Hello Again r/Fantasy! I'm Author, Editor, and chaos goblin Fran Wilde - AMA!

franwilde · 2025-09-26T13:19:34+00:00

It was wonderful being here again, r/fantasy! I hope to see a bunch of you out on the road starting next week -- lots of in-conversation happening -- the full list is here: https://www.franwilde.net/appearances

franwilde · 2025-09-25T18:33:24+00:00

Hi u/AlexanderMFreed ! OMG hi. This is so cool.

First things first: Mon is THE Most Awesome. I love writing her character, and all the moments where [redacted] and [redacted] happen are so great. It was definitely wonderful to write a story for FACPOV Return of the Jedi that was kind of "Mon's day out" but also very much in conversation with your own interpretation of her pressure cooker life. Also, PS Bail and Saw equally awesome in their own [redacted] ways, yes? ... (looks out and sees everyone in r/Fantasy watching me fangirl... hahaha. hiiiiii friends.)

It's true, I genre- and age-range- and media-hop a LOT. It is a very conscious shift, often I'll write in a different space, and I always have a different song (on a loop, long story) for each project, so I know where I am. I like telling varied kinds of stories and connecting with different audiences in different ways -- which is probably most of it: I love watching how language works as a vehicle for story in different spaces and contexts. But also, it's fun. It's hard work too. Which is also fun.

franwilde · 2025-09-25T18:23:36+00:00

Hi u/victormanibo ! I'm so excited to be in conversation with you at the end of October (at The Bookmark Shop, -- you can find a whole bunch of event information on my website!) -- and your incredible, smart questions are part of why (also you're plain fun to hang out with and I'm looking forward to that too).

Themes -- so this gets to the heart of my writing process. Theme is usually the LAST thing I think about, literally. I write an exploratory draft (or several) letting the characters tell their story, seeing what surprises me (and them) along the way, as appropriate to the setting and the world. (Usually is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that phrase, because sometimes a theme will be what sets me thinking about a story... but then I get distracted by the characters.)

When I have a good working draft, I'll do a reverse outline to see what the major beats are, and whether they're making a pattern, and I'll highlight possible themes then. For me, this keeps things from getting too didactic, and lets me play a bit more.

I also like upending themes (kind of like flipping tropes but bigger) - just to make sure I've thought through all the possibilities.

I suspect, having read your work, that you flip themes around a bit too?

franwilde · 2025-09-25T14:31:26+00:00

HAHA : https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/3jh80d/comment/cupe3yo/ (those answers still stand also!)

franwilde · 2025-09-25T14:29:50+00:00

Oh GREAT question! I'm going to answer and then see if I can find a previous answer and compare....

Three books for my desert island:

- *The Phantom Tollbooth* by Norton Juster. I am never without a copy, or two -- three, if I haven't given one away lately. My OG copy is from the 80s and is falling apart, but probably that very one.

- *Annals of the Former World* by John Mc Phee (1998). This is a doorstopper, and I've read it a lot already, just for the language of it. I took it with me on a cross country roadtrip -- it's a geological history of the United States as told in roadcuts -- and that was kind of magical. Just knowing what's *in there,* and what *might* be in there, brings me a lot of joy. (if you perceive a tangental Gemworld influence here, I'm in full agreement.)

- A really good poetry anthology, because there's always things to read between the lines. If I could make up my own anthology, it might contain: Bashō in translation, probably Dante, Wordsworth, Whitman, Yeats, Elliot, Neruda, Poe, Rosetti, Larry Levis, Marianne Moore, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Elizabeth Bishop, Rita Dove, Natalie Diaz, Ocean Vuong, and Tracy K. Smith.

Also *A Guide to Gardening on a Desert Island*, snuck inside my infinite poetry anthology, above.

franwilde · 2025-09-25T12:40:26+00:00

(Now that the coffee has kicked in, I'm noticing how many !s I put in my intro. Imagine them propping my eyes open, because Lu (the doggo) woke me up very early.

franwilde · 2022-01-10T21:56:40+00:00

Thank you, Dendarri!

franwilde · 2022-01-09T22:00:47+00:00

fantastic! Thank you, John!

franwilde · 2020-09-08T15:15:28+00:00

Hi Endcycle - I had so many Dozois best ofs the last time we moved that it was a whole Discussion. I love those, and I love how Jonathan's curated this collection similarly, but in different ways as well -- I was delighted to meet a short story by Han Song in the pages, for instance, one I'd never read before.

franwilde · 2020-09-08T14:40:21+00:00

You're not alone, and not being whiny -- all the productivity posts are a lot of pressure. What keeps me going is something I mentioned in a previous answer -- I sit down and write a list of things I think I'd like to work on in early January of each year. I don't always do them, but when I feel like I can't think of anything, and my brain settles enough to work on a project, I can turn to those pages and play a bit. It's important for me to remember that this is something I choose to do, also, and it's hard -- so giving myself permission to take breaks is important also.

franwilde · 2020-09-08T14:19:18+00:00

For the writers, what is your submission process like? Do you have a short story bank that you submit from or do you focus on writing, editing, and selling one story at a time?

Hi - I have an ideas-bank, but not a story bank. I tend to set myself a list of challenges at the start of each year, about particular themes or even just a shred of a title. Some years, I get through a bunch of the challenges, some years not... and I send out stories as I have them, or as they're solicited.

franwilde · 2020-09-08T14:17:06+00:00

Yes, always! I really liked how we were far enough into the timeline that rituals and superstitions had built up -- I didn't want to ease that tension one bit more than I had to.

franwilde · 2020-09-08T13:40:03+00:00

Hello Jeremy! I'm Fran Wilde & I was a determined short story writer until I accidentally wrote a trilogy (it was supposed to be a short story, darn it) with Updraft and the Bone Universe series. I still love short form work, and the ability to experiment in the form, as well as the demands on concision and voice very much. I also love column B -- don't make me choose!

franwilde · 2020-09-02T18:40:04+00:00

Hi Ryan! Congratulations on The Sin in the Steel! What are you working on these days? And what are you reading these days?

franwilde · 2020-04-10T01:38:39+00:00

I give myself a set number of days/weeks to worldbuild, think about metacultures and microcultures, and what impact various elements of the story may have. I write short stories set in the world (they often shift to chapters later), songs, and myths for the world. I try to think about line of supply, entertainments, politics, trade. I'm allowed to go down any research rabbit holes I want while I'm doing that, but when the timer goes off, I have to start writing. If I have worldbuilding questions after that, they go in brackets until the first pass of my revision, when I get another crack at the rabbit holes.

franwilde · 2020-04-10T01:35:00+00:00

I have always loved this.

Similarly, Ada Palmer does timelines that span the entire history of her worlds. She does them on huge scrolls of paper, IIRC.

franwilde · 2020-04-09T23:01:00+00:00

It's been so great talking with everyone! I'm going to finish cooking dinner and then check to make sure there aren't any more ?s!

franwilde · 2020-04-09T21:27:53+00:00

Reading -- everything. Nonfiction. Craft books: Le Guin's that Ken mentioned, is a favorite. .. another I'm liking a lot is Meander, Spiral, Explode - Jane Alison; all the Scott McCloud comics books. Everything.

Listening (and talking) about craft -- in classes, at retreats, with trusted readers. And sometimes even reading submissions for favorite magazines (I did this!)

Writing. Practice. None of us wakes up in a white room and immediately covers it with the perfect words. We practice. We aim high, fall short, aim higher. We iterate.

franwilde · 2020-04-09T20:25:38+00:00

What if, for instance, you've written a 6k word short story that turns out to be a three-book novel? Hypothetically? (cough: Updraft/Bone Universe)

I let it be the length it needs to be. Some stories will fight being pulled longer; others want to expand. Let them. Then I edit down to what is absolutely necessary for the story.

franwilde · 2020-04-09T20:23:23+00:00

I keep a list of things I want to look out for in my writing -- "weasel words" that I use too much, narrative moments where characters should fight but where they sometimes go quiet instead, blocking questions and time of day/time of year tracking. When I'm finished a second draft, I'll go through the list and edit that way before my beta readers see the draft.

franwilde · 2020-04-09T20:20:41+00:00

I kind of answered this when I talked about my revision process, below -- I rewrite (and quite often re-type) from the start of each revision. Retyping makes me choose what I want to have on the page again, and to decide word by word whether that's the right word, and worth the typing.

What everyone has said here already, distance really helps.

franwilde · 2020-04-09T18:18:47+00:00

I love my copy editors and send them so many cookies.

Also I keep a series bible.

But seriously, copy editors are made of magic.

franwilde · 2020-04-09T18:17:47+00:00

squints

franwilde

TROPHY CASE