lkh_lashouts | Tweet flog

Right, little bit of a preamble here: there's this blog called Terrible Minds and the author has a 25 things a writer should know series that's both a hilarious and informative read. The most recent is 25 Ways to Defeat The Dreaded Writers Block, and naturally this sparked a discussion with a friend re: LKH in that she claims she doesn't get it (except for when she does, but it's not her fault because it's the muse that's eluding her). She's given advice in the past on how to overcome this, but it either comes across as incredibly condescending like, "what fools you mortals be! I do not suffer from such trivialities!" or "I'm possessed by this mysterious otherworldly source!"

And then this happened to pretty much prove my point:

[link]
And this is when I'm glad I was actually asleep when it happened, otherwise I'd find it hard to restrain myself from responding. Because...way to be insulting to everyone. The three big things that hit me here are:

A) "I'm so darkity dark and awesome!" which is something I kinda expect from a teenager, but even then there are bound to be teens that have better attitudes.

B) It's completely undermining the creative process and the work that goes into crafting art. I truly do believe LKH has some artistic ability, but continually attributing it to this external force that only she has access to, and, when she does, she's naught but a helpless conduit because she's surrendered her fingers and brain to something from Beyond or a hidden personality that dwells within the depths of her psyche is tiresome. No, the writer is in control of what happens, how the words get put on a page. A book doesn't write itself, it's about sitting your ass down and typing. While it may absolve LKH of her failures, it also robs her of her triumphs -- she couldn't possibly be responsible for great ideas, because it's the muse that brings them. At the end of the day it still comes down to one thing: you.

C) Creativity should not be conflated with mental illness. Last time I checked, hearing voices is not a mark of artistic pride, greatness, or being cool. And medicating for mental illness does not necessarily mean that all your creativity will be chemically erased. I'm sure there's a lot of creative people who are on medication of some kind that manage quite well. Not to mention, there are plenty of other people out there that don't have some deep seated trauma, damaged psyche, or imbalance and can create dark things and don't ascribe their achievements to making themselves miserable or a tiny muse alighted upon their shoulder.

Who knew you could pack so much condescending asshaberdashery into 140 characters or less?

EDIT 29/7: This post, along with

naomi_jay's Open Letter to Laurell K Hamilton have been referenced in Jennifer Armintrout's blog over here. We're internet famous-ish? Raise your glasses!