Will to Write

So, cruising around the blogosphere, I spotted this gem of a post about writing and writing about writing. I'm not providing a link because, c'mon, I need to protect my sources of mock.

Cynicism setting in (updated)
I realize that it's been a while since I've done a writing craft or industry post. This is because, over the last few months, I've been feeling a growing sense of cynicism about whether such posts serve any real purpose. This is a combination, I suppose, of three things:

1) the sense that I'm preaching to the choir (i.e., anyone who really has an interest in improving their writing career and researching the industry is already reading blogs like mine

So...Little Miss Know It All (or LMKIA for short) claims to be cynical, of all words, because she feels that her posts serve no purpose - because they're already serving their purpose!

Logic much, LMKIA?

2) I keep getting the impression that a bunch of people simply want me and everyone like me to shut the fuck up, since we're published and therefore, it's "easy" for us to say that a particular agent is a bad idea, or a particular self-publishing model won't work and here's why, or that in general, the reason we're so skeptical about whatever fool thing they're trying is because we're jealous and elite and we want to keep the riff raff out.

Shut the fuck up?

Is this chick for real?

So she's not getting thousands of hits and hundreds of comments on her pearls of wisdom - but that equals people actively calling for her to shut the fuck up?

For the record, I've read her blog for a good, oh, year or so (mostly for giggles, but still) and I've nowhere seen anywhere "shut the fuck up" directed at her.

Well, maybe at HER, personally.

But not because of her writing advice.


Please. Have we met?

No, thank the deity of your choice. Watching you imitate a walking billboard for your book at RWA National was as close as I ever want to get to you.

I *so* want the riff raff in. I love me some riff raff.

Awwwww. Lookie, she's such a saint! She loves herself the unwashed masses!

I can't even begin to describe what is so wrong about her argument.

First, if you want to make a ridiculous argument go away, you don't codify it by referring to it ad naseum. Second, having seen LMKIA in action on several e-mail loops as well as on her blog, SHE'S the one who first calls attention to the divide between the high holy published authors and the unclean, leprous unpublished authors. But then, LMKIA is the first to talk about her competitive streak, so it doesn't surprise me.

And of course there is a distinction! Published authors learn first hand how to deal with a contract, sell through figures, marketing. No matter how educated unpublished authors are about the game, they still won't have the intrinsic experience and any learnings that come from it. It's like reading about sex, and actually participating in it. Some things you just have to DO.

This is why RWA has PAN, PRO and Member at Large levels. Or why organizations such as YPO (Young Presidents Organization) don't admit personal assistants. Or why sous chefs don't have their names above the restaurant door. People need different support at different stages of their careers, including writers. And That's. O. Kay.

Now, does that make unpubs any less of a person than the pubbeds? Of course not. Yet LMKIA likes to reduce the argument to peons versus patrons, and dismisses any other distinction between published/unpublished authors as mere jealousy. And That's. Not. O. Kay.

3) Sometimes people are listening without listening. "Scam agents suck," they agree, while writing out their checks. "No agent is better than a bad agent," they say, nodding emphatically, while justifying the fact that their agent won't return their calls, forward their rejection letters, or whatever other sketchy behavior is going on. Which is frustrating.

Someday LMKIA will learn that she can't make people behave to her specifications. Someday. But don't hold your breath.

So, am I a glutton for punishment or what? Because I keep pressing forward, posting things, glad whenever someone tells me that something I said helped them.

This is the most egregious begging for strokes I've ever seen.

"Oh, woe is me, I'm so 'cynical' (one wonders if LMKIA really knows what that word means as she's actually describing disillusionment, not cynicism) but yet I, the brave widdle soldier that I am, continue to march forward because my glorious candle, lit solely by the force of my ego, brings light and comfort to the few discerning riff-raff who are smart enough to worship the condescending pearls of wisdom that drip from my fingertips..."

If Moon Unit Zappa were recording novelty songs today, she'd gag LMKIA with her own spoon.

Oh, and I'm NOT the anonymous who commented on her blog, although I obviously applaud anonymous's fine insight. It's LMKIA's playground, she gets to say what she wants.

But I do love snarking her on my playground...

Wow, that's some dust bunny hiding under this journal.  

I love the concept of LiveJournal as it pertains to community.  I especially love the friendslist (even if I dislike the use of the word "friends" in this context) and the ability to create reading lists.

However, it's the journal concept of LiveJournal that I've been a little slow on.

So I'm resolving to change that.  Starting with a name change.  No more wanna_write, although I still do want to write.  This ties this journal in with my other home on the net, http://londonwriting.blogspot.com, which I use to (occasionally) journal my expat experience. 

I never know whether to use my real name or not on the internet.  Caution and a healthy fear of identity theft (I've had brushes with it in the past) have kept me semi-anonymous.  Plus, I have an unusual name, both first and last, so I tend to shy from putting my name out there because if I do something stupid or embarrassing (and I will), it's pretty hard to say, "Oh, no, that was the OTHER person who shares my name!"  Also, there's the whole connectedness thing I like about LiveJournal, but what if people come here and, like, hate me?  I do tend to err on the sarcastic and over-dramatic-for-the-sake-of-making-a-point side, after all.   After all, the internet doesn't come with video screens - yet - and so you can't see my expressions.

Wired had an interesting article about misreading e-mail.  According to the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , in a recent study people only correctly interpreted the sender's ton 50% of the time.   But they think they correctly interpreted it 90% of the time.

Inbetween, lie the flame wars.  :-)

I've been in a few scuffles and I've seen my share of verbal fisticuffs, which is another reason to keep quiet on the journal front.  After all, what if I say or do something stupid in the heat of the moment   and the world de-"friends" me?  I shouldn't care - well, yeah, I know I shouldn't, but I'm pretty hard-wired to want people to like me.  But nothing ventured, nothing gained, and all those cliches.

If you're not watching Veronica Mars - why not?

The series finale is tomorrow night, but the DVDs should be out in September, just in time for season two to start. To keep with this journal's (sadly neglected) writing theme, this has got to be one of the best plotted and best characterized series ever broadcast. Lots of great lessons in how to build arcs and sustain mystery in this one.

Smart TV on UPN - whodathunk?

I went to the London Book Fair yesterday.

( Long, rambling impressions )

I'm starting this journal for the following reasons:

1) There's a lot of interesting people in LJ-land. I want to have one comprehensive "friends" list to read, instead of bookmarking pages and visiting every day. If I have "friended" you, there is no need to friend back - but I hope you don't mind that I have added you to my list.

(Note on the use of "friend" - like some others have mentioned, I dislike LJ's use of the word. Reading list is far more accurate, and that's how I use the function.)

2) Most of the journals I visit are writers and/or in the publishing industry. And like the user and journal name suggest, I'm a (hopeful to be published) writer. However, I'm having a very hard time with AIS (no, not the insurance company, but Ass In Seat). I'm using this journal to practice fifteen minutes of writing, whatever pops into my head, in the hopes that it will jumpstart work on my very stalled WIP.

And...that's the first fifteen minutes down. Not a very productive in terms of word count, but it did help to clarify just what I want out of this journal.