Veronica Roth is the author of many fantasy novels, including the Divergent series.
Show notes:
- Veronica Roth
- When Among Crows
- Veronica Roth’s three favorite Scrivener features
- BBC interview with Ken Follett
- Why You Should Print Your Manuscript and Edit It on Paper
- The Tainted Cup, Robert Jackson Bennet
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Veronica Roth scored her first publishing contract with the novel Divergent, which she wrote on winter break while in college. “It was a little bit of a NaNoWriMo kind of project for me. I was like, I have 40 days. My parents were traveling, so I was alone in the house, and that’s what I chose to do.”
Veronica had been writing for many years and hadn’t planned this novel, but this time, she set a goal. “I was just determined at this point to finish something, because I was writing regularly, and I couldn’t get myself to push through that really horrible middle portion that we all hate, and so I was determined to finish.”
I suggested that it was like her muse was looking down on her briefly, and she took advantage of it. “I think you just have to listen to what’s grabbing your attention, especially if it’s grabbing your attention that hard.”
After some revision and notes from beta readers, she sent the manuscript out to a few agents and got representation. She points out that, “one of the most important things that I’ve observed over the last 15 years is that it’s not a meritocracy. Just because you have something good doesn’t mean it’s going to sell, and just because you have something that sells doesn’t mean that it’s good.”
When Divergent was made into a movie, Veronica didn’t have much input into the screenplay, and said, “It’s a different art form. You have to be able to communicate things purely visually. I feel like it’s completely foreign to me, which is why I haven’t tackled it. I don’t think in a series of images, so it seems really hard. I also feel impressed with writers who are able to capably adapt their own work. I think we’re almost the last person who can do it, because it’s hard to let go of your original vision for the story.”
Veronica’s latest book is When Among Crows, a retelling of Polish folktales. It’s a novella, and Veronica said that she really likes the novella form, but that, “We don’t really learn how to read them. You experience short stories throughout your schooling, and you always experience novels. But I think if you haven’t read a novella, then you’re unfamiliar with the way it feels to read it.”
The novella length fit this story, “Because of two factors. One was the time limit on the story. It takes place in the course of 36 hours. I wanted to see how much connection I could build over that time period between the characters. And the other one was I wanted a small cast of characters. You can definitely tell a novel over 36 hours, but usually it’s got to have a bigger cast or a bigger scope.”
Veronica was attracted to Polish folklore because her mother is Polish, and because she had played the video game The Witcher, which is adapted from fantasy novels by a Polish author. “The Witcher reminded me to look into it, and get it back in touch with that part of my heritage.”
Old folk tales are often fantastic, and, Veronica said, “I read a quote recently about folklore that it teaches us about the priorities of the people at the moment that it was being spread. So in that sense, it’s like a historical record. I don’t think people at the time believed in all of the fantasy that their folklore suggests, but they did have a more flexible understanding of reality. They also were attuned to the very dark things in the world around them. A lot of Slavic folklore is deeply unfair: cruelty begets more cruelty. That darkness was interesting to me. I think we expect, at least in my cultural context, to be rewarded for good things and punished for bad things, and for things to be straightforward. But I think Slavic people do not expect life to be fair, which seems wise to me.”
Veronica has been using Scrivener since 2007. She recently shared an Instagram post discussing her three favorite Scrivener features. One of these is the Split / Merge feature. “I use it almost constantly. I frequently write in one big document. I don’t divide into chapters until later. I also use the side-by-side view [Split View] in the Editor. I use that all the time, it’s always open because I’m always looking at either the previous scene that I wrote, just for reference, or the outline. Or if I’m revising: I look at the old version of the scene while I’m doing a new version.”
The third feature she uses regularly is snapshots. “Snapshots takes a picture of a scene. You save it, and then you can make adjustments to it without losing any of that data. So let’s say you’re changing a character’s description throughout a scene. You can make those changes, and then if you hate them, you can roll it back to the version that you had before.”
Having now written eleven novels, I asked Veronica where she’s headed. “I think you write your first book in this rush of love, this surge of inspiration and obsession, and then your subsequent books, you become more analytical. You’re trying to analyze your work. You’re trying to maybe write for the industry’s expectations. You start writing with your head. So what I’m working on right now is getting back in touch with that gut, that obsessive streak, that passion.”
Kirk McElhearn is a writer, podcaster, and photographer. He is the author of Take Control of Scrivener, and host of the podcast Write Now with Scrivener.