179 posts later, I have officially decided to stick with blogger. Participation has seen a dramatic uptick and it is better aligned with the pages I participate in. This account will obviously stay active while I comment on other people's journals and read Dilbert, but this will be the last post made here.

Farewell, LiveJournal. Thanks for all the fish.

Until further notice, this journal is suspended from active posting. I'm going to give Blogger a try.

jlselby.blogspot.com

Blogger has made a lot of advances since I last looked at them in 2007. Here's my first post. What do you think?

http://is.gd/ePN4V

So I accidentally let my paid account expire. This brings up the question, do I want to continue with Live Journal?

I've been here seven years now with two different accounts. Functionally speaking, I like Live Journal better than blogger. I like being able to post excerpts behind cuts. I like being able to search for people through subject matter or relationships with other people (technically blogger has this too, but it's a bit of a mess, I think). The problem is, Live Journal hasn't turned around. It's continued its slow death crawl with fewer and fewer people using it. Any more I read Dilbert, LurkerWithout, and two infrequently posting agents and that's it.

Maybe it's time to move on...

THE TRIAD SOCIETY has two chapters left in it's first draft. After that, I begin the revision. Then beta reading and revision again. Then...we query! I wrote a query for this ms yesterday. I did not like it. I hate writing queries. Hate it, hate it, hate it.


I hope I have better luck with this ms. The final word count will be 85k to 88k, so any agents that dismissed my work for being too long shouldn't have a problem this time around. I did not write to meet that count, but at the same time did not stepe the story in layers that would have allooned the total. One character. One POV. The setting needs some polish, as do the voices of some of the minor haracters. But that's what revision is for!

I did not detail the setting as much as I did in WANTED (which could be considered a prequel to this story, but really the two are unrelated except for being in the same world). I feel that the society is so old it has grown disenfranchised with it's beliefs, which is why references to saints are more superficial.

I promise I'll post a sample hapter before I'm done. I hope you like it.

I'm going to revise my graphic novel Ms. While this is out at beta. Then I'm goin to work on Jehovah's Hitlist or maybe The Seventh Sacrifice again. Jen is anxious for me to work on the Third Wold again, but given the size of those stories, I would rather wait until a publisher thinks I'm worth the money (lots of paper).

I tried to write this post once before and failed miserably. Rape is a difficult topic to discuss, even in a literary sense. My general rule is that if you've included rape in your story (especially if you're a person who has not experienced rape first-hand), you've done it wrong. Sure there are plenty of heinous actions that writers envision and depict without ever having experienced them. I do not adhere to the claims that writers should only write their own gender/ethnicity/whathaveyou. But, to date, it is an extremely rare story depicts rape correctly.

It is used too frequently, in my opinion. (See the recent kurluffle about THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO.) And, worse, it is used as an exciting action for the male protagonist (exciting action not meaning it excites him, but it propels the story forward). lurkerwithout has pointed this out in his comics discussions and he's absolutely right: too often horrible things happen to female characters as a means of emotional development for a male character. Some guy's wife/girlfriend/true love dies, is abducted, raped, beaten, what have you. The horrible thing happens to her not to offer a richer experience for that character, but as psychoological motivation for the male, a wrong to be avenged without staining his own masculinity. (Men do not actually have emotions themselves and any man made victim cannot be redeemed unless he kills a lot of bad guys. Otherwise, he must become a bad guy himself. There is the good guy-bad guy-good guy redemption arc, but that's a time investment.)

Too often I'll see a story where a woman is raped and she's over it by the end of the story. What? WHAT? Over it? Just like that? I have known MANY rape victims in my life. You know how many of them were over it? That's a wound that scars not heals. You cope. You grieve. You move on. But it's not something you laugh about during the denoument.

So why did I bring this up? Because I broke this rule in my wip. Not only did I break this rule, but I mixed it with a cliche. I have a damsel in distress to be saved by the protagnist who was raped by the antagonist. Yup. I'm that guy.

My immediate reaction was to change this as soon a I realized what I had done. You may ask, how could you not have realized this immediately? Well, I usually have a strong female main character (or at least, more important than a secondary character if not the main POV, as all my POV characters to date have been men). I was not sure if I would have a female character in this at all and when I first introduced her she had all kinds of other problems as well. She was a bit part, an exciting action, the first domino that propels the main character on his wild cat and mouse game.

So I ran back to change it...but I couldn't. I could have her simply being attacked (and I might still go that way during revision), but when I tried to change it, I just couldn't do it. It was right what was happening. The antagonist was that evil and the manner in which the woman got herself into the situation fits her character as well.

I worry about these things. I respect people like the Rejectionist who would smite me with her feminist powers if she saw this kind of thing. I would point out that I have written novels with strong female characters. I think Jara from WANTED: CHOSEN ONE, NOW HIRING is a better female character than some characters written by women! So back the fuck off! I'm not always going to write the same thing in fear of being derided. We shout at stories that propagate male/female stereotypes and I've always been part of that bandwagon, but now I'm getting a view from the other side. If all my feminist-approved writing isn't published and my feminist-derided work is, well, dammit I tried. Blame The Man. (Don't say "just don't write it" because I'm not writing a story that porports to reinforce such a stereotype, you just yell at everything without finding out more about it first.)

...yes, I do have these arguments with myself. I know it's weird. No, I am not seeing anyone about it.

So all this really boils down to is know the rules. Break the rules when it's best for the story.

And stop hurting/killing women to make things dramatic for your male characters. That's bullshit.

So there's another reason you should read the genre you write in. Not only so you know the tropes of your genre, avoid the cliches and maximize your use of the collective knowledge base, but so you can avoid creative overlap. You see, no matter how many times you use an element from a popular work, if there are two many of them, you look like you're cherry picking.

I read my genre. I do. But I don't read the titans of my genre. I never read the Wheel of Time. I never made it past page 7 of the first Shanara book. I owned two Goodkind novels but they were so large that I used them to fight crime. I got a Pratchett ebook, but it was messed up and played the chapters out of order. I've never read a Dragons of Mercedes Lackey anything and my first Weis/Hickman book had footnotes and who the hell puts footnotes in a goddamn fantasy book.

So I've read others. I read Williams and Bujold, Cook and Martin, along with a host of other obscure fantasists who popped one series and then disappeared.

I always loved Herbert's use of Dedicat. I wish it were a real word or a title from earth that I could find, but any Google search takes you to Dune, so as far as I can tell it is wholly his creation. So many terms are bandied about for priests and those committed to gods/saints/whoever, but for whatever reason, no one ever seemed to use dedicated as a noun. So I did.

Oh, tee hee, and it turns out Robert Jordan did as well.

Seriously, how many things can I mirror other writers before people just roll their eyes. Perhaps that's why people tell me it's too similar to other works. Do you know how hard I am on people who start telling me about their world and then start listing all the different places they took stuff from? That's not your world. That's a collage. And if I'm an avid reader (which clearly I'm not, what the hell is up with that?), I'll notice all the different bits of your collage and it will distract me from the story.

I need a copyeditor that's well versed in fantasy to crunch my manuscripts and tell me if I'm overreacting. To repeat, I hate the impression that I take my ideas from other people.

Most writers will tell you they listen to music at some point during the process to fuel their inspiration. I used to be the same. Eventually I stopped. I found I focused more on the music than I did on the writing. Ambient noise I could filter out, but music caught my attention and that was bad. And since I was ever so poor, I couldn't even afford a lot of new music, so it was the same music all over again. While I have gained an incredible amount of inspiration from KoRn over the years, most of that was used up during college.

So music doesn't do a lot for my writing. Music does a lot for me personally because I love music, but not for my writing (other than keep me sane). HOWEVER, Norah Jones' "Sinkin' Soon" is a song that infuses me with ideas. So many stories come to mind when I hear that trumpet and I just want to write and write and write stories where that song is the appropriate soundtrack.

Unfortunately, none of my current works in progress fit that song, so I have to be careful, but still, it's a great song. If you haven't heard it, give it a listen and try to tell me it's not awesome. I will mock you for your foolishness.

Unlike my last experience, creative overlap isn't always such a horrible thing. I was rereading A GAME OF THRONES and Martin mentions the Seven Kingdoms.

OH NO! I thought at first. WANTED: CHOSEN ONE, NOW HIRING also has the Seven Kingdoms. Here's the catch, the context in which Martin deals with his Seven Kingdoms is much different than how I deal with mine. Mine are seven kingdoms lining a Crescent Sea and they have a shared history and you go to a few of them and blah blah blah. Given that seven is one of the hierarchical numbers (one, two, three, seven, and thirteen), the likelihood of there being a Seven Kingdoms in a fantasy setting is extremely high. So no worries. I don't think anyone will accuse me of stealing the idea from Martin. The similarities stop at the name.

So I just finished Brandon Sanderson's MISTBORN. I had a bit of a fit when I got to page 388 and I saw the phrase, "Forgotten Gods."

OH NO! This is not like Seven Kingdoms. This is much more specific. Forgotten Gods is a major element in WANTED: CHOSEN ONE, NOW HIRING and since THE TRIAD SOCIETY is set in the same setting (in Reliarach rather than Andaria), this kind of thing is a big deal.

A. BIG. DEAL.

The entire manuscript was written long before I read MISTBORN. But that book was written years ago. This is not cool. I read on and I begin to calm down. He doesn't use the term again. Oh crap, wait! Again on page 552! Stop that, Brandon! Those are the only two times in the entire book that phrase is used, but I can only hope he does not explore that theme in either of the two books following. I am extremely intolerant of people accusing me of taking my ideas from anywhere. If something inspired me, I openly attest to it. Otherwise, it's creative overlap.

The Rejectionist asked another question, one I felt worhty of a response. The question returns us to a topic I have written on frequently here in the Brick City (a name I have not used in a long time but fits the tone of this post, so here it is again.) It is, in fact, a topic that comes up frequently, often in an attempt at humor, often resulting in a typical Joe Selby tirade. Regardless, I will endeavor to answer said question anew with both humor and derision, as is befitting.

What does rejection mean to me?

What a simple question. What an unsimple answer. Rejection, to steal a phrase, is like an onion. It has many layers. Specifically, in this case, rejection refers to query rejections in the pursuit of publication, so we can cast aside any blunders I had in my youth attempting to touch my girlfriend's breasts. We will keep this in the now, as I continue writing and continue querying and continue getting rejected.

Writing is one of the most important things in my life (truly, second only to my wife), and rejection is the largest hurdle I currently face to taking my writing to a national (international?) market. As I approach my writing as the second job it is, I will now address rejection as it impacts said job during a standard work week.


MONDAY
I received a rejection letter today. This makes me proud. Many of my friends who do not write or who write as a hobby do not understand this. They assume rejection means failure. This is because they do not attempt professional publication (or, at least, not in anything larger than self-publication, which I discount). They do not truly understand the challenges of finishing a novel-length manuscript. How could one understand without having accomplished the same. So often a manuscript is abandoned after the first surge of creativity is expired. One cannot compare the challenges of writing a 20,000-word manuscript to finishing a 100,000-word+ manuscript. And then to revise that manuscript multiple times and then to query an agent. It is a daunting task. And while true, many queriers do not go through all those steps, I did. I wrote professionally. I submitted professionally. I was rejected professionally. I am a professional. This makes me proud. Thank you, Rejection.

TUESDAY
I received a rejection letter today. I appreciate this. It's a form rejection, as they almost alrways are. I recieved a semi-personalized rejection once, or the most politely written form rejection ever known. I hope it was semi-personalized because if she says how close she was to asking for it, that seems horribly unfair to the author. Today's wasn't one of those. It was just a form rejection. It was polite and professional. It went through all the standard statements of how this isn't a reflection of my work and that writing is subjective. I understand that and after having read it so many times, I wonder if it's necessary, but then I remember that it's a kind word and kind words are never unnecessary, so I say thank you. I do not write back thank you, because that would clutter a busy agent's inbox, but I say thank you in my brain, because she deserves thanks for taking the time to read my query and respond.

I dislike agent policy of not responding. I've seen the argument that it's a waste of an agent's time. The math and the totals of how much time out of the year would be spent replying to queries and I do not care. Agenting is not just about writing, it's about relationships, and taking the time to acknowledge you received, reviewed, and passed on my work established a good relationship. Not to mention it spares you from receiving follow-up emails and requries that I think in the end would take up more of your time than creating a form rejection. Email clients and super-copy/paste applications make form rejection absurdly easy. I have posted before what I think when an says she is too busy to do something. We're all busy. A rejection letter is not too much to ask for. So thank you, for sending me one today.

WEDNESDAY
I received a rejection today. Dammit. I'm running out of agents I queried. It's not right for you or for her or for him. This has to be right for someone. Come on. This isn't hackneyed stuff. This isn't my first time at the rodeo. I've written. I've revised. I've avoided cliches and found an interesting hook. I wrote with character and with adventure and threw in some fun twists. This will appeal to the market. I've seen books with this tone before so how can you tell me it's not right for you? It has to be right for someone. How did those books get published if they weren't right for anyone either? There aren't THAT many fantasy agents in the world, and I've done a LOT of research. One of you has published this stuff before. Why won't you even ask to read mine? It's good! Yes the page count is high of your perfect margin, but it's not a 250k+ epic. I'm sure that number will fall during editing. I already brought it down once with my own edits. I edited. I've edited professionally before. I had beta readers and took into account their feedback. Come on. This has to be right for SOMEONE. Someone? Anyone? Listen, I'm productive. I write a minimum of one novel a year. I wrote two last year. I have over a dozen books percolating in my brain, so this isn't going to be a one-shot and we're out kind of thing. Professionally, I'm an investment. I'll produce regularly for you and of a quality that won't suck up all your time from your other clients. Come on, just give me a shot! I'm a steady paycheck! Read the damn manuscript. You'll like it. It's good.

THURSDAY
I received a rejection today. One of my self-published friends tried to have a conversation with me today about the challenges of publishing in the industry. He talked down to me like he was some seasoned professional. Dude. Dood. You are self-published. I admit, the changing marketplace makes self-publishing more feasible, but you relied on your friends to edit, design your cover, and set the pages. Sure some of them have some experience, but this is small scale. Your friends were in the creative writing class in high school. They're not professional fiction editors. They do not make their living doing this. They do not win awards for doing this. The authors they edit do not win awards for doing this because you're the only person they edit. Please do not think because you are self-published, and I received another rejection letter, that this somehow puts me into a subordinate position. I am a better writer than you. I am a significantly better writer than you. It is because I am a better writer than you that I am attempting to break into professional writing. I am not cowering in self-publications, "setting my terms for success." My "terms of success" are succeeding. My sales will go well beyond the three-digit cusp. I will make advances. I will earn them out. I will earn royalties. I will be published in multiple languages. I will be asked to submit more manuscripts and even to possibly participate in an anthology.

So, dear agent, while I appreciate that you took the time to send me a rejection, I would ask you to reconsider if for no other reason than to save me from my friends who think I'm a failure. I am not a failure, but it is unlikely they will accept that until I can beat them over the head with an ARC.

FRIDAY
I received a rejection today. What. The. Fuck. You posted on your blog that you wanted to expand your list. You said you were looking for fantasy. Hey, that's me! You said you didn't have enough male clients. I have a penis! I know. I touched it this morning! You said if the writing was good you'd ask for more pages. You didn't ask for more pages. You rejected me. What the crap is that? I've been putting up with this all week. You were the last one. My entire query list has rejected me. You see this book I'm reading? It's average. It's not crap. It's not testament to the poor standards of the industry. It's average. The author repeats himself too much and has this unnatural aversion to pronouns. I am better than this. He is a best selling author. This novel is a best selling novel. I am better than this. Why won't you even give me a chance? You know how many times I've revised that goddamn query? Just give me a chance.

Please...

SATURDAY
I did not receive a rejection today. That's a Monday through Friday thing. I still write on the weekends, though. I write all the time. It's what I do. It's what I've always done. Some days, it's hard. I wake up on Saturday and wonder why I'm not playing frisbee golf or Xbox with friends. Why am I sitting at a counter behind a computer writing about a world that doesn't exist? My wife sees the look on my face and she gives me a hug. She's still in bed. She's going to sleep in. But she doesn't want me to be sad. She reminds me that I'm an asshole when I don't write and, while I may not feel up to it, she'd appreciate it if I'd go do it anyway. For her sake. She also tells me her favorite Babe Ruth quote. "Every strike brings me closer to the next home run." I avoid telling her that you only get three strikes until you're out. I kiss her. I thank her for her encouragement. I write some and see a new agent. Perhaps she'll like what I write. I send her a query. Maybe next Monday will be different.