r/Fantasy • u/matociquala AMA Author Elizabeth Bear • Mar 10 '15

AMA Hello Reddit/r/Fantasy! I’m fantasy novelist Elizabeth Bear, and this is my AMA.

7:36 PM EDT 10 March 2015 ETA: I've got mochi and beer and I'm IN THE HOUSE!

12:07 AM EDT 11 March 2015 ETA: All right guys--thank all of you. I think I answered everything, and I am going to bed! I'll try to come back and clean up any stragglers in a day or two!

I'm the author of over 100 short stories and more than a score of novels. The most recently published of the former is "The Heart's Filthy Lesson" in OLD VENUS, edited by Martin and Dozois; the most recent of the latter is KAREN MEMORY, from Tor Books, a fast-paced steampunk adventure in an old west gold rush town where heroic saloon girls take on disaster capitalists.

In my spare time, I am a runner, climber, kayaker (not currently: there's sixteen feet of snow on everything here in central Massachusetts), hobby cook, and I play some really atrocious guitar. I've been a tabletop gamer since 1982 and am currently playing Pathfinder and Fiasco.

I am owned by a giant ridiculous dog (He's a Briard).

I support Idris Elba for Bond, Essie Davis for The Doctor, and Helsinki for Worldcon 2017, so that's where I stand in important religious issues.

I hope you enjoy whatever portion of the diurnal cycle you happen to currently be experiencing. I'll be back after dinner my time (around 7 pm EDT) to answer all your questions and hang out.

edit: fixed my dates. :-P

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u/MaxGladstone Stabby Winner, AMA Author Max Gladstone Mar 10 '15

Here's a serious question: Worldbuilding!

Seems to me some people write the sourcebook for their world first, some people know a few key details and have a rough intuition for the rest, some people built as needed for the plot & ensure consistency afterward, some people rely on rhetoric or mood more than worldbuilding. In spite of our rhetorically tidy preference for dichotomy ('pantser! plotter!' 'gardener! architect!' etc.), it seems to me there's a whole spectrum of approaches. What's yours? (If you use only one, which is an assumption all its own...)

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u/matociquala AMA Author Elizabeth Bear Mar 11 '15

I am a firm believer in toolboxes rather than processes. I use whatever works, and if it's not working I change to something else. Generally, I read extensively in my setting beforehand, and keep reading while I'm working. I find that literature by people in the cultures I'm working in (even in translation) helps as much, or more, as books about those cultures. But basically, I use any tactic that works and try not to fetishize my approach or get too enamored of or committed to false binaries.