BEA Writing & World-Building with YA Authors

Yesterday, I shared with you pictures and information from a panel discussion I attended at Book Expo America. Another panel discussion I attended at BEA featured five YA authors talking about how they created the fantasy worlds in their upcoming YA fantasy/sci-fi novels.

The authors included Brandon Mull, author of the Five Kingdoms series; Scott Westerfeld, author of Afterworlds; Kiera Cass, author of The One; Heather Demetrios, author of Exquisite Captive; and Michael Grant, author Messenger of Fear.



While all the authors seemed to agree that even though you're creating a fantasy world, you still have to have rules, I found it interesting how the authors differed in their approaches to creating the worlds, characters, and rules.

Some of the authors started with the characters first, while some started with the world first. Others said they started with a cool idea and wrote in reverse to make everything else fit in with that idea.



I was only able to get an advance review copy of one book, Afterworlds, but after listening to these authors talk, I really want to read everybody's books! Look for my review of Afterworlds (and maybe the others) soon!

I've got more to report from my BEA trip, so stay tuned to the blog. And if you want to see pictures and other updates from BEA and other cool events, make sure you're following me on TwitterInstagram, and Facebook!

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