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Jul. 5th, 2005
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Nervous, puddy tat?
Jul. 5th, 2005 10:34 pmI meant to link to this a while back, because Ursula Vernon has, as usual, whanged the nail squarely on the head.
Anxiety Creature (don't forget to read her commentary, too).
This is also an excellent graphic rendition of how revising for publication makes me feel. Especially (and, before anybody says anything, I know this doesn't make any sense) the basic stupid stuff like providing the bits of backstory from Mélusine so that people who pick up The Virtu without having read it, or who don't have perfect recall of everything they read, don't get lost.
I admit that this is a fair cop. But, you know? I fucking hate it.
I think part of my problem is that I'm one of those people with perfect recall. (It's a great parlor trick, but otherwise? So useless.) So the reader in the back of my mind (you know the one, the one who's me, only me in my worst and nastiest mood with a fresh supply of venom and razor blades) is rolling her eyes going, Yeah, yeah, we KNOW this already, cut the crap, wouldya? I feel like I'm over-explaining, like I'm insulting my readers and wasting paper and ink in the process.
I know that's not true, but that feeling makes it (a.) really hard for me to concentrate, when concentration is pretty much the key to this sort of detail work; and (b.) really hard for me to judge where the line is between not giving enough information and giving too much. Summarizing everything that happened in Mélusine would be too much, I feel pretty sure of that, and what I've currently got is too little, because my editor says so and I believe her.
It makes me understand why authors stick those synopses (the ones I always skip) in the front of later volumes of a series. Sure, it's a cop-out, but it saves you from sinking up to your ass in this particular mire.
Also, my own hand-wringing over this is boring me to tears.
Tomorrow, I am going to make some decisions and abide by them and move the hell on.
So there.
Anxiety Creature (don't forget to read her commentary, too).
This is also an excellent graphic rendition of how revising for publication makes me feel. Especially (and, before anybody says anything, I know this doesn't make any sense) the basic stupid stuff like providing the bits of backstory from Mélusine so that people who pick up The Virtu without having read it, or who don't have perfect recall of everything they read, don't get lost.
I admit that this is a fair cop. But, you know? I fucking hate it.
I think part of my problem is that I'm one of those people with perfect recall. (It's a great parlor trick, but otherwise? So useless.) So the reader in the back of my mind (you know the one, the one who's me, only me in my worst and nastiest mood with a fresh supply of venom and razor blades) is rolling her eyes going, Yeah, yeah, we KNOW this already, cut the crap, wouldya? I feel like I'm over-explaining, like I'm insulting my readers and wasting paper and ink in the process.
I know that's not true, but that feeling makes it (a.) really hard for me to concentrate, when concentration is pretty much the key to this sort of detail work; and (b.) really hard for me to judge where the line is between not giving enough information and giving too much. Summarizing everything that happened in Mélusine would be too much, I feel pretty sure of that, and what I've currently got is too little, because my editor says so and I believe her.
It makes me understand why authors stick those synopses (the ones I always skip) in the front of later volumes of a series. Sure, it's a cop-out, but it saves you from sinking up to your ass in this particular mire.
Also, my own hand-wringing over this is boring me to tears.
Tomorrow, I am going to make some decisions and abide by them and move the hell on.
So there.
