The Truth Behind Baldur's Gate Novel Revealed

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If you're among those who, like me, have always been wondering how the epic dreck that Athans has managed to scribble down in the form of a handy toilet paper bundle known as the "Baldur's Gate novel" could have come about, read this for enlightenment:

Wizards: Your editor told me that you actually write in front of the TV. Is that true? If so, you are the first writer I've ever met who can pull that off. What's the attraction to writing in front of the TV?

Philip: That's actually true, at least most of the time. It used to be that I had, like a number of writers, a fairly lengthy list of conditions under which I could write, and unless those conditions were met in full, it was off for the day. I had to be at my desk, my desk had to be freshly dusted, I had to have just eaten, Mars had to be in retrograde . . . that sort of thing. The net result was that I didn't write much.

Then along came Baldur's Gate and a ridiculous two-month deadline. Not being in any sort of position to blow a deadline (since I'm the guy who usually enforces those things), I had to figure out a way to strip out all of the ritualistic hurdles I'd put up for myself, including having to have complete silence. Working in an open cubicle helped inure me to ambient noise, too, and eventually I found I actually needed some sort of background chatter. Now I can write in virtually any condition, virtually anywhere -- and thank Tymora for the laptop!

Wizards: So when you write in front of the TV, are you just putting it on for background noise, or do you actually draw inspiration from it? Do you put on kung-fu films for the action scenes, then switch over to the Oxygen Network for dramatic scenes with your female characters?

Philip: I do, actually. Sometimes, though, when I'm particularly caught up in the writing, I stop paying any attention to the TV and the movie I'd started watching for inspiration ends and I don't notice -- then suddenly I'm typing away in front of some late-night soft-core porn thing on Cinemax. So far none of those have been particularly inspiring.

Seriously, that explains everything.

You'll find the rest here.