Blog Tour: Prisoner of Ice and Snow

Hey, everyone, and welcome to my stop on the Prisoner of Ice and Snow blog tour.

I don't know about you, but I already miss winter. It's my favorite season, and I'm a little excited because we are supposed to get some snow this week! EEEEP! That being said, the minute that I saw the description of Prisoner of Ice and Snow, I knew it was a book I had to read simply because of ice and snow!

 Ruth Lauren - author of Prisoner of Ice and Snow - is here today to share a little bit of information about how she wrote the book. Read on after the jump to find out more!

Guest Post from Ruth Lauren

PRISONER OF ICE AND SNOW wasn’t the first book I’ve ever written, or even the second, or third. But it was different in how I approached writing it. I had more fun and did less worrying (and actually less planning) than before.

The general idea for this story began when I was watching Prison Break with my son and wondered what that the starting point of that story would be like if it was about two young sisters instead and set in a fantasy world that could make things even more difficult for them. I always write a pitch first before I do anything else, so I set to work writing a query letter that sketched out the biggest problems. I like to use this formula as a basis (I’m pretty sure it came from Janet Reid’s Query Shark blog).

What does the main character want?

What’s going to stand in her way?

What choice will she have to make?

What terrible thing will happen if she chooses A/what terrible thing will happen if she doesn’t?

Once I’ve written the query letter I like to frown at said query letter for several days whilst perfecting it (and maybe moaning that I can’t write query letters, they’re too hard, who even invented them anyway?) I think I’ll always do this, even though I already have an agent and maybe no one will ever see the letter. A tight query makes a great basis for expanding into a coherent book.

After that I elaborate on the query, making it into a loose outline using a screenwriting framework a friend once gave me (thanks, Deb!) which splits the story into three Acts and again tends to pull the idea into a coherent story. At this point, I might write down specific scenes in some detail and usually some lines of dialogue pop into my head too. Things will get vaguer and hazier towards the end of the outline whereas the first chapters will be full of detail.

Other things I like to do:
Make a Pinterest board with images of how I see the setting or specific images (like the ice sculptures in Chapter 1 of Prisoner).

The despair of ever being able to figure out the plot in a fun and satisfying way (maybe I don’t like doing this one per se, but it always seems to happen).

Sit down to work but go on the internet for seven hours instead.

Then on the outline, I’ll fill in the individual chapters (three at a time) (no, I’ve no idea why. It just happens), then I’ll, you know, start writing the book. Typically I try to write 1000 words a day when I’m drafting, filling in later chapters in more detail on the outline as I go. And so on, until THE END!

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