Lynn Abbey's Quotes
- 1. A dozen years is a long time in the world of publishing. The market is more fragmented and competitive than ever, and overall readership is down. Finding a niche is the first challenge; inserting a book into that niche is the second.
- 2. A good editor-and I don't claim to be one-can deduce the ideal elements of a writer's style and story and administer the necessary guidance to trick the writer into revealing it.
- 3. A good short-story writer has an instinct for sketching in just enough background to ground the specific story.
- 4. A year or so ago, I considered writing a mainstream novel and, despite several time-consuming efforts, I just couldn't come up with a concept that made my ears wiggle and didn't involve fantasy-genre elements.
- 5. All authors are created equal, but, as the editor, I'm somewhat more equal than all the others.
- 6. As an author, you're usually responsible for both the creation and evolution of your characters, but in a shared world, the evolution of your character is at least partially determined by what your character does in response to situations you didn't create.
- 7. Because I'd been involved in the creation of a successful shared-world it was assumed that I'd know the rules in other shared worlds, so the invitations flowed my way.
- 8. Before I was a writer I was a computer programmer.
- 9. Compatibility problems are touchier. Sometimes author A does something that sends author B right through the roof and the editor has to scramble to play peacemaker.
- 10. Continuity problems are fairly straightforward, with absolute conflicts being the easiest to resolve. If writer A and writer B both lay claim to the same piece of real estate or character, it's usually possible to come up with a chronology that allows both stories to exist.
- 11. Contractual considerations are very important in shared-world or work-for-hire situations. I make sure I know exactly what's expected.
- 12. During the many centuries that magic, here on this planet, was presumed to have worked, there were at least as many theories as to how magic worked as there were cultures and religions.
- 13. Editorial processes are subjective, based on what's available at a given moment in time, and ultimately unfair.
- 14. Editors of invitation-only anthologies tend to be a secretive lot. We're looking for very specific things in our story mix and know the voices we're looking for to round out the chorus.
- 15. Editors of open anthologies actively seek submissions from all comers, established and unknown. They are willing to read whatever the tide washes up at their feet.
- 16. Every so often I'd be able to write a scene with greater flourish because I'd gotten lucky with my words as I was writing them down, but no surprises.
- 17. Flaws of style and sequence would fairly leap off the page and the means to correct them would, too.
- 18. For a good fiction writer-and that includes writers of SF and Fantasy-there is simply no such thing as useless research. I never pass up an opportunity to learn how something is made or used.
- 19. For me, the rise and fall of the 1980s incarnation of TW was deeply personal and intertwined with the rise and fall of my marriage to co-editor, Robert Asprin.
- 20. For me, writing a short story is much, much harder than writing a novel.
- 21. Friends who are not writers try to be sympathetic and understanding of a writer's mood, but, truly, it takes one to know one.
- 22. Gamers, especially the game masters, who are the primary audience for any game box, want precision because that's what the players want.
- 23. Getting the new anthologies up and running has had its share of unexpected pitfalls. I hope I'm not being naive or unduly optimistic when I think that, time-wise, the worst is over.
- 24. I always make sure I have an escape clause that allows me to pull my name off a project if I have to abandon it.
- 25. I can usually tell the difference between a short story idea and a novel-length one when someone describes the idea to me.
- 26. I construct timelines for each story and a master timeline for sequencing the stories in the volume.
- 27. I do have a small collection of traditional SF ideas which I've never been able to sell. I'm known as a fantasy writer and neither my agent nor my editors want to risk my brand by jumping genre.
- 28. I do keep a small file of samples from not-yet-invited authors. The cold, cruel fact is that I wouldn't be doing any of them a favor if I asked for a story.
- 29. I don't have any signed contracts right now, but my agent's out there shaking the bushes vigorously.
- 30. I don't so much think of myself a fantasy writer as a writer of histories of places that don't exist. I'd like to write the histories of places and people that have existed, but I've never been satisfied with the completeness of my research.
- 31. I don't strive for perfect continuity, which is good, because I'd never achieve it.
- 32. I guess it's good to be known for something.
- 33. I have a problematic relationship with magic: when push comes to shove, I don't believe in it.
- 34. I have some history books that I come back to when I'm trying to debug my worlds.
- 35. I love writing Thieves' World, but I feel a responsibility, too, to the other authors. I've lost many nights' sleep worrying if I've made the sandbox too large, too small.
- 36. I think my prose reads as if English were my second language. By the time I get to the end of a paragraph, I'm dodging bullets and gasping for breath.
- 37. I was one of those rare and fortunate writers who did not go through an amateur period of creating unpublished/unpublishable fiction. I didn't actually start writing with professional intent until a golden opportunity fell into my lap.
- 38. I went to Oklahoma to recover from a shattering divorce and I couldn't have found a better, safer haven, but in time I realized that I needed to be closer to my parents, which entailed moving to Florida.
- 39. I wish I knew how to imagine a short story, because I rather like the form, but they're too time-consuming for me to write on a regular basis.
- 40. I write sets of books, but I've also written a lot of orphans.
- 41. I'm a writer first and an editor second... or maybe third or even fourth. Successful editing requires a very specific set of skills, and I don't claim to have all of them at my command.
- 42. I'm always trolling for trivia.
- 43. I'm currently working on my third book about Emma Merrigan, curse hunter and university librarian.
- 44. I'm dense when it comes to discouragement.
- 45. I'm no athlete and my piano lessons were going nowhere; I got good marks in school, but there were always kids who outshined me-until I wrote a short story.
- 46. I'm not constrained by being a genre writer. Any story I can imagine, I can cast as a fantasy novel and probably get it published.
- 47. I'm one of those writers who, when writing, believes she's god-and that she hasn't bestowed free will on any of her characters. In that sense there are no surprises in any of my books.
- 48. I've always seen Thieves' World from two perspectives-as a business property and as a creative sandbox.
- 49. I've developed a reputation as someone who can turn a sow's ear into a silk purse when it comes to pulling a story out of a murky milieu, and that keeps my name in circulation.
- 50. I've done a lot of shared-worlds and work-for-hire. Ask me if I think it's always been good for my career and the unequivocal answer is No, but it's paid the bills when the bills.
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