Writing Magic ~ Annaliese Avery on The Wycherleys

Get your heart and your broomstick ready, you are about to fall in love, discover a new kingdom, magic and a love to weather every storm, magical or real! Romance between arch-enemy families, two witches in need of help, treachery and of course kissing, fill the pages of this remarkable, fun, captivating story! Annaliese Avery tells us a little bit more about how she came to write this wonderful book...

I am always collecting ideas – I find them everywhere that I go, in the songs that I listen to, the movies I watch, the books I read, the art I see, the interactions that I have with people, and the places that I visit. Anything that I find interesting, or exciting, or that I have questions about I like to collect, sometimes I keep these ideas in my head but more often than not I stick them in my writing journal. When I take some of those ideas and start exploring them in a story I then add further to my collection – doing a deep dive on whatever has inspired me to write.

I like to think that there is a sliding scale of the types of writers that are out in the world, that scale starts on one end with pioneers – writers who know nothing about their stories, who arrive with nothing more that the idea of writing something and set out to discover what exactly that is. On the other end of the scale there are navigators who turn up to the story armed with maps and guidebooks, they know everything that there is to know about the land, they have done extensive research, and they have an itinerary of where they are going. Then somewhere in the middle are writers like me, explorers - we have heard that there is a story out there, we know the general direction that we need to travel in to find it, and we know a few of the landmarks to look for along the way but most things in the story are unknown to us before we set out.

This is how I write, I know a few things about the type of story I am writing - the tone or vibes of it- and they usually come from the things I’ve collected. The ideas I have gathered help to make up the landmarks that I am moving towards. I also usually know a little about one or two of the characters that I’ll be traveling with, but usually no more than I might know when meeting someone for the first time in real life.

Armed with the little that I know I set off, and while journeying I look to those traveling companions, those characters, to show me the way, because they live in this world and it is their actions, and choices that are creating the story path.

When I set off along the story trail to write The Wycherleys I knew that I wanted to write another romantasy, I knew it was going to be about witches and that it was going to be set in Regency England, and inspired by the debutante season and the season of the witch I knew that the story would take place from September to May and that the balls and trials of the Magical Season would be linked to the wiccan wheel of the year. I also knew that the aim of the debutante witches was to find another witch to tether their magic too or they would lose it forever.

I wasn’t too far into the story when I realised that the main character Aurelia Wycherley had been cursed and that for her finding a way to keep her magic was going to be more complicated, maybe near on impossible. I was only a little further in when Jules Nightly walked on to the page, I instantly knew that he had information that would help Aurelia but also that his family, one of his ancestors to be exact, was responsible for the generational curse that Aurelia had received.

With this conflict in place, and the stake for Aurelia high, I started to write my first draft, although I don’t call it a first draft I call it a draft zero – I tend to write this part of the story quickly and it is always a lot more words then it needs to be. I like to think of it as me telling myself the story, and I indulge myself with overwriting and exploring things far too deeply. When I get to the end of the story I then throw it away and start again. (this bit often upsets other writers, but for me it is just part of the process).

I then set out on the story again, this time instead of telling myself the story I am showing it to my reader. It’s in this stage that the story deepens and really comes together.

I recently had a chat with a fellow author and I was explaining my process and about how I was and explorer and he pointed out that I might be an explorer on that first draft zero, but that draft then become the most detailed planning ever, and in my first proper draft I am more than just a navigator.

So I guess, in light of that, I may be an explorer first but I am a cartographer second.

Either way, I hope that you enjoy discovering The Wycherleys and Aurelia’s story as much as I did.

Annaliese Avery

The Wycherleys published on 6 May 2025 and is available from all good bookshops!

My thanks to the publicity team at Simon & Schuster for making this book and this Blog possible and to Annaliese for writing something especially for us!