pandorica-jar asked: Hi. I'm sorry to bother you, but... I'm pretty sure Hell Bent wasn't written yet when you wrote Face the Raven. So how much did you know about what's going to happen?

Hello! You’re right - episodes 11 and 12 hadn’t been written when I started Face the Raven, In fact, I’m not sure the scripts had been started by the time I finished, as ep10 was shot quite early in the schedule, before ep9, and Steven is a frighteningly fast writer. However, he let me in on his rough plan for the final two episodes when he sent me off to write my second draft - the point at which my trap street story became ep10 and took on the story of Clara’s death, Ashildr’s involvement, etc, all leading into ep11. So I knew what was going to happen in broad strokes. I knew the Doctor would be all alone and at his nadir in ep11, and that he was going to try to bring Clara back in some way in ep12, but I didn’t know what would ultimately come of that effort… except of course that Jenna wasn’t going to be in s10!

I didn’t need to know all the details of ep12 in order to write ep10, and I was happy to keep it that way so that I could enjoy the final episodes mostly unspoiled as they went to air. The final beats of Clara’s story were a surprise to me on Saturday. I watched with my heart in my mouth just like everyone else. I’m sure I stopped breathing altogether when it seemed like Clara might get Donna’d, and I burst into ugly happy tears when she refused to accept that awful fate. “I insist upon my past. I am entitled to that. It’s mine.” Precious clever fierce as hell Clara bae!! How so perf??? ;___;

I was particularly touched by the return of Rigsy’s painted TARDIS (weirdly, it felt like seeing one of my friends on television - startling and personal and proud-making) and I had no idea she was going to “live” and run off with Ashildr. That idea is taking some getting used to, to be honest. Not because I don’t want her to survive and thrive, and bring Jane onto their TARDIS for adventures, and carry on dazzling the universe for goodness knows how long. No, I think it just feels strange because I have spent the best part of twelve months contemplating Clara’s death in every possible way. I grieved for her from every angle in every draft I wrote, and witnessing your grief for her after FtR aired was the final beat of closure in that journey. I guess it hasn’t sunk in yet that the character gets to live on. Not only live on, but live on gloriously. How do you unpick all that bedded-in grief and closure? You guys only had two weeks of it - I had a full year! I’m going to have to watch Hell Bent again…