Julianne (Leafling Learns・Outlandish Lit)
asked
Jeff VanderMeer:
When you're writing strange and mysterious worlds like Area X, are you discovering them and the secrets behind them as you write (almost as if you're an expedition member)? Or do you have it all thought out and plotted before you begin?
Jeff VanderMeer
I'm all about the organic and the analytical. So I want to allow myself enough space in the story to discover things as I'm writing, but have a sense of where I'm going and what the stops are along the way. So that I usually know what scenes I need to write, but not necessarily what happens within them. So, after writing a few scenes, usually what's coming up has to be changed a little bit, in terms of what I know I need to write.
More Answered Questions
Christopher Walborn
asked
Jeff VanderMeer:
As a reader, one of the best things about discovering a new author is the opportunity to discover additional writers through following the author's influences, peers, and the new writers championed by the author. What authors or specific works would you like to introduce to someone who's mostly familiar with "literary" classics? (I don't like the literary/genre dichotomy, but what easier way to describe it?)
Jessica
asked
Jeff VanderMeer:
Your projects tend to be a little out-of-the-box: huge anthologies that could kill people if they fell asleep reading them, books that are hard to summarize, and a writing book that was basically an art project as well. Do you ever get stuck and think, "Oh god, what am I doing? Did I bite off more than I can chew? Who is going to buy this?"
João
asked
Jeff VanderMeer:
Reading through your Wonderbook, I found, on page 30 "(...) My novel Annihilation was inspired by a dream in which was walking down the spiral staircase of a submerged tower, descending into the ground below." Would the origin of that dream be the staircase at Quinta da Regaleira, in Sintra, Portugal, where you have been a couple of years ago? Best regards to you and Ann, from João, in Lisbon
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Jul 08, 2014 06:33AM