On Writing and Being Published
Sep. 4th, 2010 12:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
totchipandaWow, reading back through my journal for the last couple months, I have A: barely posted about anything, and B: talked a lot about writing.
This entry is also about writing.
I went to bed just before 2 last night with a bad migraine, complete with reeeeally bad nausea. I was awake for almost an hour passing up gas with the hope of not having to make a mad dash for the toilet. I must have fallen asleep for a short period of time, cuz I was next aware at 3:35, mostly migraine and nausea free. Laid awake for an hour, said "aw, fuck it," turned on a light and started to read. Finally decided at 6:30 that I was ready to try sleeping again, and even then it took me half an hour to get to sleep. Woke up at 9:33, and again at 10:33, and felt like I was awake enough to try being upright and mostly concious.
The book I read was an Insider's Guide to a series I just finished reading late August. I'm kinda surprised I haven't talked about it already, though I know I've mentioned it on Facebook. So, kind of a background, my coworker EJ had posted on FB in May that a book she was waiting for had been published in hardcover at the end of April and she just found out and was all OMG MUST READ. When I next saw her, she was reading and trying to explain the world to me, and I kind of just... absorbed it without retaining anything. Then a few later, my sister was posting about the same series and how she'd read all 7 books twice in the last two weeks and how she really wanted book 8 but it was only in HC... I put them in touch and EJ lent my sister the book, which she was super-happy about. Amber then lent me all 7 paperbacks, and I read EJ's book when I got to it. I finished the 8 books in about 2 months.
I had some issues at first... I have a hard time with terminology, and parts of it still bug me, but overall, I really love the world JR Ward built. I love that the vampires are not the same as humans, that they still need blood but it is best from their own species (and in this context, I don't mind male and female so much as I would in "human" fiction, as they are technically not men and women), and... I kinda forgot the other things I liked about it, atm, I'm still very tired. There are parts I don't like of course, the main one being that most of the heroines are completely forgettable (I still refer to one as a hussy, though I don't mind her as much now that she is no longer a main character). I'm not terribly fond of the matchy-matchy "everyone needs a Perfect Mate", but these are, after all, romance novels, and not as bad as when I tried to read the Dark Hunter series by Sherrilyn Kenyon... I REALLY love that she went places that few people in popular fiction try to go. One character is definitely bi, and into BDSM. Another character is totally gay, and is madly in love with his best friend who is also madly in love with him but refusing to admit it (if they don't wind up together, I am going to be Very Unhappy). There is a lot of plot with an over-arching theme that I really enjoy, and the sex is usually really good too ;)
So in the insider's guide, I just kinda skimmed large chunks of it, was terribly amused by the questionaire the boys were "made" to answer as it included the question "Kirk or Picard?" and then flipped back and forth through the various sections as I started to notice that she wrote not just about each book and each of the main heroes in them (6 books were available at the time the guide was done, with a sneak peek at the 7th at the end), but a lot about her writing process and her insight to the writing process and publishing. She talked about how the boys just showed up, started talking, and would not shut up until she started writing. She talked about getting a first draft done, even if it's craptacular, and then how she edits from rough draft to finished product.
The bit I loved best was, in giving tips for people who are looking to get published, she prefaced it all with "YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE PUBLISHED TO BE AN AUTHOR".
I kinda lost my train of thought, but that one line right there... I kind of love her for it. It really bugs me when people assume that because I write, clearly it means that I want to be published. It would be nice, yes, but my finishing process needs a loooooot more work before I'm ready for that. Heck, my starting process needs more work before that. It is not why I write. It is not even close to why I write.
This entry is also about writing.
I went to bed just before 2 last night with a bad migraine, complete with reeeeally bad nausea. I was awake for almost an hour passing up gas with the hope of not having to make a mad dash for the toilet. I must have fallen asleep for a short period of time, cuz I was next aware at 3:35, mostly migraine and nausea free. Laid awake for an hour, said "aw, fuck it," turned on a light and started to read. Finally decided at 6:30 that I was ready to try sleeping again, and even then it took me half an hour to get to sleep. Woke up at 9:33, and again at 10:33, and felt like I was awake enough to try being upright and mostly concious.
The book I read was an Insider's Guide to a series I just finished reading late August. I'm kinda surprised I haven't talked about it already, though I know I've mentioned it on Facebook. So, kind of a background, my coworker EJ had posted on FB in May that a book she was waiting for had been published in hardcover at the end of April and she just found out and was all OMG MUST READ. When I next saw her, she was reading and trying to explain the world to me, and I kind of just... absorbed it without retaining anything. Then a few later, my sister was posting about the same series and how she'd read all 7 books twice in the last two weeks and how she really wanted book 8 but it was only in HC... I put them in touch and EJ lent my sister the book, which she was super-happy about. Amber then lent me all 7 paperbacks, and I read EJ's book when I got to it. I finished the 8 books in about 2 months.
I had some issues at first... I have a hard time with terminology, and parts of it still bug me, but overall, I really love the world JR Ward built. I love that the vampires are not the same as humans, that they still need blood but it is best from their own species (and in this context, I don't mind male and female so much as I would in "human" fiction, as they are technically not men and women), and... I kinda forgot the other things I liked about it, atm, I'm still very tired. There are parts I don't like of course, the main one being that most of the heroines are completely forgettable (I still refer to one as a hussy, though I don't mind her as much now that she is no longer a main character). I'm not terribly fond of the matchy-matchy "everyone needs a Perfect Mate", but these are, after all, romance novels, and not as bad as when I tried to read the Dark Hunter series by Sherrilyn Kenyon... I REALLY love that she went places that few people in popular fiction try to go. One character is definitely bi, and into BDSM. Another character is totally gay, and is madly in love with his best friend who is also madly in love with him but refusing to admit it (if they don't wind up together, I am going to be Very Unhappy). There is a lot of plot with an over-arching theme that I really enjoy, and the sex is usually really good too ;)
So in the insider's guide, I just kinda skimmed large chunks of it, was terribly amused by the questionaire the boys were "made" to answer as it included the question "Kirk or Picard?" and then flipped back and forth through the various sections as I started to notice that she wrote not just about each book and each of the main heroes in them (6 books were available at the time the guide was done, with a sneak peek at the 7th at the end), but a lot about her writing process and her insight to the writing process and publishing. She talked about how the boys just showed up, started talking, and would not shut up until she started writing. She talked about getting a first draft done, even if it's craptacular, and then how she edits from rough draft to finished product.
The bit I loved best was, in giving tips for people who are looking to get published, she prefaced it all with "YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE PUBLISHED TO BE AN AUTHOR".
I kinda lost my train of thought, but that one line right there... I kind of love her for it. It really bugs me when people assume that because I write, clearly it means that I want to be published. It would be nice, yes, but my finishing process needs a loooooot more work before I'm ready for that. Heck, my starting process needs more work before that. It is not why I write. It is not even close to why I write.
