Stacy

Stacy asked Lois McMaster Bujold:

Do you have favorite characters in each of your series? If so, what about those characters makes them more appealing to you than the others?

Lois McMaster Bujold Much too large a question to answer in this tiny typing box. The major viewpoint characters have to have appeal, or I won't be interested enough to write about them . As a rule of thumb, I like characters, in my own work and that of others, who are laboring on a road toward redemption. Barr from The Sharing Knife ferex, started out in a pretty deep narrative hole, but he grew on me as he gradually started to Learn Better.

A sense of humor or sly wit is always a good sell, not to mention invaluable in bringing snap to the dialogue. Intelligence natch, though intelligence without humor... is mainly funny from the outside.

This question seems like a game anyone could play. Anyone else who cares to compare their answers in the comments, feel free.

Ta, L.

More Answered Questions

Laura

Laura asked Lois McMaster Bujold:

I've been watching Building Great Sentences by The Great Courses. It's diverting, but some illustrations leave my head spinning. My question is... when writing a first draft, do you consider sentence construction (cumulative vs periodic vs other structures) or do you simply put the story out, to be revised later. Do your sentences find their final structure instinctively or are they nudged into shape later on?

Gard Evyr

Gard Evyr asked Lois McMaster Bujold:

Hi, Lois, thanks for your habitual championing of Patricia Wrede's blog, it was through you that I discovered the veritable goldmine of writing info. It took several weeks but I started at the oldest post and made my way pretty much through all (hundreds) of her posts. I felt like I read a voluminous novel on writing technique but I feel like I've learned an unquantifiable number of things. She's a brilliant didact. ?

Adger Williams

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?

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Lois McMaster Bujold

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