Living a Writer's Life

[ellenkushner]

I like this post by Neil Gaiman (in answer to a reader question - just skip the stuff at the top!) - it's been bruited about as a stern rebuttal to "Reader Entitlement," but the real meat of it, to me, is on what it takes to live a writer's life - the necessity of both living and writing - and the time it all takes!

Comments

[kylecassidy.livejournal.com]

i totally want the "george r. r. martin is not your bitch" t-shirt.

[calimac.livejournal.com]

Mixed feelings here. I absolutely agree that the creative writer should take whatever time is necessary to write a good book and not grind out the pages just to meet a deadline or respond to a clamour. (If you're writing journalism, as I do, the imperatives are somewhat different.) Many of my favorite writers are very slow, and it shows in the jewel-like grace of the work they do produce.

But there is another side to this. Though any writer who produces a popular book will have eager readers waiting for the next, the writer of an ongoing series can't pretend to be unaware of raising particular and anxious eagerness among readers left dangling in the middle of a storyline. Such writers, by the content of their writing, are going out of their way to raise expectations about the publication of the sequels, and really should not do so if they're honestly unable to meet those expectations. In particular, they shouldn't announce deadlines they're regularly unable to meet, and professional authors of some experience should know themselves well enough to be able to predict that.

It's not illegal to fail at this, and it might even not be immoral. But it is certainly impolite to the readers, as much so as reader abuse to the author is.

Tolkien wrote the entire Lord of the Rings before publishing any of it (a course of action I wish it were more financially feasible for others to emulate). But the third volume was delayed six months from the original publication date because Tolkien kept tinkering with the appendices. Readers (who were left with quite a cliffhanger, if you recall the end of volume two) pressed the publisher, and the publisher pressed the author, and the author at least had the grace to feel guilty about it. Nobody said, "Tolkien is not your bitch."

[rojomojo.livejournal.com]

Reread the First book, get a life.

Hee

I appreciate the artists produce, savor it for allowing me to see the world differently, take me to a different place and maybe even have a transcendental experience. At least getting my vision beyond my navel.

you can no more demand artistic vision on demand than demand something from my wife. Love and creation just don't work that way.

I guess I'll never have a bitch. but I can sleep at night.

rojo

[jongibbs.livejournal.com]

Excellent! Thanks for sharing :)

[laurenpburka.livejournal.com]

Thanks for bringing me back to Neil. He is always worth reading, and this post particularly so.

[yukihada.livejournal.com]

As a reader, I didn't think Gaiman's response was too stern. Then again, I've worked in bookstores and have dealt with customers who come in every few months complaining that some author isn't writing fast enough.

In all actuality, I laughed a lot when I read the post and then read it aloud to my husband. We were both in agreement that readers as consumers just don't seem to value the writer's life.

Again that bookstore experience comes back...the books that get churned out regularly from authors never seem to increase in quality.

I'll happily wait years and years just to read one good story from an author. The stories become more valuable then to me... a delicacy to be savored. In the meantime, I like to explore and find other authors and other stories to enjoy, to reread, to savor.