Barnes & Noble allows you to classify books when you rate them. Mine are classified under Escapism.
When I first saw that, I did a double-take. I’m toiling for months and months and months to write a book and readers are calling it escapism?
Wait a minute…
We all NEED a little escapism lately, don’t we? We need to immerse ourselves in other people’s problems, see them have a happy ending, thereby giving us a little hope that we’ll have a happy ending, too.
Okay, never mind.
Escapism is a PERFECT label, thank you!
I’m sitting here eating a crunchy salad, watching the rain, and thinking about doing a lot of things. I’ve been working on my website, and doing some housekeeping (computer) things. I will not allow myself to work on the WIP today, despite the brilliant ideas I have. Sometimes, a forced vacation is good for the brain.
Being in a contemplative frame of mind, I’ve decided to post thoughts about some miscellaneous things.
I’ve finished reading The Forest for the Trees: An Editor’s Advice to Writers by Betsy Lerner which I thought was an outstanding book until I neared the end. Lerner was finishing up her book, tying all the loose ends together and she made a comment that referenced all writers…from trashy romance to… Okay, that stopped me in my tracks.
Why are some people so quick to put those two words together? Trashy…romance… What the hell is so wrong with stories about relationships?
Which segues to the book I read for free on Kindle. Well, I couldn’t finish it. It was about a menage a trois, with this woman and two men, and I found it incredibly…boring. Yep, boring. No relationship, just Tab A into Slot B. Ho hum. I like stories where I know the people, where I care about the people. Didn’t know, didn’t care, and the first person who labels THAT book as romance is going to get hit with a paperback. But I’m not into violence, so don’t make me do it.
Which segues into Kindred in Death which I just finished reading. Mucho disappointed in that book, more than any of the other In Death books. Too much yuck, not enough relationship.
Which segues back to trashy romance…that comment makes me think the author is rather stagnant in her thinking – or out of the loop, if she hasn’t seen the recent romance statistics. I tend to want to spend time with people who have an open mind, who are not so fixed in pre-conceived notions that they’re unbendable. With that said, let me also hasten to add that I have several pre-conceived notions: love can heal, people are essentially good and noble and life is to be cherished.
Which segues into murder. What kind of person can kill? What kind of person can kill, and then not care? Yes, too many reality police procedurals.
Which segues back to – things I need to do, so back to work for me.
A well-known author, who often hits the number one slot on the NYT Bestseller List once said, in my hearing, that: “if they didn’t pay me to write, I wouldn’t.” Well, pat my bottom and call me Sadie but that isn’t me. I’d be writing even if nobody paid me. I have this compulsion to record what I think, to follow the thought – what if, to create.
When I was working for The Big Bank, and the Almost Big Bank, and even before that, I was always engaged in writing. I wrote articles for my day job, wrote the company newsletters, did motivational speaking, writing – you name it. Everything I did involved writing. At the same time, I wrote from 2:00 AM until 6:00 AM every day on my own books.
Once, it used to be a struggle for me to find time to do 1000 words a day. Now 3000 feels like vacation. I would never have thought myself capable of 500 blog posts a year. Now I do that, plus 3-5K words a day, plus articles, plus other writing assignments.
Sometimes, when I give myself the day off, I begin to squirm, and I’ve often wondered if it’s what an amphetamine addict feels like when he’s going off the stuff. I end up writing something, long, long emails to friends, notes in my journal, notes about the book.
I can’t NOT write (pardon the double negative).
Bottom line: The more you write, the more you write.
When I was in management, I was always careful to praise a subordinate in public but I never criticized anyone in public. Never. Maybe that’s why I’m so sensitive about the way people criticize others.
The other day I read a really vicious review posted at a “cough popular blog cough”. Okay, so maybe the book wasn’t any good, but it was good enough to give the writer of the snark review a couple of funny hours. What bothered me was the fact that hundreds of people commented on the review. I didn’t read all the comments, but no one seemed to give a rat’s derriere about the fact that there was a person sitting behind the keyboard.
I think you can really let a book have it without taking the author with it. How about saying, “I read this awful book last night…let me list a few things I thought were wrong with it,” without the snark?
Now, to all those people who will pop up with the following question: Does that mean you think authors are exempt from criticism? Criticism is fine. Cruelty isn’t. There’s a huge difference and most people know where the line is.
One more time. There’s a person sitting behind the keyboard.
James Moran had a great comment on his blog about criticism, and one with which I completely agree:
“Talk about the *work*, all you want. But lay off the person behind the work. Because I’m simply trying to tell you good stories. In the end, that is all I can do.”
What I read on that blog wasn’t ridicule. It went beyond that. It was vicious. Yet there were plenty of people ready to pile on with “Yeah, baby, you got it right, that’s awful.” Giggle, giggle.
Anyone else see the irony here?
Just exactly who was, well, awful?
I would put tunnel vision way up on the list of Necessary Qualities for Writers.
Tunnel vision is the ability to concentrate on your own goals to the exclusion of all else. It’s the ability to put your nose to the grindstone and ignore everything around you, including your own inner editor and is very helpful in the following situations:
- When people think your writing sucks (including you).
- When your sales have tanked and everyone else is hitting all kinds of lists.(Stop checking Amazon & Bookscan.)
- When someone else gets a deal you weren’t offered (and you think his/her writing sucks).
- When the deadline looms and you haven’t a clue how to pull this book together. (Just keep plodding along, one word at a time.)
While tunnel vision is very helpful in other occupations, it’s absolutely vital as a writer.
I have a Keurig coffeemaker I just adore. It brews single portions of coffee, tea, and hot chocolate. No longer do I have to grind the beans, etc. but I do have to buy the Keurig pods. The coffeemaker wasn’t cheap but when I got the unit from UPS, I opened it to discover that Keurig had packed 18 different types of coffee, tea, and hot chocolate pods with their unit so I could get started right away.
Okay, wow.
I order my Keurig pods from Amazon because they’re cheaper and I get free shipping. Unfortunately, however, I have to buy them in quantities of 50 at a time. When I want to order something smaller or try a new flavor, I go to Coffee.org. The other day I ordered some seasonal coffees. When I received the box today from Fed Ex, I was surprised to find that Coffee.org had also included a small gift of some extra coffee and hot chocolate pods, cookies, and a bar of chocolate. Also included was a hand written thank you note hoping that I liked my gift.
Okay, wow times 10.
The other day, I had to order a special laundry detergent that came from Beautyhabit via Amazon. They included a small bag of goodies (perfume samples and hand lotion) as well as a handwritten thank you note. (For detergent – I’ve never been thanked for buying detergent!)
Okay, wow again.
Bottom line, we need to say thank you to our customers, and every single one of us has a customer regardless of our roles in life. When customers are appreciated, when someone goes out of their way to let them know they’re appreciated, that they aren’t taken for granted, the customer remembers it.
I know I remember it. How about you? Any wow stories?
I get so tickled about 1 star reviews. No, I never read them. I get amused by my own reaction to them.
The other day, I got a 1 star review for a book that hadn’t received anything but glowing reviews to date. My first thought? Why do they hate me?
I’m here to tell you something earth shattering, so please make a note of it.
A writer cannot please every reader.
Yes, yes, I know, it’s been said a million times or maybe a million times a million. Each time I get a bad review, however, I have to keep that mantra in the forefront of my mind.
Writers are sensitive little creatures. If we weren’t, we couldn’t portray the human psyche. Consequently, we get our feelings bruised easily. Silly, really, when no one can please everyone all the time. It’s just against the odds.
Sometimes, however, we go into the launch of a new book believing we can.
Writers are also optimists. Or at least I am.
Seriously brilliant post from John August.
“You know who gets writer’s block? Non-writers. They think it’s cool and romantic to struggle to make Art. They make sure everyone knows how torturous the process is, so when they finally squeeze something out, it won’t be judged on its merits but rather the emotional anguish involved in its creation.
Writers write. Hacks Posers whine about how hard it is.”
My opinion? I don’t believe in Writer’s Block – never have.
When I can’t work it’s because there’s something wrong with what I’m working on, I’m tired, cranky, don’t feel like working or want to play.
I don’t believe in the Muse, either.
Not too long ago, I read – on a public message board – an author’s disparaging comments about her own publisher. Needless to say, I wanted to hand her a bandage immediately or attempt to stop the bleeding from the bullet hole in her big toe.
I guess I’m a little odd but I believe in demonstrating loyalty – to family, to friends, to co-workers, to the company that employs you. In my case, even if I had a problem with my publisher, my editor, or my agent, you’d have to pull out my fingernails before I’d mention it, either publicly or privately.
Loyalty is defined by the Encyclopedia Britannica as:
“LOYALTY, as a general term, signifies a person’s devotion or sentiment of attachment to a particular object, which may be another person or group of persons, an ideal, a duty, or a cause. It expresses itself in both thought and action and strives for the identification of the interests of the loyal person with those of the object.”
They go on to say: “At the same time, loyalty has a social function. Only man’s willingness, in cooperation with others, to invest his intellectual and moral resources generously and wholeheartedly in something beyond his own narrow circle has it been possible for communities of various kinds to emerge and continue to exist; among them, family, church and nation.”
I think the minute an author isn’t wholeheartedly willing to invest herself in the publisher/author relationship, she should pull out, go somewhere else, and keep quiet.
When I hear actors complain about the paparazzi, I just roll my eyes, and think of the scorpion.
A scorpion, being a very poor swimmer, asked a turtle to carry him on his back across a river. “Are you mad?” exclaimed the turtle. “You’ll sting me while I’m swimming and I’ll drown.”
“My dear turtle,” said the scorpion, “if I were to sting you, you would drown and I would die with you. Where is the logic in that?”
“You’re right,” said the turtle. “Then, climb on.” The scorpion crawled onto the back of the turtle. Halfway across the river, the scorpion stung the turtle. As the turtle was dying, he said, “Why did you do that? Now you’ll drown as well. You said it wasn’t logical for you to sting me.”
“Sadly, it has nothing to do with logic,” the drowning scorpion said. “It’s my nature.”
Actors use the paparazzi to enhance their public persona, to advance their career, to become famous. Then they complain when the monster they’ve created turns around and stings them.
I’d be willing to bet there’s a scorpion in each person’s life. The trick is to remember his nature and not be so surprised when you’re occasionally stung.
