My fantasy is to become like Jane Yolen, who just wrote so many books that she got asked to edit things. Because I think actually breaking into the editorial industry would kill me, as I am incapable of thinking in a business-y manner without wanting to hit things or laugh scornfully.
I really love everything Margaret Atwood says about writing.
My work library has a couple of copies of Negotiating with the Dead so I'll pick up a copy tomorrow to read over the weekend. I don't really like her fiction, but I've listened to her thoughts on SF & F (she did commentary for a BBC series on British SF) and she comes across as such an intelligent and fascinating woman. It would be lovely (and intimidating, I think) to sit down and have a conversation with her.
I suspect that one is akin to writers who carefully surround themselves with nothing but admirers, and choke off any discourse that isn't fulsome praise. Or writers whose investment is in personal admiration as much as they want their writing admired.I was talking with another LJ friend yesterday, and we concluded that some aspiring writers work so hard to explain away criticism of their work that they never actually learn how to think critically themselves. And therefore, they can't tell the difference between a useful crit and a not-useful one. So they reject everything out of hand, or get desperate and take it all on willy-nilly, and get no benefit out of either
( ... )
Yes--I think that's exactly what Connolly and Atwood are warning against, re published writers.
Re unpublished, the ability to explain away all criticism as that from brainless twits is an entirely human trait . . . but also fairly guaranteed to net one a very small readership.
Re unpublished, the ability to explain away all criticism as that from brainless twits is an entirely human trait
I always say that everything in life can be compared to horse training--you really do have to put in the miles and the wet saddle blankets, so to speak, to learn to tell a useful crit from a useless one. And that means thinking through all of them, at least at first. "Okay, suppose I did do what the crit suggested? How would that work?"
Deciding the person who offered the crit is an idiot is a much easier option, but it stunts your growth as well as your readership. (Not you, you, obviously. More... well, me. I'm working on it!)
On the other hand, being popular for political reasons can be literally fatal to the artist, if the political fashion changes suddenly.
But those with the human touch may be ruined as artists: Connolly says, "Neither harsh reviews, the contempt of equals, nor the indifference of superiors can affect those who have once tapped the great heart of suffering humanity and found out what a goldmine it is."
Laurell K Hamilton. Anne Rice. J K Rowling. Anyone whose books have clearly not felt the hand of an editor in lo, these many years.
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I really love everything Margaret Atwood says about writing.
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Merry
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Re unpublished, the ability to explain away all criticism as that from brainless twits is an entirely human trait . . . but also fairly guaranteed to net one a very small readership.
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I always say that everything in life can be compared to horse training--you really do have to put in the miles and the wet saddle blankets, so to speak, to learn to tell a useful crit from a useless one. And that means thinking through all of them, at least at first. "Okay, suppose I did do what the crit suggested? How would that work?"
Deciding the person who offered the crit is an idiot is a much easier option, but it stunts your growth as well as your readership. (Not you, you, obviously. More... well, me. I'm working on it!)
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But those with the human touch may be ruined as artists: Connolly says, "Neither harsh reviews, the contempt of equals, nor the indifference of superiors can affect those who have once tapped the great heart of suffering humanity and found out what a goldmine it is."
Laurell K Hamilton. Anne Rice. J K Rowling. Anyone whose books have clearly not felt the hand of an editor in lo, these many years.
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