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truepennyThere are a lot of y'all reading this blog.
I'm figuring it's time for one of those periodic getting-to-know-you posts. So if you'd like to introduce yourself, or you'd like to ask a question (any question, although I reserve the right not to answer), here's a superlative spot to do it at.
This is not a pressure-y kind of thing. Only an invitation.
And I'll reiterate a couple of things:
1. I almost never add people reciprocally. Because, well, I have 25 people on my reading list right now, and that's almost too many. There are many people whom I like and admire whose blogs I don't read. Apparently, I just need that processing power for something else.
2. I only reply to comments if I actually have something to say. However, I read all comments, and I am always, always grateful for them. (N.b., excluding the occasional and inevitable troll.) I forget to say that a lot, because sometimes I'm kind of a rotten excuse for a human being. But I'm definitely reading and interested.
So here. The lines are open and you're on the air.
I'm figuring it's time for one of those periodic getting-to-know-you posts. So if you'd like to introduce yourself, or you'd like to ask a question (any question, although I reserve the right not to answer), here's a superlative spot to do it at.
This is not a pressure-y kind of thing. Only an invitation.
And I'll reiterate a couple of things:
1. I almost never add people reciprocally. Because, well, I have 25 people on my reading list right now, and that's almost too many. There are many people whom I like and admire whose blogs I don't read. Apparently, I just need that processing power for something else.
2. I only reply to comments if I actually have something to say. However, I read all comments, and I am always, always grateful for them. (N.b., excluding the occasional and inevitable troll.) I forget to say that a lot, because sometimes I'm kind of a rotten excuse for a human being. But I'm definitely reading and interested.
So here. The lines are open and you're on the air.
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no subject
Date: 2007-02-26 01:05 am (UTC)Do you feel that you create your stories from scratch or that you find them in pieces and put them together? In other words, judging from your posts, your characters talk to you (which, incidentally, is very nice to know; gives me a vague sense of hope for what remains of my sanity); do you just let them go their own way, or do you try to hold them to a pre-existing plotline?
As far as introductions go, I'm a first-year PhD student in English at Oxford. I ran across Mélusine completely by accident when I was looking for a copy of Jean d'Arras' Roman de Mélusine on Amazon, and literally had to lock it in another room so I wouldn't get in trouble for reading it at work. ;) Watching -- however indirectly -- your writing process is absolutely fascinating, especially since both Mélusine and The Virtu are such brilliant novels and I'm very much looking forward to The Mirador. I actually also read your PhD thesis when you posted it online since Webster's Duchess of Malfi is one of my favourite plays of all time.
no subject
Date: 2007-02-26 01:55 am (UTC)To answer your question, insofar as I can, the amount of plot I know ahead of time seems to vary radically from book to book. And it rarely helps as much as one might be inclined to think. I knew the ending of The Mirador before I started writing it, but no other book of mine (thus far--knock on wood) has had so many false starts and wrong turns. I'm mostly of the make-it-up-as-you-go-along school, although I've found that with practice I can see farther ahead, so that in Summerdown there are things I'm writing towards--one of which is a set-piece that's been in my head almost as long as Felix has. And I prefer to have goals--landmarks--to aim for, because otherwise I waffle and digress and world-build lavishly and there's never any story.
One of the things that causes me anxiety about finishing Summerdown and thus finishing this quartet of books is that I'm going to have to start ALL OVER AGAIN with building a narrative arc.