Naomi Novik is the acclaimed New York Times-bestselling author of the Nebula Award-winning novel Uprooted, Spinning Silver, and the nine-volume Temeraire series, as well as a founder of the Archive of Our Own. Her upcoming book, A Deadly Education, is the first of the Scholomance trilogy, an exciting new series.
Today, Naomi Novik is on the blog to answer our Ten Terrifying Questions. Read on …
Naomi Novik (Photo by Beth Gwinn).
1. To begin with why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself – where were you born? Raised? Schooled?
I was born in New York, raised on Long Island, and went to Brown and Columbia.
2. What did you want to be when you were twelve, eighteen and thirty? And why?
When I was twelve, I’m pretty sure I still wanted to be president. At eighteen, I wanted to be Lois Lane. (Specifically, the Lois Lane by Margot Kidder in the Christopher Reeve movies.) At thirty, I was working on my computer science degree, and wanted to make computer games.
3. What strongly held belief did you have at eighteen that you do not have now?
I can’t really think of any strong beliefs I had that I’ve let go of since then, although I’m sure there were some and it’s that I’ve just forgotten. But my belief in the importance of community has gotten stronger.
4. What were three works of art – book or painting or piece of music, etc – you can now say, had a great effect on you and influenced your own development as a writer?
Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit. I read them when I was so young, and so many times. Jane Austen’s books, certainly. Paintings by the Pre-Raphaelites.
5. Considering the innumerable artistic avenues open to you, why did you choose to write a novel?
Realistically, you have to write at novel-length to be a professional fiction writer. And artistically speaking, writing professionally at novel-length allows you to tell a much more complex story and make the significant time investment required. It’s sustained energy that I can’t devote unless I’m doing it professionally.
6. Please tell us about your latest novel!
In A Deadly Education, Galadriel “El” Higgins is a student at the Scholomance, a unique enchanted academy, where students either master their magical gifts or succumb to the countless voracious, nightmarish creatures that lurk around every corner. There are no teachers, no holidays, and no friendships, save strategic ones. Once the students enter the Scholomance, they’re locked inside until they graduate … or die.
7. What do you hope people take away with them after reading your work?
I generally hope my readers take away the world of the work. The feeling that they can imagine a different character in that world, that they can imagine visiting that world, that they can imagine the characters living on off the page.
I want my work to come alive inside the reader in a way where they are imaginatively collaborating with me. I want that more than a specific message. I want that feeling – the truth of a world and the characters to live in them.
8. Who do you most admire in the realm of writing and why?
I very much admire Ursula Le Guin. She was a truly spectacular writer, who wrote with honesty and really challenged herself.
There are many writers whose discipline and work ethic I deeply envy, and wish I had myself.
9. Many artists set themselves very ambitious goals. What are yours?
My ambition is to try and tell true stories – to be honest, to be vulnerable. I want to be honest in my fiction. To tell the truth, even when that’s a frightening or painful truth. But always keeping characters first. And letting the truth of characters come first.
Generally, I don’t set concrete goals. My main goal is just always to keep writing and to write what I can write at that time. Sometimes what you can write at a given time is not your best work, or it’s not necessarily what people want from you. You still just have to write what you can write.
I believe in doing that and clearing the pipeline. Letting those stories go.
10. What advice do you give aspiring writers?
Write a lot, and finish a lot. And if you have to pick one of those, finish a lot. Finish everything that you start for a while, until you get good at finishing things. Then, and only then – allow yourself to cherry pick the things you want to invest more time in, and selectively abandon others.
Especially in the beginning, especially when you haven’t yet sold something, the number one thing you have to learn to do is finish things and let them go, often even if it’s not perfect. Each piece becomes a plane on the runway. You have to clear the runway, and not bottle yourself up. If there’s a Cessna on the runway, you have to let the Cessna take off. Do that and the 747 and the space shuttle will come through eventually.
Thank you for playing!
—A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik (Penguin Books Australia) is out now. You’ll also find it in Booktoberfest!
A Deadly Education
Lesson 1 of the Scholomance
In the start of an all-new series, the bestselling author of Uprooted and Spinning Silver introduces you to a dangerous school for the magically gifted where failure means certain death - until one girl begins to rewrite its rules.
Enter a school of magic unlike any you have ever encountered. There are no teachers, no holidays, friendships are purely strategic, and the odds of survival are never equal. Once you're inside, there are only two ways out - you graduate or you die. El Higgins is uniquely prepared for...
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