Ask the Author: N.K. Jemisin
Answered Questions (117)
N.K. Jemisin
I don't think my passion is particularly toned down in my fiction. I think it takes a different form -- Twitter requires a particular style, and novel writing requires something different. But it's the same person writing both, so I'm pretty sure the same feelings and thoughts underlie both. :)
N.K. Jemisin
Offhand, China Mieville's LOOKING FOR JAKE blew my mind; Nalo Hopkinson and Uppinder Meehan's anthology SO LONG BEEN DREAMING made me reconsider what "colonial" and "postcolonial" meant; Octavia Butler's BLOODCHILD AND OTHER STORIES was just fun (in a mindblowing, often horrifying way).
N.K. Jemisin
Of course I feel anxiety or fear about it. Writing is hard. But then I do it anyway, and I make it better through revisions, and then I send it out to readers anyway. Because that's what writing *is.* You just gotta do it!
N.K. Jemisin
Everything I write is African American, because I'm African American. I'm guessing you mean "How much of it is consciously done," and the answer is... some? I write the stories I need to write, at the time I write them, for whatever reasons feel right. I can't articulate why, apart from "that's how art works." Also I dated a guy named Uche once.
N.K. Jemisin
Apart from "seek treatment for your depression," no. I'm not going to tell you to just write through it; it's *depression.* It's a serious condition and it can kill you, so please please please take care of yourself, first and foremost. Once that's done, the writing will come, if it's meant to be. But you can't write if you're struggling to live, and that's what depression can be.
Please take care, and good luck.
Please take care, and good luck.
N.K. Jemisin
Depends on what you mean by prepper. Am I someone who has a bunker and buys expensive storecache food and expects society to collapse at any given moment? No. Am I a black woman raised by a family that's been through the Depression and Jim Crow and who therefore has some accumulated wisdom and practices that might help me survive when life gets rough? Yes. As for whether I want to survive, depends on the apocalypse.
N.K. Jemisin
About as often as you see on Twitter, plus occasionally in DMs. When we have time at cons, we go to lunch or something.
N.K. Jemisin
It probably just happens because I have Thoughts about colonialism. :D
N.K. Jemisin
There are maps sometimes. I used to be kind of anti-map -- just don't find them useful, and a little spoilery -- but as of the Broken Earth trilogy I decided to experiment with them more often. And I think the map in THE CITY WE BECAME is actually hilarious, many thanks to Orbit's Art Director Lauren Panepinto. Beyond that, the text versions of the books usually have appendices which are just interesting worldbuilding data -- not necessary, but interesting. If you've already got the audiobook, maybe check out a text copy from the library so you can see the end matter and maps!
N.K. Jemisin
Already there -- I read the first book of the series and loved it. :)
N.K. Jemisin
I do those workshops all over the place -- most recently on the JoCo Cruise, just a week ago. It's difficult to say when/where I'll be doing the next one; I can't always get a 2-hr slot at most cons, etc. We'll see!
N.K. Jemisin
My intent was to tell a good story. To me, that involves thoroughly exploring characters, in ways that sometimes change how the audience reads them. :) Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!
N.K. Jemisin
I did not get it professionally edited before I sent it to an agent. That's not a normal part of the process; professional editing should occur after the book has been bought by a publisher (in traditional publishing). I just wrote a 0th draft, revised it up to a 1st draft, sent that to my writing group, wrote a 2nd and 3rd draft based on that, and then sent it to agents. That was enough to get me offers from 2 agents. I accepted one -- Lucienne Diver, who is still my agent to this day. After that book sold to a publisher, it got revised a couple more times, copyedited, and then a final pass from me for typos, etc.
Generally the biggest change to my novels happens after someone else reads it -- my writing group, my editor. Then I do major overhauls, like removing characters or unnecessary subplots or adding chapters, etc.
Generally the biggest change to my novels happens after someone else reads it -- my writing group, my editor. Then I do major overhauls, like removing characters or unnecessary subplots or adding chapters, etc.
N.K. Jemisin
I never have particular "lessons" in mind for my works. I'm just trying to tell a good story, for values of "good" that have meaning to me. Which ones you consider good is up to you.
N.K. Jemisin
I can safely say that there is not a lick of plate dynamics in THE CITY WE BECAME. :) As for how much this series might demand of readers, that's up to readers. I just write 'em!
N.K. Jemisin
No idea. Probably some grad student will figure it out in a lit analysis published after I die. :D
N.K. Jemisin
Not at the moment, because I put several of those pieces into HOW LONG TIL BLACK FUTURE MONTH and that came out recently. But in general, sure, every writer produces pieces like that. And then hopefully she gets to put them in a short story collection!
N.K. Jemisin
My answer to that question is something I prefer to show through fiction than tell about in a Goodreads answer. :) I guess you'll have to keep reading my work!
N.K. Jemisin
My research on the issue comes from being a counselor, primarily. As for how I approach it, here's a post I put on my blog around the time of the release of my fifth novel, which had a significant sexual violence subplot. http://nkjemisin.com/2012/05/sexual-v...
N.K. Jemisin
I like writing short stories while I'm writing short stories. I like writing novels while I'm writing novels.
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Mar 24, 2020 05:00PM · flag