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A Goodreads user asked Lois McMaster Bujold:

Hi Lois. I recently read a few books of other authors, and as good as they were, I didn't relate to their characters as much as I do with yours. Do you have any kind of technique to help you make your characters life-like?

Lois McMaster Bujold It may be too global to be dubbed a "technique", since I don't think it's detachable from my whole writing process. For the viewpoint characters, it certainly involves mentally walking into their skins and bones, wrapping their lives and worlds around me, and looking out through their eyes as best as I can. For the non-viewpoint-characters, I suppose it has something to do with recognizing each is an independent actor in their own life, a kind of lite version of the foregoing. A form of virtual literary method acting, perhaps.

Pat, as always, has more wide-ranging things to say. https://www.pcwrede.com/complicated-s... ferex. A search on "characters" or "characterization" over there should produce more.

Ta, L.

More Answered Questions

Bob

Bob asked Lois McMaster Bujold:

You've mentioned dealing with insomnia, do you ever write during that time? If so, have any memorable scenes or ideas come together as a result of your sleeplessness? Or is the causality the other way around? Can you not sleep sometimes because your mind is too busy trying to solve things to sleep? I'm betting on the latter because Miles.

Jennifer

Jennifer asked Lois McMaster Bujold:

Is "Horizon" the last of the Sharing Knife series? Do you plan on continuing the story? Or, is there another series to follow it?

Radoslav Kirilchev

Radoslav Kirilchev asked Lois McMaster Bujold:

Dear Mrs Bujold, Everyone loves Miles, myself included. (I loved each and every one of the _Chalion_ books as well. The "Knife" series... were only very good, and nothing spectacular... but I guess that's just me. Sorry.) However, I am very curious if you'd ever thought about having Aral Vorkosigan as a main character? We're indeed aware of most of his story, but I've always found him more intriguing than Miles...

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Lois McMaster Bujold

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