M Scott asked Jo Walton:

In Among Others, the action takes place after the climactic battle. Was that the intent form the beginning? Did you write (or at least sketch out, think about writing) the earlier conflict? How were your choices made? Thanks.

Jo Walton I have always been interested in what happens after the end of stories. I know exactly what happened in the conflict between the girls and their mother, but I didn't write it or feel any need to write it. You know what happened too -- maybe not every detail, but you know, partly because Mori does tell Wim, but mostly because you've read the other books that tell that story. I get bored with telling the same stories, whether it's stories of mine or other people's stories.

A novel is very long, and it takes a long time to write, and I have to really want to do it. It has to be interesting to me, and parts of it need to be a process of discovery. The interesting thing for me in AO was writing about surviving after the typical fantasy confrontation. That was something where I had something to explore, something that hadn't been done a million times before.

flag