Lilith Saintcrow

A few thoughts knocking around inside my head:

* No matter how much being a full-time writer sometimes sucks, I really, really like that I don’t have to work retail right now unless I choose to. I do volunteer at a bookstore (Cover to Cover Books in beautiful Uptown Vancouver, come and see us!) but I don’t have to deal with the General Public every day. As someone who has worked a lot of retail, this pleases me a great deal. Which is why I find this so amusing. Anyone who works retail or food service need a huge sense of humor and more endurance than Job.

* There’s a special place in hell for those who steal books. That being said, the Tome Raider is a huge plot bunny. My steampunky forensic sorceress and her two sidekicks (one of them a Sherlock-Holmesian master of observation and deduction) could SO use this story.

* Some thoughts on the “democratization of slush” that digital and self-publishing is opening up.

You’ve either experienced slush or you haven’t, and the difference is not trivial. People who have never had the job of reading through the heaps of unsolicited manuscripts sent to anyone even remotely connected with publishing typically have no inkling of two awful facts: 1) just how much slush is out there, and 2) how really, really, really, really terrible the vast majority of it is. Civilians who kvetch about the bad writing of Dan Brown, Stephenie Meyer or any other hugely popular but critically disdained novelist can talk as much trash as they want about the supposedly low standards of traditional publishing. They haven’t seen the vast majority of what didn’t get published — and believe me, if you have, it’s enough to make your blood run cold, thinking about that stuff being introduced into the general population.

Everybody acknowledges that there have to be a few gems out in the slush pile — one manuscript in 10,000, say — buried under all the dreck. The problem lies in finding it. A diamond encased in a mountain of solid granite may be truly valuable, but at a certain point the cost of extracting it exceeds the value of the jewel. With slush, the cost is not only financial (many publishers can no longer afford to assign junior editors to read unsolicited manuscripts) but also — as is less often admitted — emotional and even moral.

It seriously messes with your head to read slush. Being bombarded with inept prose, shoddy ideas, incoherent grammar, boring plots and insubstantial characters — not to mention ton after metric ton of clichés — for hours on end induces a state of existential despair that’s almost impossible to communicate to anyone who hasn’t been there themselves: Call it slush fatigue. You walk in the door pledging your soul to literature, and you walk out with a crazed glint in your eyes, thinking that the Hitler Youth guy who said, “Whenever I hear the word ‘culture,’ I reach for my revolver” might have had a point after all. Recovery is possible, but it’ll take a while (apply liberal doses of F. Scott Fitzgerald). In the meantime, instead of picking up every new manuscript with an open mind and a tiny nibbling hope, you learn to expect the worst. Because almost every time, the worst is exactly what you’ll get. Laura Miller, Salon

Oh, God. SO TRUE.

* This brings me to another train of thought: people are once again yelling wildly that digital and self-publishing are nails in the coffin of trad publishing. Um, no. One of the things very few people who sound off about this realize is that digital publishing, (most of) self-publishing, and e-readers largely presuppose a number of things:

-an infrastructure to deliver Internet service
-disposable income/sweat equity to pay for some aspects of self-publishing, and definitely to pay for marketing
-access to or disposable income to buy Internet service
-access to a computer or the disposable income to buy a computer
-access to or the disposable income to buy an e-reader
-that the quality control a trad publisher delivers (editing, copyediting, art departments, proofing, production values) Doesn’t Count

I’m not saying that digital or self-publishing is bad. Far from. I just don’t think a lot of the underpinning assumptions beneath grand sweeping statements about the Death of Trad Publishing or about how Trad Publishers Are Keeping Quality From The Masses are founded on any kind of reality. Plenty of people who are very vocal in this discussion don’t realize that the Internet and e-readers aren’t ubiquitous, it just feels like they are if you have access and income enough to take advantage of them. Self-published successes, or so-called “digital” successes, are still the exception rather than the rule, and trad publishing has better resources and a better track record at this point in time. Trad publishing also makes books available to a vast mass of people who aren’t privileged enough to be plugged in. Sherman Alexie made this point not too long ago:

Having grown up poor, I’m also highly aware that there’s always a massive technology gap between rich and poor kids. I haven’t yet heard what Amazon plans to do about this potential technology gap. And that’s a vital question considering that Bezos wants to change the way we read books. How does he plan to change the way that poor kids read books? How does he plan to make sure that poor kids have access to the technology? Poor kids all over the country don’t have access to current textbooks, so will they have access to Kindle? Sherman Alexie, Edrants

I have very mixed feelings about ebooks. Part of this is because I’m very in love with the sensuous experience of reading a physical book–the smell of the paper, the feel of the pages. Partly because used bookstores and libraries were my salvation before the Internet existed, they were my salvation when I was too poor for a high-speed connection or indeed any connection at all, and they still continue to be the places I patronize when looking for books, because I don’t want to spend the money on an e-reader and deal with the hassle of platform changes, technology burps, and the distributor deciding to take things off my private electronic device even after I’ve paid for them–I could go on and on.

A greater part of my mixed feelings about ebooks comes from the fact that I can look at torrenting sites and see people stealing my work. (Mike Briggs addresses this eloquently in his Copyright And Free piece.) Maybe my books are shoplifted from brick-and-mortars, I don’t know. But I can look and see them being stolen online, and that irritates me.

Now I’ve got some more fiction to commit. Like I said, these are just some thoughts knocking around inside my head today. Make of them what you will, and play nice in comments.

See you around.

Well, the tattoos are done. I was just in for touchups and everything is damn beautiful, if I do say so myself. Pictures will be forthcoming once film is developed. (If you’re curious, my artist is Sumer Johnson out at Dark Star. She does great work.)

Today is a gorgeous day, seventy degrees and sunny, with just enough of a gentle breeze. Since I’m writing a roadtrip that takes place in 90+ degree weather and nearly 100% humidity, it’s a bit difficult. It’s just hard to write angst and physical discomfort when it’s a beautiful day and all is well with the world. But I shall persevere. What a problem to have, huh? I’m not complaining, just noting.

For those of you who are asking, I am hard at work on the fifth Strange Angels book. There is as of yet no title for it, but things are…interesting. That’s all I can say until Jealousy comes out. Also in the pipeline is Angel Town, the last Jill Kismet book for a while. Copyedits on the latest Jill book, Heaven’s Spite, proceed apace. It’s nice to be busy. I prefer it to pretty much every other state.

In other news, I can finally listen to love songs again, and I can finally listen to more Blue October. Which is awesome. My taste in music retracts like a bruised anemone sometimes, and it’s always good when it creeps back out. I feel kind of crippled when there’s music I can’t play while I write. So much of the creative process is bound up in having music playing while I work. I know other writers like silence or the television’s mutter, but for me it’s CDs or Pandora.

Anyway, it’s time to hammer at the roadtrip again. I’m pretty sure of what happens next. After some respectable wordcount it will be time to lay in the backyard on a blanket and listen to the kids tell me about their days at school.

I really couldn’t ask for anything more.

Crossposted to the Deadline Dames, where there was RT madness all last week! Go check it out!

It’s Friday again! And I’m home. Which means a Friday writing post, right? Except I got nothin’. My brain is dry and bare as old Mother Hubbard’s cupboard. My wordcount has shot up now that I’m not scraping the bottom of the barrel for emotional energy, and the current novels are in shoving matches over every spare neuron they can find. So this week I’m going to serve up three random things about writing. Your mileage may vary, of course, all standard disclaimers apply.

Ready to get random? Let’s dig in.

* Know the rules–and when to break them. Language has rules. That’s what stops it from being meaningless grunting. People agree on those rules so we can communicate clearly to each other. Communicating clearly is a writer’s job. So keep brushing up on your knowledge of your language.

I keep four dictionaries and three thesauri (of differing sizes), two visual dictionaries, the Transitive Vampire, the Well-Tempered Sentence, the Writer’s Reference, Eats, Shoots, & Leaves, a Bartlett’s Familiar, the AP stylebook, the Little, Brown handbook, three Strunk & White’s, and several baby name books on my reference bookshelf. (I should also have a Chicago Manual of Style, I just haven’t picked one up yet.) I refer to them all. I still frequently make mistakes. (Thank God for copyeditors.) When I come across a word I don’t know, I spend the time to look it up. I love AWAD. I flat-out love language and the arcane rules of grammar.

Words are your tools. But most of the joy in writing comes from breaking rules effectively or using words and language in fresh ways. Without a thorough understanding of the rules, you absolutely cannot break them effectively. It ends up looking like an uneducated mess. Even the most talented writer in the world absolutely NEEDS to keep studying language and refreshing their memory or finding out new things.

So, get curious about language. Look up the rules and get to know them, buy them a drink and take them out for dinner. Then when it’s time, you can slip your hand up the skirt of language and produce something wonderful.

* Want to get good enough to be published? Write every day. Haven’t I learned my lesson? I always get flak when I post this. But I keep saying it, because I believe it’s important. No day is too busy that you can’t find ten or fifteen minutes to write. Plus, getting into the habit of doing it every day will help on those days when you Don’t Wanna Butya Hafta. It also makes the point, to yourself and to others, that writing is important. I won’t go through the entire list of why I give this advice and why I think it’s critical. I’ll let Sean Ferrell make the most important point here.

I write every day. Especially when I don’t feel like it. Especially when it’s not working. I can always choose to not use something that I wrote and that I realize later is the wrong tone, doesn’t fit, contradicts other parts. I can’t decide to use something that isn’t written. I can’t use something that is still in my head. Better to have something come out half right than have all of it perfectly in my skull. (Sean Ferrell)

You can’t revise what doesn’t exist. ‘Nuff said.

* Realize someone is not going to like it, no matter what. An agent might not like your submission. After you get an agent a publisher may not like the piece. After a publisher likes it an editor might not like it unless you revise x, y, and z. After the editor’s happy a Reader might not like it; even if a Reader likes it a reviewer may pan it. Someone, somewhere, is going to be unhappy with your book/short story/poem/song/painting/grocery list/whatever.

Deal with it.

Look, you can print out negative reviews and give them funerals or bonfires in the back yard. Pile up your rejection slips and swear at them as foully as you like, make a voodoo doll just for rejections. You can stamp and scream all you want in the privacy of your home. But in public (and the Internet is public, folks) DO NOT ENGAGE. Don’t bitch about how an agent/publisher/editor/reader/reviewer/fellow writer doesn’t get your geeeeeeeenius. Don’t sockpuppet Amazon reviews or get involved in Internet slapfests. It is not worth it. You end up rolling around in sh!t with a pig; you’ll get dirty and perhaps catch a filthy disease, while the pig will still be grunting and happy. It’s not worth it.

Instead, spend your time writing. Let every rejection, bad review, hard edit, or misunderstanding be an invitation do do better. Anything else is a waste of your time. (This is partly why I don’t respond to reviews, positive or negative, ever.)

Besides, the time you spend keening and moaning or engaging in Internet slapfests is time you could spend writing and getting better. That is the real point of this game, not level-pegging with someone who has decided they don’t like your work. You will not be able to convince someone to like you with pleading or threats, you will always come off looking like the asshole. Don’t do it.

And that, my dears, is a random Friday three. It’s all stuff I’ve said before, but it bears repeating. Now I’ve got to get that werwulf’s teeth out of the supermarket manager’s throat. I suppose I should add that: enjoy your work. Write what makes your socks roll up and down. Write, in other words, what you love.

Why else would we do this, anyway?

Over and out.

Just had a surprise visit from a very nice young man from the cable company. He found the source of the persistent problem I’ve been having, and fixed it in under twenty minutes. That was nice. Between that and the absolutely fantastic run I had this morning, today is apparently going to be lucky. Maybe I should buy a lotto ticket. *snort* Nah, I’ll just settle for getting my wordcount and errands all done in today.

Here, have a link: Ilona Andrews explains further about ebook pricing and distribution.

I have to admit I was naughty yesterday after I finished wordcount. I watched Dracula 2000 again–mostly because my hairdresser friend texted me about Gerard Butler and once I started thinking about it I was helpless and HAD to watch that movie. They don’t let him talk much, which is a good thing. He’s so pretty and brooding. Then I actually picked up smoke and reread it. I don’t do that often, and of course I see glaring errors in the book and Rose irritates me almost to tears, and I want to absolutely strangle Michael every time. But I think it’s time for me to schedule in some work on avatar.

So, yes, naughty. But I got my wordcount in, and it felt good to relax a little bit. I am slowly relearning the skill of actual relaxation. I haven’t had much call to practice it in the last twenty-eight years or so, and my fumbling attempts at taking a chill or two are probably hilarious to watch. That’s okay. At least I do it at home, where looking ridiculous is sort of expected.

That being said, I’ve got more words and appointments today. So it’s back into the fray, dear ones, where I shall harvest what luck I may. Catch you later.

Most of the Dames are at RT this week. (You can see some fun pics here and here and here.) I, however, am at home. (Well, mostly.) I am actually engaging on a mini-vacation before my drop-dead date hits.

A “drop-dead date” is the date I set myself when I’m looking at publication schedules and figuring out how much time I need to produce a certain novel. I have to carefully look at what else I’m under deadline for during that time; turning in 18-hour days are no fun. Well, they’re fun, but hardly healthy. I do occasionally have to shower and do laundry and spend time with the little ones I’m working to feed. Go figure.

The drop-dead is usually a week after I’ve finished something else. I try to have at least one or two weeks a year when I’ve turned everything due in, during which i can kind of power down and write on trunk novels, or just on little things for my own private delectation.

My drop-dead for starting the next novel is May 1, so this is my last day of kind-of vacation. I’m still producing about 1K a day on different things, but that’s just to keep the pump primed. It’s nice to write to deadline, but it’s also nice to write solely for one’s own enjoyment.

So, I’m just going to have a link salad today. Since I’m resting and all.

* Yesterday I talked about trunk novels and e-book pricing. I am monitoring the comments pretty closely, because there has been trollage. I laugh quietly at the trollage and then hit ban, so play nice.

* How many ways can a mystery writer kill a character? Parnell Hall takes a stab at answering. (Hat tip to the Dame who brought this up. I love it.)

* Only tangentially about writing: does a “thick skin” mean you just have to put up with harassment?

* Did I already post this? Advice on writing from 15 fiction writers.

* Asimov’s is accepting electronic submissions! Huzzah!

* Marjorie Liu’s awesome new video game.

* Want some hilarity? Are you a Labyrinth fan? Do I have a blog post for you. Jareth goes traveling.

A bit thin on writing advice, but sometimes one just has to take a while to be amused and fill up the well of images we draw on to make these stories. If I were to advise for the week, this is what I’d say: be conservative in what you estimate you can do. I can work on three novels in tandem and turn out a short story every two months while doing so, but I don’t recommend it and I don’t precisely like to. I like to either work on two contracted novels OR a novel with various short stories due every couple months. This gives me some time to actually breathe between projects. Your mileage may vary, but I find it’s a good rule to start with about half of what you think you can. You can always revise upward and provide someone with a nice surprise–a book finished early, or a really precisely-edited short. The quality of relaxed work is usually much higher. And you get the reputation of being a hard, turn-things-in worker instead of a fruitcake who’s always rushed or late.

Trust me, you want the former.

If you have a specific writing question, feel free to drop it in the comments. I can’t promise to answer everything, but I do take questions from comment threads and email and build writing posts around them. Just thought I’d mention it. *sly grin*

Over and out.