She's using spellcheck?

[alexandra-cade.livejournal.com]

http://blog.laurellkhamilton.org/index.php/site/Typing_Speed/

Did I just read that right? Where in the everloving hell do you think that came from?

It's official, folks. I have now entered the twilight zone.

So I figured you guys would catch it, but she is typing with spellcheck on? THAT is new. I'm not concerned in the least with her typing speed, because, really? Who cares?

What I'm wondering with is why, after all the years of chronic errors in her books, she's JUST NOW using spellcheck?

I'm no grammar queen by any stretch of the imagination. But when I am catching errors in the books, it is a problem. That's why this is shocking to me. Do you think this new development will positively affect the error count of her books?

Comments

[dreamstrifer.livejournal.com]

I remember the conversation on her typing speed on this comm somehwere earlier. And a google search says the world's fastest typist goes at 212 wpm.

I have no idea what Laurell's doing, copying or no.

[magdalen77.livejournal.com]

At top speed for short periods, she had a sustained speed of around 150 wpm.

[dreamstrifer.livejournal.com]

Ah, very true. I kind of messed up in my comment (meant to say that was the fastest she was clocked, and you pointed out that her SUSTAINED speed was way shorter).

Heck, I do maybe 65 for short periods of time, and I'm pretty fast.

[magdalen77.livejournal.com]

I guess we need to welcome Laurell to the late '80s or maybe the very early '90s. That's when I definitely remember spellcheck in WP programs. Though it may have been somewhat earlier. It's hard to imagine a professional writer of 20 years or so never using spell check (because that dratted underlining is just sooo distracting).

She's desperately backpeddling about her supposed typing speed of 200 wpm. After several people noted that the world's fastest typist did around 150 wpm. She doesn't mean she can type 200 wpm but she can type 200 words of random gobbledegook really fast. She never subtracts for misspellings as you are supposed to in a timed test. She's still working on her "short piece" rather than on the Merry book that's very overdue.

[mitrian.livejournal.com]

So if a good average estimate for words per page is 250, then she says she's typing nearly a page per minute. Four pages in five minutes.

...if this is true, then how can she consistently be so behind? Even working for twenty minutes a day would give her 16 pages. I call BS on her alleged typing speed.

[ikona-rakasha.livejournal.com]

Oh LKH, you are indeed teh special snowflake of writers :P

[sassachusetts.livejournal.com]

I don't know, I guess it could be possible to type the word "spill" two hundred times a minute.

[fishsanwitt]

LKH is very *speshul*.

I can type around 100 words a minute, if I've practiced for a bit, but my normal speed is the high 80s or low 90s.

[deadsong.livejournal.com]

Seriously. I clock in at 95 at my fastest, and that's on a good keyboard with no sticking keys, in a layout I'm extremely familiar with so I don't stumble on key depths or precise locations--and I can't sustain that for very long. It not only drives my fiance bloody crazy because it sounds like gunfire, but it starts to hurt my fingers after a while...and I start making more and more mistakes.

[fishsanwitt]

Yeah, that's why I can't believe LKH can type 200 words a minute. I agree with you - I need a good keyboard, no sticky keys, and I can't sustain it for long periods of time - the strain is too much.

[suzycat.livejournal.com]

Ditto. I average out at about 75 and that's because I am not the most accurate typist ever and am constantly backspacing to correct myself.

Despite this, people always say "OMGZ UR SO FAST".

[dwg.livejournal.com]

*dons mod cap*

Okay, here's the thing -- blogfloggery is the comm's sockpuppet for blogflogs, and we're currently focusing more on her work related posts rather than LKH herself and her private life (this does include Twitter) to encourage people more to snark the creation, and not the woman herself. It's been brought up in the past that LKH's typing speed may seem ridiculous, but it is possible.

Also, I encourage you to read the comm's FAQ (http://www.lashouts.org/faq.php), as all members will be held to it regardless, and this part in particular:

8. Oneliners/very short posts. You don't have to write an essay by any means, but aim for more than 5 or 6 lines—and that's lines of content, not filler.

So if you want to expand upon your post to encourage discussion -- either by editing this one, or reposting and deleting this entry -- this is fine, but other than that if you wish to discuss specific blogs that the comm hasn't posted, please keep it to your own blog.

If in doubt, don't hesitate to get in contact with the comm mods and we'll help sort things out.

[denelian.livejournal.com]

what she is considering 200wpm:
any "word" qualifies - mistypings and/or misspelling. most poeple when they take a typing test are typing out something that is either told to them or shown to them
either of these add extra processing in the brain.

i can well believe, for short unsustained, unsustanable bursts, she probably does. for like a whole five minutes.

also, if i understand her "methedology" she writes and writes and writes. litle coherence, linking sentences add later, 90% of what she wrote is discarded...

after everything else is added in *esecially all the crap dropped back out* i'm betting its around 50wpm that is USEFUL. at MOST

[leggomylegolas.livejournal.com]

also, if i understand her "methedology" she writes and writes and writes. litle coherence, linking sentences add later, 90% of what she wrote is discarded...

What? Why discard it, sounds like a perfect example of her books to me!

[denelian.livejournal.com]

from what she said at a book signing about 8 years ago, she will write different versions of the same sentence over and over, and only keep 1.

she may not be doing this anymore, i don't know.

but yeah... if what we get is the "good stuff", i am terrified of the filler!

(also, please note, that spelling of "methedology" was hers...)

[maiskorn.livejournal.com]

She could type 28290 words a second for all I care, if what she writes is bad, then it doesn't matter.

Also, I can understand that spellcheck may be irritating (I personally hate the red lines, I never turn spellcheck on while writing), but there's always the option to check the text after you finished it, which she, quiet frankly, doesn't seem to do.

[omizu.livejournal.com]

When I clicked the link and saw the picture posted there, my first thought was, "Oh look and aged Anita and Nathanial."

>_>

[sandit.livejournal.com]

While I sympathize with her frustration in trying to type copy as a dyslexic, she doesn't seem to get that typing original thoughts is faster for everyone than typing copy ... it's not as if typing this way is her specialty.

[magdalen77.livejournal.com]

That's what's so humorous with her revelations about her special abilities. She always likes to cast normal things as execeptional behavior on her part. Of course it's easier and faster to type your own thoughts than it is to read a canned paragraph and re-type it.

[sandit.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this is also part of the reason I don't personally have a blog. I'm not really sure that I'm all that exceptional, and don't want to end out there with LKH up posting stuff like, "...you know, the other day, I discovered that jelly tastes great with peanut butter on a sandwich ...", "...After 30 years, I've found the best way to put my pants on is one leg at a time ...", "It's really astonishing how my brain works, I mean, you tell not to think about pink elephants and that is all I can do for a while after!" etc.

[ellenel13.livejournal.com]

I figured if you have practice at it, typing should be relatively easy. But if she's making up what she's typing as she goes along, wouldn't it take longer?

[denelian.livejournal.com]

these are different processes. so, it goes like this for most writers that i have talked to (and me, only not as much, which is why i am not a professional writer)

"what am i writing? how i am i saying it?" runs words through head. runs back through words. types words. stops and re-read words, fixing/adding/subtracting as needed.

most people only count the time spent actually typing in their "typing speed", which is why it LOOKS like it should be faster. and the actual typing itself is. but over the course of an hour (or a day, whatever) most people will be able to type more over all from copying, but its is at a lower rate *during the typing*.

did i explain that well?

[ellenel13.livejournal.com]

I think. But in that case, wouldn't her typing speed be exaggerated, since she takes breaks to read over what she writ . . . . Never mind.

[denelian.livejournal.com]

yep. but it doesn't count, and she can now somehow honestly say that she can type that fast. its the best kind of BS - it has just enough truth in it to seem true to someone who doesn't know how that particular process works.

it also means that she, effectively, cheats herself. she won't ever really work to improve her speed, because she can tell herself how fast she is already. actually, thats probably why she makes the claim to begin with - she's rationalizing reasons to not try and improve. which means that we, the readers, are getting things ever more slowly, for all the various reasons.
which is the only reason i care. if i could quit, i would. but i can't. i buy every book as soon as it comes out. but she keeps building in extra delays... heh, maybe if she delays long enough i can actually quit?

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

Fixing typos is what copyeditors do. And although spellcheck has made copyediting a bit sloppier around things like "die/dye" and "their/there", you can find these errors in books from major publishers back as far as the 19th century.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

Look, she does not type 200 words a minute. If she typed 200 words a minute, she'd be one of the fastest typists ever in the history of typing.

I don't know if it's a mistake or a purposeful exaggeration, but I would bet the house that it's false.

[magdalen77.livejournal.com]

Does anyone wonder if LKH is yakking so much about her typing speed to "show" someone (maybe her agent or publishers or maybe just critics) that she can get the next Merry book done in time for the December release? IMHO it seems that she's making much of her exceptionally fast speed. Otherwise, does anyone really care if a professional writer types uber fast, types hunt & peck or even writes it out long hand and has a secretary?

I'm Just pondering because this seems a silly topic to write two blogs about.

[shadwing.livejournal.com]

The only way they are gonna believe that the manuscript will be done in time is if they have the physical copy...especially since she's also been blogging about the 'novella' as what she has been working on (rather than Merry)

[magdalen77.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you're probably right. I don't get the arrogance of posting about how you're working very, very hard on something unnecessary while the necessary work is neglected. And this right after the "Come to Jesus" meeting with her agent. I guess like every adolescent LKH wants to show that, "No one is going to tell me what to do!!!"

[shadwing.livejournal.com]

*nodnod* Working on the Novella MIGHT help get the juices back flowing get some stuff out of her head so she can focus on Merry...had that happen to me before.

If the publisher has to push back the date for Merry AGAIN they will not be happy, I doubt they will drop her but I bet if she starts to make a habit of it they will be less....generous...when its time for her contract to be renewed.

[alexandra-cade.livejournal.com]

Why do you think she had a "Come to Jesus" meeting with her agent? Just curious.

[magdalen77.livejournal.com]

It was just a thought. Right before the meeting the book due date on Amazon changed from October to December. And LKH started making a big deal about how hard she was working on her short piece. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but the immediate subsuming herself in work after the agent has been there (but the wrong work out of spite) seems like a LKH response to being asked to get a move on it.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

Agents don't fly out to St. Louis for "strategy sessions."

[alexandra-cade.livejournal.com]

Well, we really don't know that, Icecreamempress.

LKH is a best selling author, whether we like her work or not. So what is normal for your average write may not be how a best seller is normally treated.

[shadwing.livejournal.com]

Well this is what we DO know.

It's takes on average, 6-7 months to prep a final manuscript, edit it, typeset it, then print it, approve and edit it again before running the presses. Given that LKH is a best selling author, this process takes LONGER since they need to run millions of copies in a few languages for it's first run.

The original release date for the next Merry Book was October 2009, chances are the publishing company...under the impression that LKH is a 'Professional Best Selling Author' will get the final manuscript completed to them by April-May at the latest, and ergo start the marketing machine and pimping the book to various sellers and suppliers.

This is not happened, in fact the impressions are that the manuscript isn't even CLOSE to complete, it's so far behind that they have no choice but to push the date of release back two months (December 2009) in hopes of buying more time. Also note this is on the heels of the last Anita Book in which Laurel was massively pushing her deadlines to make the release date.

So...any early orders or sales of the book based on the October date will have to be canceled or re-worked...sellers also prep their own ad campains and in store deals based on the publishers release schedule, when this changes they ALSO have to make changes.

Given how many people are going to be FUBARed if Laurel DOESN'T get get act together and meet her deadlines. It not hard to imagine that there was more to the In Person meeting than just a simple business meeting.

[alexandra-cade.livejournal.com]

Maybe so. Maybe not. I'm not saying that you are wrong. I'm just saying that we don't know what goes on behind the scenes because I don't think there are any best selling authors that post here.

It is shitty when writers miss their deadlines because as an avid reader I want to know what is happening (although I stopped reading LKH years ago).

But here is why I'm skeptical that anything will really happen to LKH. You have Patrick Rothfuss, Scott Lynch, and George R. Martin all push their street dates out by about a year from what it was originally supposed to be. Now, out of those three authors, the only one that might be in LKH's league in terms of sales(sadly enough...because they are better writers) is George R. Martin. But what do you think is going to happen to them? Will they get some pissy phone calls from editors and agents? Maybe. But at the end of the day they are the talent, writers block unfortunately happens, and these publishing houses will publish the story when it is done.

So is LKH fucking up the program by being late? Probably. Could her agent have come out there for a progress check? Maybe. But a "Come to Jesus" talk? I doubt it. LKH is a cash cow, despite the fact that we think her books suck. They've got to be nice to her. Her publishing house will just have to wait on her to get the story done-and I'm sure she knows it.

[shadwing.livejournal.com]

Well as we stated in the previous flog, there is very little risk of LKR loosing her current contract. She is a well selling author and will be given some leyway due to the fact she does produce books that do sell.

However her agents visit, while not a true 'Come to Jesus' was most definatly a 'Check Up' I have no doubt that given that the manuscript was so late it wouldn't shock me that the publisher wanted an update on it's status and sent the agent to see what the heck was going on.

If she's starting to slip on deadlines now, there is a chance this will effect her contract when it does come up for renewal. Remember its in LKH's contract that she is to produce two finished manuscripts per year, if she can't keep up her publisher will let her know.

Its up to LKH to be FIRM with her agent and publisher on what she can and cannot do if she needs more time to finish a book then SHE needs to call her agent...it should not take the agent flying down to check up on her, I'm pretty sure all the other best sellers you mentioned keep in close contact with their agents and publishers if there is a risk the book won't make the original deadline, nor to the other authors spend time mucking around with comic, layout, pencils, and final lettering approvals, toting themselves and producers of TV Shows and approval of merch for her books.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

I'm just saying that we don't know what goes on behind the scenes because I don't think there are any best selling authors that post here.

I'm a novelist, and I've worked in publishing, so although I haven't had a national bestseller list, I do know how it works.

Even though LKH is a big seller, she's not Queen of the Vampires anymore. She's not Merilee Heifetz's best-selling client, either.

Could her agent have come out there for a progress check? Maybe. But a "Come to Jesus" talk? I doubt it.

Doubt it or not, that definitely seems to be what happened. And that's why she's reacting like an angsty teen with her 'I'M DOING WHAT I WANT TO AND NOT WHAT YOU TOLD ME TO' on the blog.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

so although I haven't had a national bestseller list

Obviously, this should be "though I haven't had a book hit the national bestseller lists yet," though even that's not strictly true--I just haven't had a book hit any of the bestseller lists that actually mean anything.

[alexandra-cade.livejournal.com]

Key word is seems to be. It's speculation. You think she got ripped by her agent, but I sort of doubt it. You won't convince me to your point of view, just as I will not convince you to mine. However, I can tell you why I think the way that I do.

Unless I miss my guess, Merilee is a business woman and there are not too many writers out there just now with LKH's brand power. If Merilee upbraids LKH too much, Ms.Batshit crazy will just find another agent and Merilee loses that income. Ms. Heifetz may be rolling in the cash, but if she wants to keep rolling in it, she will be circumspect with her top clients.

Now, LKH is not the Queen of the Vampires anymore. That I do agree with. As far as I can tell there isn't one these days, unless you count JR Ward or perhaps the chic that wrote Twilight.

But to be honest, I don't truly think anyone ever fully took over Anne's crown. It is still vacant and waiting...

[sandit.livejournal.com]

Is she back to using the word novella again like the rest of us then?

[bludflower.livejournal.com]

Well, okay. That's the first comepletely coherant blog I've ever read from her. I love it how no one EVER clued her in that the lack of grammer/spelling skills as a "writer" is a huge embarassment and pain in the ass to intelligent readers, until now. Hate to say it (who am I kidding? no I don't) but something tells me that her ditching Darla might actually help her image a bit more. Who knows, maybe this new assistant might ACTUALLY assist rather than enable. Good job for actually trying, Laurell. *tosses her a cookie*

[shadwing.livejournal.com]

One can hope.

We all agree that Darla was more of an enabler than an assistant, hopefully the new girl was also present at the 'Come to Jesus' and realized what was being told to LKH and unlike Darla who would pay LKH on the head and praise her would make subtile hints.

"Hey did you see what this button does?" *shows spellcheck* "Isn't it neat? This is gonna help you SOOOOO much ^_^!"

I already feel sorry for that girl.

[magdalen77.livejournal.com]

I'm sure people have told her in the past that spelling and grammar are important for a writer. LKH loves to be purposefully obtuse when she really doesn't want to change a thing. Heck, she may not even see the need since gross misspellings and poor grammar don't bother her she can't see how it's like nails on a chalkboard to others.