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[shadowkat]

It's pathetic really...but I write better at night than in the morning. I am a bit of a night owl. Mornings don't quite work for me. I like the silence at night. The only sound the whirl of my air purifier and the buzz of my fridge. I live in a city, but I've grown so used to its rhythms...that I barely notice them. It's a bit like living in the country and not noticing the crickets? After a while, the roar of cars in the distance is less noisy than the clatter of crickets and cicadas.

Have decided to write stories again, but not to care if I can get them published. I may publish them myself or post them to my journal. May do the same with what I've written to date. The point is to write. And keep on writing. The world be damned. It does like to beat up on one. Doesn't it? To further that end (writing not being beat up by the world) - I wrote one page tonight of a new story. Hey, it's a start. And I've decided to try a first person narrative structure for a change of pace. We'll see how that works.

Flirting with seeing Iron Man 3 this weekend. Asked MD, but she only has time for brunch even though she wants to see it. Not quite sure I want to see it with anyone though. Movies aren't really a social activity, they are more solo. You sit in the dark, aware of the people around you...yet at the same time alone. It is just you and the screen. In some cases I prefer seeing movies alone, much like I prefer watching tv shows alone - you don't have to worry about anyone's reaction but your own. Your opinion or view of the show or movie is not colored by another's scream, yelp, laugh, or sigh. Nor are they talking over it. And if they hate it - it doesn't color your enjoyment of the film or show. Had a friend once who used to sigh her way through movies. Highly annoying that. It always distracted me from the film. I'd think, does she hate it? Does she love it? Is this just a nervous reflex?
From what I've read to date - the film looks like fun, a popcorn flick. Like the Avengers, except with more character development and less action. The sort of flick, you watch, you enjoy, then forget about later. Just what the doctor ordered. I have Argo at home, I don't need to see deep and meaningful. Besides, it stars Robert Downy, Jr - who I will watch read the phone book.

Comments

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

I so know what you mean about writing and not worrying about publishing. I'm beginning to really like the idea of self-publishing. I can't say I've gotten a lot of rejections--I just really don't like the whole process of looking for publishers and agents. Writing is good, but shopping around, not so much.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Ack, comment went under wrong response. (Sorry about that, stupid lj.)

-I just really don't like the whole process of looking for publishers and agents. Writing is good, but shopping around, not so much.

Feel much the same way. My father shopped around for a publisher and agent for twenty years. He researched the books that got published and worked hard to put his book into that format. Got an agent, had to pay, the agent never sold his book, and let my Dad go as a client. My father eventually gave up and self-published all his books. His written ten. He hired an editor and found an online publisher - and went that route. Did it back when it wasn't the trend, in the late 1990s, early 2000.

Even if a publisher publishes your book - you still have to handle all the marketing yourself. And often they will screw up your story. Also no guarantee you'll sell - the book stores have to hawk it, and they don't always do that. I know GRRM was barely read for years. When I read his books back in 2004, they were hard to find in bookstores, you had to hunt for them, and only people online had heard of them.

Since a lot of people read books on Kindles and e-books now, self-publishing is a whole lot easier than it used to be and it's easier to market. When my Dad started self-publishing there was no such thing as e-books.

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

Yeah, so true. My husband is an academic writer and had to publish, but he wrote a couple of more political books that he self-published, and it seemed much less of a hassle than working with the companies.

My niece and nephew do YA fantasy for big companies, and do get big advances with publisher-arranged book tours, but she had to do so much work to get there--conferences, chatting up agents, etc., etc. And major rewrites that maybe weren't better than the original. When I published a textbook, we really had to do our own marketing, and I hated that and didn't do much of it.

I suppose it would be nice to make some $$, but at this point I think I'd be happier just getting a few readers. And there's always the possibility of something like Wool happening, though I don't expect it with my own writing.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

I suppose it would be nice to make some $$, but at this point I think I'd be happier just getting a few readers. And there's always the possibility of something like Wool happening, though I don't expect it with my own writing.

You won't necessarily get it through a publishing company. My creative writing prof in college, had published mysteries and wrote for television - but I never heard of him and couldn't find his books in book stores. I can't find any of the published books of the various professional writers on my flist in a book store. Catherine Valente's book - the Girl who Circumvented Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making isn't in any book store in my neighborhood - and I live in Brooklyn, with a giant Barnes and Noble and a big indie book store nearby.

Prof told me...don't expect to get big advances or do well as a writer. Write because you have something to say.

Also helps if you write for a specific genre that is guaranteed to sell.

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

My niece and nephew got a seven figure advance for a four-book middle-grades series: (http://www.orionbooks.co.uk/Articles/News/Orion%20Childrens%20Acquires%20The%20Pirate%20Stream%20from%20Carrie%20Ryan%20John%20Park%20Davis.page), but they have slaved like the devil to get it and to get even the first one written. And I know I don't want to do what they do. The writing is good--I mean selling it and marketing it.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

My difficulty is three-fold: 1) I can't write on-demand creatively - or write towards a specific nitch market (which is what most best-selling/professional novelists do). 2) not good at self-promotion/selling, 3) have no patience for the marketing.

I have a friend who literally changed her "historical" mystery novel into a "suspense" historical novel series - tailor-made to sell (Mr. Churchill's Secretary, Princess Elizabeth's Spy, Her Majesty's Hope). The first version didn't have any murders, was more realistic, focused more on what it was like to work as Mr. Churchill's secretary at the start of WWII. It was different, innovative. The second version read like a copy of Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs - with murders to be solved and a focus on code-breaking. It even has a similar cover. Because, you know, that's what sells! Most readers won't go outside their comfort zone - they loved Maisie Dobbs, and they want to read books just like it!

I saw the same thing with your neice/nephew's series - it's tailor-made for the market, has all sorts of cross-marketing bits, you can do a game off of it, it's fun, and it appeals to a "nitch" market.
A Marketing Person's dream. I'm not saying it's easy or they didn't work like the devil to get it written - but it is easier to get a publisher to publish it, and to get an advance. Publisher's love that stuff. And kids eat it up. My niece is hooked on the Percy the Lighting Thief series for example.

And when I tried to get books published? Both times the agent or publisher wanted me to re-write the book either as a cozy mystery (because again that's what they could sell) or a compelling murder mystery (because that is what sells). But it doesn't always. I watched my father do that and it didn't work. And my sis-inlaw, she wrote a great book about creating art with your children - which she has to market herself, the publisher was only willing to market the previous book - which she got a big advance on, which was just creating art by yourself.

Horribly nasty industry. It deserves what the e-publishing trend is doing to it.

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

Totally agree. Part of what happened was that my niece originally wrote romances and my nephew wrote adult speculative fiction. Neither sold. Then she spent a lot of time analyzing the market and went to a YA zombie series (Forest of Hands and Teeth), and when that did well, he joined her with the middle-school approach. Yes, totally calculated. And it works--they've gotten contracts, she has a fan base, etc. . But not what I want to do, either.

When we wrote a textbook for pre-freshman composition, trying to create a book that would really work for students, we wound up having to rewrite to fit the standard mold, so it was just like all the other books, We made a little money, but it wasn't the book we wanted to write.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

That's it exactly. If you can write to the mold they want - you sell.
If not, you don't. But I know of at least two-three people who tried to do just that and it didn't work.

One of the people on my flist - tried to sell a Mermaid YA novel, but apparently someone else did it first - and the publishers don't see another one selling. So she researched the concept, worked hard on it, but can't sell it to save her life - all because some hot YA self-published writer out in the midwest did it first?

And of course there's my Dad, who tried writing corporate thrillers and mysteries - short airplane books, but the publishers didn't like them.

It makes it hard to keep writing and dreaming, when the industry works against you. The movie and television industries are no better. Very hard to create art or express yourself in the entertainment biz.

[embers-log.livejournal.com]

it is good to write/create... it is good for the soul, even if it isn't going to be published (altho we all hope it will be some time).

Anyway, just a reminder: If you see 'Iron Man 3' don't leave before the end of the credits....
they are long boring credits, but worth the wait.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Sigh. This is only true with Marvel superhero flicks, they don't make you sit through the credits for any other movie.

[embers-log.livejournal.com]

It is true, only Marvel superhero movies do it... but it is one of those things you don't want to miss because everyone you know online will talk about it (besides, it is always good to laugh, it clears the sinuses... or something like that).

I hope you are having a fun weekend.

[kathyh]

In some cases I prefer seeing movies alone

I thought I was the only one with this weird quirk. It's OK if my husband is with me but he is very easily distracted by other people being distracted, which in turn distracts me. When I'm on my own I'm (hopefully) too immersed in the film to notice what's going on around me.

I'm flirting with Iron Man 3 too but I will definitely be on my own for that.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

The other nice thing about going by yourself to movies - is you can sit anywhere ...there's more options. Granted it can pose issues when you have to get up to go to the bathroom and don't want to worry about people stealing your stuff or your seat. So there is that. But otherwise, I sort of prefer it.