Sometimes people are dumber than I give them credit for
I enjoy intelligent editorial. I do. Like every writer I have ever met, I'm also kind of randomly defensive of my work and act like a cat with its hair standing on end even when I'm asking for critique.
I think it's important that I say that first.
Right now I'm running through some edits of my novel. Some of these are by my supervisors, some of them are by people in my writing group at uni. Anyone who has been near me while I'm doing this will know that it involves a lot of ranting, a not inconsiderable amount of swearing, and the, unfortunately very occasional thoughtful pause. This is largely due to the fact that while one of my supervisors is brilliant, beta reads for professional authors, and enjoys SF, my other supervisor doesn't even read anything in the speculative fiction genre, let well alone fantasy, and my writing group, while on a higher level than your average wannabe writer, by virtue of their position as postgrad writing students (a prerequisite for being in my writing group), they are -- bar one -- also not spec fic readers, and have, as a group, what I would consider rather minimal experience as writers. So there's that.
Most of my writing group spend a lot of time asking me about the tropes of fantasy, being confused that I'm not concerned about historical accuracy (as this takes place nowhere in the real world), and putting in comments like 'both men and women are referred to as witches' -- a fact that clearly I hadn't noticed doing consistently throughout the novel...?
But that sort of thing just makes me beat my head lightly against the side of my couch. My other supervisor -- not Helen, she's the good one -- the other one (it's important to note that as I'm about to be rude) is an idiot.
She doesn't get my style of writing? Fine. That's okay.
She doesn't understand how someone could write in a non-linear fashion and persists in writing 'there's something missing here' all over my work? I can deal with that.
She objects to one of the fundamental relationships in my novel? She complains that it introduces a sexual component that is absent everywhere else in the novel. They kiss. Once. I'm confused.
I mean, maybe her objection is that having a homosexual relationship in a Young Adult novel could cause problems for publication or distribution. I could understand that. But it's not what she says.
But I'm still willing to listen, to figure out her objection... until I come across the following comment in the margins of my last draft:
In a scene in which one of the characters flirts quite mildly with a couple of girls he's just met:
"This healthy interest Tag has in the ladies makes his later 'coming out' quite unconvincing"
Oh. I see. Heterosexuality is healthy, so homosexuality is a disease? And bisexuality is clearly not at all a possibility. And kissing someone who happens to be of the same gender clearly equates to 'coming out'.
I'm not sure whether I should be royally pissed off that this intelligent well-educated woman is apparently also a bigot, or glad that her objection to this relationship that is so important to the novel comes down to her discomfort with the fact that it's a homosexual relationship.
It makes everything she said about it make so much more sense. In a creepy and kind of horrifying way.
I think it's important that I say that first.
Right now I'm running through some edits of my novel. Some of these are by my supervisors, some of them are by people in my writing group at uni. Anyone who has been near me while I'm doing this will know that it involves a lot of ranting, a not inconsiderable amount of swearing, and the, unfortunately very occasional thoughtful pause. This is largely due to the fact that while one of my supervisors is brilliant, beta reads for professional authors, and enjoys SF, my other supervisor doesn't even read anything in the speculative fiction genre, let well alone fantasy, and my writing group, while on a higher level than your average wannabe writer, by virtue of their position as postgrad writing students (a prerequisite for being in my writing group), they are -- bar one -- also not spec fic readers, and have, as a group, what I would consider rather minimal experience as writers. So there's that.
Most of my writing group spend a lot of time asking me about the tropes of fantasy, being confused that I'm not concerned about historical accuracy (as this takes place nowhere in the real world), and putting in comments like 'both men and women are referred to as witches' -- a fact that clearly I hadn't noticed doing consistently throughout the novel...?
But that sort of thing just makes me beat my head lightly against the side of my couch. My other supervisor -- not Helen, she's the good one -- the other one (it's important to note that as I'm about to be rude) is an idiot.
She doesn't get my style of writing? Fine. That's okay.
She doesn't understand how someone could write in a non-linear fashion and persists in writing 'there's something missing here' all over my work? I can deal with that.
She objects to one of the fundamental relationships in my novel? She complains that it introduces a sexual component that is absent everywhere else in the novel. They kiss. Once. I'm confused.
I mean, maybe her objection is that having a homosexual relationship in a Young Adult novel could cause problems for publication or distribution. I could understand that. But it's not what she says.
But I'm still willing to listen, to figure out her objection... until I come across the following comment in the margins of my last draft:
In a scene in which one of the characters flirts quite mildly with a couple of girls he's just met:
"This healthy interest Tag has in the ladies makes his later 'coming out' quite unconvincing"
Oh. I see. Heterosexuality is healthy, so homosexuality is a disease? And bisexuality is clearly not at all a possibility. And kissing someone who happens to be of the same gender clearly equates to 'coming out'.
I'm not sure whether I should be royally pissed off that this intelligent well-educated woman is apparently also a bigot, or glad that her objection to this relationship that is so important to the novel comes down to her discomfort with the fact that it's a homosexual relationship.
It makes everything she said about it make so much more sense. In a creepy and kind of horrifying way.