Ask the Author: Raquel Drosos
Answered Questions (2)
Raquel Drosos
I get inspiration from everywhere–songs, life experiences, gossip, stories people tell me, watching strangers interact (if I’m creepily staring at you in the grocery store line, you probably just gave me an idea!). I find people endlessly fascinating, so it’s no surprise that the ideas that stick always start with characters. Once I have some characters I find compelling, I write to learn more about them. I put them into scenarios, have them talk to other characters, come up with their backstory, and throw a few challenges at them. If they hold my attention and start to grow, I know I’m getting somewhere.
It’s worth noting that I am not a multi-tasker; once I start serious work on a story, I go all in and don’t pursue other ideas. I might jot something down that struck me, but I won’t explore it in depth if it’s not related to what I’m working on. All the inspiration I get from art or life gets directed toward the current story. If I’m revising a novel and most of the creative work is done, THEN I open up to new ideas. I was finishing my edits on Games of Chance when the characters from the novel I’m currently writing swept in and demanded my attention–and it was a crazy few months trying to figure out which story to pay attention to! I’m happy to be back to having one set of characters on my brain instead of two.
For me, inspiration is easy. It’s the writing that’s hard–sitting down with the same characters over and over every day for years, trying to get it right. Anyone can have an idea, but the work is what counts.
It’s worth noting that I am not a multi-tasker; once I start serious work on a story, I go all in and don’t pursue other ideas. I might jot something down that struck me, but I won’t explore it in depth if it’s not related to what I’m working on. All the inspiration I get from art or life gets directed toward the current story. If I’m revising a novel and most of the creative work is done, THEN I open up to new ideas. I was finishing my edits on Games of Chance when the characters from the novel I’m currently writing swept in and demanded my attention–and it was a crazy few months trying to figure out which story to pay attention to! I’m happy to be back to having one set of characters on my brain instead of two.
For me, inspiration is easy. It’s the writing that’s hard–sitting down with the same characters over and over every day for years, trying to get it right. Anyone can have an idea, but the work is what counts.
Raquel Drosos
Like all of my novels, Games of Chance was born from a few separate ideas that became a story once I brought them together. At the heart of those ideas were (as it always happens for me) characters.
I started writing about Seb and Alex when I was fifteen–almost twenty years ago! They were the main characters in a novel I was writing in high school, a novel I eventually scrapped. That novel had almost nothing in common with Games of Chance (though Jenn and Libby were in it too!), but the dynamic between Seb and Alex was the same. They were always close brothers-but-not-brothers, and they always had opposite personalities–Alex was outgoing and charismatic but impulsive, and Seb was brooding and cautious but dependable. I loved the interactions between the two of them and I tried to put them in many different stories over the years to no avail. I knew I’d find a place for them someday.
When I was twenty-three, I started writing about Emilia–a driven, disciplined runner whose sense of self is shaken when she makes a huge mistake. One day I thought: what if Emilia, Seb, and Alex were in the same story…and BAM! We were off. It’s a remarkable thing, chemistry between characters; I don’t know where it comes from, but once I have it, I’ll follow it anywhere. Finding that chemistry and seeing where it takes me is one of the most exhilarating parts of the creative process–and the thing that keeps me holding onto a story when writing gets tough. (Unsurprisingly, the novel I’m writing now started the same way. I had multiple ideas that seemed unrelated until two of my characters started talking to each other–and then doing more than talking–and I was hooked. Now I’m busy following them around and seeing what messes they get into!)
Another interesting fact about Games of Chance–I always intended for the novel to have eleven chapters and to take place over twenty-one years. In early drafts of the novel, there was a lot of symbolism around playing cards and around blackjack and in particular; my story was like an ace, eleven stories but also one story, and it would end at the number that “ends” blackjack. As I continued writing the novel, card symbolism became less and less important because character development took center stage (as it should.) Cards play only a small role in the final version of the novel, but I kept the eleven/twenty-one structure because I had already built everything around it.
I started writing about Seb and Alex when I was fifteen–almost twenty years ago! They were the main characters in a novel I was writing in high school, a novel I eventually scrapped. That novel had almost nothing in common with Games of Chance (though Jenn and Libby were in it too!), but the dynamic between Seb and Alex was the same. They were always close brothers-but-not-brothers, and they always had opposite personalities–Alex was outgoing and charismatic but impulsive, and Seb was brooding and cautious but dependable. I loved the interactions between the two of them and I tried to put them in many different stories over the years to no avail. I knew I’d find a place for them someday.
When I was twenty-three, I started writing about Emilia–a driven, disciplined runner whose sense of self is shaken when she makes a huge mistake. One day I thought: what if Emilia, Seb, and Alex were in the same story…and BAM! We were off. It’s a remarkable thing, chemistry between characters; I don’t know where it comes from, but once I have it, I’ll follow it anywhere. Finding that chemistry and seeing where it takes me is one of the most exhilarating parts of the creative process–and the thing that keeps me holding onto a story when writing gets tough. (Unsurprisingly, the novel I’m writing now started the same way. I had multiple ideas that seemed unrelated until two of my characters started talking to each other–and then doing more than talking–and I was hooked. Now I’m busy following them around and seeing what messes they get into!)
Another interesting fact about Games of Chance–I always intended for the novel to have eleven chapters and to take place over twenty-one years. In early drafts of the novel, there was a lot of symbolism around playing cards and around blackjack and in particular; my story was like an ace, eleven stories but also one story, and it would end at the number that “ends” blackjack. As I continued writing the novel, card symbolism became less and less important because character development took center stage (as it should.) Cards play only a small role in the final version of the novel, but I kept the eleven/twenty-one structure because I had already built everything around it.
About Goodreads Q&A
Ask and answer questions about books!
You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.
See Featured Authors Answering Questions
Learn more