Adger Williams
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
I'm interested that many of your characters in one book may turn up as the main character in another book. (Ivan Vorpatril, Ista, Mark Vorkosign). Some do not. (Aral, Kareen Koudelka.) How do you decide that "Ista needs a book", but Aral doesn't?
Lois McMaster Bujold
"Decide" makes it sound like a more conscious process than it is. Imaginative streams of daydreams of bits about any or all of the characters can run through my head, if my head is in that mode. (Most of which aren't useful or consistent, cutting-room floor stuff.) One set may have more psychological resonance for me, will be more interesting. I'll start to think more about it, and an accretion of thoughts may eventually hit some critical mass that would promise to support an actual writable story. I may start making penciled notes at that stage, but at least half of those few also get discarded in favor of something I eventually like better.
Ta, L.
"Decide" makes it sound like a more conscious process than it is. Imaginative streams of daydreams of bits about any or all of the characters can run through my head, if my head is in that mode. (Most of which aren't useful or consistent, cutting-room floor stuff.) One set may have more psychological resonance for me, will be more interesting. I'll start to think more about it, and an accretion of thoughts may eventually hit some critical mass that would promise to support an actual writable story. I may start making penciled notes at that stage, but at least half of those few also get discarded in favor of something I eventually like better.
Ta, L.
More Answered Questions
Strangeattractor
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
What helps with figuring out how to tell a type of story that isn't told often? For example, when you were working on the Sharing Knife books and realized you had set up demographic and long-term problems that your characters would tackle in books 3 and 4, what helped you come to grips with how to do it? How did you bridge the gap between wanting to write a story with an unusual shape and actually doing it?
Andie
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
Hello again! I have a question about Ivan. I seem to recall reading somewhere that your characters had quite decided personalities and so writing with them was an adventure, not always what you expected. Did you always know that Ivan was quite bright, even when he seemed to be Ivan-you-idiot? Or did he grow into that as he matured? I liked him very much by the later books, but not as much in the beginning. TY :)
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