Who: Fonda Lee

Claim To Fame: Fonda Lee is a science fiction and fantasy author for both adults and teens. Her novel Jade City, the first of the Green Bone Sage, won the 2018 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, was nominated for the Nebula Award and the Locus Award, and was named a Best Book of 2017 by NPR, Barnes & Noble, Syfy Wire, and others. And in 2018, Fonda gained the distinction of winning the Aurora Award, Canada’s national science fiction and fantasy award, twice in the same year for Best Novel and Best Young Adult Novel.

Where To Find Fonda: Her Website, Amazon, Twitter

Praise For Fonda: “Stylish and action-packed, full of ambitious families and guilt-ridden loves, Jade City is an epic drama reminiscent of the best classic Hong Kong gangster films but set in a fantasy metropolis so gritty and well-imagined that you’ll forget you’re reading a book.”―Ken Liu, winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Awards

When and where do you like to write? Are you the same-thing-every-day kind of writer or can you write anytime, anywhere?

I don’t have a strict daily schedule, but I set myself short- and medium-term goals, such as, “Finish two chapters this week,” or “Complete revision on the first half of the manuscript by the end of summer.” Then I block off time throughout the week to ensure I’m able to hit those goals. I prefer to have a sizable chunk of time, ideally three to five hours at a stretch, to really dive into work, but that’s not always possible. I write at my desk at home about half of the time, and at other times I go to the library or coffee shop.

Do you have any pre-writing rituals or habits before you sit down to write?

I need my noise-cancelling headphones on, and a big cup of hot tea beside me.

Do you struggle at all with that dreaded enemy of writing: writer’s block? Do you think such a thing exists?

There are certainly days when the writing is slow and hard, and other days when I simply feel stuck. I don’t believe in writer’s block as a syndrome or as an excuse; it’s usually a signal that something is not working, either in my story, or with my own motivation or creative state of mind. I usually deal with it by backtracking and re-evaluating my manuscript for where it seems to have stalled. Sometimes that means I take a break and work on something else for a few days. Then I print out the entire manuscript and start reading it from the beginning with fresh eyes, until I know what I need to do next.

What do you like to do when you are not writing?

Watch movies, search out tasty food, and practice martial arts.

Deciding on an idea to pursue writing about can be the most challenging aspect for a writer. How do you come to find the stories and lives that become the subjects of your books? Are there habits or daily tricks you use to think about book ideas?

I never feel as if I’m lacking ideas. It’s not that I have hundreds of them, but the ideas that catch hold of my imagination are so large and detailed that I could write several books about them. Ideas come to me in different ways. With Zeroboxer, the plot came to me first; with Exo, it was the main character; with Jade City, it was the world. All my ideas are a mashup of influences: other stories, personal experiences, a particular tone or aesthetic, or simply a yearning that I keep coming back to and thinking about, such as, “I’d like to write a family saga.” I never invest in a new idea right away. I have a document file where I write ideas down and store them, and I let them age for a long time. The ideas that don’t fade away, that are still crying out to me to be written a year, or two years, or five years later—those are the ones I decide are worth pursuing.

You’ve said that “The idea is just the start. It takes a lot of research.” Can you talk about your process for researching and organizing material you may want to use for future writing?

When I commit to a new story idea, I set aside roughly three months for initial research. I crack open a brand new notebook, make a list of topics I need to research, and start learning and absorbing as much as I can—from nonfiction books, fiction books, documentaries, videos, websites, articles, interviews, and so on. I keep a physical notebook, as well as a research file in Scrivener. My goal is to learn enough to build the broad strokes of the world, the story, and the characters. When I’ve done that, I set aside everything and start writing. I might have to pause and do some more research along the way, but I never lose sight of the fact that research has to serve the story.

You have written both young adult and adult novels. Do you have different mental frameworks for writing each? Do the mechanics of your writing routines change too?

No. I approach them in exactly the same way.

What does a successful writing day mean for you? And how do you finish out a day of writing? Do you have a process, or is it just that you know you’ve hit a natural stopping point?

Success can take different forms. Sometimes, it’s simply putting in a certain number of hours. Sometimes, it’s hitting a word count goal. At other times, it’s figuring out a key plot point, or finally getting a bit of dialogue to finally land exactly the way I want it to.

What books or writers have most influenced the way you think and the way you write?

I look up to Stephen King as a writer because he simply keeps writing. No setback and no amount of success will stop him putting down more stories. He doesn’t need more money, but he’ll keep writing until his last breath. I admire Neil Gaiman because he writes across categories and forms—adult novels, children’s novels, comic books, scripts—and yet, he has a singular author voice. Every story he writes is a distinctly Neil Gaiman story. And finally, I look to Ursula Le Guin as inspiration, for her imaginative vision and her influence as a woman author in the science fiction and fantasy field.

What is your advice to aspiring writers?

Understand why you write. Success is a difficult, ambiguous thing to measure in this career; if you understand what drives you to write, then you’ll be able to define yourself.

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