Veronica Roth is still writing, speaks about writing characters

If you’re wondering whether or not Veronica Roth has taken a break from writing since the release of Allegiant, the answer appears to be a solid no.

Veronica Roth took to her Tumblr to talk about some of the frustrations and rewards in writing characters into a story.

Central character #2 walked onto the page checking the buttons on her sleeves for what seemed to be the thousandth time that day. I “saw” the gesture the way my high school teacher always wanted me to, and then I saw her. She was nervous. She was neat, particular, detail-oriented, and a little vain. I knew how she would talk. I knew that she was very still— maybe disconcertingly so. In other words, she was “in,” and it was as important for me, the writer, as it would be for a hypothetical reader.

Usually when I get stuck, it’s because something isn’t working for me, and I have to find a way to make it work before I can continue. If a character feels flat to me, all their interactions feel flat, and the whole narrative feels…blah. Boring. What I want, instead, is for my words to hit the page and spark, and details help that happen.

So, what I’m working on: specificity, just enough, and discarding the most obvious details in favor of the less familiar ones. (Even if they’re very simple— fiddling with buttons is something people do all the time, after all.) I’m working on getting the characters “in”.

It looks like she’s hard at work on her next book! Veronica Roth is also busy with the promotion of the ‘Divergent’ film that will be released in just a few weeks. She’s hitting the road with other cast members to promote the film at red carpet screenings. Be sure to check out our network fansite, FactionHub.net, for the latest Divergent developments!