Writerly Ways

[cornerofmadness]

Long time no Writerly Ways. Between vacations, research and working on lectures, I just ran out of time to do these. I’m back (at least sporadically if nothing else).

The topic this week is professional jealousy. How do you handle it? If someone tells me they have none, then they are a better person than I. I know it’s not a particular healthy or productive emotion but I find nothing healthy or productive in pretending I don’t fall victim to it from time to time.

I’m not really jealous of people who are at least turning out a good product. Oh sure, I wish I were them but I’m not really jealous. I guess I save that up for when I see utter crap hitting the bestseller’s list and all the very good authors that I personally know can’t even get a break. Jealousy and anger mix equally on these occasions. I bet you can guess the example before I even type it.

Did you guess Twilight and Fifty Shades of Gray? You know me well and how ironic is it that one is crappy AU fanfic of the other? Twilight with its badly written abusive relationships is bad enough but to see 50 Shades make it huge is frankly, down right painful. It wasn’t good fanfiction. It’s a very BAD and unrealistic look at the BSDM life style and yet this is the erotica that has made it big. My library even has it. The same library that said it couldn’t stock my stuff because of the subject matter (I didn’t ask. I’m friends with the librarians and they were being honest in case I would ask). Yes, I’m jealous and angry and disappointed that a piece of crap gets embraced, makes millions. I’m even as disappointed as the outraged twi-hards were when Stephanie Meyers chose not to sue (wonders how much of a case she’d have on altered fanfic) but rather lauded 50 Shades. (though it was funny watching the twilight fans on my list lose their minds over this, and yes, I know that makes me petty).

So what do I do with this jealousy (other than whine on my blog?) I try to make it work for me. I try to channel it into finishing more, submitting more, editing more because there are only two ways to go, let this disappoint me into giving up or firing me up to do them one better. I know the path I want to take. So, what do you guys think?

As for me, I did finish Camp Nano.

Okay I cheated a bit by putting in before I was quite done but I DID finish. (I had to since I knew I’d have no internet in the UK). I am thrilled especially since I wasn’t going to do it in the first place. Thanks again to anat_astarte for giving me the title for it, Blood Red Roulette.

(by evil_little_dog



I haven’t edited much but again, brand new class to pull out of my ass (and I’m way behind), too many dumb fanfic projects (only one more to get done before big bang starts) and well vacation. I will get back on the ball. I promise. Thanks again to all of those who offered to read Kept Tears. I still might need to retitle that. I’m working on it. I promise. This one IS going to get published, dammit. I’ve had way too many new stories pop into my head (see jana_denardo for more info).

I have been writing a lot though. Really have.

Yearly word count – Since I’m already 20K over my yearly goal, I’ve upped that bad boy.

94809 / 125000 words. 76% done!

Kept tears – adding scenes, rewriting

Nine’s story – slowly working on it

Makai’s story – gah, for god’s sake I’ve been on chapter the last for months now

Lesbian fantasy – sadly stalled

As for everything else, I NEED to pick a non-erotica and start writing on it. Either Beneath the Torn Sky or Voluntary Nightmare or both. And edit, I must edit SO MUCH.

Comments

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

I can't even say 'professional jealousy' because I see too much fanfic crap that gets way more reviews than I do for amazingly bad stories. That's depressing in and of itself.

[havocmangawip.livejournal.com]

Yes this!

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

oh hell yes. That drives me nuts too. You see something on FFN that's barely literate and it has 450 reviews and you have 3. Makes you want to bang your head.

That's 50 shades of grey, the piece of shit with 450 reviews (and each review worth a million dollars)

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Yes. And do other things besides bang your head.

I can understand the whole "@#$%!" about 50 Shades, believe me.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

i can't get 450 reviews on my OOC PoS stories, no i bet i can. If I actually wrote an OOC bizarre piece of crap people WOULD review it.

Like whenever someone pops on the comms and asks doyou know where they can find a story and it's always the weirdest fucking thing ever.

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

It always is, and whenever someone wants to share "the best stories, the ones I've collected, blah blah blah", it's always crap you're like, "Uh. Seriously?"

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

snort. that is also often the case

of course you can balance it out with the people who freak out when you talk to them because you're their favorite author but you have no idea since they've never reviewed you!

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah, that's also true.

D:

[havocmangawip.livejournal.com]

Your work is "dirty" because it's not penis and vagina sex. That's pretty much my take on it.

[lunaria-kitty.livejournal.com]

I get you on the writer's envy thing. Being jealous of their talent (oft times when I'm particularly stuck on something). No matter how much I write, I still get that feeling.

Gaaaah Fifty Shades of Gray. There are so many better fanfics worthy of that kind of attention, the fact that it's so terrible and made it on the bestseller list just annoys me to pieces. Not to mention the bad rep it's giving fanfiction in general. >.< Though I've never been big on Twilight either. Tried to read the books, but...yeah, I've read fanfiction that was better written. :/

Yay for finishing Camp Nano! :D My inspiration crashed for the better part of the month, so it didn't get very far off the ground. But congrats!

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

I am envious of people's talent but that's usually just a twinge. I get jealous when crap gets lauded, no doubt about it.

No kidding, neither of them are worthy of the attention they get IMO

thanks. Inspiration will do that to you. We have november in which to rally

[ital-gal.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you made this post, I've been wanting to ask what you thought.
It annoys me, and I'm not a writer that with all the good erotica being written and self published on the internet, how did this get to be the story that got to be famous.

I don't know how you couldn't be jealous..

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

thanks, i know i can't not be jealous. seriously

I wish I knew how that piece of crap made it (wonders if twilight fans are to blame for it getting a good start)

[flybynight00.livejournal.com]

I saw something SO APPALLING in a bookstore the other day. A reedition of Anne Rice's Sleeping Beauty series that has "If you liked Shades of Gray, you'll love..." printed as part of the cover. Not a sticker via the bookstore. Actually printed.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

hahahaaha I saw that on Goodreads giveaways. I'm like OMG NO. I read those in college like all the other horny teens (especially since that was Anne's hey day when I was in school) and they were SO BAD. I died laughing when the dude picked Beauty up, no hands, just the power of his awesome dick.

[bodgei.livejournal.com]

The publisher that dropped my novel was the publisher that originally published 50 Shades. I was dancing the happy dance when they dropped me. They suggest to the authors that they have to write a fan-fic, cross post it and then search and replace the names as a marketing tool.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

blinks, man I want you to be kidding about that but I know you aren't. that sounds all kinds of shady (no pun intended) i'm glad they dropped you too

[bodgei.livejournal.com]

I so wish I was kidding. I have been told that they are only printing people with strong fan fiction followings (not saying that there is anything wrong with haveing a strong fan-fic following - but I don't know if that is how I want the authors I read picked out)

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

as someone who's done fanfic for 30 + years, I do not want that to be WHY someone published me

[bodgei.livejournal.com]

I never got a lot of people reading my fanfic. I normaly stay with cannon sexual orentations (my oc's have had all sorts of sexual orentations) and in the Supernatural fandom, I don't write incest. So it got to the point where it kinda felt like a waste of time - if that makes any sence.

I guess what I'm saying is that will never be a reason to publish me.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

it makes sense. I do it just to make myself happy

[catw00man.livejournal.com]

Love you made this post because I couldn't agree more with the post AND the comments. It's crazy how some things get lauded and others don't, but the fanfiction thing is flooring me. I'd always assumed you'd try to distance yourself from it with pseuds when you went original.

But now this poses the question...what if it's an iffy fandom you were in? I'm not even sure what to think of all this anymore.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

THank you very much. Just a few years ago you definitely would be distancing yourself from fanfiction. I still think most places would prefer that.

If the reports i saw on Stephanie Meyers being okay with 50 Shades are true, I'm pretty disappointed by that stance since it does just weaken everything.

In some of my original fiction you might say hey that sounds a little like SO &So but I would never take my FMA novel, Sorrow's Dark Array and just switch out the names and publish it. I find that just so wrong.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by 'iffy fandom.'

[catw00man.livejournal.com]

It's definitely turning everything on it's head as far as everything I ever thought about writing! I keep trying to use it more as inspiration because if that can make it....

I will say one interesting result from all this. My sister in Australia and my dad are now much more supportive of my writing! LOL She skyped me just to tell me about 50 shades being #1 in London. Just...insane.

As for the "iffy fandom" I meant RPF which I know has a stigma to it for many. I'd love to get your take on it/advice sometime since I didn't bother separating out my pseuds. Ah well, live and learn right?

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

Yes the old 'if THAT can make it' is definitely more inspiration for me.

That is interesting. Mom keeps wanting to read some of my latest publications but I'm not sure hard core gay erotica is up her alley.

Ah, yeah I guess if they weren't still completely recognizable as the real person. I don't know, to be honest. I don't dabble in RPF but I have seen authors go ballistic if you use their stuff for fanfic so I can only imagine RPF could end up even worse.

I'm only separating out my pseuds as far as erotic vs non-erotic publications. I did not, as some do, split it into het and gay erotica. I write both as Jana. Some people get pissed off by that but honestly, I don't care. I figure it's right in the descriptor what it's going to be

[catw00man.livejournal.com]

Yeah I hear you about sharing the work. LOL I'd still love to share something with Dad but...well, maybe one day.

As for the other, I wasn't thinking so much of trying to use my old RPF fic for anything. To be honest much of it was awful. I just wonder if the fact you had it out there could be a bad thing considering there's really no deleting things from the net an all.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

ah, yes, well that is a problem. I think that might something that could come back and bite you in the butt really if someone wanted to dig hard enough to find it for whatever reason. I'm not sure i have much advice in gaining distance from it. sorry

[catw00man.livejournal.com]

Yup, that's exactly what I was afraid of. Well, figured it was worth asking. ;-) Thx hun.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

not a problem. don't feel bad, my ffn profile was made SO long ago (like 1998) before anyone was internet savvy and it's under my actual name (or my initials at any rate). I'm almost glad they don't allow the porny stuff there just in case an employer did a search on me