She Turned a Family Dungeons & Dragons Game Into a Fantasy Trilogy
A cozy, honest look inside Cathryn DeVries discipline, inspiration, burnout recovery, and building worlds readers fall in love with.
What happens when a family Dungeons & Dragons campaign becomes the spark for an entire fantasy trilogy? In this warm, deeply personal interview, Cathryn deVries opens up about writing classic-feeling fantasy for modern readers, drawing from Tolstoy’s vivid economy, Tolkien’s layered worldbuilding, C.S. Lewis’s spiritual imagination, and Brandon Sanderson’s close third-person craft.
Cathryn talks about writing through hard seasons, rebuilding her creative fire after burnout, and chasing a dream bigger than fame: books with legacy, fandom, fanart, cosplay, and characters that lodge themselves in readers’ hearts.
How would you describe your writing style, and what influences formed it?
I like to think of my writing as having a classic fantasy feel, but accessible to the modern reader. My prose has a lyrical feel, but isn’t overly flowery. How I do my description is actually heavily influenced by Tolstoy. If you’ve ever read the grass cutting scene in Anna Karenina, you’ll know what I’m talking about. The economy of language there is incredible, and he paints a really vivid scene with so few words. That’s what I strive for.
Tolkien is also a huge influence on my writing, especially regarding worldbuilding. I try to create deep, cohesive worlds, and also subtly infuse faith into them. I wanted to make my worlds reflect the true reality of our trinitarian God being through, with, and in creation.
CS Lewis is also an influence. In some ways, I am trying to do for the Trinity what he did for Jesus with Aslan. I feel totally out of my depth when I say it out loud like that, but that’s what I felt God nudging me to do.
More recently, I’ve been heavily influenced by Brandon Sanderson. I studied his way of writing in close 3rd POV and was rewarded for my efforts when one editor I pitched to commented that my style sounded like ‘Brandon Sanderson, but with a feminine touch.’
There’s nothing better than to be compared to your favourite authors!
What is your current WIP about and why does it matter to you?
My current WIP is Book 2 of the trilogy that got me started in writing. I have already published the fourth book I’ve written, but this trilogy is my current magnum opus. Whether it remains that forever, I have no way to know, but for now, it’s the most important thing I’ve written.
If you’ve heard me share my author journey, you’ll know that I accidentally wrote this trilogy without having any intention of writing one book, let alone three. It was the result of a spur-of-the-moment decision to chronicle our family Dungeons and Dragons game. My eldest daughter had written the campaign for us, and I was having such a great time playing it that I didn’t want to forget. Our family was going through a really rough patch, and this game was a spark of joy in my life.
So yeah, it’s hugely special to me. The manuscript has changed so much since the first draft, but I am still using it to process a lot of tough emotions, while at the same time refining it into a story that stands the test of time.
Where does your self-discipline come from?
I’m fortunate in that I am naturally self-disciplined. I have a lot of internal motivation to finish things and always have. That doesn’t mean I don’t procrastinate sometimes, or do everything else except write, but I really enjoy finishing things, so it feels very rewarding when I do. And then, funnily enough, I start feeling a bit sad, because there is no more work to do on it.
Then, of course, I find another reason to do a round of edits!
I also know that if I don’t do whatever it is that needs to be done, no one else is going to do it for me. My stories mean too much to me to not give them my best.
Also, I promised God.
How do you avoid burnout from all the pressure of being an author, and get back your creative spark?
I am still working on this one. I have skimmed the edge of burnout so many times, and I did lose my creative spark late last year. Launching my first book was such an intense experience and I didn’t write anything for several months. I knew I had to start working on the second book in my trilogy because it needed a complete restructure, but I couldn’t find the motivation. The task before me seemed too overwhelming.
Then my book contract came through, and it specified delivery of Book 2 midyear. That deadline lit a fire under me and I began the work, knowing there was no possible way I would meet the deadline. I asked for an extension straight away, but I worked on the assumption I wouldn’t get it.
I did get it, but by that time, I had rediscovered my love for this story and I was working with my developmental editing team. Having people cheering me on and helping me made a huge difference.
What is your dream as an author, and what are you doing to get there?
I would actually love for my books to be more famous than I am. I would love to have a fandom who are super into my world and characters, who cosplay them, draw fanart of them. That would be amazing.
My dreams are all about reach and legacy. I want people to be touched by what I write, for it to influence them in some way, and be incredibly memorable. I would love for my books to be counted amongst the classics of this age, and to that end I am trying to create the best books I possibly can. I’m very serious about improving my craft, and have made sure I really understand story structure (and keep learning and refining!)
I’m big on intentional skill building. I didn’t really realise I was doing it at the time, but I spent one entire draft just focusing on getting the motivation and reaction of each beat in the right order. Every sentence was analysed to make sure it complied. I spent another entire draft ONLY working on fight scenes. I studied how to write fight scenes and then improved every single one of them for the entire trilogy, only to later work out that I’d need to cut half of them.
But that’s the way it goes sometimes. And the practice is never wasted.
I also really connect with my own emotions during drafting and editing to get the most authentic response. Readers connect with characters on the emotional level, and plot without meaning doesn’t pull readers in. What happens has to MATTER to the character or is doesn’t matter to the reader.
How do you find time to write, and what is the best time of day for you?
I started off writing in the evenings after the kids had gone to sleep. I need quiet to write. I have no idea how people can write with music going. I can’t do that. So anytime that’s quiet is the best time. Any place that’s quiet is the best place.
It was easy in the beginning, when all I was doing was writing, to make the time for it. 8:30-11pm was my writing time and that was that. I anticipated it each day. Nothing could stop me! After I really gained momentum and even that wasn’t enough time, I crammed writing into any free moment I had.
That changed dramatically when I began getting ready to publish. Suddenly there were a whole lot of new things to learn—platforms, email list building, social media, websites, marketing, querying, synopsis writing, formatting, podcasting and the list went on and on. It was completely overwhelming.
I felt like I had to prioritise all these other things ahead of my writing, and they ate into my writing time more and more. Eventually, I had to make a cutoff time for all these other things. A time when I would not do any more business tasks and switch to writing.
That proved harder than it sounded, and I was often so drained after all the other things that I didn’t have any creative juice left for writing. It’s really backwards, the amount of marketing authors are expected to do. Our primary job should be to WRITE.
I’ve tried switching to sandwiching business tasks between two writing sessions, and I feel best on the days I can do that.
If you didn’t write, what would you do for a living?
I would probably be an architect. Architecture was my hobby all through my 20s and in hindsight, I should have studied it instead of engineering. I have huge sketchbooks full of floorplans and elevations, all hand drawn. I loved it. I loved the puzzle of fitting spaces together in an aesthetic and practical way. I still love it. I designed our house, so I did get to do it for real one time.
I had dreams of being an animator at one stage, but being hired by Disney didn’t seem very realistic as I live in Australia, and I also wanted to be an astronaut, but again, NASA selecting me for the space program was also a long shot.
What is your favorite genre to write and why?
Fantasy is my first love. I gravitate towards a simpler life, so I love the lack of technology and also the magic, which connects the natural to the supernatural. Something we have for the most part lost in modern society. It also feels very natural to me to include the divine in fantasy. God just slides right in without too much effort.
People expect gods and supernatural beings in fantasy, so using it as a vehicle to illuminate the true God from a different perspective is something I really enjoy doing.
Fantasy has always helped me understand my faith better.
When the story demands it, I will write sci-fi, but not hard sci-fi. I gravitate to ‘soft’ sci-fi, space opera, or science fantasy. I love the worlds, creatures and political dynamics of sci-fi, special abilities that are akin to magic.
It’s futuristic fantasy to me!