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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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.