Seanan McGuire: All Books Are Real Books

I write books. Yes, real books. Um, I don’t know, do you read science fiction? Okay, you might have read some of my books. Yes, they’re in bookstores. I don’t know your cousin. There are a lot of people who write books. Are we with the same publisher? Oh. No, I still don’t know them.

Either IT by Stephen King, or The Last Unicorn by Peter Beagle.

I can remember, in order, the first story I ever wrote, the first good story I ever wrote, the first story I ever got paid for, the first novel I wrote, and the first story I ever collaborated on. I cannot, however, remember where I put my keys.

A writer! As soon as I found out that was an option, that was what I wanted to become. And I did it, so score one for wishful thinking.

She would think I have awesome cats and a whole lot of My Little Ponies, and would only be disappointed in my failure to marry either Jeff Goldblum or Geena Davis.

A complete Aarne-Thompson Index to Motifs in Folklore and Fairy Tales. Those things are expensive, and it took me forever to track one down. Having one earlier would have been absolutely amazing.

Nope! If I’m not writing or playing video games—I play a lot of Overwatch—I probably have a book in my hand. It keeps things moving.

It is very boring. I have an idea. These days, I probably tell my agent I have had the idea, and she goes out and sells it to someone. (Conversely, sometimes anthologies ask me to write them a story, and then I take their topic and use that to spark an idea.) I sit down at my computer and write X number of words per day for Y days, where “X” is “the minimum to hit a final count of Z” and “Y” is “the amount of time I have minus one week per estimated 10,000 words.” I finish writing. I send the file to my beta readers. They give me edits and suggestions. I revise the file. I keep doing this until we either run out of time or I feel the story is as good as it’s going to get without new eyes. I send the file to my actual editor. My editor gives me edits and suggestions. I revise the file. My editor accepts it. It goes away. I return to start.

By me, or that I read? By me, probably Every Heart a Doorway, which has opened so many doors, no pun intended. It wasn’t my first success and hopefully it won’t be my last, but it brought me to the attention of people who had never noticed me before. That I read, almost certainly IT by Stephen King. It changed the way I look at story.

Give yourself permission to write crap, and don’t listen to anyone who says they have the secret to becoming an overnight success. They don’t.

Oh, absolutely. Some are by friends, and some are books we’ve shared, that made a difference for us as people.

Recently, Winter Tide by Ruthanna Emrys. It’s an absolutely incredible new way of looking at the Cthulhu mythos, like Wicked for The Shadow Over Innsmouth.

Fiction.

Absolutely.

In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan.

All books are real books, but I prefer to read physical books.

Honestly, it’s one book that’s also two books. I think everyone should read The Stand by Stephen King, in both its original and expanded versions. The best version of the book is, I feel, somewhere between the two, but it’s a masterclass on what editing does both for and to a work of fiction.

I keep saying it, but IT by Stephen King. It has brought me so many strong, essential friendships. I don’t know where I’d be, or who I’d be, without it.

Oh, gosh. Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones; Tam Lin by Pamela Dean; John Dies at the End by David Wong; Narbonic by Shaenon Garrity.

I don’t know. Isn’t it wonderful?

Chaos, Cornfields, and Corroborating Accounts: The Seanan McGuire Story.