Listen up, Legionnaires and Liegelings.
I’m under strict orders to make this email quick while Lady Laura gets the resident wriggler dressed (also known as Liam, our one-year-old). It’s Father’s Day here in the UK, and our restaurant reservation is unlikely to hold our table for longer than five minutes, so let’s get on with this week’s #AskWatson:
(regarding my email about George R.R. Martin)
You have zero sympathy for him getting overwhelmed by the HBO deal he signed. If Hollywood came knocking for The Divided Region with a giant sack of cash, are you honestly telling me you'd say no just to avoid the pressure?
– Holly Wouldn't
Dear Holly,
You’re right. I do have little sympathy for him. He was a fully grown man and an introvert (as most writers are) when he signed that contract with HBO. I cannot for one second believe he thought he’d be able to resume his old life writing in the shadows after doing so.
As for me…
If ever a major production came knocking on my reinforced door, I’d remind myself stupid of all the good, bad, and ugly things that come with that life.
You know what else I'd do?
Finish the bloody series before the production does!
Hey DJ, loved the connection between introvert traits and Alere. I definitely resonate with him A LOT, especially after [REDACTED – SPOILER]. You say characters will die in the great betrayal… please tell me you’ve spared him? (reading it this weekend!)
– Alere’d & Alarmed
Dear A&A
You’ll have to find out. 🙂
You're big on Earl Nightingale's 'do the opposite' rule. Is there any piece of 'standard author advice' you actually follow to the letter because you know doing the opposite would be total career suicide?
– Rebel-Me-Not
Dear Rebs,
Only one.
Ready for it?
WRITE BLOODY GOOD STORIES READERS OF YOUR GENRE WILL LOVE.
Hope that helps!
Alrighty, last one:
Re: your email on not writing LGBTQ+ characters. Your reasoning is you can't write what you don't know from direct, personal experience. Fair enough. But your books have sorcerers, assassins, and kings.
You're not any of those, either.
So what's the actual difference in your mind between creating a character with magic vs. a character with a different orientation to your own?
Genuinely curious.
– Hypocrite Reaper
Dear Hip,
Great question.
The difference is simple: Imagination vs. Accurate Representation.
Nobody on this planet truly knows what it's like to wield magic or be an assassin. They're archetypes and functions of fantasy open to pure imagination. If I get a sorcerer "wrong," who is there to tell me? Gandalf? Saruman?
But being gay or trans is not a fantasy archetype; it's a real and lived human experience.
One that I’ve had little access to.
To write that without a deep, genuine understanding would be an act of arrogance. It's not about a failure of imagination, but a failure of respect. And I'd rather "fail" to include a character than succeed at representing them badly.
Okie dokes, Legionnaire. That’s all we’ve got time for this week.
If you’d like your question to feature in the next segment of #AskWatson, be sure to reply to any of my emails. I pick the best ones to answer every Sunday.
In the meantime, if you’d like to sink your fangs into my latest book, you can do so here:
https://djjwatsonstore.com/products/The-Great-Betrayal
DJJW