Isana Skeete
asked
N.K. Jemisin:
Why did you decide to use the second person in the Broken Earth? Did anyone try to dissuade you? I thought it was an incredibly profound use of a little used point of view. Can you talk about any challenges you faced trying to making those sections into the effective and moving parts that they are?
N.K. Jemisin
I tried a number of different test chapters at the beginning of THE FIFTH SEASON to decide what voice/character/centering I would focus on. (I had the plot already, in basic form.) The second person voice just happened to be the one that felt right. I'm probably the biggest person who tried to dissuade me from doing it; friends stopped me from deleting the book at about the halfway point when I started stressing about how it would be received! (That happens. It's a writer thing.) Beyond that, the answer is just "this is writing."
More Answered Questions
Aja Kim
asked
N.K. Jemisin:
What did you go through to get your first novel off the ground? More specifically, outside of a writing group, did you get it professionally edited before you went in search of an agent? How polished was it at the start of your search for an agent and how much did it change after?
Mach Kobayashi
asked
N.K. Jemisin:
Will San Francisco will make an appearance in your Great City series? I work in San Francisco and I see so much of media that portrays it as just tech, but there's so much more: neighborhoods like Castro, Mission, Chinatown, and Tenderloin; struggles with issues like homelessness and income inequality; and arts and entertainment cultures; not to mention its relationship with East Bay (which is where I live).
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