I've been known to do a bit of writing. I've always dreamed of getting published (I have been, if selling online porn fiction counts. It doesn't? That's fine) but kinda assumed it would never happen.
The fact that I rarely finish a written work and don't try very hard to sell them when I do isn't helping. The whole interaction thing, with Humans. I don't know. I'd have to work with an editor, their assistants, the marketing people, possibly the accounting people.
Accountants are not well known for being personable.
God forbid I ever publish and become even slightly popular. I'd be expected to do author's signings, meet and greet the public, aggressively market myself, all sorts of activities that brush my fur the wrong way. Hissss! RrrMreow! Pfftt! Claws!
How can a person who lives in their head, creates an entire universe within them, peopling it with care, colors and lighting just so - be expected to kiss babies and schmooze like a politician? I don't know.
How can writers be expected to be such social creatures, when at its core writing is a very internal alone-time activity. I mean Writing, writing. Real writing. Not journalism, not something you fling against the wall - is it done? - and see if it falls.
This is not EasyBake Writing I'm talking about here, a room full of noisy typing and chatting and phones and rough laughter at humorless banter. (I need silence to write, so it seems that everyone must, a clearly false assumption).
I'm in a reading cycle right now, I phase in and out. Sometimes I read a book a month, sometimes two a week. I'm back into the two a week zone. I've been reading works I wouldn't have picked up on my own, thanks be to the support group. The Cindy has also been supporting my habit with her hookup of free galleys and advance reader copies.
Reading years ago about the business of writing, I was given the idea that it's harder than ever to publish, only the best, yadda yadda - and yet there seem to be as many awful books as ever.
There are also more good books than ever. My very limited education taught me that 'good' writing obeys rules x, y, and z. Since my work ignores x, most of y and I never understood z, so much for my writing career.
Some of my recent reading has made me re-evaluate the idea that what I write isn't really marketable, which is encouraging. It also reinforced the idea we've always known, that a writer needs to read as much as possible, on as many topics as possible. I've always thought that learning a foreign language would help too.
Maybe one of these days I'll finish something I like enough to submit aggressively. Unless there's someone I can hire to do that for me. Someone I could just, you know, email.
Sad.
The fact that I rarely finish a written work and don't try very hard to sell them when I do isn't helping. The whole interaction thing, with Humans. I don't know. I'd have to work with an editor, their assistants, the marketing people, possibly the accounting people.
Accountants are not well known for being personable.
God forbid I ever publish and become even slightly popular. I'd be expected to do author's signings, meet and greet the public, aggressively market myself, all sorts of activities that brush my fur the wrong way. Hissss! RrrMreow! Pfftt! Claws!
How can a person who lives in their head, creates an entire universe within them, peopling it with care, colors and lighting just so - be expected to kiss babies and schmooze like a politician? I don't know.
How can writers be expected to be such social creatures, when at its core writing is a very internal alone-time activity. I mean Writing, writing. Real writing. Not journalism, not something you fling against the wall - is it done? - and see if it falls.
This is not EasyBake Writing I'm talking about here, a room full of noisy typing and chatting and phones and rough laughter at humorless banter. (I need silence to write, so it seems that everyone must, a clearly false assumption).
I'm in a reading cycle right now, I phase in and out. Sometimes I read a book a month, sometimes two a week. I'm back into the two a week zone. I've been reading works I wouldn't have picked up on my own, thanks be to the support group. The Cindy has also been supporting my habit with her hookup of free galleys and advance reader copies.
Reading years ago about the business of writing, I was given the idea that it's harder than ever to publish, only the best, yadda yadda - and yet there seem to be as many awful books as ever.
There are also more good books than ever. My very limited education taught me that 'good' writing obeys rules x, y, and z. Since my work ignores x, most of y and I never understood z, so much for my writing career.
Some of my recent reading has made me re-evaluate the idea that what I write isn't really marketable, which is encouraging. It also reinforced the idea we've always known, that a writer needs to read as much as possible, on as many topics as possible. I've always thought that learning a foreign language would help too.
Maybe one of these days I'll finish something I like enough to submit aggressively. Unless there's someone I can hire to do that for me. Someone I could just, you know, email.
Sad.
"if selling online porn fiction counts"
ReplyDeleteIs that serious? If so, you need to post about that (the how of selling, not the story itself), because it seems like it would almost have to be amusing.
"How can writers be expected to be such social creatures, when at its core writing is a very internal alone-time activity."
ReplyDeleteI feel almost exactly the same! Yet, all of my peers tell me that I am oh so wrong---something about dialogue & the generation of thought . . . yadda yadda . . .
you gotta get out and about sometimes, to keep your dialouge fresh and gather those experiences, and then retreat, smugly, into your inner sanctum
ReplyDeleteand watch what you say about journalism, buddy
I've noticed that a lot of bloggers are self-described introverts, which I found surprising and interesting at first, but then realized it makes sense.
ReplyDeleteHey--I (and I'm sure the rest of your readers) want to read something you've written!
CK: Hmn, the story of the porn sale - I could, but would you respect me in the morning?
ReplyDeleteSQ: Your peers are wrong (ah, everyone's process is different, so who is 'wrong'?
Cindy: Journalism is for Journalists. Writing is for Writers.
Robin: Wow, after reading my rambling you're still willing to read my fiction. I've posted a few pieces on my blog, Anon Fiction and Mellow Drama. For the first thing to read, I'd say 'Just Around the Corner' - I always have a crush on my most recent work.
Well, writing IS a business. No one is going to want to spend a few hundred grand printing something if it's not going to sell...and book signings are great marketing.
ReplyDeleteOf course, after your first few books, you get to be in charge instead mof your publisher.
Also, I think writing is a private thing, but once people read your work, it's like you've let them directly into your head.
It's a paradoxical activity