Blog Flog, Painting the Chapel
Jan. 11th, 2008 03:08 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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lkh_lashoutsAfter the recent Darla wank, Jason's Stripper Name contest, and the "Swallowing Darkness" title reveal, I'm going to take us back a bit to a semi-recent blog. So far, LKH has compared herself to Anne Rice, Mercedes Lackey, Agatha Christie, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle... apparently her greatness is beyond all of them.
Original Blog: http://blog.laurellkhamilton.org/2008/01/painting-chapel-but-watch-out-for-trim.html
LKH in Bold and Me in Normal
---
I did all eleven things on my to-do list, plus two scheduled appointments, plus a whole bunch of comic stuff that was due, plus sorted stuff on the kitchen island, and had a staff meeting. It's beginning to feel like a job around here.
Being a writer is a job?! You're expected to do work for money? I had no idea! Isn't it great that we have LKH to enlighten us all?
I'm a writer, we're supposed to spend all our time alone, being creative and morose. We're not supposed to have a staff, or have meetings, or phone conferences, or . . .
We get it. The darkity-dark gawthity-gawth of living doesn't fit in with today's society. And what does she mean that writer's aren't supposed to have a staff. It seems pretty normal to me; there's editors and PR people and the people who do the cover design and the guy who fetches donuts at 2:30 in the morning and the calendar makers...
The real world of a successful writer is just not exactly what you think it will be. It's a lot busier.
So... If I think that it's extremely busy to begin with, does that mean by LKH logic that it won't be very busy at all or even busier? On the whole... I wish LKH would just stop writing "you" and finally put in "I." I'd have a lot less to gripe about. But I also wonder, what about the imaginary world of a successful writer? Or the real world of an unsuccessful writer?
It's full of a lot more people, and more interruptions. It's a lot more like, well, work-work.
Once again, being a professional writer is a job?!? So nice to enlighten us. Then again, I highly doubt writing PWP all day is as stressful as a real job. I'd like to see how LKH would react if she had to stop writing and entered the actual workforce.
I actually have a daily planing calender this year. I've never had one before,
Oh yay! That means 366 days of research this year instead of 12! Oh wait, daily planing calendars don't have little tidbits of information on them. That means zero days of research versus 12. Aww, shucks. (And somehow it doesn't surprise me that LKH doesn't know how to spell "calendar."
Hmm... She goes on about her calendar's layout... and then talks about Blood Noir.
...but at the top of the to-do list, and so far all by itself is BLOOD NOIR. I gotta get that out of the house.
Huh? I'm not really sure what this phrase means. Is it like "I've got to get this over with" or something. Does she mean that she wants to send it out to be published already? D:
I've reached that point with the edits that I just need it out of the house.
I don't care what you think. When it comes to Anita Blake and editing, it's never going to reach that point. It should stay in the house and far away from any relatively sane person. Besides, if the book's already at that stage, why is she taking the time to hold a "Name that Stripper!" contest? I know that I should know better by now to expect logic from her but...
I always get sort of blue when I'm editing, because to meI realize the book is crap the book is done. I know everything that happens, and we're just sorting commas, and putting in research.
Hmm... Sorting commas...
LKH: Okay, now I want all you commas to look pretty, so I'm going to sort you. First, let's just sprinkle some more on for effect. Now, I want everyone to position themselves so there's equal spacing between you all.
Commas: Laurell? That's not exactly how we work...
LKH: DO NOT, CONTRADICT ME, FOR I, AM LAURELL, THE GREAT, AND POWERFUL!
And... putting in research at the editing stage...
DOES NOT COMPUTE. A problem of type 2094 has occurred. *brain breaks*
I'm like most creative types if I'm bored it's trouble. Interest me, and it's great, bore me, and I so don't care.
Oh my God. Laurell is so totally liek totally awesome. She so totally speaks to my soul. There are all these so totally boring things around her, and she so doesn't care.
I do my work, but it's grunt work, and I'd much rather be painting the Sistine Chapel, then painting the trim on a house.
Laurell, if you showed up to the Sistine Chapel with a paintbrush, the Vatican City police would have you out of there and back on the streets of Rome before you could say "arduer."
A new book is like painting the Chapel.
Because Anita Blake/Merry Gentry is right up there with one of the greatest artistic masterpieces of all time. :D
Editing is making sure you don't get the trim color on the wall color; tedious.
I like making sure the trim color doesn't get on the rest of the wall. It's like coloring on the very edge of the line and making it all... perfect. But that's just me. Though, sometimes I really want to know what her books look like before editing, just since she makes such a big deal about it.
The holidays slowed me down, and now I've fallen into the Sloth of Despond.
Despond (v) - To become disheartened or discouraged. So sloth of despond would be the laziness that comes about from being disheartened or discouraged. There were only 97 hits for the phrase on google, so I had to look up the meaning. I suppose it makes more sense than the "out of the house" thing.
Most writers know what I mean, when you just feel like you're slogging along and the book will never be done enough to be, well, done. It's the time when you either start editing when you don't need to, or when you throw your hands up and get it out of the house before it's ready.
Because LKH knows that her books are being edited when they don't need to. Either that or she knows she's publishing crap and doesn't care. Take your pick.
Either holding on too long, or sending it out like a premature baby to shiver in the cold. Either way, not good.
You know. I think limyaael had a rant about how your book is not your baby. (At least I think it was limyaael...) Either way, LKH needs to read it. And, as always, there is no on time delivery for LKH. EVER.
I'll try for some perspective tomorrow.
Aah.. I love the smell of perspective in the morning. So, how’re you doing?
For tonight, Say good night, Gracie. Good night, Gracie. (If you didn't get that joke, then you don't know your television history.)
Apparently I don't know my television history. And I don't really mind.
Original Blog: http://blog.laurellkhamilton.org/2008/01/painting-chapel-but-watch-out-for-trim.html
LKH in Bold and Me in Normal
---
I did all eleven things on my to-do list, plus two scheduled appointments, plus a whole bunch of comic stuff that was due, plus sorted stuff on the kitchen island, and had a staff meeting. It's beginning to feel like a job around here.
Being a writer is a job?! You're expected to do work for money? I had no idea! Isn't it great that we have LKH to enlighten us all?
I'm a writer, we're supposed to spend all our time alone, being creative and morose. We're not supposed to have a staff, or have meetings, or phone conferences, or . . .
We get it. The darkity-dark gawthity-gawth of living doesn't fit in with today's society. And what does she mean that writer's aren't supposed to have a staff. It seems pretty normal to me; there's editors and PR people and the people who do the cover design and the guy who fetches donuts at 2:30 in the morning and the calendar makers...
The real world of a successful writer is just not exactly what you think it will be. It's a lot busier.
So... If I think that it's extremely busy to begin with, does that mean by LKH logic that it won't be very busy at all or even busier? On the whole... I wish LKH would just stop writing "you" and finally put in "I." I'd have a lot less to gripe about. But I also wonder, what about the imaginary world of a successful writer? Or the real world of an unsuccessful writer?
It's full of a lot more people, and more interruptions. It's a lot more like, well, work-work.
Once again, being a professional writer is a job?!? So nice to enlighten us. Then again, I highly doubt writing PWP all day is as stressful as a real job. I'd like to see how LKH would react if she had to stop writing and entered the actual workforce.
I actually have a daily planing calender this year. I've never had one before,
Oh yay! That means 366 days of research this year instead of 12! Oh wait, daily planing calendars don't have little tidbits of information on them. That means zero days of research versus 12. Aww, shucks. (And somehow it doesn't surprise me that LKH doesn't know how to spell "calendar."
Hmm... She goes on about her calendar's layout... and then talks about Blood Noir.
...but at the top of the to-do list, and so far all by itself is BLOOD NOIR. I gotta get that out of the house.
Huh? I'm not really sure what this phrase means. Is it like "I've got to get this over with" or something. Does she mean that she wants to send it out to be published already? D:
I've reached that point with the edits that I just need it out of the house.
I don't care what you think. When it comes to Anita Blake and editing, it's never going to reach that point. It should stay in the house and far away from any relatively sane person. Besides, if the book's already at that stage, why is she taking the time to hold a "Name that Stripper!" contest? I know that I should know better by now to expect logic from her but...
I always get sort of blue when I'm editing, because to me
Hmm... Sorting commas...
LKH: Okay, now I want all you commas to look pretty, so I'm going to sort you. First, let's just sprinkle some more on for effect. Now, I want everyone to position themselves so there's equal spacing between you all.
Commas: Laurell? That's not exactly how we work...
LKH: DO NOT, CONTRADICT ME, FOR I, AM LAURELL, THE GREAT, AND POWERFUL!
And... putting in research at the editing stage...
DOES NOT COMPUTE. A problem of type 2094 has occurred. *brain breaks*
I'm like most creative types if I'm bored it's trouble. Interest me, and it's great, bore me, and I so don't care.
Oh my God. Laurell is so totally liek totally awesome. She so totally speaks to my soul. There are all these so totally boring things around her, and she so doesn't care.
I do my work, but it's grunt work, and I'd much rather be painting the Sistine Chapel, then painting the trim on a house.
Laurell, if you showed up to the Sistine Chapel with a paintbrush, the Vatican City police would have you out of there and back on the streets of Rome before you could say "arduer."
A new book is like painting the Chapel.
Because Anita Blake/Merry Gentry is right up there with one of the greatest artistic masterpieces of all time. :D
Editing is making sure you don't get the trim color on the wall color; tedious.
I like making sure the trim color doesn't get on the rest of the wall. It's like coloring on the very edge of the line and making it all... perfect. But that's just me. Though, sometimes I really want to know what her books look like before editing, just since she makes such a big deal about it.
The holidays slowed me down, and now I've fallen into the Sloth of Despond.
Despond (v) - To become disheartened or discouraged. So sloth of despond would be the laziness that comes about from being disheartened or discouraged. There were only 97 hits for the phrase on google, so I had to look up the meaning. I suppose it makes more sense than the "out of the house" thing.
Most writers know what I mean, when you just feel like you're slogging along and the book will never be done enough to be, well, done. It's the time when you either start editing when you don't need to, or when you throw your hands up and get it out of the house before it's ready.
Because LKH knows that her books are being edited when they don't need to. Either that or she knows she's publishing crap and doesn't care. Take your pick.
Either holding on too long, or sending it out like a premature baby to shiver in the cold. Either way, not good.
You know. I think limyaael had a rant about how your book is not your baby. (At least I think it was limyaael...) Either way, LKH needs to read it. And, as always, there is no on time delivery for LKH. EVER.
I'll try for some perspective tomorrow.
Aah.. I love the smell of perspective in the morning. So, how’re you doing?
For tonight, Say good night, Gracie. Good night, Gracie. (If you didn't get that joke, then you don't know your television history.)
Apparently I don't know my television history. And I don't really mind.
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What If.... (1)
Date: 2008-01-13 07:44 pm (UTC)WHAT. IF...
What if the real, true, gritty difference of LKH WG (with Gary) and LKH PG (post-Gary) is the fact he was bringing in a steady paycheck.
Has anyone brought this up before?
What if a huge part of LKH's situation is that she's very, very, aware of the fickle nature of publishing? What if she has to be coaxed into spending money on herself with something like her Foose (car) because she's still got a rather grabby, tight fisted, frugal nature and she wants to have something sturdy to fall back on and cushion her when the ride is over?
There are mentions and mentions about the rejection back when was was trying to submit stories. And how excited she is about being able to print a lot of them in 'Strange Candy'. And now here's this mention of it being 'a job'. But that matches with her constant, constant, goings on about how busy she is all the time and how things are complex.
Blogflogs often mock her coming across as 'I must be the Darkity Dark of all things, feel my Darkness and Despair'.
But what if, once upon a time, writing for LKH involved sitting in front of a typewriter, surrounded by books about serial killers, with the incongruous note of cheerful Christmas music and becoming so immersed in her world that people had to physically drag her away for dinner?
What if that initial mode of doing things is now how she views the craft? As mysterious, totally enveloping and something non-writers won't understand, but the end result is a book, that feels a labour of creative love?
Suddenly all those 'I got so many pages done today' and 'Sigh - it's time to go do something with the kidlet' and 'The interruption of dinner and a life, and the dogs and the wren in the backyard' are all because she remembers one particular groove and hasn't adapted to find another.
Or maybe she's tried but she can't adapt with the pressure (self inflicted) of getting a book out in one or another universe every nine months.
What if, it's a furious race to be fiscally worth the advance, (how much will it sell, though not perhaps being of quality for a high price) and it's all affected her writing tremendously since NiC?
Quite a few writers are supported by their Significant Others, or have SO (or other family member) income helping to balance out the home.
What if LKJ is not a linear writer? What if she's someone who writes furiously in one universe / one book as the ideas and flow hits her and then needs to switch over to a different work?
Re: What If.... (2)
Date: 2008-01-13 07:44 pm (UTC)How long did it used to take her to get a book out before? 18 months? Versus 6? A long time frame makes it seem more than likely that she could flit from here to there and back again, and that by fleshing things out in one universe she could forget details of another and so come to it fresh. (Perhaps even fleshing out a scene that seems cool in one book, and then coming to the rest of the book fresh)
I am by no means saying her craft was spectacular to begin with, especially not knowing how much work was done on Guilty Pleasures. But the ideas of Guilty Pleasures were tingly and whee! And lately the ideas of most of her books are like thrice reused tea-bags in very tepid water.
What if half of her sending things out into the wild, or sometimes seeming to fling them out of the house, is that she's just plain fed up with having to deal with it constantly for several days to meet her deadlines? Hasn't she mentioned already hating to be working on one book when her mind's on another?
It could be seen that the mention in this flog of holding them on too long, is self delusional / self denying of there being a reason, perhaps, the books used to take longer and involve her writing group, etc... Easier to think she was nesting them, than she was honing them. Easier to think it's boredom than her set deadlines to keep her name out there forcing her to fling the books out without her taking the time to stop wanting to see their backs and letting them marinate (or fester) so she can edit them properly.
Suddenly to me at least the mentions of 'Battling The Dragon' and 'Why is it such a
choreJOB!' make a kind of sense. As well as the very fact that her professional blog is so filled with complaints about how hard it is to writer intertwined with 'Oh, but the gentle, magical, miracle'.Re: What If.... (2)
Date: 2008-01-15 09:20 pm (UTC)Re: What If.... (2)
Date: 2008-01-15 09:52 pm (UTC)And I mean that of both his Furies series and Harry Dresden.
I count down the days until Misty Lackey has a book out in one of her series that I'm following.
Heck, I've followed Misty so long, I followed her right into Luna and found another set of authors to watch out for.
LKH fans are becoming extremely bored. There was just a book out this past summer, now there's one in time for winter and there'll be another in summer again.
It's like fast food compared to a slow cooked home made meal.
The thing about fast food to me is, loyalty is easy to shift to the brand/person that can give it to you faster and give you more for your dollar.
I'm now seeing The Harlequin as an over stuffed taco burger.
Every notice how very good restaurants don't usually have to have special advertising every three months?
Re: What If.... (2)
Date: 2008-01-16 05:11 pm (UTC)Re: What If.... (2)
Date: 2008-01-16 10:14 pm (UTC)Maybe that's the other reason she likes to fashion herself as 'The Mother' of this particular mixture of genres; she hopes perhaps to remind people to come check out who started it, because she knows there are other and better writers out there and that she hasn't cultivated a loyal readership.
Yes, I currently don't buy Butcher - but I do know exactly which editions I'd buy should the money fall in hand. That's loyal readership.
Pimping the show and wailing over the loss and now pimping the comic? That's readership.