The Writer's E-Zine Home

Writers' Village University - F2K: Free Fiction Writing Course - ePress-online
Writers' Village University Membership Information

Guest Chat with Lois McMaster Bujold

Wynelda Shelton

Recently, members of WVU had the pleasure of speaking with author Lois McMaster Bujold, author of over 20 novels. Below are excepts from the conversation that ensued. For more information on Lois, please visit the her website at http://www.dendarii.com.

On Starting a Novel

Wyndie: Lois, how do you start your novels? Characters or plot or...?

Lois: I've used all three as starting points -- character, plot, and setting/idea. Most of the Miles books start with character. Spirit Ring began with plot, the old folk tale "The Grateful Dead". Ethan of Athos began with the idea, the uterine replicators and their possible social effects. However, whatever a book starts with, it has to develop all elements pretty quickly; they all feed each other. Even *setting* is an element of characterization. Different characters will notice different things about their surroundings, describe them in different way, and overlay different emotional responses.

N`omi: Is this how the Miles books got their start? Or did you make Miles before the worlds?

Lois: The Miles books began with Aral and Cordelia -- Chapter 1 of _Shards of Honor_ -- and grew and grew from there. Aral was really the seed crystal around which everything else concatenated. There was this guy, see. He needed explained. I made up the whole world and its history to explain Aral.

On Writing

Slide: How much time did it take you to get your first stories the way you wanted them?

Lois: I do, and did, very little short work. My first novel, _Shards of Honor_, took 9 months for the first draft, a month to revise, then about two months the following year (after its first rejection) to revise again.

Shanna: Do you find that you change theme or direction a lot during the writing process?

Lois: My stories mutate a lot as I write them. It's a continuous feedback loop. I outline and re-outline constantly. "Theme" I see as rising from a work, not imposed upon it, so I really never quite know what theme I was *really* working on till the book's complete. I'm always coming up with "better ideas" in mid-flight, though within the set framework.

Peg: How often or how many times do you need to revise on average?

Lois: I do a lot of work at the outline stage to limit revision, which is a process I hate. So usually the scene sequence is sound, and I seldom (not never) have to delete or add a scene. The word polishing is a constant process. I run my first draft chapters past test readers at an early stage, and do some fixes then.

N`omi: Do you use any writer's software to aid your writing?

Lois: Nope, none of that was invented when I started. I use pencil and paper. In my early days, I had no home office, so I would take my notebook to the local library to write my first drafts in peace. It became a habit. I still do extensive first-draft-like outlines in pencil in a notebook before I sit at the computer. The pencil *waits*.

N`omi: Speaking of your "pencil waiting" You are so busy, children, writings, animals, barflies, miles-to-go, etc. How does your life pattern that you are a "full time writer"? Please, what is the definition of "full time" in your view, please?

Lois: The children are easier now -- one's moved out, the other goes to local college and occupies himself pretty much. I spend *way* too much time on line these days, though, so I'm not coming out ahead. I'm my own secretary, PR flack, and accountant, too. But I don't have to stop writing and go out to another job to support myself, which is I think the functional definition of a full time writer.

N`omi: Do you write daily, or...?

Lois: Alas, I do not write daily. I write in lumps. During tough bits, I have to push myself to grind out 300 or 500 words; other days 2000 fly by.

Peg: I'm really interested in the process you use--do you find yourself dreamscaping your fiction?

Lois: Define term "dreamscaping," please?

Peg: I had the opportunity of listening to Robert Butler's recent webcast--that dipping in and out of the subconscious where the story really seems to take off.

Lois: I do find that thinking it up and writing it down are two different processes for me, entailing two different states of mind -- one relaxed (getting harder to do), one highly concentrated. (Or as I tell myself, "rest faster!") So it sounds like he's talking about the thinking it up part. Haven't heard Butler, sorry.

Peg: I think he was talking about the dreaming part, the part we're almost not aware of until the story emerges or starts to emerge.

Lois: I take long walks. That often helps. Anything that uncouples the tension can help thought to flow usefully (and a lot un-usefully, too, alas.)

On Characterization:

Slide: How did you get the idea for Miles' type of problem?

Lois: Miles has a lot of real-world inspirations, which have all sort of composted down over the years; he's pretty much himself by now. I could name Lawrence of Arabia as a bright, nervy, short soldier-type, a hospital pharmacist I used to work with who supplied a physical template (short, oversized head, leg braces, brains galore) and my own case of Great Man's Son (Child?) syndrome as starting points.

Peg: Do you find the work is character driven, the plot and subplots arising from the characters themselves as you work?

Lois: Mostly my work is character driven. I want some inner sense of emotional satisfaction with the events I propose. My sense of pacing and timing seems to be wholly intuitive.

Slide: Do you write out long bios of characters?

Lois: I do work out lots of back story for some characters, little for others -- I'm not sure the readers can tell which was which when they finally get written. It's all illusion, you know -- you just *think* there's a whole building behind that stage set.

On Setting And World Building

Shanna: Lois, when you are creating your worlds, is it an evolving process where you have to make changes as the story grows?

Lois: I make up my setting around the story as it proceeds, so it's a continuous process. Some, of course, must be set in advance or one cannot begin. But in general, my setting doesn't exist till a character passes through it.

Lucille: Your fantasy world "started." Does it grow, or does it have boundaries?

Lois: It grows with every story, of course. In detail if not in scope. Things can grow inwardly as well as outwardly. Very fractal. The inside of every character's head is a universe. If you mean Chalion, it's just started to grow. I only have a little piece of it yet. Sort of like a slice of potato with an eye, from which whole crops may yet descend.

Claxton: Lois, in relation to the Earth, where are Barrayar and Cetaganda? Your universe intrigues me, but I like having Earth and Sol as reference points.

Lois: I've de-coupled by astrography from the real thing because one doesn't move through normal space to get places; the wormhole jumps criss-cross. I haven't ever drawn a complete map of jump point routes among the less visited (by my stories) worlds.

MargareTZ: Least said, soonest mended?

N`omi: Why not, Lois?

Lois: A lot of unpaid labor, I guess. I feel I need to use my working time efficiently. Which perhaps used to be more true than it is today. Also, it hasn't interested me that much.

Wyndie: Lois, what do you feel is the most important part of world-building?

Lois: Well, things have to hang together economically, politically -- the situation should flow out of its history, to be sure. I guess the most important thing about world-building for me is that it not draw attention to itself by stumbling. It's almost never the center of my story, so I spend the minimum *necessary* sweat on it. A friend of mine called it "Just in time world-building", which sums it up pretty well.

N`omi: So, you didn't write up all the details of the world, before you wrote the books, if I understand right, Lois?

Lois: No, I don't have a huge set of notebooks with the Encyclopedia Barrayarica in my garage. I don't want setting to constrain my story, so I tend to assemble the setting *around* the characters, etc. That said, it all has to hang together logically -- one can start with character and *deduce* their setting, after all, which is exactly what I did with Aral, way back when.

On Writers' Block And Getting Un-Stuck

Claxton: Lois, how do you deal with writer's block?

Lois: Writers' block has a number of definitions. The most common is simply a synonym for "being stuck", which is usually non-fatal. It's simply, for me, my back-brain telling me I'm trying to do something wrong with the story, and going on sit-down strike till I fix it. The more serious form is when one has truly gone "off" writing, lost appetite for it, almost a form of depression (and a bad feedback loop one at that.) I've not had too much trouble with that form, which is far more serious.

Wyndie: Lois, have you ever started a story, gotten 50 or 100 pages into it, then felt it wasn't going anywhere and you needed to stop working on it?

Lois: No -- in general, that's a problem I work out at the outline stage. While I've often been stuck or frustrated, usually I also have a contract. The fear of having to give the money back is a *great* motivator for slogging ahead. There is a "feel" when an idea is going to support a novel -- it's hard to describe. But so far, it's been pretty reliable for me.

Shanna: Do you ever write yourself into a corner that you really have to change a lot to fix?

Lois: I've written myself into corners; a lot of the sweat that goes into story-blocking and outlining at that point is so as to *avoid* having to change things.

On The Business Side Of Writing

Wyndie: How many publishers did you submit _Shards of Honor_ to before it sold?

Lois: Shards had about 5 submissions before -- The Warrior's Apprentice, my second novel, sold to Baen and took Shards with it.

Slide: Did you do that one yourself or had you gotten an agent by then?

Lois: My first sales were over the transom, no agent. However, when I did get an agent later, my track record meant I could get my first pick -- Eleanor Wood. We worship the water she walks on, we do.

Lois: It takes some maneuvering. Contracting books one at a time seems to help -- one gets to pick again at least once a year that way.

N`omi: Why isn't _The Curse of Chalion_ with Baen?

Lois: It sold to HarperCollins because my agent and I took it to auction, and Eos/ HC was the high bid, by a gratifying margin.

N`omi: Gratifying margin sounds heavenly!

MargareTZ: But fortunately she gave Baen a consolation prize, more Miles.

Lois: Hey, don't burn your bridges -- you may have to live under them someday...

Judy: I am a new fan, like Claxton, introduced to your writing by Margaret. I still am not a fan of Science Fiction/Fantasy, but I love your writing. I have eight of your books...haven't read them all yet, but I have them and plan to read them. The five I have read are fantastic, which led me to get the other three I plan to read.

Lois: Thanks, Judy! Hope you enjoy them all. I must say, Margaret, word of mouth (like yours) has absolutely been the life blood of my career. I wouldn't have survived, let alone prospered, without it. It's *so* important.

On Keeping It Fresh

Claxton: Lois, you've developed a loyal following with the Vorkosigan novels, myself included, thanks to Margaret. How much of a challenge is it to keep the characters familiar and fresh at the same time?

Lois: Sending old characters off to new settings is also a good way of making things fresh. So is using new viewpoints -- and so is dipping into different *types* of takes, military adventure, romance, mystery -- I consider it a challenge to see how many genres I can squeeze into one series.

MargareTZ: So when will you try Western?

Lois: I haven't really internalized westerns, alas -- about the only one I read was _The Virginian_.

N`omi: How did you think you could get away with POV changes in the first chapter of A Civil Campaign? You managed it beautifully! But, what I want to know, is how did you handle the *writing* of it, originally? Did you mean to use so many POVs?

MargareTZ: The first five chapters of A Civil Campaign can be read free at baen.com in Sample Chapters.

Lois: Yes, I wanted to refresh myself with some new viewpoints; besides, the theme/subject of the tale called for it. On the technical level, the viewpoint switches were the easiest and safest: one viewpoint and only one per scene, no switches till the scene break. I do find that my plots tend to wrap themselves around my viewpoint characters. In an early draft, I had a scene from Armsman Pym's viewpoint, and my mind started generating all sorts of plot connected with the social milieu of the armsmen in the capital.

MargareTZ: Ah, that's where the reader bit came from.

Lois: I also had an early scene from Gregor's viewpoint, and the book pulled toward a political plot. For the thematic unity I wanted, I found I had to strictly limit the viewpoint characters to the three couples less one. The couples being, of course, Miles and Ekaterin, mark and Kareen, and Ivan and... The missing viewpoint is, of course, Donna/Dono's.

T-Zero and WVU would like to thank Lois once again for sharing her time and her knowledge with us. It was a wonderful chat!