Judith
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
How do you keep track of details concerning what you have already written when writing a series? I'm writing the fourth book in a universe (a side story to the main trilogy) and I want to know the best way to keep track so I stay relatively consistent.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Writers have all kinds of systems, variously elaborate. I don't have much. By the time I've written a book, I've read it over so many times it's nearly ingrained, although I notice that now that I have a longer past, more early work is fading out. If it's written and published, I can look it up in the story, or nowadays search text if the question lends itself to keywords. In a pinch, I can ask my fans on my blog or chat list if anyone remembers the detail in question, on the confident theory that among them all, someone will have reread it more recently than I have.
Anything not published can be changed, or changed around, to fit the current story's needs. It's seldom wrong to have a better idea, if it can be sneaked in. So no, I don't have a 30-volume Encyclopedia Barrayarica secreted in my garage, slowly molding. I made it up once; I can make it up, or at least boot it up, again, although my innate laziness prefers not to if looking it up is easier. I do sometimes reread when working out a new story, to prime the pump and refill the well.
Rereads also come in the way of business when a new edition needs proofread, an exercise of incredible tedium that I have had occasion to regret skipping, so there's that periodic reinforcement. (A subset of Don't Trust Anyone.)
Now, I've regretted my lack of system more than once, particularly as the lists of made-up names grow unwieldy. And proper publishers like to have written lists of all the neologisms and usages for their copy editors to refer to, so keeping one as you go along, saving devising it later in a hurry, is a good idea. Also speaking from experiences to be avoided.
"When in doubt, check it" usually works. Problem comes when one is not in doubt but nonetheless wrong, oops.
Good luck!
Ta, L.
Anything not published can be changed, or changed around, to fit the current story's needs. It's seldom wrong to have a better idea, if it can be sneaked in. So no, I don't have a 30-volume Encyclopedia Barrayarica secreted in my garage, slowly molding. I made it up once; I can make it up, or at least boot it up, again, although my innate laziness prefers not to if looking it up is easier. I do sometimes reread when working out a new story, to prime the pump and refill the well.
Rereads also come in the way of business when a new edition needs proofread, an exercise of incredible tedium that I have had occasion to regret skipping, so there's that periodic reinforcement. (A subset of Don't Trust Anyone.)
Now, I've regretted my lack of system more than once, particularly as the lists of made-up names grow unwieldy. And proper publishers like to have written lists of all the neologisms and usages for their copy editors to refer to, so keeping one as you go along, saving devising it later in a hurry, is a good idea. Also speaking from experiences to be avoided.
"When in doubt, check it" usually works. Problem comes when one is not in doubt but nonetheless wrong, oops.
Good luck!
Ta, L.
More Answered Questions
Talli Ruksas
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
Why do you think Aral wasn't more of a father figure to Ivan? How would it have worked if Ivan had become count of the Vorkosigan district? Name changed? District name change? There's already a Count Vorpatril... Martya named after anyone? Which "milady" paid for Roic's vacation time in WG - Cordelia or Ekaterin? What size were the black and white tiles?
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