What would I have done differently?

A tale of the Witchlands and twelve years of hindsight

Well, Witchlight is here.

It has been almost one decade after Truthwitch hit stores, and it has been 12.5 years since I started drafting the series that would change my life. Now finale lands on shelves everywhere.

I am more proud of this book than anything I have ever written or perhaps will ever write.

That isn’t to say I’m not proud of all my books or that they didn’t each have their challenges and joys, but nothing—nothing—can possibly compare to the 12.5 years I have spent working on the Witchlands.

What I thought would be a “fun fantasy” that I started drafting in 2013 very quickly ballooned into a four-book series bought by Tor Teen¹. Then along came some “series order trouble” (read below for details) that seriously complicated my creative process during Windwitch.

(I’m not kidding: I wrote an entire book, turned it in…and then emailed my editor a week later and said, Never mind! Just kidding! I’m starting over!)

The ripple effects of the series order were just…incredible.

And they continued to plague me with each book I wrote after. Again, more on that below.

Life also got really hard on the personal front. I won’t rehash it all, but 2018 - 2025 (yes, this year too) were brutal for me, and the Witchlands series had to be set aside for books with a lighter mental load.

But, here we are. >800,000 words after I open Truthwitch with the line,

Everything had gone horribly wrong.

we have reached the epic, EPIC conclusion . With seven main points of view (and a few tiny extras sprinkled in), a bajillion plot threads and planted seeds, heaps of earned payoffs, some of which took me six entire books to carefully weave…

Now it all comes to a head. Now is when devoted readers will finally see their theorizing and tabbed books, their rereads and discussions paying off.

I worked my ass off to make sure every core promise I made in this series was answered, and that I gave all of you the high intensity, maximum stakes, maximum emotion you’ve been waiting for.

So thank you to each of you who pre-ordered and submitted your receipts.² Thank you to everyone who has gotten a ticket or RSVPed to a coming tour stop.

And above all: thank you to every single readers who has continued to support me over the many years it took me to do this series justice.

Witchlight would not exist if not for ALL OF YOU. I would have abandoned the series long ago in despair at how hard it was to connect all the plot points as I’d envisioned, to make all the character arcs collide in the most satisfying way, to fulfill all the little promises I’d made in Truthwitch (many of which only the most careful readers will have caught)…

But I did it. Thanks to all of you.

So I hope you enjoy Witchlight. Or if you’re just only starting Truthwitch now, then welcome to the Witchlands. You’re in for quite a ride.

💚 - Sooz

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Baby Sooz on her release day in January 2016.

What would I have done differently?

Almost an entire year ago (eep), Asteria asked on my

Misfits & Daydreamers

AMA:

How have you seen your style and/or approach evolve, especially in regards to the first Witchlands book compared to the last? I recall there a few world aspects you mentioned you would’ve have written differently (something with the distance and time to travel). Say if you began Truthwitch today, what do you think that would look like? (Or we can take it back further and talk about SS&D to avoid any Witchlands spoilers.)

I’ve put off answering this question because I am not someone who naturally looks backward.³ The past is the past; sure, I have regrets, but I’d rather look ahead and keep working.

But to answer this question—and in honor of the Witchlight release that was so many years in the making)—I want to at least try to excavate the creative and publishing past of the Witchlands.

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Lesson 1: I Cannot Compartmentalize

Turns out, like the title says, I cannot compartmentalize.

In all truth, I’m not convinced most people can truly compartmentalize. Yes, first responders or ER doctors or soldiers can absolutely zoom in on the moment and get the work done…

But I think it would be a lie to say that external problems don’t creep in somewhere. Or that the intensity of their job doesn’t bleed outward.

However, there’s a real stigma against acknowledging this truth. How dare you let your divorce impact your output! How dare you let the death of your mother interfere with your schedule! How dare you let your chemotherapy get in the way of these deadlines! How dare you let your job stress impact your family!

We’re supposed to be robots that can task switch with zero residue from what came before. It’s laughable, honestly.⁴

But, like many, I certainly expected that I’d be able to simply “write through the hard personal times.” (See this post for truly horrifying details of only one instance in which I have done this.)

So yeah: I wish I had been better during Windwitch and then Witchshadow (the two worst times for me in terms of personal challenges) at accepting that compartmentalization was impossible—and that I wasn’t a failure because of that fact.

Life was hell; it impacted my writing; and beating myself up over the decreased productivity only made all of that much worse.

It’s just a book, Sooz. Lower the stakes, yeah?

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Lesson 2: I Wish I’d Made Different Choices Behind the Scenes

This “behind the scenes” stuff is harder to get into—if only because it’s an area where hindsight is 20/20. I could never have anticipated the impact of a few sliding-door business decisions while they were happening.

I can only look back and say, Well, crap.

And those moments are:

1. I wish, wish, wish I had never agreed to change the order of the series and move Bloodwitch to #3, while Iseult’s book after.

   1. The ripple effects of this decision (which was handed to me as a directive on high due to a sales situation) continued to haunt me into Witchlight.

   2. For one, I didn’t plan the series reveals that way! And I had already written and published Truthwitch when this news came to me, so I couldn’t go back and undo all my foreshadowing…

   3. For two, because of these locked-in story elements, Aeduan’s personal reveals and arcs had to be completely re-reckoned. They just weren’t meant to happen before Iseult’s…so now I had to almost split his story…while also splitting hers…

   4. It was a mess.

2. I wish I had pushed harder on making Witchshadow two books.

   1. In actuality, this would not have been an issue in the first place if I’d had my original series arrangement (Truthwitch, Windwitch, Threadwitch, Bloodwitch).

   2. But because of the switched arrangement, I had to add plot to keep things moving. Which meant by the time we got to Iseult’s book, she had…well, too much to deal with.

   3. The story had ballooned thanks to, again, ripple effects. I won’t rehash why making this one book was so tough…but I really wish I’d pushed harder on this. (Read the link above if you want more insights.)

3. I also wish I had not written Sightwitch as such an integral part of the main series—or that I had made clear to my publisher that Sightwitch was book 3 and not just a separate prequel.

   1. The marketing around that book really hurt its performance out of the gate, and it never did sell to the UK—a fact UK readers bemoan to me constantly.

   2. Because I couldn’t assume readers had read Sightwitch, I had to sneak lots of reveals and information into the other characters’ stories. Reveals that I didn’t actually want my characters to know yet, but that I needed readers to be aware of…

      1. I’m looking at you, Aeduan’s mom.

   3. Side note, poor Sightwitch also was just cursed in general.The printing got delayed last minute due to a production issue, so the release date had to be bumped a month. Then the books didn’t reach B&N stores while I was on tour because it simply never left B&N warehouses!⁵

      1. This isn’t something in my control, so I have no regrets here. I just look back and think, Awwww, poor Sightwitch. She never had a chance!

4. I also wish….kind of, sort of (but also not) that I hadn’t published 4 books between Witchshadow and Witchlight.

   1. I mean, on the one hand, TRAUMA! (See the above link for details.) I needed to write something “easier,” and I’m glad The Luminaries had a chance to release before the YA market completely vanished.

   2. On the other hand, lost momentum! The market for epic fantasy has dramatically changed since 2016. Many of my readers have moved on. And while I’ve done everything humanly possible to re-engage the fandom…

      1. It hurts to get on Tumblr and see just how active and devoted that fandom used to be.

      2. It also hurts to feel like I let everyone down by taking so long. 😞

      3. Not to mention, it has tangibly hurt the long-term success of the series by losing momentum and shedding readers.

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Lesson 3: Story Logistics and Scale

I tend to always imagine new story ideas on the scale of a series (instead of, say, a standalone). I can’t help it. The satisfaction of a payoff that takes multiple books to earn—nothing delights me more, both as a reader and as a writer.

But wow. The Witchlands is big.

It has a big map with so many places all so far apart. (So far. 🥲 Even with magic, travel times became a real issue when I was trying to keep intensity high.)

It has a big cast with so many key characters whose arcs all contribute to the overall story in dramatic ways.

And it has a big, big plot with a million moving parts that all had to be planted and then developed and then culminated over many books and POVs.

People frequently tell me that reading the Witchlands feels like playing an RPG. And hey—as a gamer, that is the best compliment EVER. Truly, ever. But…

Games have entire teams to develop and write for them. All I had was this one little brain, and wow.⁶

You all might have noticed I’ve just sold a bunch of standalones. And yeah: there’s a reason for that.

1. I want to train my brain to skew “smaller.”

2. I want a break from all the weight that a series carries, in terms of story that fills my brain and in terms of the pressure of contracted books.

3. I need a breather before I tackle anything as massive again—if I ever do.

But all that said, do I actually regret making the Witchlands so big?

Hell no. Hell no. I bit off more than I could chew as a still-young writer back in 2013. But that also forced me to learn “on the job” because each book demanded more from me, creatively and craft-wise.

And now, here I am: really, really damned proud of what I have pulled off in the Witchlands.

I just don’t have any plans to do the same again any time soon. 😉⁷

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In conclusion…

There’s not actually anything I’d do differently. Sure, I can point to moments or choices and say, Ouch. Should have gone a different way…

But like I said before: I don’t tend to look back and stew in any kind of regret. The choices were made. The consequences were dealt with (or are still being dealt with). And here I am.

All I can do is keep working, keep engaging with readers, and keep trying to publish the best goddamned books I can produce.

Oh, and I can feel grateful. That’s an important thing to do too. And on this day of Witchlight’s release—finally—I’m definitely feeling a heckuva a lot of gratitude.

For my readers. For my editor(s) and publishing team. For my agent and her team. For my friends and support network…

All of it. Thank you for sticking with me for so long.

Enjoy.

1. The series is not, in fact, YA. And were it to be sold today, it would absolutely get shelved as “romantasy” — also an inaccurate label. But this is how publishing and bookstores operate. Whatever is selling best gets shoehorned with all sorts of things that don’t really fit well.

2. I will be writing your voted-upon short story SOON!!!

3. Futuristic and Adaptability strengths ftw!

4. No wonder companies are so invested in AI. No sick days, no residue. Just output. Who cares if the output is questionable, the environmental impact devastating, and the deskilling of humans already tangibly measured…

5. Believe it or not, this wasn’t the first time this happened to me. My second book, A Darkness Strange & Lovely also never left B&N warehouses. Which also really hurt the sales for that book and its ability to build momentum. C’EST LA VIE, though! We keep going!

6. HUGE SHOUT OUT TO MY NUMBER ONE BETA READER, RACHEL HANSEN. Her brainstorming sessions and early reads were instrumental in getting this series finished. Same to Joanna Volpe, my agent, who was MVP along with Rachel for Witchlight.

7. Don’t worry: there are plenty of books that skew in the same vein as the Witchlands ahead. Just none so massive in scale.