Matthew

Matthew asked Lois McMaster Bujold:

Do you read novels while you're writing one? Or do you need to focus on the narrative you're creating without being distracted or influenced by another?

Lois McMaster Bujold In and out of my brain seems to be a one-way bridge. Heavy input blocks output, and eats time for rumination, or even for long-term memory formation. Since modern media now provides an effectively infinite river of input, and I have neither infinite time nor infinite brain-space, I do have to go on a sort of self-imposed input diet while actively creating. Or put another way, I start to create when what's going on inside my head manages to be more interesting to me than all that's coming in from outside.

Naturally, this is growing harder, as modern media gets better and better at competing for people's attention, and there is easier access to way more of it.

Ta, L.

More Answered Questions

Sean

Sean asked Lois McMaster Bujold:

Do you ever find yourself smirking or chuckling as one of your characters does or says something particularly clever during your writing process? It seems to me that in your place, I'd be hard put not to, but that's colored of course by the end product, not the process.

Christopher Winter

Christopher Winter asked Lois McMaster Bujold:

Hi Lois...I just finished "Dangerous Liaisons" (the book, although seeing the movie inspired the reading), and I was wondering if it had any influence on your backstory for Aral's first wife and her affairs in the capital amongst "not altogether vicious" older people. Or were these ideas in the air, or in your romance reading of the time?

Andrew

Andrew asked Lois McMaster Bujold:

The astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti on the International Space Station is a Trekkie and has posed for pictures in the ISS in a Star Trek costume. Do you also have fans in high places? Other than us Goodreads followers, of course. (Trekkie astronaut picture: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/05/05/first_espresso_in_space/)

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Lois McMaster Bujold

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