Author-wank, and some links.
Not an update as such, but a nice slap-up link salad:
This post at fandom_wank alerted me to a post at the blog of an author called Laurell K. Hamilton. At the time I was racking my brains trying to remember where I'd seen her stuff before -- I haven't read her books, but I did put about twenty of them on the system at the shop, once. As far as I can tell they're about a vampire hunter who has an awful lot of sex. I'm not saying that's a bad, thing, either: she's made more money out of vampires having sex than I ever will out of other people's characters, so good luck to her.
Anyway, this Hamilton personage has written a blog post entitled Bleeding on my Keyboard. When I saw this at fandom_wank I had to look. I mean, blood? On your keyboard? I was half hoping it was going to be a Misery-esque writer horror story. It's not. It's a commentary on writing which I found hilarious for its pompous, melodramatic craziness.
Some very successful writers don’t seem to feel that emotional connection to their work, or at least not to the degree I do. I used to envy them until I realized the price of that cool distance.
Okay... I kind of understand this. In order to write successfully, I think, you need to feel empathetic toward your characters and your work. I do like the idea of the archetypal writer exorcising their demons, like Nicole Kidman in The Hours, but I don't think writing can always be like that. An emotional connection doesn't have to be a garment-rending one, just an understanding one.
What I do resent quite keenly is the "price" she so breathlessly alludes to, like this is some sort of literary PSA, for God's sake. Just because I don't "bleed on my keyboard", my writing isn't valid. Writing well is about doing what works for you. Maybe some writers do have deeply emotional connections to their work, maybe some have more remote ways of relating to what they write. Writing isn't all about chewing the scenery. Writers are normal people. This is a Byronic, over-romanticised perspective on writing. Minus the floppy shirt and the feather quill, it all falls a bit flat.
If my character’s sorrow does not make me cry, if their pain does not make me hurt, if their terror does not make me jump, if their lust does not make me shiver with delight, if their laughter does not make me smile, or even laugh out loud, then I’m not doing my job.
...Yeah, that just sounds a little bit crazy to me.
Some writers seem to be able to write the most horrible things and remain untouched. They’re like actors that can cry on command, then turn it off like a faucet, and it seems to mean just about as much to them as turning a handle. Then you have the actors that have to descend into the depths to bring the pain up for the camera, but it’s real pain they show on film, their own pain. I’m the second kind of artist.
*vomit*
Jennifer Armintrout, another vampire author who I haven't heard of at all (I had no idea vampire fiction was such a sub-genre unto itself) made a wonderful post in reply to this, here. "Barfing on my keyboard," indeed.
I, for one, am going to continue being shallow and without imagination. Not because of the dark holes that can swallow me up, but because I write fucking vampire books. They're supposed to be fun and entertaining and disposable. The day I forget that is the day I become an arrogant, insulting person who takes to their blog to lament the pain I feel from being the only author who really writes.
First of all, I like Jennifer Armintrout. She doesn't take herself too seriously, and her blog is awesome. In a later entry she compares her self to Mark Twain, saying that while Mark Twain was one of the greatest novelists of his time, she writes "novels about vampires fucking."
Second, I couldn't agree more.
I've quoted the choice bits of the entry here, but I highly recommend reading it for a laugh.
A couple of links as a garnish:
Youthful Offenders Restoring Luster to Diners of Old
An NY Times article from 2008 about youth offenders restoring old diners, which are a shining beacon of Americana to me. I was particularly struck by the bit about prison poetry and rap classes that censor language.
Since the Pakistan floods are in the news lately, although less so in the last week or so, have a look at The Dos and Don'ts of Disaster Donations. This is a very interesting blog on aid, entitled appropriately enough Good Intentions Are Not Enough.
The BBC has a great site up called BBC Dimensions. I highly recommend taking a look. It takes things like environmental disasters and historical events and lays them over a map of a certain place. Have a look at the Gulf Oil Spill over London.
This post at fandom_wank alerted me to a post at the blog of an author called Laurell K. Hamilton. At the time I was racking my brains trying to remember where I'd seen her stuff before -- I haven't read her books, but I did put about twenty of them on the system at the shop, once. As far as I can tell they're about a vampire hunter who has an awful lot of sex. I'm not saying that's a bad, thing, either: she's made more money out of vampires having sex than I ever will out of other people's characters, so good luck to her.
Anyway, this Hamilton personage has written a blog post entitled Bleeding on my Keyboard. When I saw this at fandom_wank I had to look. I mean, blood? On your keyboard? I was half hoping it was going to be a Misery-esque writer horror story. It's not. It's a commentary on writing which I found hilarious for its pompous, melodramatic craziness.
Some very successful writers don’t seem to feel that emotional connection to their work, or at least not to the degree I do. I used to envy them until I realized the price of that cool distance.
Okay... I kind of understand this. In order to write successfully, I think, you need to feel empathetic toward your characters and your work. I do like the idea of the archetypal writer exorcising their demons, like Nicole Kidman in The Hours, but I don't think writing can always be like that. An emotional connection doesn't have to be a garment-rending one, just an understanding one.
What I do resent quite keenly is the "price" she so breathlessly alludes to, like this is some sort of literary PSA, for God's sake. Just because I don't "bleed on my keyboard", my writing isn't valid. Writing well is about doing what works for you. Maybe some writers do have deeply emotional connections to their work, maybe some have more remote ways of relating to what they write. Writing isn't all about chewing the scenery. Writers are normal people. This is a Byronic, over-romanticised perspective on writing. Minus the floppy shirt and the feather quill, it all falls a bit flat.
If my character’s sorrow does not make me cry, if their pain does not make me hurt, if their terror does not make me jump, if their lust does not make me shiver with delight, if their laughter does not make me smile, or even laugh out loud, then I’m not doing my job.
...Yeah, that just sounds a little bit crazy to me.
Some writers seem to be able to write the most horrible things and remain untouched. They’re like actors that can cry on command, then turn it off like a faucet, and it seems to mean just about as much to them as turning a handle. Then you have the actors that have to descend into the depths to bring the pain up for the camera, but it’s real pain they show on film, their own pain. I’m the second kind of artist.
*vomit*
Jennifer Armintrout, another vampire author who I haven't heard of at all (I had no idea vampire fiction was such a sub-genre unto itself) made a wonderful post in reply to this, here. "Barfing on my keyboard," indeed.
I, for one, am going to continue being shallow and without imagination. Not because of the dark holes that can swallow me up, but because I write fucking vampire books. They're supposed to be fun and entertaining and disposable. The day I forget that is the day I become an arrogant, insulting person who takes to their blog to lament the pain I feel from being the only author who really writes.
First of all, I like Jennifer Armintrout. She doesn't take herself too seriously, and her blog is awesome. In a later entry she compares her self to Mark Twain, saying that while Mark Twain was one of the greatest novelists of his time, she writes "novels about vampires fucking."
Second, I couldn't agree more.
I've quoted the choice bits of the entry here, but I highly recommend reading it for a laugh.
A couple of links as a garnish:
Youthful Offenders Restoring Luster to Diners of Old
An NY Times article from 2008 about youth offenders restoring old diners, which are a shining beacon of Americana to me. I was particularly struck by the bit about prison poetry and rap classes that censor language.
Since the Pakistan floods are in the news lately, although less so in the last week or so, have a look at The Dos and Don'ts of Disaster Donations. This is a very interesting blog on aid, entitled appropriately enough Good Intentions Are Not Enough.
The BBC has a great site up called BBC Dimensions. I highly recommend taking a look. It takes things like environmental disasters and historical events and lays them over a map of a certain place. Have a look at the Gulf Oil Spill over London.