEN THRONE, a collection of short stories set in the world of RED QUEEN. Currently, I’m drafting a brand new YA fantasy series set for publication in the near future. I’m also a working screenwriter and dog mom to Indy, the world’s best Lab.
I wouldn’t say I ever decided to be an author. I still struggle defining myself as such, because it doesn’t feel real. I’ve been telling stories since I knew what a story was, and have always felt a deep, internal need to build worlds and characters. This is what I’ve wanted to do for most of my sentient life and it’s a privilege to live this reality. I know I’d be writing stories even if no one else was reading them, but it’s nice that people do. I decided to pursue screenwriting in college because I did and still do love movies more than most people love anything. Applying to film schools was a scary choice, and every step afterwards seemed even scarier, but the risk has been worth it so far. Luckily, screenwriting and prose-writing are pretty interchangeable in my mind. The bones are the same, the elements of story remain constant. The difference is largely format, and I’m lucky to be able to work in both.
It honestly depends. I’ve found stories or catalysts for stories in everything from a plain old brainstorming session at my desk to a museum exhibit in another country. But largely I ruminate on what I love and what I don’t love – how can I embrace the former and shift the latter? And this is a tactic from my screenwriting education, but I like to distill stories into easy, pitchable parts. Something I can say that another person would automatically get. It’s this meets that. For example, for Red Queen, I say it’s Game of Thrones meets X-Men meets Hunger Games. That usually works best, and quickly, to communicate what the story is to potential audience.
I’m not able to talk about it specifically for a while, and will be divulging more through my upcoming newsletters. But I can say it’s another Young Adult series, and will be a high fantasy ensemble story, centering on a teenage girl forced to become a hero when she doesn’t believe heroes exist. I’m having a great time writing it, and I’m very nervous/excited to publish it in the future. More info to come!
Here’s the link to sign up! I’ll be sure to blast everyone on social media before new editions come out!
Many, many stories built me and fed me and made me want this. The most notable would be Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine, Harry Potter by JK Rowling, The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien, A Song of Ice and Fire by George RR Martin, as well as many films like Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, ET: The Extra-Terrestrial, and so on. I’ve been consuming stories since I became sentient and I don’t see that ever stopping.
The best way to reach me for inquiries is through my agent Suzie Townsend. For foreign rights inquiries, please reach out to Veronica Grijalva and Mia Roman. If you have story questions or just want to know more, check out my Twitter or Tumblr.
About Writing
Because I’m lucky enough to do this as a full-time job, I do try and treat it like a traditional full-time job. I need a schedule, I need structure, so I do my best to work Monday to Friday, 10am-5pm, when I can. Obviously, there are breaks in those days, and life gets in the way, but it’s what I try to stick to. I also protect my weekends as best I can, especially when I’m not under the gun. I find it helps prevent burnout, and come Sunday evening, I’m excited to get back to work on a Monday morning. Mostly I work from my home office, which is new and a real godsend. There should be an office tour to come.
Yes! I have a public Spotify account under my name, and I have dozens of playlists. I generally don’t label them clearly until after the work they’re for is solid, but sharp-eyed readers always manage to pick up on plot cues based on my playlists. I do a lot of brainstorming to music as well, but sometimes I do write in silence. When I’m really dug in, it doesn’t really matter whether I have sound or not. I’m in the zone. I hear the story’s world, not mine.
I use Scrivener when researching, worldbuilding, and drafting. Once you get the hang of it, it’s a great product to keep everything in one place and keep yourself on track. I use Microsoft Word for edits since it’s the only program we have that supports the type of editing done in publishing.
The routine helps, not to mention the reality of my situation. This is how I pay my bills and buy dog food. I support myself and I have to work. Not to mention, I really enjoy doing it, even on the hard days. I can always fall back on knowing this is what I love and what I’m meant to be doing for the rest of my life.
When I was first starting out, I had my back against the wall of exorbitant college loans. I was lucky enough to be living at home with my parents’ support, but those loans were looming, along with the knowledge that I was either going to use my degree or completely waste it. That was a good motivation. I work best under pressure. And while those particular issues have faded, the pressure hasn’t. It’s certainly changed and taken on a new form, but I feel the constant weight of what I’m doing. It’s a double-edged sword. It weighs you down but also pushes you forward.
I love to worldbuild. I love to draw maps and get really into the nitty-gritty of fictional histories. A lot of this part never reaches the page, and largely exists to help me metabolize the world, as well as find the feel and tone of the story. If you need someone to beat out the trade routes of a fantasy world, I’m your gal.
When it comes to actual drafting, I’m all about the setpiece. I love writing action sequences, it’s such an adrenaline rush for me. I’m a really visual writer, so I usually choreograph out the steps either in my head or on paper, sometimes with a song to match. It all combines into a moment I can feel and see, and hopefully reproduce on the page for a reader to experience in the same way.
Act 2 of a first draft. And pitching. I despise pitching because it makes me feel like a lunatic. Explaining your story that pretty much only exists in your head to someone else? No thanks, I sound outrageous.
I’ve written drafts from anywhere between 100-190,000 words, but all first drafts have taken largely 6-9 months of solid work. Obviously things get broken up, especially if I publish a book during the drafting stage, but that’s what it usually shakes out to. The editing and pre-publication process can take anywhere from 6 months to another year of work. For example, the first draft of RED QUEEN took six months to write, and I finished in January 2013. It was sold in April 2013, edited again over the next year, and then published in February 2015.
Figure out your weaknesses. Play to your strengths. Know what you’re good at. Absorb stories in all their forms, from novels to action movies to Greek plays to reality television. Learn audiences, figure out what they want, figure out what audience you want to write for and how you want to do it. Writing is such a personal artform – it requires bravery and honesty and sometimes a thick skin. But most of all it requires life. Live, experience. And most of all, put the words on the page. There is no substitution for doing the actual work.
Personally, I’m a straight, white, cisgendered, and well-educated woman in a field that favors all those things. Not to mention I have a very supportive family structure. So I was already playing the game with a big leg up. My obstacles existed, but they were far from terrible. Many of them are in my head. But that’s not a small thing either. Self-doubt and mental health are huge for us, as is the ever present impostor system. The best I can do is tell myself I’m not alone in thinking everything is about to fall apart, or that I don’t deserve my career. I’ve largely been in a position where if I put my head down and do the work, good things have followed. I know that’s nowhere near the norm, and perhaps not helpful, but I think it’s important to be upfront about this kind of thing. The biggest challenge has been believing in myself and my work, and sometimes that can be insurmountable. But we push through, don’t we?
Obviously, age is a factor. You need characters who are, you know, young adults. For me that means anyone between the ages of 15-19ish, with 19 being on the cusp and story-specific. I also think there’s wiggle room based on say, inhuman characters. But a key has to be some sort of coming of age/realizing who you are, and choosing who you want to be. It’s something all teenagers struggle with, and it unites us in that time period. Characters need to reflect that. That has to be a major question of the story. Who am I? Who am I becoming? Do I like it? Can I help it? Can I stop it? And so forth.
It honestly depends. I’ve found stories or catalysts for stories in everything from a plain old brainstorming session at my desk to a museum exhibit in another country. But largely I ruminate on what I love and what I don’t love – how can I embrace the former and shift the latter? And this is a tactic from my screenwriting education, but I like to distill stories into easy, pitchable parts. Something I can say that another person would automatically get. It’s this meets that. For example, for Red Queen, I say it’s Game of Thrones meets X-Men meets Hunger Games. That usually works best, and quickly, to communicate what the story is to potential audience.
It’s what I call any new project that I turn my attention to. Especially in early days, it feels like playing in a new sandbox where I can build or break anything I want. For now, this is how I’m referring to the new project that will be my next published work.
I’m not able to talk about it specifically for a while, and will be divulging more through my upcoming newsletters. But I can say it’s another Young Adult series, and will be a high fantasy ensemble story, centering on a teenage girl forced to become a hero when she doesn’t believe heroes exist. I’m having a great time writing it, and I’m very nervous/excited to publish it in the future. More info to come!
Many, many stories built me and fed me and made me want this. The most notable would be Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine, Harry Potter by JK Rowling, The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien, A Song of Ice and Fire by George RR Martin, as well as many films like Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, ET: The Extra-Terrestrial, and so on. I’ve been consuming stories since I became sentient and I don’t see that ever stopping.