Connie Willis answers your questions
Connie Willis started her career like hundreds of other would-be science fiction writers -- toiling away as a virtual unknown for years, publishing only sporadically and not making much of a name for herself.
But that changed in the early 1980s when she began writing full time. Her ever-increasing list of short stories quickly caught the attention of readers and editors alike, and she soon became a sought-after property. Today, Willis is one of the most popular and critically acclaimed authors publishing in the genre, having already collected six Nebula Awards, five Hugo Awards and the John W. Campbell Award.
Last week Willis sat down with Science Fiction Weekly to answer questions submitted by our readers. She talked about her career, her writing style, her favorite authors and much more:
1) How has your life changed from before you became a successful writer until after?
--Joe, Equinox@Buffnet.net
Before I became successful I was unhappy about rejection letters (especially those printed slips) and was I wasting my time and telling people I was a writer and having them say, "Have you ever sold anything?"
Now I'm unhappy about deadlines and is this all going to end with the next book and telling people I'm a writer and having them say, "Well, I've never heard of you." Writers are too neurotic to ever be happy.
Willis Fact:
"I sing soprano in a Congregationalist church choir. It is my belief that everything you need to know about the world can be learned in a church choir."
2) Who are your favorite science fiction writers, and what impact did they have on your own writing?
----Walter Hedges, whedges@cts.com
Heinlein and Heinlein and Heinlein. I loved him from the minute I picked up Have Space Suit, Will Travel, because his characters were so smart and because his futures were so lived in and because there was so much humor in his books (in short supply in science fiction -- and throughout the universe). I hope some of those things show up in my own writing.
Willis Fact:
"I have watched "All My Children" since it started. Can you believe Erica was the one who ran over Maria and Kelsey?"
3) Your short stories are incredibly short and to the point. How long are your original rough drafts? How much time to you spend rewriting short fiction?
--Paul Recchia, paulr@merle.acns.nwu.edu
I rewrite everything, long or short, over and over. And it's not a question of a rough draft. It's many, many notes and drafts and cross-outs and retries. When I was done with Doomsday Book, I had three loose-leaf notebooks full of research and two 8 x 12 inch boxes full of rough drafts. I have never written anything in one draft, not even a grocery list, although I have heard from friends that this is actually possible.
Willis Fact:
"The answer to your question about Uncharted Territory is, no, you weren't supposed to have figured it out. Yes, I was trying to trick you. No, I do not intend to apologize.
4) Do you consciously shift mental gears when writing your more comedic stories as opposed to the more "serious" stuff, or does each story find its own voice as you write it?
--Rich Horton, rhorton@gwsmtp01.mdc.com
I focus on only one thing when I write a story -- the plot. Everything -- character, tone, viewpoint, setting -- comes from the needs of the story I need to tell and the very short space in which I have to tell it. (This goes for the novels, too. The plots are just a lot more complicated.)
Willis Fact:
"Fred Astaire is my hero. (You probably knew that if you've read Remake.) I love him because he was willing to kill himself to make his art look effortless. And because he proved it's possible to be an artist and a good person."
5) Which do you prefer writing, the more comedic or the more serious stories?
--Brooks Peck, Staff
To me, the world is extremely funny, so I suppose comedy is my natural mode. But my "serious" stories are all ironic, which is so closely allied to comedy as to be nearly the same thing. I think comedy is technically harder to write, but it's also more fun. And better for me, since it gets rid of all my aggressions. My latest comedy, Bellwether, let me go after everything that bugs me: meetings, Barbie, trendy coffeehouses, those incompetent clerks who refuse to get off the phone to talk to you, and bread pudding. Also the bane of the nineties (and every other decade): taking yourself too seriously.
Willis Fact:
"My favorite novel is Sigrid Undset's Kristin Lavransdatter."
6) What is your background in the hard sciences? Were you always interested in science, or did it come with your writing career?
--Terry DiDomenico, tldido@ark.ship.edu
I was an English major who married a physics teacher. My interest in science, however, dates to Heinlein, who has always believed that people should be interested in everything. I agree. I also agree with C.P. Snow that the schism between science and the humanities is the most dangerous development of the twentieth century. One of the things I've tried to show in things like Schwarzschild Radius, At the Rialto, and Bellwether is the connection between science and virtually everything else, even the Hula Hoop and Grauman's Chinese Theater.
Willis Fact:
"The answer to your question about the books I've written with Cynthia Felice is, no, it's really fun to collaborate. When you've written your characters into a corner, you just hand the manuscript over to your partner and make her fix it."
7) It must be a constant temptation to go back to one of your successful works to re-mine the ideas in another sequel. How do you keep from succumbing to the temptation?
--Wayne De L'Orme, delormew@execulink.com
I hate sequels. They're never as good as the first book. One of the bitterest disappointments of my life was Tolkien's The Silmarillion. And, although I read every single one of the Anne of Green Gables sequels to find out whether Anne married Gilbert, I liked each successive one less.
I have, however, written two pieces in Mr. Dunworthy's Oxford time-travel universe -- Fire Watch and Doomsday Book -- and am working on a third (see question l0). I try to make them as different from one another as I can, don't use the same characters (except for Mr. Dunworthy and Finch) and worry constantly about suddenly finding myself writing Great Grand-Children of the Emperor of Dune." And, no, I am not sending Colin to the Crusades. Ever.
Willis Fact:
"I am a Colorado native (one of six), and, no, I did not vote for the anti-gay amendment or the same-sex marriage ban, and I am not a member of a militia."
8) How are you able to continue writing stories with fresh ideas after winning so many awards? Are you afraid of sticking with old formulas that brought you success in the past?
--Eric "The Mongoose" Fisk, sierra@tiac.net
No. I've said all I have to say about the Civil War and the Middle Ages and women's issues, and don't intend to write anything more about them. (That is not true of the Blitz and political correctness.) (Which are similar in many ways.) But I haven't even started yet on near-death experiences and Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show and animal rights and the desperate importance of irrelevance. And the London Underground. And telepathy.
Willis Fact:
"I have a bulldog named Gracie, after Gracie Allen, of course, and a cat named Lori Darlin' after the character in Lonesome Dove, both currently starring in To Say Nothing of the Dog. "
9) What inspired you to write Lincoln's Dreams?
--Mike McCollum, MMcC1@aol.com
I actually dreamed something like the first dream in the book, the one with Civil War soldiers buried in the front lawn of the house I grew up in. And five years later, doing research on something totally unrelated, I happened to read that when Union soldiers took over Arlington, they buried soldiers in the front lawn to keep Robert E. Lee from ever moving back.
Some people would have called in Scully and Mulder. Being a writer, however, I said, "Wow! I can use this!" And did. But the story didn't really gel until I read about Lee, a week before Appomattox, sleeping under a tree holding tight to Traveller's reins. And I knew the book wasn't about Lee or Lincoln or soldiers buried in the front lawn, but about Traveller.
Willis Fact:
"I watched the entire O.J. Simpson trial, and he was guilty!"
10) Do you have any plans to write a sequel to the Doomsday Book?
--Jennifer Wendel, jwendel@redshift.com
Somebody actually suggested to me that I do a series of Doomsday Books on diseases -- you know, cholera, typhoid, the common cold. I thought about it, but couldn't face dysentery. However, I am working on another novel set in Mr. Dunworthy's Oxford time-travel universe. It's a romantic comedy set in Victorian England and drawing heavily from Dorothy Sayers, Darwin, Alice in Wonderland, P.G. Wodehouse, and, of course, Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat, which I first found out about in Heinlein's Have Space Suit, Will Travel. The story involves Coventry Cathedral (old, new and burned down), pen wipers, a breach in the space-time continuum, boating on the Thames, evolution and bulldogs.
Willis Fact:
"My favorite science fiction story is Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. Or J.G. Ballard's The Drowned Giant. Or Ward Moore's Lot. Or Kit Reed's The Wait. No, it's definitely A Little Something for Us Tempunauts by Philip K. Dick. Or Harlan Ellison's Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes. Or Frederik Pohl's and C.M. Kornbluth's Quaker Cannon. But then there's also The Big Pat Boom by Damon Knight. And..."