Kevin Reitz
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
There is more information in the average sentence you write, or the average paragraph, than most other writers I can think of. Is this consciously done? To explain what I mean, when I first saw a Michelangelo sculpture up close, I was amazed at how much information was contained in all the subtle carving choices he made. Far more observations, say, than in the Mona Lisa.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Thank you for your attentive reading! What people get out of my prose does depend to a degree on what they bring to it.
No, it's not consciously done, exactly. I do feel any paragraph should spill out, at the end, someplace further on than where it began, and therefore most sentences, from which paragraphs are made, must do so, or link up to do so, as well. Making each paragraph a unit of change in the story, if you will: in motion. And I do spend a lot of time in the editing passes improving word choice, sometimes for purely mechanical reasons like fixing word echoes, sometimes to sharpen characterization or world-building. But I don't think of that as anything other than just writing.
Ta, L.
Thank you for your attentive reading! What people get out of my prose does depend to a degree on what they bring to it.
No, it's not consciously done, exactly. I do feel any paragraph should spill out, at the end, someplace further on than where it began, and therefore most sentences, from which paragraphs are made, must do so, or link up to do so, as well. Making each paragraph a unit of change in the story, if you will: in motion. And I do spend a lot of time in the editing passes improving word choice, sometimes for purely mechanical reasons like fixing word echoes, sometimes to sharpen characterization or world-building. But I don't think of that as anything other than just writing.
Ta, L.
More Answered Questions
Jonathan Palfrey
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
I'm rereading the Penric stories yet again, enjoyment undiminished, and it seems to me that Nikys has become a bit of an author's problem. Would you agree? Up to "The prisoner of Limnos" she was a full part of the story, but then her status changed, and the problem is what to do with her now. Although there's still plenty of room for more stories about Penric before he met her.
Andrew
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
Heard about the EM Drive? Invention appears to defy classical mechanics by producing thrust from energy without using propellant, which violates conservation of momentum. NASA is testing and so far hasn't managed to disprove it - in other words, continues to validate the invention. Could lead to viable space travel. http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2015/04/evaluating-nasas-futuristic-em-drive/
Will Bodine
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
Dear Lois McMaster Bujold, First of all, in my household, my father regarded you as the best that SciFi had to offer and it was stories of Miles retold to me as an asthmatic child in the ER, for the umpteenth time impatiently breathing away through a nebuliser cursing myself and my asthma for millionth time, that place you upon so high a pedestal. Was Dubauer based upon a real life person?
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