Natalia Panina asked Lois McMaster Bujold:

Hello, Lois! First of all I want to thank you very much for the Vorkosigan Saga. I read it first more than 20 years ago, in Russian. I just swallowed it overnight and hunted down all published books written by you. Right now I am reading Miles's story for the fourth time and can't sleep if not finish it overnight ))) My question: do you ever feel scared or stumbled when starting a new story? How do you manage?

Lois McMaster Bujold
I've answered my-process questions in a lot of places, including (somewhere) in this Q&A file, so you might find more detail if you hunt a bit. "Stumbling" happens all the time, I suppose, but I do a lot of it before starting to type out first drafts, in my notes-and-outlines phase, which also get constantly redeveloped as I go. The worst part of a book or story for me is not the beginning, but the middle. Middles are the pits. So I suppose I manage bit by bit, breaking down the process to chewable bites.

Separate from the actual writing is all the business stuff -- contracts, deadlines, promotional duties -- which can add stress depending. Which is why one of the conditions of my current semi-retirement is to neither contract nor announce new work, if any, till the first draft is bagged. (It's normal business practice not to publicly discuss any contract or other negotiations till they're over. Since many of us writers are sort of raised by wolves, business etiquette, too, can take some learning.)

Pat Wrede had a good post recently on the topic --

https://www.pcwrede.com/advice-for-cr...

If you scroll back through her blog, she has a lot of cogent remarks recently on middles and their hazards, too.

Ta, L.

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