Author Amelia Mellor dives into the inspiration for and journey to create The Wicked Ship, the first book of Oceanforged, a new middle-grade fantasy series set in the captivating world of Aquinta, written with consideration for the difficulties readers with dyslexia have when reading fantasy. 

What do you love most about writing?

The ability to create people and places out of words and bring others into it is pretty magical. Thousands of readers have experienced Cole’s Book Arcade for the first time through my stories – despite the real one being closed for nearly a century! And I’m excited to bring readers into a new world this time around.

Oceanforged draws on a range of inspiration and research. What has been your favourite aspect to research, or experience yourself?

My three days at sea on a racing yacht were a standout! Throughout the series, I find myself trying to capture certain moments from that trip. At one point, we heard mysterious splashes late at night and scrambled around the boat trying to get a look at these monsters of the deep! They were giant trevally, hunting the squid attracted by our lantern, and their tails splashed when they made sharp turns.

The rest of the Oceanforged series is already planned. What was it like to plan that far in advance? What’s your planning process?

It’s probably less whimsical than people might imagine. I feel more like an architect or an engineer when I’m planning, trying to figure out the purpose and placement of every element of both the overall series arc and each book in it. I’m glad that my editor and I took the time to figure out the plan, because the worst part of first drafting is wasting time on wrong turns. The series plan mostly keeps me on track, even if the details change in the actual writing.

How did you create your main characters Cori, Tarn, and Jem? Were they inspired by anyone in your life?

I like to have a bit of contrast in my cast. I usually develop central characters in relation to one another, as foils, instead of building them one at a time. In this case, I started off by thinking of Cori, Tarn and Jem as the guts, the heart and the brain of the team. Their major strengths and flaws are tied to these concepts. Cori, for instance, is courageous, but greedy and impulsive. Tarn has the strongest moral compass, but tends to be moody. Jem started out as a wise, responsible adult character – and I was asked to cut her from the story! But I was certain that it wouldn’t work with just two kids who disagree a lot, and besides, someone needed to own a boat. I decided that the ‘brain’ would be more fun as a wildly creative overthinker instead, and she became a much younger irresponsible adult.

What is your process in worldbuilding? How did you create the image of Aquinta in your mind?

Often, I’m combining memories of places I’ve visited. The city of Highwater in Aquinta comes from several different places I visited in Italy. Aquinta’s Blackrocks region has a bit of Bali, a bit of Borneo and a bit of the Flinders Rockpools near where I grew up. If I haven’t been to a place, I’ll find other visual references like videos, photos and diagrams. When it comes to things like the magic system and the monsters, I’m usually building from my knowledge of nature and science. I’m also constantly asking myself questions like, ‘what do I want to see more of?’, ‘how can I do this my own way?’ and ‘how can this world be more inclusive?’ All of the rules I’ve set out, and all the major cultural elements and customs, are described in a huge worldbuilding compendium shared with my editor. I think I have about eighty pages’ worth of worldbuilding documents – not including research materials like orca videos and lava cave diagrams.

Without spoilers, can you share anything you’re most excited for in this series?

I really enjoy surprising the reader and trying things in ‘weird’ ways. The environments, magic and monsters all allow me to weave in surprises that are awe-inspiring, funny or frightening. The same goes for tropes and surprises in the overarching plot.

Previously, you’ve written in the historical fiction genre. What was most exciting or challenging about now writing fantasy?

High fantasy comes with a lot more genre conventions than historical fiction, which I’ve been eager to play with. But I also have a keen interest in where things come from on Earth and why they are as they are. That sets up some creative challenges. For instance, I like to have an idea of how all my monsters would evolve in their world. Rather than have dragons that breathe fire, I’ll decide I’d prefer them to spit venom, because that’s more similar to the abilities of real animals. No one would be upset if I did have the dragons breathe fire! I’m allowed to break rules! But playing within the rules I set for myself is fun in its own way, and can make things a bit more unique.

The fantasy genre is often challenging for those with dyslexia, as you’ve experienced with family members and your students. What steps did you take to make Oceanforged accessible for everyone?

Wherever I can, I’ve tried to cut down on language conventions that can make fantasy challenging to read. Character names are spelled the way I think a kid would sound them out and have no more than three syllables. I’ve removed overly technical vocabulary wherever possible, such as nautical terms. And fantastical concepts are named with two simple rules. Either I use real, if sometimes obscure, words like ‘glister’ and ‘zeal’ – which the reader can look up or ask an adult about. Otherwise, I make up a compound word like ‘flipperboat’ or ‘bristle bean’, which describe themselves.

Your journey as an author didn’t begin with instant success. Do you have any advice for other upcoming authors?

That’s true. I received nearly fifty rejections, including three for The Grandest Bookshop in the World, before that book found its home at Affirm Press. One thing that made Grandest work when my earlier manuscripts didn’t quite get there, it had a much better structure than my earlier attempts! So my advice to aspiring writers of any age is to forget about the idea of wasted time. Writing is an art form, like music or painting. Expect to spend years practising at it. Grandest was only possible because of what I learned from writing and rewriting the stories that came before it.

Do you have any other projects in the works?

I wish I could focus only on later books in this series for now, but Book Week is soon to be upon us! There’s always a bit of work involved in tailoring my talks and workshops to different schools, but it’s so worth it to meet the kids who read my books.