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Writer Swallowed By Furniture, Film At Eleven

  • Jun. 11th, 2008 at 9:00 AM
bunbun
A few random things, since I have been buried under an avalanche of stuff lately, some personal, some home-related. I'll content myself with saying that as long as my kids are happy and healthy I still consider myself lucky. And as long as I can still write, all is well.

* Congratulations to Carla Demich and Sherry Williams, winners of signed Night Shift ARCs! Carla wrote a beautiful short-fiction piece dealing with Dante and Doreen, and Sherry--your blandishments have proved too much for me. Weak is a writer. Congrats also to Sarah Shelton, the runner-up, who shows us just what happened while Dante was on her slicboard ride in WFTD. Sarah, one more ARC has freed up. Winners, send your snail mail addresses to contest (at) lilithsaintcrow (dot) com. Also, Carla and Sarah, please enclose your permission for me to make the stories available to fans in a PDF, if you don't mind? I have many packages to mail this week--Elise, I am sorry the Chihuahua of Real Life has been humping my ankle something fierce lately. I'm on it, I swear.

* Next, a small aside. This makes me think of Babette's Feast. It makes me want to write a book. Lit-fic, no less. I'm sure I can go hold my head underwater and the urge will fade. Until then, though, I'll work on Weasel Boy.

Hey, I know my place. I'm a hack.

* Speaking of which, I've been informed my advice on writing is, to put it kindly, utter crap. Since I am, yanno, a hack. To which I say, aw, shucks. My little heart's allllll broke to pieces.

Heh. Not.

Seriously. I'm doing the best I can and sharing things I've found that work. Part of me bothering to make the Friday posts is demystifying a process that can pull a creative down if it's loaded with hoohaw and naysaying. This is work and it's hard work. The best I can do is tell you the signposts I've hacked out of the internal wilderness. They may not be your signposts, but they may help you find your own trail. If you don't like what I have to say about writing, for heaven's sake go read something else. The world's full of writing books, you can certainly find one to your taste. Better yet, write your own goddamn books. But don't email me with scurrilous ranting and expect me to be impressed. Especially when you can't goddamn punctuate.

So my work is genre. So what? I don't mind writing it and a couple people like to read it. That's good enough for me.

* This baking blog is utter, complete evil. Now I can't WAIT to bake Red Velvet cupcakes. I only wish I lived closer to the lovely, marvelous person who sent me the link--so I could bombard her with brownies. And cupcakes. Oooh, and the sesame bagels I have to make next.

* I'm 45K into a 75K book. The threads are coming together, the hero is On A Mission, the heroine is tied up and about to be visited by some very nasty characters, including her ex-husband. There will be much suffering and a Big Showdown.

It just doesn't get any better than this.

But what would I know, eh? I'm a hack.

*snicker*

*snort*

Comments

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[info]sidhevicious wrote:
Jun. 11th, 2008 06:45 am (UTC)
I don't know who had the gall to complain about your posts on the craft of writing, but I always look forward to them! I find them to be full of alot of useful information and as an aspiring writer, I can use any and all the help I can get.

Please keep them coming!
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[info]martianmooncrab wrote:
Jun. 11th, 2008 07:07 am (UTC)
Hacksaw, Hackysack, things both sharp and needing coordination... hackwriter.. the best to read..
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[info]neutronjockey wrote:
Jun. 11th, 2008 07:56 am (UTC)
I believe the word "hack" is derived from the horseworld. A hack being a reliable, trustworthy, hardworking --- I believe it was specifically referring to a horse used for work rather than pleasure.

While I won't deny you pleasure-use ... there is certainly nothing wrong with being a hack.
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[info]vila_resthal wrote:
Jun. 11th, 2008 10:02 am (UTC)
I happen to both enjoy your posts of writing tips, *and* find them useful. It sounds to me as if you were the target of a literary snob. I run into that type frequently - at least, off-line I run into a lot of literary snobs who look down their noses at me when they find out that I write science fiction. After they find out that I've been running an e-zine for the last eleven years they usually get disgusted and go away.

Don't sweat it. Their opinion is worth every penny that you paid them for it.

Dan
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[info]quietselkie wrote:
Jun. 11th, 2008 12:55 pm (UTC)
Point me to their comment where they slammed you, and I'll go EDIT IT. Muwahahaha! I'm certain I can find grammar and spelling and punctuation errors.

Trolls are trolls. Don't feed them, even if they want those sour grapes.
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[info]edg wrote:
Jun. 11th, 2008 02:34 pm (UTC)
If what I wrote in the comments of last week's post caused you offense, then I apologize for that and for the misunderstanding. I only meant to note an issue I saw in one of the examples you offered (and also noted that the point to which the examples were attached was still valid), and explain it since, in my experience, it's a very common issue.

However, I accept that it might have come off the wrong way. If it did, and in fact it came off so wrongly that you think that I think that your advice on writing is "utter crap", then I apologize for appearing to have said that, and I need to rethink the way I talk before I comment here again.
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[info]lilithsaintcrow wrote:
Jun. 11th, 2008 06:39 pm (UTC)
Erm, no. It clearly wasn't you--you said nothing about me being a hack. *grin* It was actually an email I received early this week. I appreciate the apology, but it so wasn't you.
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[info]edg wrote:
Jun. 11th, 2008 06:42 pm (UTC)
Thank you. I'm always a little nervous about that sort of thing. >_>
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[info]lilithsaintcrow wrote:
Jun. 11th, 2008 06:41 pm (UTC)
PS--Your points were properly punctuated, too. *another grin*
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[info]piggydiva wrote:
Jun. 11th, 2008 04:19 pm (UTC)
Hey, Friday night I scoured through my entire young adult novel and found (to my horror) 120+ instances of "that", which I was able to pare down to only 12! I also saw a few passive verbs lurking around that hadn't been found in my first million rewrites.

So obviously, I found your writing advice quite helpful! Thank you for posting it!
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[info]kazdreamer wrote:
Jun. 11th, 2008 07:05 pm (UTC)
If you're a hack who gives crap writing advice, I so can't wait to attain hackdom. ;)
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[info]quilterbear wrote:
Jun. 13th, 2008 07:26 pm (UTC)
me to, me too!!!
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[info]gloripebbles wrote:
Jun. 12th, 2008 03:33 am (UTC)
Not sure if you've seen it but was sent to an interview with Paul Cornell over at the SFX site & he too had the 'that' point noted. (Must be in the water, or airborn or something).

Ahh, the ole' hack statements have reared. Again. One of these days I'm going to make a badge "Hack me, genre me, ask me how" or something to that nature.

I second both martianmooncrab & neutronjockey. They speak words of wisdom.

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[info]benreeder wrote:
Jun. 16th, 2008 05:22 am (UTC)
You're a hack, eh? Even if it's true, you're a published "hack" which means you had to do something right. So, I'd take advice from a published writer before I'd take advice from an unpublished idiot who is throwing stones at a published writer. Or even a published idiot who's throwing stones at another published writer.
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