I am Fantasy Author Joe Abercrombie, Ask Me Anything

[u/Joe_Abercrombie]

Greetings! I am Joe Abercrombie, one of the biggest names in fantasy (11 letters). My first book, The Blade Itself, was published in 2006, and I’m now the author of 12 novels and a few short stories, including The First Law, Age of Madness, and Shattered Sea Trilogies. My website is at www.joeabercrombie.com, and I am found on twitter under @LordGrimdark, though I’m not actually a real lord. 

Please do pose your questions now, and I'll be here from 12pm EST, 5pm GMT to answer the VERY BEST of them, starting with the most liked, and I’ll maybe even come back over ensuing days to answer more, but I reserve the right to equivocate, take the piss, or outright deceive in my responses. I mean I make stuff up for a living...

PROOF: /img/8divq6gw454a1.jpg

[u/mighij]

As everyone here, I loved your books.

It's difficult to pick a favorite but I really loved "The Heroes" due to it's focus on a single battle.

It's not very common to see such a thing in fantasy/sci-fi novels.

How did you decide to dedicate an entire book to one battle? Was it difficult to sell the idea to your publisher, was he/she on board from the start or you had to really push the idea? Was the battle inspired by any battle in particular?

Was it more difficult to write then the others due to it's limited scope or easier?

Any fun anecdote you can tell me about "The Heroes" is more then welcome, for me the book was amazing.

[u/Cathal_Ashenhand]

Say one thing for Joe Abercrombie, say hes probably one of the best pov/character writers in all of fantasy.

Hey Joe, whether you get to this question or not, thanks for taking the time to do this - I'm a huge fan and can't wait to read the answers whilst I rotate slowly back and forth to keep the human in this room cool.

My question relates to the first line of this post: Your character work is honestly astounding, and a chunk of my favourite character writing in fantasy is yours. What would be your number one piece of advice for a fantasy author looking to improve their pov character writing, especially in terms of making each different pov feel interesting and distinct from the others?

Thanks again for taking the time, have a great evening!

[u/GrinningCoyote]

Hi! Thanks Joe, for the books. Judging by how often your name comes up when I am talking about writing with my friends, you have got to be my top author. Other than your excellent character work, and the dark sense of humor underlying everything, one of my favorite things is how you translate the feeling of other genres into the fantasy space in your standalone novels. The revenge flick, military fiction, and westerns specifically. My question is, how far from classic fantasy do you think you could get along these lines? Could you write a first law story that feels horror? Sci-fi? Detective mystery? Is there anything else like this you would actually WANT to do?

[u/zmegadeth]

Hey Joe, huge fan of First Law and it's become my favorite series (with a Bayaz and Logen tattoo planned). I have two questions for you:

The majority if your fans seem to always want more First Law, does that get tiring for you as an author and do you wish you had more time to work on other ideas?

I read a rumor that for the continuation of First Law you're planning on doing another 3 stand alones and then a trilogy. The original 3 stand alones have some pretty awesome genre feels to them (revenge flick, war, and western), if you are doing 3 more stand alones that are genre inspired, which 3 genres do you think would be the most fun?

[u/alterperspective]

Hi Joe, I’m a 50 something year old who waited decades to read fantasy that doesn’t patronise. Thank you. I genuinely love your work; I’ve read everything you have published.

Obvious question: when do we get to see more?

Supplementary question: who should I read whilst I’m waiting?

And if you have time: I’ve noticed that your female characters are typically much stronger than males. Is this something you set out to on purpose or did they just ‘turn out’ that way?

[u/yoshiauditore]

First I just want to say that I’ve read all your books and though my favourite author changes with the days of the week, the first law series is one of my favourite stories I’ve ever experienced in my life.

Now with that aside was there ever a character you killed or an otherwise upsetting moment that you found particularly difficult to write? Or alternatively was there a death that made you rub your hands and laugh “THIS will piss them off!”

[u/serspaceman-1]

Hey Joe (great song by the way), here’s my two-part question:

(1.) Are you aware of the existence of r/HouseoftheMemeMaker and (2.) if yes, are you proud or disappointed in us for what we do?

There’s actually some outstanding work happening and I personally am proud of this little group of monsters.

Thank you for your work, not sure how I’d get through my day without listening to you and Mr. Pacey chat at the end of the Sharp Ends audiobook at least once a week. Cheers!

[u/Bingarosso]

First of all, I am such a massive fan of your books. In my opinion, you are truly the most enjoyable author I have ever read. Thank you for writing so well and so prolifically. That's a helluva combination.

You mention in your introduction the 12 novels that you've published since 2006. There are clear throughlines for all of them, of course, but my thought is that something like the Age of Madness trilogy (and The Heroes before it) represent real advances in your engagement of theme, particularly around political power, technology and economics. (Not that these things weren't always present).

A lot has changed in the world since 2006. How has your worldview changed over that period of time and how have you tried to incorporate that in your writing? What does 2022 Joe Abercrombie understand about those omnipresent themes in his books that 2005 Joe Abercrombie did not?

[u/Faceless_Fan]

Kind of a philosophical fantasy writing question, but I have a bit of a mental block & I suspect the man who created Sand dan Glokta & wrote Age of Madness might be able to break that wall down.

My instincts are to write stories & characters that are, let's say grey, but to me that's just...humanity? It's not about hope or grim death & awful shit, it's about all of that, because that's people. Perhaps it's the way that the fantasy space sometimes sets these books aside ('I don't read grimdark'), but it has me in my own head rewriting passages & dialogue to be friendlier to readers who I don't believe are going to be my target audience anyways. The rub is that it feels like the other audience is the larger of the two, & I've found it hard to internalize 'write what you want, it will be better for it.'

I'm sick of throwing away scraps of stories & not writing the best fucking thing floating in my head. Any tips to get out of my own way? Imagining Sand dan Glokta chiding me for my bullshit hasn't worked yet, but hope springs eternal.

[u/GrooveCity]

Hi joe! Hope you’re well. I just want to say Glokta is one of the characters that has brought me the most glee in such a long time. I feel like his inner thoughts are a work of art, and seeing such a delightfully despicable yet competent person truly exciting to read.

How do you write horrible people that are enjoyable to read?