Getting Back on the Horse
Sep. 10th, 2010 05:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
erastesI’m pushing on with “I Knew Him.” Managed 800 words yesterday and today I’ve been reading it through and typing out a timeline of the book. The eye problems stalled it, but I think the recent discussions stalled it just as much—and I, as you know—will use any excuse for procrastination. I won’t say that the recent kerfuffle about women writing gay fiction didn’t dent my confidence, because it did, and that’s not me going into “victim” mode. I defy anyone who had their private parts, motivation,weight and character examined, discussed and eviscerated by people who doesnt know them from a bar of soap not to have a bit of the shine knocked off them. But I’m not letting it get me down!! All any of us can do is to continue doing what we’ve been doing, and doing it to the best of our ability.
My mother was the one who taught me to “get back on the horse” and that’s something I’ve always done. Except once, when my horse had thrown me six times in a row and eventually my body refused to get up. I had to get back on the horse after a week in hospital, and that was a lot harder than getting straight back on, believe you me.
What I’m saying is that every one of us will be criticised at some point. (not only writers!) But as writers we’ll be lambasted for not writing the right stuff: Torn to shreds for writing vampires novels when they are so last Tuesday (despite the fact you’ve been writing them for 20 years). Write romance and you’ll be pandering to some mythical trailer trash, write murder mystery and you’ll never be able to measure up. Write sci fi and you’ll be sneered at if your science isn’t real. You’ll be the wrong colour, the wrong nationality, the wrong gender. If you are female you’ll be accused of disloyalty if you don’t write about females, and if you are male you’ll be attacked that you don’t know what it’s like to have a vagina.You’ll be accused of ignoring issues if you don’t write about them, and you’ll be accused of condoning things like slavery if you dare to write about it. You’ll be too serious, too flippant, too violent, too casual, too ambitious, too low-brow. Let’s be honest, it doesn’t matter what you do, someone’s going to find fault with it—and if you win the Booker, no-one will read you anyway! LOL. (only kidding)
But despite there being these detractors, you’ll get letters from readers, and that is what will make you ignore all of the above and will make you pick yourself up and get back on that horse. I had the most amazing unsolicited letter last night from a man who had written to me before saying how he’d enjoyed my books. He’d read the whole debate, starting with the OUT article (which he found “heart-warming” bless him) and going through all the other places. What he said gave me that little push to know that being back on the horse is exactly where I want to be.
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Date: 2010-09-10 04:35 pm (UTC)Getting back on the horse is admirable, and I'm glad you're doing it. I have been re-reading all of my ebooks now that I have an e-reader, and I have been impressed again with your style and your characters.
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Date: 2010-09-10 04:39 pm (UTC)And thank you - that's very kind of you.
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Date: 2010-09-10 04:46 pm (UTC)But yes, there's no place of safety for anyone, so we might as well carry on. Not writing any more is not really an option anyway.
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Date: 2010-09-10 04:47 pm (UTC)You're a lovely writer, that's what I'm saying. So take a page from Severus in my icon up there. Courage!
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Date: 2010-09-10 05:10 pm (UTC)I just got an e-reader and have been trying to pick up "The Wages of Sin" from My Bookstore and More, but have been getting error messages, sigh, whenever I try to download it. I did love "Shining in the Sun", so I'm hoping that this will be another hit with me. I just wanted to say that I think you write lovely stories and that I'm sorry that you feel that "there's no place of safety" -- that is NOT how it should be for any writer. (I mean, bad reviews are one thing, but personal attacks are just .... beyond mean-spirited.)
*ends shy wave*
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Date: 2010-09-10 05:14 pm (UTC)I am honest about my reading likes and dislikes, so if I ever don't like something, I'll certainly let you know. (As you probably recall from my discussion of not liking certain endings of certain books -- "Transgressions" in particular, since I still can't make out exactly WHY that's the end point, given that I'd love to know if they escape or not, and the story just doesn't feel finished to me. But that's ME.)
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Date: 2010-09-10 05:15 pm (UTC)Exactly - not writing would make you much more miserable than writing. So lets just continue on and see where it goes. We've learned a lesson, painful as it was!!
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Date: 2010-09-10 06:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-10 06:24 pm (UTC)*g* Yes, I thought when I started that the only thing I had to fear was bad reviews, which I was quite prepared for. I wasn't prepared to have people assume that I'm a malicious, lying homophobe, simply because I write stories about two gay blokes who fall in love and I'm not one myself. It's been difficult to come to terms with the knowledge that people will believe terrible things of me without ever knowing me or reading my books. But I suppose that is a valuable lesson in what it's like facing the kind of prejudice LGBT people put up with every day. So I shouldn't complain too much :)
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Date: 2010-09-10 07:06 pm (UTC)I've decided to leave UtH on the back burner for a couple of months and do a couple of lighthearted novellas. I think things have been too serious for too long.
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Date: 2010-09-10 08:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-10 08:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-10 08:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-10 08:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-10 08:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-10 09:08 pm (UTC)(though my own boys will get mighty jealous if I start writing about yours, lol)
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Date: 2010-09-10 09:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-10 09:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-10 09:44 pm (UTC)Do tell more. Is it men playing female roles and women playing male roles in theater? Anything outside of theater?
Gayngsters?no subject
Date: 2010-09-10 09:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-11 01:51 am (UTC)I do think that Brownwhatsis snarking about your weight was about as low as it get. I could make remarks about her blog photo, too, but we're none of us as young as we were thirty years ago, are we?
If they can't walk their talk, never mind maneuvers, go straight at 'em. It's an opinion, and a biased one at that.
Have fun tomorrow (later today, for you)--raise a teacup and biscuit for me!
And you'd better let us know how the party goes--any chance of liveblogging?
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Date: 2010-09-11 01:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-11 08:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-11 08:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-11 08:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-11 11:20 am (UTC)There'll probably be a report on the local East Anglia news when we get out of hand and the police are called in.
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Date: 2010-09-11 11:50 am (UTC)See you tomorrow!
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Date: 2010-09-11 05:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-11 05:35 pm (UTC)People who cancel will be PINNED WITH THE VERY BADGES I MADE THEM.
(They have turned out well)
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Date: 2010-09-11 05:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-11 05:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-11 05:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-12 09:02 pm (UTC)