Blogflog - Business, Social Media, Writing, and me

[blogfloggery.livejournal.com]

Link: Business, Social Media, Writing, and me
Disclaimer: This blog entry is verbatim, as originally posted on LKH's blog. Copyright belongs to Ma Petite Enterprises.



Do you put all of your business information out on line for strangers to read? No, me either. My agent and publisher would be very unhappy with me if I did that, and it would be beyond foolish for me to do it. What information I do put on line has to be incomplete because it’s business. What I do is an art, but the business of publishing is just that – business. I’m happy to share bits of my work, my life, my thoughts, with you on line, but I don’t share everything. I believe that too many people share far too much on line. If it makes them happy, that’s fine, but I believe that real life trumps on line. So I save most of me for my real flesh and blood life.

Twitter can be even more of a problem than the blogs because it’s only 140 characters. I’m trying to answer questions, share information, and reply to other posts in just 140 characters. It means that not all meaning is conveyed exactly. It means some meaning is lost, because it’s too short to be complete. And honestly, if I tried to be too detailed online on Twitter, in blogs, whatever, I’d use up the time I need to write. I always assume that you are following me online because of my books, my stories, so that you would prefer I use my time to write rather than get sucked into the online world to the detriment of my real life joys and responsibilities.

I was working on an Anita short story the day I tweeted one post but I have since laid it aside for other projects. What I’m writing on a given day isn’t at all what is coming out next to be published from me. Short pieces are especially up in the air until I send them to my agent and say, “Here it is.” It’s one of the reasons I sell completed short stories most of the time rather than specific ideas – it gives me creative freedom and I like that.

Most contracts early in a writer’s career are for specific books, especially if you are a series writer, but I’ve earned the privilege to write what I want to write. If I wanted to write another Merry Gentry book next, I could. Anita will likely be the next book, but I’ve got this start to a brand new world and that keeps niggling at me, so I honestly don’t know for certain. If I post online anywhere that I’m working on Anita, or something new, or Merry, then that’s for that day. Now once I’m in to the middle of a story, half-way or more, then that’s a done deal. I will finish anything I get that far into, but short of that, it’s like a my muse is still shopping among the ideas. We do a few pages here, a bit more research there, sometimes just a list of the research that will be needed for a given book, but it’s all part of the preparation for writing a novel. I rarely write short stories that I don’t have all the “research” in my head and skill set already. Research takes time away from making pages, so it’s worth it for books, not so much for short stories. But there are exceptions to all rules and I tend to write short pieces in a world before I decide it’s novel worthy. The short story, “Those Who Seek Forgiveness” came before the first Anita Blake novel, Guilty Pleasures. In fact, there are several short pieces with Anita and the gang where I was exploring the world but the stories weren’t complete, or the idea strong enough, it was all part of me exploring the world and getting my feet wet. I’ll often write hundreds of pages that will never be published until I nail the voice and feel of a main character, the supporting cast, the world, the magic/science/mystery that needs to make sense to the reader for it all to work. There’s less wasted pages as I’ve gotten more practice under my belt, but I still often explore in notes, then short vignettes, then short stories, novelettes, novellas, and finally novel length.

I’m almost positive the next book will be Anita and the gang, but the new idea, which isn’t connected to the short story I just finished at all, keeps coming into my head. I have this great opening, great world, and reality system, but I think I’m waiting for another idea to come and rub up against it, as if one last ingredient is missing, so I’ll wait. But who knows?

Comments

[guardians-song.livejournal.com]

Took you a while to respond to all the mockery of your TMI on social media, LKH... *settles in to read*

Do you put all of your business information out on line for strangers to read? No, me either.
No, just all of your personal life.

I’m happy to share bits of my work, my life, my thoughts, with you on line, but I don’t share everything. I believe that too many people share far too much on line. If it makes them happy, that’s fine, but I believe that real life trumps on line. So I save most of me for my real flesh and blood life.
LKH, saying it won't make it so.

(I've noticed this odd tendency in narcissistic people - a belief that saying something will magically erase all their behavior to the contrary. It's magical thinking to the point of open delusion. Any idea why this is? There's living in an echo chamber and then there's just losing touch with the separation between words and actions.)

And honestly, if I tried to be too detailed online on Twitter, in blogs, whatever, I’d use up the time I need to write. I always assume that you are following me online because of my books, my stories, so that you would prefer I use my time to write rather than get sucked into the online world to the detriment of my real life joys and responsibilities.

LKH, SAYING IT WON'T MAKE IT SO. Everyone has observed that you spam Twitter rather than working. Your denial isn't effective, it's just - weird! And embarrassing! Inasmuch as you can salvage ANY respect from the situation, people would respect you more if you OWNED UP to it and admitted you had a problem you needed to fix!

What I’m writing on a given day isn’t at all what is coming out next to be published from me.
I can almost hear her agent hyperventilating from here. 'OH THANK YOU LAURELL. It's not enough that you're behind on your ACTUAL deadlines, but now you admit that you work on COMPLETELY DIFFERENT things as the mood strikes you, la la la? After all the deadlines you've missed, after - ahahahahaha, ahahaha, haaaaaah... *twitch*'

Short pieces are especially up in the air until I send them to my agent and say, “Here it is.”
And sometimes even that doesn't work, and we get Shutdown...

In fact, there are several short pieces with Anita and the gang where I was exploring the world but the stories weren’t complete, or the idea strong enough, it was all part of me exploring the world and getting my feet wet. I’ll often write hundreds of pages that will never be published until I nail the voice and feel of a main character, the supporting cast, the world, the magic/science/mystery that needs to make sense to the reader for it all to work. There’s less wasted pages as I’ve gotten more practice under my belt, but I still often explore in notes, then short vignettes, then short stories, novelettes, novellas, and finally novel length.
This is actually interesting, and I thank her for the tip. (The problem is that she seems to REALLY lose a lot of the development in these parts nowadays. Perhaps I'm being too hopeful, but I have to wonder if some of the sudden characterization shifts were 'developed' in stories we never saw? Hm...)

but I think I’m waiting for another idea to come and rub up against it,
(LKH) It needs more gratuitous, dubiously-consensual sex! And long-haired technicolor penises! And extrajudicial killings! And...

But who knows?
I think I can hear her agent sarcastically echoing that from here... or, if not her agent, her editor.

Speaking of editing, this post... kind of derailed midway through. I think this would have worked better as two separate posts, since the "writing" part has only the flimsiest of connections to the "social media" part. (Of course, that might be Tumblr speaking, since the posts there are often pretty short.) Is it just me? :\

[desert-vixen.livejournal.com]

Basically, my reaction was "does she actually believe this BS?"

And the answer is yes. Or rather, she really believes that people will believe this BS if she just repeats it often enough.

[magdalen77.livejournal.com]

She may actually believe this since she is the least self-aware person in the world. At least of any people over the age of 2.

[elialshadowpine.livejournal.com]

She's said in the past that she believes her characters are real and has to stop herself from buying things "they''d" like. I don't have citations because I'm pretty sure that was deleted, and I haven't the spoons to try to track it down in case it was posted here. She boarded the crazytrain looooong ago.

[lliira (from livejournal.com)]

I've noticed this odd tendency in narcissistic people - a belief that saying something will magically erase all their behavior to the contrary.

Have you seen this? http://www.halcyon.com/jmashmun/npd/traits.html#appear

That's about big-N Narcissists, and I'm not diagnosing LKH with anything, but I think a lot of it can apply to people who are just very self-absorbed as well. I also wonder what the deal is with it. I think maybe it's that people like this HAVE to believe you can re-write at least people's perceptions of reality or else everything falls apart. A lot of people think that if they're not the absolute best, then they're absolutely worthless. So maybe it's an attempt to at least appear to be the best, hoping that if others believe it then it might become true?

[dwg.livejournal.com]

Twitter can be even more of a problem than the blogs because it’s only 140 characters. I’m trying to answer questions, share information, and reply to other posts in just 140 characters. It means that not all meaning is conveyed exactly. It means some meaning is lost, because it’s too short to be complete.

Says the NYT bestselling author. You would think that someone whose very profession rests on understanding and the use of words would be able to wrap their head around how to be succinct, especially since Twitter as a platform really forces you to do it thanks to that character limit. There are things like twitlonger or just posting an essay over multiple tweets, but usually the best are short and to the point. There are a plethora of other authors on the platform who do not struggle with "it's too short for me to convey what I REALLY mean!" It's like words mean things or something!

[world-dancer.livejournal.com]

To be fair, some authors are minimalists and some authors aren't. LKH needs to describe the Nike swoosh on shoes. She's not a minimalist and never has been. I don't think being a bestselling author has anything to do with it.

Charles Dickens wasn't a minimalist either (though of course, that was partially because he liked to eat and got paid by the word, but it was also the style of Victorian writing). And while Alexander Pope was the king of the rhyming couplet and writing essays in poetical form (and thus severe space limitations), so would probably be the modern king of Twitter if he were still alive, no one could really match him.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I think LKH could benefit from learning how to use Twitter effectively because I know that I, as a reader, resent her for having to slog through ten pages of descriptions of what people are wearing (or not wearing, because A Shiver of Light gave me descriptions of outfits that Merry decided not to wear after all) and where they're standing in one chapter. It adds nothing to the story or the characters. TEN PAGES. At the very least, it could cut down on her mangled "things that are like things but not like those things, but completely different things!" metaphors and similes.

But then I know I'm biased on this because I like how Twitter forces me to rethink what I'm about to say in order to fit the character limit. And I think I'm better at recognising when brevity will improve my writing because of that.

[world-dancer.livejournal.com]

I'd totally love to see what would happen if she were entered into a flash fiction contest. I agree that her descriptions tedious. And they've only gotten worse with time.

I just don't agree with the equation bestselling author = good with Twitter.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

Ahhh that's totally fair. I think I did a weird logic leap that skipped a few steps anyway. But I'm still going to give her the side-eye because as someone whose livelihood kinda depends on how she uses words, she's...just not very good at conveying her intentions with them, regardless of the platform.

[world-dancer.livejournal.com]

Quite true. Though I'd say writing on social media can give a bad impression of anyone.

There's a classic 19th century saying "He who edits his own work has a moron for an editor." I believe this to be true because even the best of editors is guilty of seeing what he meant to say rather than what he actually said when double checking his work.

The fact that LKH works with almost no editing at this point says more about her cluelessness than it does about skill, but in social media, almost no one has an editor, and the medium itself can lead experts (writers, editors, etc) to seem stupid because they accidentally typed the wrong "there" and didn't catch it.

[elialshadowpine.livejournal.com]

To add on to the above discussion, I don't think that author = succinct. Some people are good at it. Some people aren't. Some people are abysmally bad and the demons in Hell are probably laughing their asses off MST3K'ing her blog posts and works. (C'mon, you think those wouldn't end up there? /s I must note that the above is joking, as I'm pagan and believe that Hell is what you make yourself. Also, the mental image is hilarious.)

[alondra-del-sol.livejournal.com]

I feel like business information is something you want to put online LaLa, personal information no, but yet here we are. Is this the beginning of another don't read my life into my stories thing, because it's a bit late for that. Twitter is hard for me too so I can sympathize. Brevity may be the soul of wit, but it's not my best medium. I've gotten better though, but usually I can get everything into two tweets. It's not easy to come up with a 140 character instantaneous response I think so I can give that a pass.

I don't think all of these things exist that she says she does. Her books do not read like they developed like that, and we've all seen how little time gets spent on editing and writing so as someone else said, "Saying so does not make it so." :/

[lliira (from livejournal.com)]

I don't think all of these things exist that she says she does.

I agree. I think she's saying what she wishes were true, and what she thinks will make her look good.

[snarky-imp.livejournal.com]

I read this at work this morning and I thought that maybe I'd suffered a blow to the head or something because almost none of this stuff is true. And then I realized it must be Opposite Day so I found a chair to use as my refuge for when the floor was inevitably declared lava.

[lliira (from livejournal.com)]

It means some meaning is lost, because it’s too short to be complete.

Says the woman who spends page after page after GODDAMN PAGE describing hair (badly), but skims lightly over character development and plot. I can sympathize with people who have problems with Twitter's character limit, but that's not LKH's real issue. Her issue is that she can't convey meaning no matter what, and the more words she produces, the more tangled her meaning gets. At a very basic level, nothing she writes makes sense. I don't expect perfect crystal clear prose from any writer, but LKH's readers are constantly left going "that scene is physically impossible," "the motivations here make no sense," and "THAT DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY".

I still don't understand what happened in the ending of Affliction.