Literary Birthday – 2 April – Scott Lynch

Happy Birthday, Scott Lynch, born on 2 April 1978.

Scott Lynch Quotes

1. I think it’s fairly common for writers to be afflicted with two simultaneous yet contradictory delusions, the burning certainty that we’re unique geniuses, and the constant fear that we’re witless frauds who are speeding toward epic failure.
2. If you want to write a negative review, don’t tickle me gently with your aesthetic displeasure about my work. Unleash the goddamn Kraken.
3. There’s no freedom quite like the freedom of being constantly underestimated.
4. I work from a very elaborate and anal-retentive plan. I graph everything out, draw little lines to a lot of preliminary work – I’m an outliner.
5. The real question in worldbuilding is not how much can I dump on the page, but how much can I get away with not actually telling people? Because the alternative is to get this inelegant info-dumpy writing style, in which everyone who is meeting everyone else is taking extra time in their dialogue to explain what they’re doing.
6. And so it is with the fictional characters on the page. What they wear, what they eat, what they drink, what they value, what they want, this is all worldbuilding and it goes on until the last page of the story.

Scott Lynch is an American fantasy author. He is known for writing the grimdark Gentleman Bastard series of novels. Titles include The Lies of Locke Lamora, Red Seas Under Red Skies, and The Republic of Thieves. The Thorn of Emberlain, The Ministry of Necessity, The Mage and the Master Spy, and Inherit the Night are projected to conclude the series. Scott has been nominated for the World Fantasy Award, the Locus Award, the Campbell Award, and the Compton Crook Award. He received the British Fantasy Society Award for Best Newcomer in 2008. He is married to speculative fiction novelist, Elizabeth Bear.

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by Amanda Patterson

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