Lois McMaster Bujold
I don't always know how every book will end, no, though I often have a sort of general target in mind. Exactly how I'll get there has to be worked out as I write, and the target sometimes shifts in the process. Inspiration comes to me in visions of scenes or exchanges or loose bits, which I capture in notes and massage around till they work right, as each scene comes up. (I almost always write stories in chronological narrative order, since every scene written changes the ambit of the possible for what follows, sometimes incrementally, sometimes by a lot.)
With Cryoburn, yes, I had the last scene, and indeed the last line, in mind well before I began the book (years before); much of the book was me finding my way to it. Yours is pretty much the reader-response I was aiming to elicit, although readers who approached the book thinking it was just going to be another Miles-plot-romp were alas self-confused by their own assumed reading protocols. A lot of my books tend to repay rereading, where the reader is at last reading what's actually in front of them, instead of looking around for some other story.
Ta, L.
I don't always know how every book will end, no, though I often have a sort of general target in mind. Exactly how I'll get there has to be worked out as I write, and the target sometimes shifts in the process. Inspiration comes to me in visions of scenes or exchanges or loose bits, which I capture in notes and massage around till they work right, as each scene comes up. (I almost always write stories in chronological narrative order, since every scene written changes the ambit of the possible for what follows, sometimes incrementally, sometimes by a lot.)
With Cryoburn, yes, I had the last scene, and indeed the last line, in mind well before I began the book (years before); much of the book was me finding my way to it. Yours is pretty much the reader-response I was aiming to elicit, although readers who approached the book thinking it was just going to be another Miles-plot-romp were alas self-confused by their own assumed reading protocols. A lot of my books tend to repay rereading, where the reader is at last reading what's actually in front of them, instead of looking around for some other story.
Ta, L.
More Answered Questions
Srjanssen
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
Working my way through my second read of the "Hallowed Hunt" and find myself frequently rereading passages. Your explorations of religious and magical themes are unique. Were there any particular factors that turned your imagination in that direction, or have those themes always lurked in the background? By the way, have you run into the novels of Charles A Williams?
Jerri
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
Happy Winterfair wishes to Lois and all who read her works. I am assuming that Winterfair takes place on and around the Winter Solstice, which is today, as I type this, on Old Earth. And Penric, Des and the rest in the world of the Five Gods should be celebrating Father's MidWinter? I can't remember, do the Sharing Knife characters celebrate a middle of winter holiday?
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