Ben Newton
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
Good morning, Ms. Bujold! I'm a huge fan of your writing, thank you! I'm far from a writer myself, but like many people, I do have to write some for my job. Most writers say the trick is to just get your thoughts on paper, then go back later and make them good, which is pretty much the exact opposite of what I do. Is that how you do it? And if so, do you think it has affected the way you think and talk as well?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Mm, I get my thoughts on paper, any old how, at the notes-and-outlines pre-writing stage. Jotted in pencil on lined paper in a 3-ring binder, which I keep around my house open pretty much all the time when I'm into a project, ready to capture passing thoughts. Pencil and paper are, somehow, non-binding, allowing brainstorming (or brain-drizzling, or brain light-Scotch-misting.) I think of it as my prosthetic memory on paper, because otherwise things would all evaporate before I needed to remember them. I also do a certain amount of shoving things around on paper to get them into a sensible order.
When words actually start to flow, it's out of the basis of this pre-writing. At that stage, I find it enormously easier to do it right the first time than try to fix it later. I hate doing revisions because, first, my prose sets up like concrete and takes a jackhammer to change, and second, I always worry I'm making it worse not better. (I still revise, mind you, as needed.)
Note that I do this in succeeding scene-sized chunks, not the whole at once. By the end of a project, I'll have accumulated about as many pages of scribbled notes as I have of finished story.
However, more recently, I'm slipping more and more to wholly paperless production, a medium in which fixing becomes easier. I do way more micro-editing when I'm working paperless. (As I have just spent several minutes doing on this very answer.) I still need my notes, but they've been getting sketchier.
So there isn't just one way for even one writer to do things all the time.
As ever, I rec https://pcwrede.com/blog/ for the best stock of writing tips on the net. Don't overlook the very useful search function.
Ta, L.
Mm, I get my thoughts on paper, any old how, at the notes-and-outlines pre-writing stage. Jotted in pencil on lined paper in a 3-ring binder, which I keep around my house open pretty much all the time when I'm into a project, ready to capture passing thoughts. Pencil and paper are, somehow, non-binding, allowing brainstorming (or brain-drizzling, or brain light-Scotch-misting.) I think of it as my prosthetic memory on paper, because otherwise things would all evaporate before I needed to remember them. I also do a certain amount of shoving things around on paper to get them into a sensible order.
When words actually start to flow, it's out of the basis of this pre-writing. At that stage, I find it enormously easier to do it right the first time than try to fix it later. I hate doing revisions because, first, my prose sets up like concrete and takes a jackhammer to change, and second, I always worry I'm making it worse not better. (I still revise, mind you, as needed.)
Note that I do this in succeeding scene-sized chunks, not the whole at once. By the end of a project, I'll have accumulated about as many pages of scribbled notes as I have of finished story.
However, more recently, I'm slipping more and more to wholly paperless production, a medium in which fixing becomes easier. I do way more micro-editing when I'm working paperless. (As I have just spent several minutes doing on this very answer.) I still need my notes, but they've been getting sketchier.
So there isn't just one way for even one writer to do things all the time.
As ever, I rec https://pcwrede.com/blog/ for the best stock of writing tips on the net. Don't overlook the very useful search function.
Ta, L.
More Answered Questions
Kate Davenport
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
I just finished rereading "Flowers of Vashnoi" and realized that by "Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen" it must be eight or nine years later. How do you think the rad bug experiment progressed? It gives me so many ideas for us, here, in our world since science seems to be (ever so slowly) pivoting toward natural and/or biological solutions rather than ever more technical, toxic ones.
Andie
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
I'm pretty early into the Vorkosigan Companion, and enjoying it very much. It's a bit like chatting with you, a cup of tea (or stronger beverage) at hand. Thanks for sharing things like what books have inspired you, and your enjoyment of Tom Lehrer! Random question - did you read books by John Wyndham? You don't mention them, so perhaps they weren't enjoyable to you. I would ask if I could, so I thought I would..
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