"In this thread, I asked boardies to provide questions for Terry that I would ask at MidSouthCon if I had the opportunity. Terry kindly spent a very generous chunk of time providing answers while I frantically scribbled notes, and this Q&A is the result. The questions are in bold font (у меня --) , and Terry's paraphrased answers are in regular font (sorry, but I don't write quickly enough to get exact quotes!). You'll notice that I did edit the questions to try to make them a bit different from those I've read in other interviews. Often I made them more specific, or focused on upcoming books.



FYI, he later repeated a few comments about Nation and about Carrot during the "What's New in Discworld" panel. If you see a smidgen of overlap with Fluffy's reports, that's why.



I hope you enjoy it!



Anna M.C.



-------------------------



--You’ve mentioned in interviews that when you write, you can sense the ending “like a prospector smells oil,” but you don’t know the specifics until you’re writing it; you start with Draft Zero and then tell the story to yourself in Draft One. However, you noted that Nation, the book you’re currently writing, almost seems to be writing itself; you have a much clearer idea of the plot details in advance this time. Why do you think this book is so different?



Nation (the new YA novel-in-progress) was initially proceeding very quickly because he’d sat on the original idea for four years, until it began clamoring for attention while he was supposed to be writing I Shall Wear Midnight. Unfortunately, he’s now reached the stage where it's definitely not writing itself anymore! His writing technique generally works by starting out with a rough idea, then relying on a process of emergence. Plot events that he could not have anticipated given the initial starting conditions suddenly become obvious and inevitable; he simply knows what has to happen next. The material itself is dynamic; it changes as he’s engaged in the act of writing.



Interestingly, Nation is almost certainly not a Discworld book. Trying to make it fit into that category would basically be a case of slapping an arbitrary and ill-fitting Discworld label on it, since there are important elements which don’t mesh with the Discworld universe. For example, there are plot points which require God, Christianity, and gunpowder to exist. There’s one incident in which a captain who has been caught up in a tsunami begins singing “For Those in Peril on the Sea” (the hymn made famous by Titanic), then suddenly realizes that the wave has actually borne him over an island, at which point he resourcefully extemporizes a verse entitled “For Those in Peril on Dry Land.” The Amazing Maurice and the Tiffany Aching series needed to be Discworld by their very nature, especially with their roles for Death, but Nation is something different.



-- Do you ever build a story around a new character idea, or do new characters just arise from the story? Do you have a stash of character sketches in reserve? Do you find your characters are driven by the story, or your story is driven by the characters, or is it more or less a reciprocal process?



Among the future novels he has planned, there's one that has a new character as its starting point, although it’s not yet at a stage where he can share any details. In addition, Going Postal and Making Money were fundamentally derived from the nature of Moist Von Lipwig. Story and character work together as a reciprocal process, though, like a complicated knot; you can't really artificially separate one from another. He doesn't keep a stash of character sketches, but he does always have a notepad open on his computer to record ideas as they occur; right now, he keeps getting ideas for I Shall Wear Midnight while working on Nation! However, he hopes to finish Nation by August. Making Money was much harder to write, since it coincided with a difficult time in his life: the illness and death of his father. Being able to write quickly makes the process easier for him, since it allows him to keep a tighter grasp on the book as a whole. It all becomes less coherent and connected when a book is dragged out over a long period of time.



--In The Art of Discworld, you mentioned that “I understand he [Lord Vetinari] has his own, all-female fan club.” Did this surprise you, or did you intend that? Why do you think he has such a strong appeal for the female audience?



He didn't create the character while deliberately thinking, "Hey, here's a guy who could get his own fan club!" However, he also wasn't terribly surprised by the outcome. After Stephen Briggs performed Vetinari on stage for the first time, the actors went to a pub in costume, only to find that all the ladies were queuing up to kiss Vetinari! He wryly observed that you try to live your life as a decent guy, and then see a “calculating bastard” like Vetinari get all the breaks. "It's enough to make a man recalculate his approach."



-- There have been rumors that you’ve mentioned the possibility of Eskarina Smith appearing in I Shall Wear Midnight. Is this so? If yes, could you drop a few hints concerning her role in the book, and if Simon also figures in the plot?



There's a strong possibility that Esk may appear in a future novel, perhaps I Shall Wear Midnight, but there are no further details available yet — even to Terry!



-- Will we ever see Polly, Maladicta and Igorina again, or was Monstrous Regiment a one-off? Do you ever really know for certain if a book is a one-off, or is there always the possibility of a sequel if an idea strikes?



There will probably be an Igorina appearing in a future book, but not necessarily that Igorina, and the other characters really belong to Monstrous Regiment. He’s always felt that, once you get past the trolls and the vampires, Monstrous Regiment is really a historical novel. Much like Nation, it didn't necessarily have to be written as part of the Discworld series. There's nothing fictional about the premise of a cross-dressing sergeant with a talent for recognizing and recruiting cross-dressing female recruits; there's a historically documented case of an 18th-century predecessor of Sergeant Jackrum who did exactly that.



However, he admits that even he is never absolutely certain if something will remain a one-off novel or not. He originally thought Going Postal would be a one-off, but its premise revealed a great deal of fascinating history, such as the way stamps became currency and enabled the creation of mail-order businesses. Now that series will continue with Making Money and possibly a third Moist von Lipwig adventure, Raising Taxes!



-- Could you hint if Angua's relationship with Carrot is headed for a crisis point anytime soon, and if that might feature prominently in a book?



He feels that Carrot tends to treat a relationship as a neat, finite series of to-do boxes to be dealt with, checked off, and finished. Once an issue has been dealt with, it’s over as far as he’s concerned. There's a certain complacency about him. It might do him good to get a bit shaken up by a crisis like that!



Sometimes he's considered writing about Carrot becoming king, but since it would require at least two books – the second to deal with the civil war that would result – and would radically change the nature of Discworld and everything that happens afterward, it’s a plot that he’s chosen to avoid. There are so many other things he wants to write about right now. Besides, what would happen to Vetinari? He’s got such a lot of lovely lines in Making Money; it would be a shame to lose him.



-- When did you first realize that the Discworld series had acquired such a huge and devoted online fan following? What was your reaction?



He’s been involved with online fandom almost since the beginning, posting on the newsgroup alt.fan.pratchett within about a year of its creation. The odd thing about Discworld fandom in general, not just online fandom, is that the majority of the readership falls outside the conventional boundaries of traditional fandom; they don't think of themselves as fantasy or sci-fi fans, don't communicate through the usual fannish channels, and tend to find out about things like the Discworld convention by accident. Discworld fans turn up everywhere, including the places you least expect – like the Homeland Security officer who pulled him out of line at the airport to sign a book on his way to MidSouthCon!



He feels greatly indebted to his U.S. editor, Jennifer Brehl, for believing in and tirelessly promoting the Discworld novels in America. He's seen his sales and readership in the U.S. increase hugely in the last eight years, and credits her work, along with that of his publicist Jack Womack, as a major reason for the growth of Discworld fandom stateside.



-- Someone remembers seeing a footnote referring to the only man on the Seamstresses’ Guild’s Board of Directors, and thought it sounded like a potentially fascinating character. Do you have any idea which book it was, or the name of the man in question?



He hasn’t the faintest clue. Don’t you feel disillusioned now? [Smile]



-- Will there ever be a Missus Librarian? He has feelings too, you know.



But he's also a wizard! Still, anything could happen…



-- You’ve mentioned that one of the things about The Lord of the Rings that worried you was that all orcs were portrayed as inherently, irrevocably evil. Elves and men could fall, but orcs could not rise -- surely there must be a sensitive orc who liked poetry! Is this one reason that vampires have been evolving from villains into more complex characters in recent Discworld books? Are there other reasons? Do you foresee another vampire in a prominent role in a future Discworld novel?



The view of Discworld vampires has evolved largely as seen through the lens of Vimes's mindset; he's come to accept that even vampires can take the pledge, toe the line, and become responsible citizens. Still, the Discworld sense of trolls, vampires, etc. as not being uniformly bad guys probably does arise in part from dissatisfaction with the idea that any group is inherently evil and absolutely deprived of any chance at redemption. There could very well be a vampire character playing a major role in a future book, since the fact that a character is a vampire doesn't necessarily make any difference to the plot. A vampire character doesn't require a plot based on vampirism any more than a Chinese character would require a plot centered on China.



Speaking of the future, next year promises to be an eventful one. It will mark the anniversary of 25 years of Discworld as well as his 60th birthday! He’s considering doing fewer signing tours and conventions after this. Although he quite enjoys attending conventions and meeting fans, travel does tend to be exhausting, and cuts into his writing time. However, in actual practice, he suspects he probably won’t cut down on travel quite as much as he intends.



He also has several additional non-Discworld projects in mind. Although it's much simpler to "relax in the warm bath of Discworld," the challenge of writing something different, like Nation, has been a welcome change. Unlike the Discworld novels, there are no givens in Nation — it'll stand entirely alone.

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