We write what we can write
Apr. 3rd, 2010 04:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brightlotusmoonEarlier today, on the phone with my mother, I mentioned that I had finally and reluctantly watched the movie version of Twilight with my co-sufferers -- er, best friends. And then, as we talked about my writing as we usually do, she once again suggested that I could "Just write commercial crap like Twilight that will sell easily to teenagers, then start working on more serious things. And write the damn screenplay!"
And I told her what I always tell her. First, I'm not good at screenplays. I could write a story and have someone turn it into a screenplay. But I don't want to write that.
(Note: This comes from the years I spent growing up in Sag Harbor, NY, which is nestled in The Hamptons, which is known as Hollywood East, which is the summer home for many celebrities. Including Steven Spielberg, who has a summer home near the house of Mom's billionaire art student in East Hampton. Mr. Spielberg has a yacht, Mirabella, that docks at the Sag Harbor Wharf. Dad met him once on the docks, a humorous and friendly encounter, and Mom teaches life drawing to his wife, Kate Capshaw, sometimes. My parents would love it if I could write a screenplay and send it to Mr. Spielberg. But I don't want to write a screenplay.)
And second, I don't want to write just any commercial crap. I don't want to write formulaic Young Adult fantasy that caters to romance-starved audiences. I just personally don't. There are so many writers out there who can write books that please a wider audience, that are instant brain snacks, that become wildly commercial. And they should write them. And that's great, it's really great. I read them all the time and many of them are beautiful. But I don't want to write for the masses. I don't want to cater, I want to write what I write. And if something I write does see great commercial success, that is wonderful. But I feel more attached to the stuff I want to write now that may not please the masses. I don't want a cult following. I don't want fan clubs. I'm not going to make a million dollars. I'm honestly fine with that.
I finally found a quote that sums it up: This is from the LJ blog of Caitlin R. Kiernan, a dark fantasy author whose books I enjoy immensely, and whose novel The Red Tree I am currently devouring.
Caitlin says, here:
***
I have an email from a reader, a question I'll try to answer. It's a long email, but I think I can address just this bit here:
So finally I come to my question: what did you say to yourself when you decided to write The Red Tree, and chose not to write a fast paced, commercial thing that might sell like hotcakes? Because I think I've decided to write my dark fae novel, and to hell with the vindication/acclaim/affirmation that getting published and making money would bring. But now I just need to come to terms with that decision. How are you holding up? What do you say when people urge you to change course? I guess in the end there's not much choice to it. You write what comes. But...I don't know. Sometimes it's hard to swim so willfully against the current.
It's always hard to swim against the current. But that's often how we avoid drowning. And it makes us strong. Anyway, this is not an easy question. But you know that already. The last few years, I have very much felt the need for a more profitable career. And I have tried. I have tried hard. My agent tried to guide me in the direction of those easy-to-digest urban fantasy/YA books (but only after I asked her to, mind you). Most of what she pointed me to, as examples of what's hot, what's selling, was atrocious garbage (Stephenie Meyer, for example), and I told her, "You know, I just cannot write this crap. Even if it will make me rich, I don't know how to write this crap. I don't want to know how to write this crap." Originally, Joey Lafaye was to have been a dark novel about Fairie, more "accessible" than my other novels, aimed at a YA audience. But, as I wrote it, as I second-guessed hypothetical potential readers and tried to write it that way, it kept coming out darker and weirder and exactly like it needed to be written. In panic and disgust (deadlines were involved), I shelved it and wrote The Red Tree (which is, itself, a very strange and difficult novel).
I say (and others say differently), we write what we can write. We make the decisions we have to make, and then we have to live with the consequences. You may spend your whole life chasing commercial success, and it will likely always elude you, as it eludes most authors. You can throw away what is genuine and sincere in your voice in hopes of pulling in bigger sales figures and lower return rates, crank out one piece of hackwork after another, and still fall flat on your face. Catering to the apparent tastes of the masses is never a sure route to success. I don't dispense advice on writing. But if I did, I'd say write the book that you want to write, and don't quit your day job. Never expect your writing to support you. If if does, cool. Write what you want to write, whatever it is you have to say. But. That's not advice. That's just the only way I know how to do this thing.
***
And I told her what I always tell her. First, I'm not good at screenplays. I could write a story and have someone turn it into a screenplay. But I don't want to write that.
(Note: This comes from the years I spent growing up in Sag Harbor, NY, which is nestled in The Hamptons, which is known as Hollywood East, which is the summer home for many celebrities. Including Steven Spielberg, who has a summer home near the house of Mom's billionaire art student in East Hampton. Mr. Spielberg has a yacht, Mirabella, that docks at the Sag Harbor Wharf. Dad met him once on the docks, a humorous and friendly encounter, and Mom teaches life drawing to his wife, Kate Capshaw, sometimes. My parents would love it if I could write a screenplay and send it to Mr. Spielberg. But I don't want to write a screenplay.)
And second, I don't want to write just any commercial crap. I don't want to write formulaic Young Adult fantasy that caters to romance-starved audiences. I just personally don't. There are so many writers out there who can write books that please a wider audience, that are instant brain snacks, that become wildly commercial. And they should write them. And that's great, it's really great. I read them all the time and many of them are beautiful. But I don't want to write for the masses. I don't want to cater, I want to write what I write. And if something I write does see great commercial success, that is wonderful. But I feel more attached to the stuff I want to write now that may not please the masses. I don't want a cult following. I don't want fan clubs. I'm not going to make a million dollars. I'm honestly fine with that.
I finally found a quote that sums it up: This is from the LJ blog of Caitlin R. Kiernan, a dark fantasy author whose books I enjoy immensely, and whose novel The Red Tree I am currently devouring.
Caitlin says, here:
***
I have an email from a reader, a question I'll try to answer. It's a long email, but I think I can address just this bit here:
So finally I come to my question: what did you say to yourself when you decided to write The Red Tree, and chose not to write a fast paced, commercial thing that might sell like hotcakes? Because I think I've decided to write my dark fae novel, and to hell with the vindication/acclaim/affirmation that getting published and making money would bring. But now I just need to come to terms with that decision. How are you holding up? What do you say when people urge you to change course? I guess in the end there's not much choice to it. You write what comes. But...I don't know. Sometimes it's hard to swim so willfully against the current.
It's always hard to swim against the current. But that's often how we avoid drowning. And it makes us strong. Anyway, this is not an easy question. But you know that already. The last few years, I have very much felt the need for a more profitable career. And I have tried. I have tried hard. My agent tried to guide me in the direction of those easy-to-digest urban fantasy/YA books (but only after I asked her to, mind you). Most of what she pointed me to, as examples of what's hot, what's selling, was atrocious garbage (Stephenie Meyer, for example), and I told her, "You know, I just cannot write this crap. Even if it will make me rich, I don't know how to write this crap. I don't want to know how to write this crap." Originally, Joey Lafaye was to have been a dark novel about Fairie, more "accessible" than my other novels, aimed at a YA audience. But, as I wrote it, as I second-guessed hypothetical potential readers and tried to write it that way, it kept coming out darker and weirder and exactly like it needed to be written. In panic and disgust (deadlines were involved), I shelved it and wrote The Red Tree (which is, itself, a very strange and difficult novel).
I say (and others say differently), we write what we can write. We make the decisions we have to make, and then we have to live with the consequences. You may spend your whole life chasing commercial success, and it will likely always elude you, as it eludes most authors. You can throw away what is genuine and sincere in your voice in hopes of pulling in bigger sales figures and lower return rates, crank out one piece of hackwork after another, and still fall flat on your face. Catering to the apparent tastes of the masses is never a sure route to success. I don't dispense advice on writing. But if I did, I'd say write the book that you want to write, and don't quit your day job. Never expect your writing to support you. If if does, cool. Write what you want to write, whatever it is you have to say. But. That's not advice. That's just the only way I know how to do this thing.
***
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no subject
Date: 2010-04-03 09:27 pm (UTC)Write what you need to write. The rest will come.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-03 09:33 pm (UTC)The rest will come. Yes, exactly. Later on, if I get the urge to write an easy, commercially-driven novel about faerie-human love or something, I'll do that. But not right now.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-03 09:49 pm (UTC)I haven't read your Twilight bashing post yet, but I am going straight to that after leaving this comment! I'm glad you have chosen not to compromise who you are for money. There are so many ways to do this these days, John and I often joke about it "Maybe I should just... and make us lots of money!" but we're always joking!
I have never read any of the twilight books and never seen the movies but for some reason I have this aversion to that crap that is so strong that you would think it ran over my puppy. Seriously, it sickens me. Maybe it IS the cult following that does it. Something that is THAT wildly popular among the sheep-like masses cannot possibly be good from a substance standpoint, it's just not possible. Every time I see someone wearing a Twilight shirt I just want to go up to them and go "Yeah, you're unique! Just like that mindless drone over there, and that one, and her too..." Also I have developed this policy as I have gotten older and understood the world more, I don't do people's advertising for them. Even if I did like Twilight (*shudder*) I would not buy the merchandise. I like Harry Potter and I don't own any of the merchandise. If I am going to be doing someone's advertising for them, I had better get a direct and tangible benefit, i.e. a paycheck! I learned this lesson from my grandmother as a kid, she used to HATE any t-shirt that had the name of the maker prominently displayed on it and I never got it back then. Now I do. I don't even own any band t-shirts that I wear outside the house.
Anyway, I've rambled enough. To sum up: I support your decision to not be a hack, and your hatred of Twilight!
no subject
Date: 2010-04-03 09:55 pm (UTC)BINGO.
That is why I loathe it. If these books had not been suddenly gobbled up by a handful of romance-starved, screaming teenagers and hurled in the faces of everyone else in the country, I wouldn't have minded at all. It is the sheer mass stupidity of these feral fans that scares me. It is their absolute view that this is how love and life should be, oh my god I need a man like Edward that sickens me.
When JK Rowling was hurled into the spotlight a few years -- years, mind you -- after the first Harry Potter book was published, I imagined the surge of screaming fans must have been very unnerving. Now you can't turn around without finding someone willing to bury you in heaps of praise and theories about the Harry Potter books. I like the books, I find them cute and entertaining, but I was never blown away. The world-building really is incredible, but most of the characters and the choices of names still make me twitch.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-03 10:07 pm (UTC)I'm struggling with the opposite problem. I had a vampire novel grab me, and yell at me that I had to write it NOW, and as much as I love my vampire protagonist, a part of my head keeps screaming 'people are going to think you wrote this because of Twilight!' even though I started it long before Twilight got popular. I am so angry at Twilight, and I hate the fucking sparklepires so much for ruining my beloved living in the dark, burned by the sun, happy to be a vampire, vampire. Argh.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-03 10:38 pm (UTC)One of the other novels I am outlining originally had secondary characters that were vampires who could be out in direct sunlight for a limited amount of time, with severely drained powers. Now I'm considering turning them into fae creatures, just to avoid that stigma.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-03 11:43 pm (UTC)My next novel is going to be elves. Fantasy. Completely different. :) At least I'll have that to work with, no vampires anywhere!
no subject
Date: 2010-04-04 12:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-04 12:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-04 01:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-07 04:59 am (UTC)