Editing Terry Pratchett (section)

==Writing==
Pratchett said that to write, one must read extensively, both inside and outside one’s chosen genre<ref name="locus">{{cite web|publisher=Locus Online|url=http://www.locusmag.com/2004/Issues/05Pratchett.html|title=Terry Pratchett: 21 Years of Discworld|date=May 2004|access-date=17 February 2008}}</ref> and to the point of "overflow".<ref name="writerswrite" /> He advised that writing is hard work, and that writers must "make grammar, punctuation and spelling a part of your life".<ref name="writerswrite" /> However, Pratchett enjoyed writing, regarding its monetary rewards as "an unavoidable consequence" rather than the reason for writing.<ref name="sffworld">{{cite web|publisher=Sffworld.com|url=http://www.sffworld.com/interview/52p1.html|title=Interview with Terry Pratchett|date=18 December 2002|access-date=17 February 2008|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081206011559/http://www.sffworld.com/interview/52p1.html|archive-date=6 December 2008}}</ref>

===Fantasy genre===
Although during his early career he wrote for the science fiction and horror genres, Pratchett later focused almost entirely on fantasy, and said: "It is easier to bend the universe around the story."<ref name="IRCchat">{{cite web|publisher=Lspace.org|url=http://www.lspace.org/about-terry/interviews/WFC.html|title=Transcript of IRC interview with Terry Pratchett at the World Fantasy Convention by James Webley|date=n.d.|access-date=8 June 2007}}</ref> In the acceptance speech for his Carnegie Medal, he said: "Fantasy isn't just about wizards and silly wands. It's about seeing the world from new directions", pointing to the ''[[Harry Potter]]'' novels and ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]''. In the same speech, he acknowledged benefits of these works for the genre.<ref>{{cite news|title=Pratchett wins first major award|work=BBC News|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/2124520.stm|access-date=28 January 2008|date=12 July 2002}}</ref>

Pratchett believed he owed "a debt to the science fiction/fantasy genre which he grew up out of" and disliked the term "[[magical realism]]", which, he said, is "like a polite way of saying you write fantasy and is more acceptable to certain people".<ref name="january2002">{{cite web|publisher=januarymagazine.com|url=http://januarymagazine.com/profiles/tpratchett2002.html|title=Terry Pratchett by Linda Richards|year=2002|access-date=17 February 2008}}</ref> He expressed annoyance that fantasy is "unregarded as a literary form", arguing that it "is the oldest form of fiction";<ref name="january1997" /> he said he was infuriated when novels containing science fiction or fantasy ideas were not regarded as part of those genres.<ref name="locus" /> He debated this issue with novelist [[A. S. Byatt]] and critic [[Terry Eagleton]], arguing that fantasy is fundamental to the way we understand the world and therefore an integral aspect of all fiction.<ref name="may2013">{{cite web|publisher=iai.tv|url=http://iai.tv/video/at-the-world-s-edge|title=At the World's Edge|year=2013|access-date=6 December 2013}}</ref>

===Style and themes===
Pratchett's earliest ''Discworld'' novels were written largely to parody classic sword-and-sorcery fiction (and occasionally science fiction);<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N59OCI6iSA8C&pg=PA1|title=He Do the Time Police in Different Voices|last=Langford|first=David|date=1 January 2003|publisher=Wildside Press LLC|isbn=9781592240586|pages=16|language=en}}</ref> as the series progressed, Pratchett dispensed with parody almost entirely, and the ''Discworld'' series evolved into straightforward (though still comedic) satire.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_t9LDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA138|title=Terry Pratchett's Narrative Worlds: From Giant Turtles to Small Gods|last=Rana|first=Marion|date=12 February 2018|publisher=Springer|isbn=9783319672984|pages=138 ff|language=en}}</ref>

Pratchett had a tendency to avoid using chapters, arguing in a [[IndieBound|Book Sense]] interview that "life does not happen in regular chapters, nor do movies, and [[Homer]] did not write in chapters", adding "I'm blessed if I know what function they serve in books for adults".<ref name="indiebound">{{cite web|publisher=[[IndieBound]] |first=Gavin J.|last=Grant|url=http://www.indiebound.org/author-interviews/pratchettterry|title=Terry Pratchett|date=n.d.| access-date =18 December 2008}}</ref> However, there were exceptions; ''[[Going Postal]]'' and ''[[Making Money]]'' and several of his books for younger readers are divided into chapters.<ref name="words from master">{{cite web|publisher=Terry Pratchett, The L-Space Web|url=http://www.lspace.org/books/apf/words-from-the-master.html|title=Words from the Master|date=n.d.|access-date=16 December 2007}}</ref> Pratchett said that he used chapters in the young adult novels because "[his] editor screams until [he] does", but otherwise felt that they were an unnecessary "stopping point" that got in the way of the narrative.{{Citation needed|date=September 2022}}

Characters, place names, and titles in Pratchett's books often contain puns, allusions and cultural references.<ref>{{cite web|publisher=William T. Abbott|url=http://www.lspace.org/books/analysis/bill-abbott.html|title=White Knowledge and the Cauldron of Story: The Use of Allusion in Terry Pratchett's Discworld|date=May 2002|access-date=7 June 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|publisher=David Bapst|url=http://www.lspace.org/books/analysis/david-bapst.html|title=The Literary Evolution of Terry Pratchett|date=1 June 2002|access-date=7 June 2007}}</ref> Some characters are parodies of well-known characters: for example, Pratchett's character [[Cohen the Barbarian]], also called Ghengiz Cohen, is a parody of [[Conan the Barbarian]] and [[Genghis Khan]], and his character Leonard of Quirm is a parody of [[Leonardo da Vinci]].{{sfn|Cabell|2011|p=40}}{{sfn|Pyykkonen|Washington|2008|pp=7-8}}

Another feature of his writing is the use of dialogue in small capitals, without quotation marks, for utterances by the character Death.

Pratchett was an [[only child]], and his characters are often without siblings. Pratchett explained, "In fiction only children are the interesting ones."<ref>{{cite news |last=Robertson |first=David |date=7 August 2005 |title=Parenting: Only need not mean lonely |url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/parenting-only-need-not-mean-lonely-96bkf39cvfr |access-date=8 June 2007 |newspaper=Times Online |location=London}}</ref>

''Discworld'' novels often included a modern innovation and its introduction to the world's [[medieval]] setting, such as a public police force (''[[Guards! Guards!]]''), guns (''[[Men at Arms]]''), cinema (''[[Moving Pictures (novel)|Moving Pictures]]''), investigative journalism (''[[The Truth (novel)|The Truth]]''), the postage stamp (''[[Going Postal]]''), modern banking (''[[Making Money]]''), and the steam engine (''[[Raising Steam]]''). The "clacks", the tower-to-tower [[semaphore line|semaphore system]] that sprang up in later novels, is a mechanical optical telegraph (as created by the [[Claude Chappe|Chappe brothers]] and employed during the [[French Revolution]]) before wired electric telegraph chains, with all the change and turmoil that such an advancement implies. The resulting social upheaval driven by these changes serves as the setting for the main story.

===Influences===
Pratchett's earliest inspirations were ''[[The Wind in the Willows]]'' by [[Kenneth Grahame]], and the works of [[H. G. Wells]], [[Isaac Asimov]] and [[Arthur C. Clarke]].<ref name="guardian" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Steele |first=Colin |date=15 January 2021 |title=The ripples of Terry Pratchett |url=https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7083074/the-ripples-of-terry-pratchett/ |access-date=2 September 2022 |website=The Canberra Times |language=en-AU}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Terry Pratchett - Biography, Books and Facts |url=https://www.famousauthors.org/terry-pratchett |access-date=2 September 2022 |website=www.famousauthors.org}}</ref> His literary influences were [[P.G. Wodehouse]], [[Tom Sharpe]], [[Jerome K. Jerome]], [[Roy Lewis]],<ref>{{cite news|work=Guardian Unlimited|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/jun/12/terrypratchett|title=Terry Pratchett|date=n.d.|access-date=8 June 2007|location=London}}</ref> [[Alan Coren]],<ref>{{cite news|work=Guardian Unlimited|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/sep/24/terry-pratchett-angry-not-jolly-neil-gaiman|title=Terry Pratchett|date=24 September 2014|access-date=24 September 2014}}</ref> [[G. K. Chesterton]], and [[Mark Twain]].<ref>{{cite web|publisher=Nathalie Ruas, ActuSF|url=http://www.actusf.com/spip/?article3025|title=Interview de Terry Pratchett (en Anglais) (Interview with Terry Pratchett (in English))|date=June 2002|access-date=19 June 2007|archive-date=27 September 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927014253/http://www.actusf.com/spip/?article3025|url-status=dead}}</ref>