Some of my ideas were shot down by Lucasfilm because they stepped on territory that has been reserved for the movies. I didn't have a problem with that.
— Walter Jon Williams
It's hard to generalize, because they're all different. When I started, I decided to take as much advantage as I could of the freedom offered by the SF field.
The mass-market paperback, for one, is too expensive.
Everything that you read is an influence on everything you write, and you want to draw as many elements into your work as you can.
It's a tough job to tell a story when the audience already knows the ending, and the ending is bleak.
The Rift, which was well over a thousand pages of manuscript, took two years.
I found college useful for a lot of other reasons. It exposed me to a great many influences I wouldn't otherwise have encountered, and gave me a lot of time with some very intelligent people whose thoughts are still with me.
Now I have to motivate myself much more than I had previously.
I wanted to be an author for as long as I can remember.
I was pretty much grown-up by the time I attended school in Britain - or as grown-up as I'll ever get.
Genre labels are useful only insofar as they help you find an audience.
Working within the limitations of the shared world generally made the writing easier, because I didn't have to invent any of the characters or background, which is usually the hardest part.
That's why editors and publishers will never be obsolete: a reader wants someone with taste and authority to point them in the direction of the good stuff, and to keep the awful stuff away from their door.
I'm in favor of any technology that makes my work available to the reading public at a reasonable price.
Even if you only want to write science fiction, you should also read mysteries, poetry, mainstream literature, history, biography, philosophy, and science.
I've learned that I get blocked when my subconscious mind is telling me that I've taken the work in a wrong direction, and that once I start listening to what my subconscious is trying to tell me, I can work out the problem and get moving again.
How long it takes to write a book depends on its length.
I went to college, though I didn't take many writing courses.
I now have to find a reason to write, every single day.
An SF author who reads only SF will have little new to contribute, but someone with a broader experience will bring more to the table.
If you can find collaborators whose strengths compliment your own, the result can be more than the sum of its authors.
Science fiction readers probably have the gene for novelty, and seem to enjoy a cascade of invention as much as a writer enjoys providing one.
The big battle at the end of DW isn't drawn from history, but it's influenced by history, certainly.
I want a platform that, like a book or a magazine, I can carry into the bath or leave at the beach.
Try to meet as many authors, agents, and editors as you can.
I can't speak for the other authors, but what I hoped to achieve was to illuminate certain corners of the Lucas universe that hadn't yet been explored.
I've experienced writer's block, but never for more than a few days.
When state and religion are one, religion becomes a means for the powerful to remain in power.
For every SF reader of that period, Robert A. Heinlein was also a touchstone.
Being a writer was never a choice, it was an irresistible compulsion.
The Internet offers an interesting combination of advertising and community by participating in the community you can become an advertisement for yourself.
I'm not afraid of werewolves or vampires or haunted hotels, I'm afraid of what real human beings to do other real human beings.
