Kevin Reitz
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
There is more information in the average sentence you write, or the average paragraph, than most other writers I can think of. Is this consciously done? To explain what I mean, when I first saw a Michelangelo sculpture up close, I was amazed at how much information was contained in all the subtle carving choices he made. Far more observations, say, than in the Mona Lisa.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Thank you for your attentive reading! What people get out of my prose does depend to a degree on what they bring to it.
No, it's not consciously done, exactly. I do feel any paragraph should spill out, at the end, someplace further on than where it began, and therefore most sentences, from which paragraphs are made, must do so, or link up to do so, as well. Making each paragraph a unit of change in the story, if you will: in motion. And I do spend a lot of time in the editing passes improving word choice, sometimes for purely mechanical reasons like fixing word echoes, sometimes to sharpen characterization or world-building. But I don't think of that as anything other than just writing.
Ta, L.
Thank you for your attentive reading! What people get out of my prose does depend to a degree on what they bring to it.
No, it's not consciously done, exactly. I do feel any paragraph should spill out, at the end, someplace further on than where it began, and therefore most sentences, from which paragraphs are made, must do so, or link up to do so, as well. Making each paragraph a unit of change in the story, if you will: in motion. And I do spend a lot of time in the editing passes improving word choice, sometimes for purely mechanical reasons like fixing word echoes, sometimes to sharpen characterization or world-building. But I don't think of that as anything other than just writing.
Ta, L.
More Answered Questions
Josh
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
For people starting to follow your work in the 80s, would they have been able to read Aftermaths in the Far Frontiers publication before Shards of Honor was officially published? I'm about to dive into your work and am entertaining the idea of starting with Aftermaths, but only if the above is true.
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