Adger Williams
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
I'm interested that many of your characters in one book may turn up as the main character in another book. (Ivan Vorpatril, Ista, Mark Vorkosign). Some do not. (Aral, Kareen Koudelka.) How do you decide that "Ista needs a book", but Aral doesn't?
Lois McMaster Bujold
"Decide" makes it sound like a more conscious process than it is. Imaginative streams of daydreams of bits about any or all of the characters can run through my head, if my head is in that mode. (Most of which aren't useful or consistent, cutting-room floor stuff.) One set may have more psychological resonance for me, will be more interesting. I'll start to think more about it, and an accretion of thoughts may eventually hit some critical mass that would promise to support an actual writable story. I may start making penciled notes at that stage, but at least half of those few also get discarded in favor of something I eventually like better.
Ta, L.
"Decide" makes it sound like a more conscious process than it is. Imaginative streams of daydreams of bits about any or all of the characters can run through my head, if my head is in that mode. (Most of which aren't useful or consistent, cutting-room floor stuff.) One set may have more psychological resonance for me, will be more interesting. I'll start to think more about it, and an accretion of thoughts may eventually hit some critical mass that would promise to support an actual writable story. I may start making penciled notes at that stage, but at least half of those few also get discarded in favor of something I eventually like better.
Ta, L.
More Answered Questions
A Goodreads user
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
Uterine replicators are happening. "Dr. Hanna said he and his colleagues had taken fertilized eggs from the oviducts of female mice just after fertilization — at Day 0 of development — and had grown them in the artificial uterus for 11 days." https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/17/health/mice-artificial-uterus.html https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03416-3 ?
Katrine Cady
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
I love reading your passages about the balls at Gregor's residence. I imagine myself there, observing all my favorite characters. I'm unsure about the music. Is it classical? For instance, what do you hear in your head when they are participating in a mirror dance?
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