Facebook flog - Mar 3 2014

[blogfloggery.livejournal.com]

Link: Mar 3 2014, 10:24
Disclaimer: This blog entry is verbatim, as originally posted on LKH's Facebook. Copyright belongs to Ma Petite Enterprises.

I promised myself when I finished the newest Merry Gentry novel, A Shiver of Light, that I'd let myself write anything I wanted to write next. I'd let my muse play. I just finished 6 pages of a new short piece, set in a brand new world. It surprised me by bridging to pages I wrote months ago, so my short story maybe a one shot novelette, but either way it was fun to throw myself off the creative cliff and build my parachute on the way down. (I think I'm paraphrasing Ray Bradbury.)

Don't worry, I'm not abandoning Anita Blake, but for today I just let myself go where the muse dictated. It was a rush to just let myself write and not care where it went, or what it was, or . . . to create for the joy of creating. Sometimes a writer needs to go for a walk off the beaten path, so we can come back to our beloved characters and worlds with a refreshed eye, and a new sense of wonder.

Comments

[jessica collett (from livejournal.com)]

It sounds to me like she may consider wrapping up the Anita Blake series soon - the ending of Affliction read like it was building up to a finishing point to me, and this reads like she's found a writing project that she actually enjoys.

[guardians-song.livejournal.com]

Good gad, she sounds like a human being.

An ungrammatical human being, but a human being all the same.

[nichtallwissend.livejournal.com]

I agree--it's easy to be hard on LKH because of some of the stuff she puts out there, but this can only be a good thing and I'm happy for her. I'm pessimistic in thinking that she's just not a good writer anymore so it won't come to anything, but maybe she's seeing the light and realizing something's gotta change.

"Don't worry, I'm not abandoning Anita Blake," oh what a relief, now I can sleep at night. ;-) Although the die-hards might be pissed if she abandoned Anita Blake I happen to think it would be a good thing also. But I doubt it, since Anita seems to be her pet.

[rodentfanatic.livejournal.com]

I hope she enjoyed this. It sounds like she did, and I do truly think she's tired of Anita's world.

[deadsong.livejournal.com]

...my god. A post that made sense, that wasn't sanctimonious, and that didn't make me want to bang my head against my screen. Is this the Twilight Zone?

Seriously though, it's good that she seems to be realizing how much she's been forcing it lately, and looking to find a way to enjoy her job again.

[txvoodoo.livejournal.com]

I'm wondering if she gave up insensibility, sanctimony, and engendering wall-head syndrome up for lent?

[tooimpurenangel.livejournal.com]

Whoa, when Laurell's having fun she sounds so much less patronizing. I like it!

[bloodredroses1.livejournal.com]

The fact that she actually enjoyed writing something is beyond awesome but my brain still tried to explode when she used 'novelette' instead of 'novella'. Novelette isn't even a real word is it?

[rebootfromstart.livejournal.com]

It could be worse; she could still be using "novellite".

[bloodredroses1.livejournal.com]

I do kinda remember this & most likely that is what is causing my brain spasms.

[deadsong.livejournal.com]

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/novelette

What's funny is more often than not it's a derogatory term for a novel without substance; it's gaining in popularity as a word for stories that are on the short end for a novella but on the long end for a short story, but originally it was an insult referring to a novel in a diminutive fashion.

[bloodredroses1.livejournal.com]

This is what I thought, that it was more of a slur once upon a time. Isn't is amazing how the English language changes over time?

[jamoche]

In the Hugo awards categories, it's a story with 7,500 - 17,500 words, between novella and short story.

[missingvolume.livejournal.com]

You posted this before I could.

[bloodredroses1.livejournal.com]

Thanks for that info. I guess I'm just so old that I missed the evolution of the word.

[plastraa.livejournal.com]

My hope is that she will be so into her new writing she ends the Anita series with a bloodbath! I'm sure if/when it ever happens it will be all golden sunset but I can dream.

[miss-maggpie.livejournal.com]

At this point it really is the only way the series can possibly end.

[elialshadowpine.livejournal.com]

I'm actually pleased to see this. It's seemed like she's worked both Anita and Merry to death. She doesn't seem to be as interested, and I think it shows (in the bits I have read). If she's actually writing something that's she's actually feeling excited about -- well, good for her. Maybe it will be better than what she's putting out now. (And, just from the side of being a writer myself, that "omg new story" excitement is definitely awesome.)

[lliira (from livejournal.com)]

Muse muse muse. Muse. Muse muse. But oh you have to force yourself to write. Unless you're her. In which case muse.

[jeza-red.livejournal.com]

Oh man, I was about to comment on the 'muse factor'.
It's just seems like with sex in Anitaverse, no one does it cause they want to or cause it's fun.

Likewise LKH doesn't write cause she wants to or because it's fun - the muse is making her do it. The muse is coming up with the ideas, the muse dictates the pace and so on...

Sadly. this post carries no hope in my eyes. She is too invested into Anita, too in love with her self-insert - Anita is her safety blanket and she will never have enough strength to drop her.
A new project may be all well - but her writing skills deteriorated too much to be salvageable, imo. It will probably end up as another kind of dreg...