Meet Fantasy Writer Olivie Blake
Fantasy writer Olivie Blake jokingly tells me that she doesn’t know how to write a book. With eight adult fantasy novels and two YA romantic comedies under her belt — including the bestselling Atlas series — it’s a little hard to believe that. But Blake, a self-proclaimed “discovery writer,” insists.
Blake’s Writing Journey
Blake is a prolific writer for an author who claims not to know how to write. She originally self-published her adult novels under a pen name, the same one she used for her fanfiction. When The Atlas Six became a viral sensation via TikTok and other social media, she got a chance to republish that novel in 2022 with Tor. The publishing house also republished her older adult fantasy, and picked up the rest of the Atlas series. At the same time, Blake published her YA debut, My Mechanical Romance, under the name Alexene Farol Follmuth.
Staying Productive and Setting Goals
In 2024, she published the last book of the Atlas trilogy, along with Twelfth Knight, another YA rom-com. With two new stand-alone adult fantasy books coming out in 2025 and a whole lot more planned for down the line, Blake has learned a thing or two about balancing projects, focusing on goals, and figuring out what to work on next. Since the beginning of a new year is always a time for reflection about setting new goals and considering self-improvement, Polygon reached out to Blake to ask how she stays so productive, and discuss the perks of being “a New Year’s resolution person.”
This interview has been edited for concision and clarity.
Setting Goals and Balancing Projects
Polygon: Do you set professional or creative goals for yourself as the new year approaches, or do you have different strategies?
Olivie Blake: I’m a New Year’s resolution person. I like to start the year assuming I will be my least lazy self, and then inevitably be disappointed. But I feel like in the margin for error, there is still some improvement.
Creative Process and Project Selection
Polygon: How do you pick between projects, or focus on what you want to do next?
Blake shares, “Sometimes if I’m feeling the need to work on something else, I will do [both] concurrently. There are times when I think to keep that feeling of play or to keep that hobbyist energy of I’m doing this because I love it, I will sometimes do something shorter. It’s never a loss. That story will become something someday.”
Managing Creative Blocks
Polygon: How do you restart yourself when you get blocked or overwhelmed?
Blake mentions, “Usually when I’m feeling blocked, when I can’t move forward in the project I’m working on, it’s because there’s a problem in the project I’m working on. Something I just wrote isn’t right. What it really is is kind of a feeling of I need to cut what I just wrote, but I feel like that will be such a loss that I don’t want to do it.”
Letting Go and Moving On
Polygon: How do you know when it’s time to let a project go?
Blake reveals, “That’s a good question. I’m trying to think of what projects I have let go. There’s not too many that I’ve left unfinished. Usually if I leave something unfinished, it’s because I came up with a better version of the idea, or I want to use the characters in a different way.”