By Chloë Moore ’24
Professor Emma Törzs is many things: a Creative Writing Professor, a poet, and without a doubt the most fashionable person in Old Main. Soon, she’ll add another title to her resumé: published novelist! I emailed with Prof. Törzs about the process of writing and publishing her upcoming debut novel, Ink Blood Mirror Magic, which will be released in spring 2023.
Can you share a little about the seed for the novel?
Really it was a whole sack of seeds, most of them scattered in the fall of 2019, and most of them sprouting ~vibes~ more than concrete ideas. But I can pinpoint three events that really jump started the project.
- I went to a Joanna Newsom show in Milwaukee. I always think I’m over Joanna Newsom, that my love for her is a relic of my youth, but I’m always wrong. I’ll never be over her! She played my favorite song, Emily, and I thought: I want to write a novel that feels like listening to this song.
- Maggie Stiefvater released the excellent novel Call Down the Hawk, and it felt like watching a writer climb to the top of her game—it made me want to start climbing. I sat down one thrilling Saturday night with a notebook and a pack of color-coded post-it notes and spent six blissful hours mapping out the intricate structure of her plot.
- A writer friend I admire (Lesley Arimah) asked if I wanted to do a novel chapter exchange, and I said yes even though I didn’t yet have anything concrete to share—all I had were some characters, some free-writes, and some images. But when I sat down to try and assemble something readable, the prologue for the book came pouring out of me, like it had been waiting, and when she read it, Lesley said the two words that are sometimes all a writer really needs to hear: “Keep going.”
Maybe a little plot teaser for our readers?
To quote the official copy, it’s about “two estranged sisters tasked with guarding their family’s collection of rare and dangerous magical books. When their father dies suddenly, they must work together to unravel the secrets their parents kept hidden from them—secrets that span centuries and continents… and even other libraries…”
This is your first novel—how did the process differ from your earlier writing work? Did you do anything to prepare?
It will be my first published novel, but it is not my first novel! I have a fully-finished and fully-failed first novel shoved in a proverbial drawer, and I like to think of it as my practice book. It taught me so much about how to write longform, especially with regards to revision and plotting, and it taught me to trust my instincts when something didn’t feel right—even if trusting those instincts meant cutting months’ worth of work. The second time around, I wasn’t nearly as scared of cutting and rewriting; I wrote and rewrote every chapter of this new book over and over, cutting literally millions of words in the process. (I have eleven full and separate drafts of the first chapter alone, for example—that’s 55,000 deleted words before we even hit chapter two.) I also read tons of crafts books and blog posts about plotting, and I used an outline for the first time—which I revised as much as I revised everything else.
A little insight into your writing process—are you a daily writer? Word counter? Favorite spot to work?
I am happiest when I can write every morning, though that’s rarely possible except over winter break or when I’m at a summer writing residency. I used to write almost exclusively in coffee shops (hello May Day and Canteen), but the majority of this book was written during the pandemic and I had to train myself to write at home—which got a lot easier when I took over a room in the house to be my writing studio. It really helps to have somewhere to go, even if it’s just down the hall, and I feel extremely lucky to have that space.
I am not really a word-counter, which is probably for the best, because there are days when I delete far, far more than I put on the page. I do often have daily goals, however; finish this scene, introduce this character, figure out this plot problem, etc.
How did the book deal come about? Can you tell us a little bit about the publishing process from your end?
In case you don’t know, I will briefly explain how the process of traditional publishing works. Author writes book; author submits book to agents; author signs with an agent; agent submits book to acquiring editors at different imprints of the publishing houses; an acquiring editor buys the book (or not); book is published.
With my first book, the editorial rejections came in fast and hot over one agonizing week. With this second book, it was a similar timeframe with opposite results. From what I understand, this rapid turnaround is not the norm—it’s more common to wait months to hear back, either way, and I credit the quick responses in large part to my superstar agent. Within a few days of sending the book out, a lot of editors were already expressing interest, and the following week I met with every one of them over Zoom, stacking meetings between classes. I barely remember that week, to be honest; it was a whirlwind and I was a basket case of anxiety and hope. I am thankful to past-Emma for taking incredibly detailed notes. After that week of meetings, the auction was on the following Monday morning, and my agent called me after my first class (your class, Chloë!) to tell me the winning bid, which came from HarperCollins. I put my head down on my desk, cried, then called my family.
What advice do you have for Mac’s young writers?
READ; build writing community; don’t be an asshole; fear not the delete key; write for the enduring joy of writing, not for the fleeting joy of publication.
Do you promise to remember Intro to Creative Writing Fall 2021 when you’re famous? 🙂
Of course! But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
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The Words thanks Prof. Törzs for taking the time for this interview, and we can’t wait for her to become the next Rick Riordan!