Bent on total word domination
Portrait of the Writer as a Young Man
All the years I have known Ed, he has exhibited a kind of free-floating delight, a zest for life that I have always admired. I asked Ed whether this gusto was simply a character trait, or whether it was a conscious decision. Here is Ed’s illuminating response:
Ah, this [...]
On World Building and Storytelling
Ed is both a world builder and a novelist—which are kind of opposite roles. A world builder has to work primarily with setting and situation while a novelist works primarily with story and plot. I asked Ed how he shifts gears from one role to the other:
I don’t find much difficulty [...]
On Character Creation
As well as being a character in his own right—Ed Greenwood looks like a wizard and sounds like a smooth-jazz DJ from the seventies—Ed has created some of the most iconic characters in fantasy gaming and fiction. For him, character creation isn’t a matter of stats and profiles, but of hearing a character [...]
Origins of the Forgotten Realms
In 1966, a young man named Ed Greenwood was writing adventures about a certain moneylender named Mirt. Over the next forty years, the private world of this private young man became one of the most public role-playing worlds every created: The Forgotten Realms. In this installment, Ed tells us about the [...]
The magnificent Ed Greenwood, creator of the Forgotten Realms, is one of the funniest, friendliest, and wisest writers I’ve ever met—and that’s saying something. I’ve edited four of his early novels and have known him for about twenty years. He’s a great writer and a good friend, a perfect subject for an interview. So I [...]
There are many keys to successful revision. Hemingway is supposed to have advised that you “write drunk, revise sober.” He’s right in that you have to bring a different mind to revising than to writing.
Writing is generative, expansive, excessive, garrulous–even a bit mad. Writing is the Promethean act of stealing fire from the gods.
Revising must be [...]
Writers aren’t supposed to have grit.
Well, writers who aren’t Hemingway or Kerouac or London.
Writers like me, well, we can’t have grit. We don’t even have fiber. We look like risen dough that hasn’t yet been baked.
Still, I’ve written two books in the last eight months while working a full-time job. Most people won’t write one [...]
(Image from SawshaW from Flickr) That’s right, folks–I just sent Death’s Disciples to Marco and Lee at Angry Robot Books. Woot! Now I shift from being a writer–someone who writes–to being an author–someone who has written. It’s much more comfortable to be an author: to sign books and shake people’s hands and grin as they [...]
(Image from SawshaW from Flickr) That’s right, folks–I just sent Death’s Disciples to Marco and Lee at Angry Robot Books. Woot! Now I shift from being a writer–someone who writes–to being an author–someone who has written. It’s much more comfortable to be an author: to sign books and shake people’s hands and grin as they [...]
(Image from SawshaW from Flickr) That’s right, folks–I just sent Death’s Disciples to Marco and Lee at Angry Robot Books. Woot! Now I shift from being a writer–someone who writes–to being an author–someone who has written. It’s much more comfortable to be an author: to sign books and shake people’s hands and grin as they [...]