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truepenny1. This is now quite possibly my favorite ad of all time.
2. John Scalzi has declared this International Grover Appreciation Day. Personally, my heart belongs to Mr. Snuffleupagus.
3. I'm finally starting to feel better. I still clearly have a cold, but I don't feel like I'm devolving into some horrible crawling mucus-monster anymore. We're gonna count that as a win.
4. It's snowing.
5. This is going to sound flip, but I swear it's a serious question. Do you ever have days where you get up and look at your current project and think, What the fuck IS this shit? Who in their right mind is ever going to take this seriously?
I'm sure this question applies to all fiction--and, in fact, all projects--but I mean it specifically in terms of the sfnal or fantastic element. Because the telepathic dire wolves got me that way this morning. And, obviously, there's already been one book published about the telepathic dire wolves and people have not fallen over themselves laughing at it, so this isn't like a rational or legitimate concern--which is why I'm asking: does this happen to anyone else?
2. John Scalzi has declared this International Grover Appreciation Day. Personally, my heart belongs to Mr. Snuffleupagus.
3. I'm finally starting to feel better. I still clearly have a cold, but I don't feel like I'm devolving into some horrible crawling mucus-monster anymore. We're gonna count that as a win.
4. It's snowing.
5. This is going to sound flip, but I swear it's a serious question. Do you ever have days where you get up and look at your current project and think, What the fuck IS this shit? Who in their right mind is ever going to take this seriously?
I'm sure this question applies to all fiction--and, in fact, all projects--but I mean it specifically in terms of the sfnal or fantastic element. Because the telepathic dire wolves got me that way this morning. And, obviously, there's already been one book published about the telepathic dire wolves and people have not fallen over themselves laughing at it, so this isn't like a rational or legitimate concern--which is why I'm asking: does this happen to anyone else?
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Date: 2010-02-15 07:08 pm (UTC)Strangely enough it was also related to dire wolves, but in a fairly distant way.
The editor loved it.
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Date: 2010-02-15 07:09 pm (UTC)Yes, constantly. It usually follows right on the heels of the "this is the greatest idea ever" phase.
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Date: 2010-02-15 07:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-15 07:21 pm (UTC)Yes and it applies to more occupations than just writing.
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Date: 2010-02-15 07:24 pm (UTC)Absolutely. And often. It's less about the writing quality or the story than it is about the strange elements in it, and how people will react to them. My worst point was a couple of years ago -- I sat back and said to myself, "WTF? No one is going to buy this. My main character is a partial albino with possessed hands, the love interest is a non-gendered desert chief, and there's snake gods and sentient cactus-monsters and..." It was a serious project. But when I thought too much about it, it was so far removed from your typical Fantasy that my brain short-circuited. After I realized that, it was easier. Sure, the story elements were a little weird, but I didn't want to have a typical story.
In the end, that's the reason why I buy your books. They're not full of hackneyed, overplayed genre conventions and cliches -- they're weird, original, and surprising. I think that's the market needs. "Average guy becomes hero, saves world, and gets girl in twelve volumes" isn't fun anymore, because everyone did it. I'm sure the telepathic dire wolves would get just as old if everyone wrote about them, but as far as I know, you and Bear are the first (and you do it well), and that's what makes them awesome.
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Date: 2010-02-15 07:27 pm (UTC)All the damn time, particularly in a month I am dedicating to writing a grant application.
(Deep breaths, and reminding myself "it seems obvious and simple to you because you have been doing this specific thing in detail for eleven years and there are maybe half a dozen people in the world for whom this is true, and you've worked with enough of them that they won't be reviewing the thing because of conflict of interest issues" is sort of helping there. Sort of.)
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Date: 2010-02-15 07:28 pm (UTC)Yup.
Why would anyone ever want to read about a trip to hell set in not!Heian Japan, or a steampunk French Revolution?
No good answer, but if I don't write them, no one's going to get the choice.
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Date: 2010-02-15 07:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-15 07:34 pm (UTC)Yeah.
The real world is even weirder, though.
P.
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Date: 2010-02-15 07:57 pm (UTC)Also, clearly Cookie Monster is the best SS Muppet.
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Date: 2010-02-15 08:03 pm (UTC)The Running With the Squirrels one is pretty good, too.
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Date: 2010-02-15 08:07 pm (UTC)Glad you are feeling less like a mucus monster.
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Date: 2010-02-15 08:41 pm (UTC)While I agree with the sentiment, I can't help but feel it's an affront to the natural order of the universe to mention truepenny and the Twilight woman in the same sentence. :-)
That "WTF is this?" feeling is the reason this page exists: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BetterThanItSounds
I suppose everything's batshit insane if you look at it from the right perspective. Until the telepathic dire wolves sparkle in sunlight, it's all good.
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Date: 2010-02-15 09:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-15 09:41 pm (UTC)Excuse me, but who gave you permission to enter my brain and listen in? :-D (Hope that answers your question.)
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Date: 2010-02-15 09:47 pm (UTC)Then I remind myself that I write comedy, and if they take it seriously the joke's on me -- while if they don't, the joke's on them.
---L.
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Date: 2010-02-15 10:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-15 10:32 pm (UTC)Also, my great accomplishment so far for February has been assisting with the processing of Santa Claus's claim for disability benefits, so yeah,
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Date: 2010-02-15 10:36 pm (UTC)I will read your telepathic dire wolves and promise not to laugh.
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Date: 2010-02-15 10:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-15 10:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-15 11:27 pm (UTC)YES.
Case in point, ALL OF YESTERDAY.
::grumbles::
("Don't let anybody tell you it's easy.")
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Date: 2010-02-15 11:54 pm (UTC)Yes, I go through what is this shit?. Every story. Every time. It's a stage, a phase, a thing. I sigh and try to ride it out. For some of us, it's clearly part of the process. But oh, how I wish it weren't!
Not the only one
Date: 2010-02-16 12:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-16 12:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-16 01:45 am (UTC)Oooo...telepathic dire wolves? Count me in!
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Date: 2010-02-16 02:16 am (UTC)Every time I open the file.
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Date: 2010-02-16 03:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-16 06:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-16 07:07 am (UTC)5. All the time. Especially about the Fantastic elements. Current example; I'm writing a story set in a world decidedly based on the late 20th century Winnipeg, and the core magic doesn't come from any real world mythology or belief. And though I reconciled myself to that fact a long time ago, it keeps cropping up as "Nobody else will buy this stupid F**king premise. I might have got away with it if I could point to Welsh folk tales or Ojibway teachings or Persian myth as source. But nooo..."
Yet when I used selkies, researched significantly thoroughly and extrapolated from the implications of those stories, I kept thinking, "Everyone's going to roll their eyes at the hoary, unbelievable set of rules these overdone bits of folklore have."
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Date: 2010-02-16 01:46 pm (UTC)Especially when somebody asks what something is about.
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Date: 2010-02-16 03:25 pm (UTC)Can I have a telepathic wolf now?
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Date: 2010-02-16 05:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-16 10:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-16 10:57 pm (UTC)