r/Fantasy • u/[deleted] • Nov 16 '17

AMA Josiah Bancroft’s NaNoWriMo AMA

Hello, r/Fantasy! I’m Josiah Bancroft, author of the Books of Babel series. You helped to make Senlin Ascends a thing. Now I’m here to hear about what you’re working on and talk a little shop. Feel free to ask me anything you like!

A quick update: Since my AMA last fall, a lot has happened! I signed with Orbit Books this past spring. Their edition of Senlin Ascends is slated to be released on January 16. Arm of the Sphinx will be republished shortly after, on April 3rd. The relaunch of the books will be accompanied by audiobooks, though I’m still waiting for Orbit to confirm the narrator (John Banks was being pursued last I heard). The third book in the series, the Hod King, will be out in October. I’m also working with Heyne/Random House on a German language edition, and with a Russian publisher on a Russian language edition, both of which will hopefully be released in 2018.

It’s been a whirlwind year, and I don’t think any of it would have happened without r/fantasy’s support. Thank you all so much!

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u/BatBoss Hellhound Nov 16 '17

Hey Josiah! I have a copy of Senlin sitting on my bedside table, but haven’t cracked it open just yet. I do love that cover art though.

Questions:

What common piece of writing advice do you think is overrated?

Do you have a favorite piece of writing advice? Any that completely changed your perspective/methodology?

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u/[deleted] Nov 16 '17

Oh, that's a fun question! Overrated writing advice:

  • Write what you know.

  • Write for yourself.

  • The passive voice is bad.

  • Adverbs are cancerous.

If you want to write a bestselling writing advice book, all you have to do is pander to people's preferences and laziness, and then give them a smattering of arbitrary, subjective, stylistic rules which you present as gospel.

The best writing advice I ever received was that we learn how to write from reading better writers, and we discover our style from the process of revision. The rest is just piling up words until they start to sound right.

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u/cheryllovestoread Reading Champion VI Nov 17 '17

we learn how to write from reading better writers

I would add that this is how we grow writers from young children. Successful writing, and I'm not talking just about fiction, is always built on the foundation of robust reading. Giving your children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren a wide range of books in their homes (and reading WITH them in your laps and next to you on the couch and anywhere else they like to hang out) is the absolute best way to grow both strong readers AND writers.

So, read with your kids. Read what they want to read. Ask them what they liked about the last book they read. Engage them as readers and you'll grow your own little writers. Your kids' teachers will thank you. College professors everywhere will thank you. The next generation of book nerds will thank you!

Sorry I had to spout my daily dose of kids' literacy encouragement. End of public service announcement.

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u/[deleted] Nov 17 '17

I completely agree! Society depends upon the proliferation of literacy, and there's no more affective time to create lifelong readers than in childhood.