John Flanagan stated that he first wrote the series as short stories for his son to get him interested in reading. This continued for about 20 weeks. Ten years later, John Flanagan found the stories again and decided to turn them into the first book, "The Ruins of Gorlan". However, he never knew that the one book would be able to turn into so many volumes. In 2010 Flanagan was unsure how many volumes in the series he would release, saying "I haven't set a limit. If I have an idea that will progress the characters, I'll write it. But I don't want to find myself jumping up and down on the same spot, as it were."