Laer Carroll
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
Do you know the endings of your books when you begin them? If you do, how much knowledge? A little? A lot?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I think these process questions may have been answered at greater length earlier in this column -- people who want more are invited to scroll back. But, briefly, the answer would be different for each book but converging on "a little". My notions at the start about the end change along the route as I write my way, scene by scene, into my material, and new possibilities arise that were not yet thought-of, and could not be thought-of, back at Scene 1. So even when I think I know the ending, I often turn out to be wrong. The story only looks inevitable in retrospect.
My scene-by-scene outlines are a rolling process, scaffolding for my elusive thinking and my prose, built and taken down in a just-in-time fashion. Like nailing jello to the wall. (Which would work, come to think, if you made the jello cold and concentrated enough...)
Ta, L.
I think these process questions may have been answered at greater length earlier in this column -- people who want more are invited to scroll back. But, briefly, the answer would be different for each book but converging on "a little". My notions at the start about the end change along the route as I write my way, scene by scene, into my material, and new possibilities arise that were not yet thought-of, and could not be thought-of, back at Scene 1. So even when I think I know the ending, I often turn out to be wrong. The story only looks inevitable in retrospect.
My scene-by-scene outlines are a rolling process, scaffolding for my elusive thinking and my prose, built and taken down in a just-in-time fashion. Like nailing jello to the wall. (Which would work, come to think, if you made the jello cold and concentrated enough...)
Ta, L.
More Answered Questions
Kate Davenport
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
Just finished "Assassins of Thasalon" for the second time. Thank you for a satisfying end/beginning to Tanar, Bosha and Adelis's story. Odd question, if demons arise randomly could one rise into a human first with no animal intermediary? if so, would that make any difference?
Kevin Reitz
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
George Eliot wrote always with a sense of failure and doom. Nabokov was fully aware of his greatness. I think you must be somewhat aware. Not wishing for a response here, I’ll just say that talent at a certain level carries the obligation to write, especially if it’s not fading. We’re all at our full powers only so long, but some writers soar well into “retirement” years. I’m afraid you’re still on obligation status.?
Mary Bertke
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
Recently reread both Capt V'sA and GJatRQ. Started speculating that the trip Miles went on just after meeting Tej may have been the trip in Cryoburn. However, that would put Aral's death somewhere very soon before/after the sinking of Impsec. So I tried using Helen's age, as stated in Cryoburn and GJ...and I don't think those work, either. In Cryoburn, Miles says the twins are 5; in GJ, they're 11. Help?
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