Ask Holly Black! discussion

Dear Ms. Black,

Valiant is one of my favorite books; the characters are easily believable. I loved Val, and enjoyed the change and growth of her character. I also loved Ravus. I'm a sucker for "beauty and the beast" romances which is how I envisioned them. Any chance of a continuation of their story? Ravus is an interesting character. Any chance of him having his story told?

On a different note, how do you deal with your inner critic while you are writing your first draft?

Thank you for your time and consideration.

I agree, I love beauty and the beast romances and always find them to be the most captivating stories out there, i would love if there was a continuation of Valiant!

At first, I hated the book Valiant. I mean, many of the scenes made me so uncomfortable, but the more I read, the more powerful the story became. Wow, the character evolution in this story was great.

Anyway, I've wondered if you pants or plot your books.

And like Evie, I'd also like to know how you deal with writing your first draft.

Thanks for all of your kind words about VALIANT. Until I wrote WHITE CAT, it was my favorite of my books -- the book where I felt I had a lot of things I wanted to say and where I actually got those things onto the page. And I love Val and Ravus a lot. I have thought about continuing their story, but I am waiting to have a really great idea for what happens next.

In terms of silencing the inner critic, that's something I work on continuously. Music helps a lot because it gives my brain two things to concentrate on -- listening and writing. And telling myself that I just need to get things down so that I can fix them helps too, although not as much as I wish it did. Mostly, it's about writing enough (usually more than 200-300 words) that my brain switches over into the groove of writing. At that point, I can often write over 1,000 words, but if I can't let go, I will write half that in the same day. For me, writing that first draft is a slog and revising it is where I have most of my fun.

Most of all, writing is about learning your process. Different things will work for you. Some people swear by different times in the day. Some need the noise of a coffee shop. Others like solitude. Some can only listen to wordless music (usually soundtracks), some prefer music with words. Writing is tricky business, so find what works best for you.

was there any music specifically that you listened to while writing Valiant?

When I first read Valiant it was because it was after the Tithe, I loved the Tithe Roiban and Kaye are my favourite couple from your books. I at first thought I wouldn't like it but I ended up loving it I found it to be the so interesting it had me captivated. Even though it was dark I never thought I would be into that, but your books made me realise I really liked it. I found Ravus and Val to be sort of like beauty and the beast and I liked how it became a dark and twisted take on a beloved fairy tale. By the end of the book I found myself wanting more, thankyou for introducing me to this world cause I loved it, I reread the seiries whenever I need a good book to read and pass them off to my friends.