Rick Ellrod
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
Rereading _A Civil Campaign_ for the Nth time, I wondered about whether you had already developed the plot of that book while you were writing _Komarr_ -- the latter story makes such brilliant use of the plot elements set up in the earlier one. Did you have the main plot of ACC laid out when writing Komarr?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Only in the broadest sense of "a Barrayaran Regency/Shakespearean romantic comedy". Komarr was the romantic drama half, and it would have been a tonal mismatch to try to jam both parts together into one book.
Parts that came up only well after I started writing the first draft were Mark's butter bug plot, recycled from an abandoned short story idea, and Ivan's plot with Donna/Dono. Ivan's subplot gave me fits, as I generated and slew several bad ideas, till Dono arrived and took over, in all her/his thematic perfection.
Viewpoint, and limiting it, mattered hugely in structuring and centering the story. At one point I had an early scene from Pym's point of view, which would have pulled the tale off-course into a study of armsmen in the capital, which, however intrinsically interesting, was not what turned out to be thematically on-point. Also I dimly recall (it's been over 20 years, yowza) a scene either written or outlined from Gregor's point of view, which would have had a similar problem. His romance was told in Memory and did not need revisited.
More high-level fannish musing on ACC here: http://dendarii.com/accc.html
Ta, L.
Parts that came up only well after I started writing the first draft were Mark's butter bug plot, recycled from an abandoned short story idea, and Ivan's plot with Donna/Dono. Ivan's subplot gave me fits, as I generated and slew several bad ideas, till Dono arrived and took over, in all her/his thematic perfection.
Viewpoint, and limiting it, mattered hugely in structuring and centering the story. At one point I had an early scene from Pym's point of view, which would have pulled the tale off-course into a study of armsmen in the capital, which, however intrinsically interesting, was not what turned out to be thematically on-point. Also I dimly recall (it's been over 20 years, yowza) a scene either written or outlined from Gregor's point of view, which would have had a similar problem. His romance was told in Memory and did not need revisited.
More high-level fannish musing on ACC here: http://dendarii.com/accc.html
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.
Derek Peter Hawley
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
It is repeatedly mentioned in the books that there are sixty Counts, but by my count (no pun intended) only two dozen or so are named so far. Do you have in your head a full list of the Vor family names? Also, are there any Vor families that don't have a Countship, i.e., that became Vor after the formation of the Council of Counts? And what about the terraforming of South Continent? Will new Districts be added?
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