Monday Randomosity
Aug
9
2010

Working on Believe today. This is a novella that follows after the end of Second Chances. I’d hoped to write more this weekend, but instead I spent a lot of time with the family watching movies, reading books and just hanging out. There’s really no contest here and it turned out to be a really lovely weekend so now I need to double-time it to get this one done.

Let’s see – I’ve decided that reality television of the worst sort is a horrible wasting STD on our culture so I will no longer discuss my total disgust with what this or that piece of garbage who has made a job out of getting drunk and fucking strangers on camera, has done. I want their 15 minutes to be up so I won’t contribute to it anymore.

Also – I talk about writing here from time to time and as I say up front – what works for me is what works for me. There is no one true way – well, except that spam sucks and don’t do it. But when a self-described expert speaks about something as unique as the writing process, telling authors, especially those who have years’ long careers with multiple published novels that the way they do it is just because they haven’t learned better is insulting. Also, if said expert starts off saying how bad it is to give a workshop only based on yourself and then to assert there is only one way to plot a novel is what I call a contradiction. I think the dictionary calls it that too.

Different authors, different HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL authors write in different ways. Some authors plot down to the floorboards while others pants it totally. Many work in between those poles. Writing a book is hard, but it’s art after all. Creation is going to depend on the artist and how the process suits them best. Anytime I see an “expert” stating that plotting kills the creativity or that you fail as an author if you DON’T plot, I close the window and move on.

And in the hysterical snob department –Michael Wolf at Vanity Fair tells us all how LITERATURE IS DEAD now that digital books exist. I find myself increasingly annoyed by the elitism of many who use the “I saw someone on the subway reading on a kindle” (as if he rides the subway, come on) and how that somehow means books are dead instead of how awesome it is that BOOKS are MORE accessible to a wider variety of people now because of new platforms. Shame on Wolf for such snobbery. Paper doesn’t make literature and the last thing we need are more elitists who believe anything new or leveling is somehow bad.

Books aren’t going anywhere and the fact that digital readers open reading up to MORE people in new ways is cause for celebration, not sneering.

On a positive note – I started reading Jordan Castillo Price’s, Partners on Saturday based on my friend Jen’s gushing recommendation and she was totally right.

3 comments to “Monday Randomosity”

  1. Terri H.
    August 9th, 2010 at 1:49 pm · Link

    Know-it-all people suck! I found you because of my Kindle, Lauren, and I think that’s pretty cool. I’ve bought some “real” books of yours, and I’ve bought some e-books. Both are highly enjoyable to me. Also, Amazon and other e-book sellers offer the classics for free on their devices, so that might promote rather than destroy what these elitists consider “true” literature. Big dummies. 😡



  2. Collette
    August 10th, 2010 at 6:32 am · Link

    Hysterical snob is a good and true description for him. You’d think you’re a writer or something with that turn of phrase. 😆



  3. Christine
    August 10th, 2010 at 6:52 am · Link

    As if he is the expert on literature. You can only read a book from a book. In the words of Steve Martin excuse me. There was a time literature was written a walls then scrolls now on books now kindle or computer. Hey get w/ the times