Something for Me To Remember Having Seen

[liralen]

amberley helped me see that in a world where Dan Brown's books (which I throw, repeatedly, against a wall for being technically inaccurate and utterly stupidly simplistic) outsell, by orders of magnitude, Sean Stewart's books; that it is well to remember that I actually would far rather write more like Sean Stewart than Dan Brown. And if my popularity suffers for it, so be it, I'd rather be true to my stories.

Comments

[crimini.livejournal.com]

You're right; the best thing a writer can do is tell the story she wants to tell. Don't write to market, don't write what's considered trendy at the moment.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Yeah, well... trying to catch a trend is like trying to catch... any kind of market. *laughs* The technical industry is like a beautiful example of how not to do it, too, I guess.

Excellent advise. It's good to have revelations enforced.

Thank you.

[r0ck3tsci3ntist.livejournal.com]

You have to write what you want to write, otherwise why bother?

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Oh... lots of reasons. *laughs*

Uhm. peer pressure... uhm... doing what you think folks want... uhm... trying to avoid what you think folks wouldn't like about you if they knew... uhm... trying to avoid the dreaded "that's so ooc!" (which would have made "Laughing in the Rain" impossible actually). Uhm...

Sometimes to stretch, too.

It's weird. Up until fairly recently I've felt constrained, in some ways, by being a relatively new fanfic writer and trying to comply to the memes and common stuff folks do and write...

... and I guess this was a way to say I'm trying to shrug more of it off.

[r0ck3tsci3ntist.livejournal.com]

Sure, but remember you're not getting paid here. If it isn't fun then what's the point?

As far as the Sayuki fic goes, I'm afraid that I don't know the series well enough to tell if it was ooc. I did like the writing and the sentiment though. I thought it was quite well handled. Sure, it was angsty but that was the nature of the prompt and I liked what you did with it.

Not every piece will be a hit even if it's your best work. Popularity often has very little to do with the quality of the piece. Hell, I'm guilty of it too. If a fic or a piece of art appeals to me in a certain way, I'll overlook wandering pov or bad anatomy and whatnot. lol I've had a lot of pieces that I thought were pretty good completely tank. And there are some really good writers out there that I haven't explored because I'm just not into what they are doing at the moment.

It's hit or miss. The people that seem to hit all the time are just lucky enough to be into what's popular. Does that make any sense?

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Yeah, totally. *grins*

I think that, for me, some of the payment is in the feedback, actually. In getting to know that something touched on a truth in someone. Sure, I don't get paid with money, but I don't care about money anymore, and it's other things, now that feed me.

So while I want to pander for that, it's not fruitful to just go for that. *laughs* Because then I do write stuff that I just hate. *wry grin*

But, yeah, that my best work may well still not be popular, and that's fine, as you said, I've also seen polished prose that had no heart to it, and something that really touched me that jumps povs and has bad grammar. *grins* And a lot of what I do just won't get seen because I'm not in the right networks and that's... okay, really.

And, yeah, I have to agree now, that I really have to write what I really do need to write...

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Oh, and bemusingly enough, after posting it to the Saiyuki fandom comm, the Saiyuki fans that commented on it loved it. So my internal fears were completely unjustified. *laughs*

[r0ck3tsci3ntist.livejournal.com]

See? ^^

[liralen.livejournal.com]

*falls over giggling*

Yeah... it's not fun facing my fears... but... needful, I think, and just write it the way I need to.

Thank you!!!

[marith.livejournal.com]

That's much the best choice, I think too. To make something you yourself are pleased with and proud of, surely that's the highest achievement for an artist.

Hm, I just finished reading Secret Lives by E.F. Benson, which is this awesome funny book from the 1930s about (among other people) the author of really cliched, really popular romance novels. She keeps her professional identity secret because all respectable highbrow people disdain her books and only read them to point and laugh. (Not that some of them aren't closet fans.) The books really aren't very good at all, but she loves writing them *so much* I couldn't help but admire her and cheer her on.

It made me wonder about books in general, and whether the enthusiasm of the author is a significant factor separate from the quality of the writing. Can you tell when reading a novel whether it was churned out as a business task or whether it was the heart's treasure of the writer? How about a nonfiction book? How does it affect the reading experience? It'd be interesting to come up with examples.

...That's way more interesting to think about than work. Rats. :)

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Ooo... *neat* premise!! YAY that she *loved* doing what she was doing. Mmmm... romance novels. *laughs* I love romance novels, used to read a dozen of 'em a week at a time as a an anti-depressant, worked wonders sometimes.

If she *loved* doing it, I'd cheer her on, too.

I do wonder about books, too. It's obvious, in fanfic, when an author is writing the story because they *have* to or if they want to. There's some stories where it's really, really obvious the author really hates a particular set of characters, and they really portray them without any sympathy whatsoever...

I know I write what I write because it grabs me and I love the characters or setting or something else in there and just have to get it out. It would be hard to write something I didn't love. Even what I don't know, I research until I at least understand. That's where it was pretty obvious mr. Brown had no love of error correcting codes. *laughs*

[ross-teneyck.livejournal.com]

Yes, but let's not forget that Eye of Argon was a labor of love too :)

As for Dan Brown, oh God I agree. I read The Da Vinci Code on the theory that if so many people were so nuts about it there must be something to it. I really do not understand why it was so popular. Setting aside the whole Jesus/Mary-Mag thing, it was crappily written. The whole first half of the book was chapters that were about a page and a half long, and every single one ended on a cliffhanger. Those yahoos couldn't walk fifty feet without encountering a tense moment. And the clumsy infodumps, and the weird fetishism for fine furnishings... gah.

On the other hand, do you remember the court case where some of the Holy Blood, Holy Grail guys were suing Dan Brown for copyright infringement? Did you see where the judge's ruling had a secret code embedded in it? That was cool.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Is that a way of saying that my writing is like the Eye of Argon??? *laughs and aughs all at once*

And, yeah. Gah.

I loved the judge's ruling. *laughs and laughs* That was the only really thing about all of that.

[marith.livejournal.com]

Perhaps Eye of Argon being a labor of love has something to do with its enduring infamy. Like Ed Wood movies, some things have to be good to be *that* bad.

(not that I know anything about the circumstances under which EoA was written, just a guess)

[ross-teneyck.livejournal.com]

I'm just saying that "labor of love" is not a guarantee of quality, is all :)

The Wikipedia page has a history of the story.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Amen. *grins*

[ross-teneyck.livejournal.com]

Speaking of Ed Wood, I remember a review of the movie of his life (which I never got around to seeing, unfortunately) that said that the tragedy of Ed Wood was that he was filled with a burning all-consuming passion for one thing only, namely making movies, and he had absolutely no talent at it. But the saving grace of Ed Wood was that he had no idea that he had no talent...

[marypcb.livejournal.com]

and doesn't Benson do snark *beautifully*

[sophiap.livejournal.com]

Preach it. I'd rather have a few people truly love what I write than be wildly successful. Knowing that my stories are the things that become people's 'comfort reading' would mean more to me than a position on a bestseller list.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Wow... that's a good one, too.

Someone was telling me that they were reading my fanfic as comfort material while they were going through some surgery procedures and that meant the world to me.

[ginnyvos.livejournal.com]

*huggles* And right you are. Write whatever the hell you want and not what people want to see... If you do, it won't be real anyway.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

*hugs* Thank you!!