Victor
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
Maybe this has been asked before: when rereading/revising/spellchecking your Vorkosigan saga for publishing on digital platforms, was there anything that you thought you might like to go back and revise or change in hindsight?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Sure, but I try to limit the impulse to typos or clear infelicities of grammar or construction. Plus the occasional adverb kill or extirpation of a word-echo, or regularizing capitalization or spelling of neologisms. In earlier passes, I spent a lot of time tidying italics, as for mechanical reasons I'd avoided them in my first few works. (My daisy-wheel printer used to jam when going back over lines to underline, the then-current method of signalling to the (human!) typesetter that the word was to be italicized when the pages were composited. Instead I had to go over every page with a straight-edge and pen to hand-enter them. Also earlier with my old electric typewriter and carbons, though I forget what its problem was with backing up to underline. Electronic files now make this concern obsolete, yay!)
Perpetually rewriting old books is a temptation to be resisted, first because it would be a bottomless task that would swallow all new work, second because that other Lois of 20 or more years ago was another person, and I don't exactly have the right to alter her work. Though once in a great while I find a line has been widely misread or misconstrued by some significant number of readers, and I have to think hard about whether to violate that historical principle. Words changing their meanings or usage over generational time is yet another thorny problem.
The temptation is automatically limited with works on paper, as changes can only be made when a new edition is printed. E-books, argh.
Ta, L.
Sure, but I try to limit the impulse to typos or clear infelicities of grammar or construction. Plus the occasional adverb kill or extirpation of a word-echo, or regularizing capitalization or spelling of neologisms. In earlier passes, I spent a lot of time tidying italics, as for mechanical reasons I'd avoided them in my first few works. (My daisy-wheel printer used to jam when going back over lines to underline, the then-current method of signalling to the (human!) typesetter that the word was to be italicized when the pages were composited. Instead I had to go over every page with a straight-edge and pen to hand-enter them. Also earlier with my old electric typewriter and carbons, though I forget what its problem was with backing up to underline. Electronic files now make this concern obsolete, yay!)
Perpetually rewriting old books is a temptation to be resisted, first because it would be a bottomless task that would swallow all new work, second because that other Lois of 20 or more years ago was another person, and I don't exactly have the right to alter her work. Though once in a great while I find a line has been widely misread or misconstrued by some significant number of readers, and I have to think hard about whether to violate that historical principle. Words changing their meanings or usage over generational time is yet another thorny problem.
The temptation is automatically limited with works on paper, as changes can only be made when a new edition is printed. E-books, argh.
Ta, L.
More Answered Questions
Ibnobody
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
Do you remember that in your August 3rd reddit AMA, I asked you a question regarding your most cherished book you ever lost? I mentioned that mine was the ARC of The Curse of Chalion that I misplaced. My wife read the AMA and secretly bought me a signed copy of the ARC as a replacement. I just wanted to let you know that there was a happy ending! (I'm not letting this copy out of my sight!)
pauliree
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
Hi Lois, your Barrayarans are some of my favourite people in the world. i loved the mix of cultures involved. Did you do much research into Russia and Greece beforehand or did you wing it? I am trying to write something set in Russia and I know scarily little about the culture. I was hoping you might have some tips on research.
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