Writing

So Much For “Don’t Be Evil”

As most writers already know, the deadline for opting out of the Google Books Settlement is September 4th.

I stalled.  I didn’t want to deal with this crap, so I ignored it in the hopes that someone would come along and deliver a legal smackdown to Google.  (Germany is working on it, but not soon enough to make a difference on that 9/4 deadline.  ETA: And Amazon too!  Thanks, dqg_neal.)

I’m not a lawyer.  There’s a lot about this issue I probably don’t understand, and I expect smarter people to come along and correct me on any number of issues.  Let me start by pointing you toward some of those smarter people: Writer Beware’s Google Settlement primer and SFWA’s objection to the settlement.

Copyright law is a hotly debated issue.  I feel that it’s flawed, but show me legislation that isn’t.  Right now, that law says if I write something, it’s mine.  I have the legal right to decide what’s done with it*.  If you publish or repost it without permission, you’re breaking the law.  Once the copyright term expires, the work enters the public domain, and you can do whatever the heck you want with it.

Enter Google.  From what I’ve read and understand so far, Google decided copyright was more of a guideline than a law, conflating out-of-print with public domain, and going with a “Scan ’em all and let God sort ’em out” approach.

Naturally, there were objections.  The Author’s Guild went to court and negotiated a settlement wherein authors whose works had been illegally scanned might be entitled to some small payment, and we would all be able to opt out of Google’s ongoing book scanning & sharing project.

This is where I get cranky.  The opt-out project requires me to log into the settlement site, search for every book I’ve published (English and translations), as well as every variation of every book, not to mention every short story I’ve had published in any anthologies, and claim them all.  I can then either opt out of the whole settlement, or opt in and specify what I’m allowing Google to do or not do with my work.  In other words, the onus is not on Google to obey copyright law, but on me the author to tell them “Yes I really, really do want you to obey the law in respect to my work.”

Tell you what, Google.  How about I head down to your HQ and start looting the building for all of the high-tech computers and equipment I can find.  If you don’t like it, I’ll set up a form on my Web site where you can log in and tell me exactly what you want to keep.  Make sure you provide the serial numbers for each item!

There’s a lot of discussion and commentary out there, and I’d encourage interested parties to read up.  Jay Lake pointed to one post that takes an opposing view, which I think is also worth reading.  (Though I’d argue that Mr. Lee’s complaints are better directed toward reforming copyright law, and don’t justify simply ignoring or breaking current law.)

You know, there are even some stories and books I wouldn’t have minded letting Google display on their site … if they’d bothered to ask first.

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*Fair use is a whole other textbook unto itself, but I believe the Google settlement issue goes way beyond fair use.

The Stages of Book Love

Just something I’ve been playing with as I dive into the new book.  I suspect some of the writers can relate?

(Click here if the graph gets truncated and you need the full view.)

The Stages of Book Love:

ETA: Also see this graph and blog post by Maureen McHugh.  I honestly don’t remember whether I’ve seen McHugh’s graph before, but it’s very possible I saw it reposted somewhere, and that it was hiding in the back of my mind as I worked on my own graph.

Writing Popular

One of the earliest pieces of writing advice I remember was that writers — especially new writers — shouldn’t try to write to trend.  In other words, don’t look at today’s hot books and set out to write whatever’s currently leaping off the shelves.

There are problems with aiming for trends, not the least of which is the glacial pace of publishing.  Say Cyborg Unicorns are the hot new thing, so you set out to write your own cybercorn book.  You spend a year writing your book, another year submitting, and then if you actually land a deal, it could be yet another year before the book comes out.  In this highly optimistic scenario, you’re already three years behind the trend, which means there’s a decent chance the rest of the world has moved on to Shakespearean Cthulhu*.

Of course, an established writer can go directly to the publisher saying, “Let me write you an awesome cybercorn book.”  If you’re a fast enough writer, you might have more luck riding the current trends.

But that leads to the other objection, one which I admit is totally bogus**, and that’s the idea that a real author writes from the heart without worrying about trends or popularity.  The best stories are the ones the author loves.

The thing is, I have no proof for this.  I think my writing is better when I love the story, when I’m excited about the ideas and the characters and so on.  But can a skilled writer churn out a tale he doesn’t care about and still make it good?  Why not?  I don’t think of writing as a mystical art, inspired by divine muses.  It’s a craft.  A good carpenter can produce beautiful bookshelves even if she doesn’t particularly love shelves — or even if she doesn’t love this particular set of shelves — right?  Why doesn’t the same apply to writing?  Doesn’t a writer who refuses to write anything she doesn’t absolutely love risk falling into the same trap as the one who refuses to write until the muse gives him the perfect story idea?

None of which changes my deeply held conviction that I write better when I love what I write.  Maybe the love doesn’t make it better; maybe it just makes it easier.  All I know is that I try to write what I love, and while this approach hasn’t made me a New York Time bestseller, is seems to work for me.

All of this is a long-winded way of talking about my drive to work this morning, where I was brainstorming more ideas for the fourth princess book and realized how much fun it could be to write to one of the current trends:

Princesses vs. Zombies.

Sadly, I don’t think I’m going to do it.  The idea isn’t right for the series, and doesn’t fit with everything else I want to accomplish in book four.

But wouldn’t it make one hell of a story?  Danielle, Talia, and Snow kicking undead ass together.

Who knows, maybe I’ll have to do a fifth book after all….

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*Note to self: pitch this anthology!
**Yes, I grew up in the 80s.

How do you know the story is done?

On Saturday night, I e-mailed Red Hood’s Revenge to my editor.  This is the time when we do the Snoopy dance.  (Or we would if I hadn’t immediately turned around and messed up my back.  Sigh.)

Overall, the book took just over a year from the day I started writing.  The manuscript came in at 91,000 words, but I suspect it will grow once I have the revision chat with my editor, not to mention feedback from my agent and a few others (including one Seanan McGuire, author of the forthcoming Rosemary and Rue [Amazon | Mysterious Galaxy], who reads scary fast and wrote things like “better than MERMAID”  and “brilliant.”  My ego, it is pleased.)

So how did I know the book was ready?  The easy answer is that my deadline told me.  Of course, the original deadline was 8/1, and I ended up asking for a two-week extension.  So what changed between the 1st and the 15th?  How could I tell this draft was the one I could turn in?

I knew I wouldn’t make the original deadline because I was aware of specific problems with the book.  I knew the character of Red Hood as I had written her was boring, and needed to be changed.  I knew the sequence of events near the end didn’t make sense, and I had to rework them.

That’s really all there is to it.  If I know there are particular problems I can fix, it’s my job to fix them.  This is very different from the vague sense of “I don’t know if this book is good enough, and what if it sucks and my editor drops me and I’ll never work in this town again???”  To paraphrase Douglas Adams, that’s just perfectly normal paranoia. Every writer in the Universe has that.

I could go through my draft again for another month, adding a bit of description here and there, fixing typos and maybe changing the occasional confusing word or phrase.  But I’d just be tinkering.  I’m not actually working on the story anymore, I’m just polishing a few smudges.  I’m stalling.

This is not the same process I went through ten years ago.  Today, I trust myself to spot the huge, story-crippling flaws in my drafts.  Ten years ago, I was blind to them.  (As witnessed by some of my trunked novels.)  This is why my process back then required more beta readers, usually at least 4 other sets of eyes to help catch the gaping plotholes and other problems.

I still don’t have 20/20 vision with my own work.  I know my editor will point out problems that will have me kicking myself.  I know I’ll spend another few weeks rewriting Red Hood one last time to fix them.  If there ever comes a day when my editor tells me my story is perfect as is, I’ll know it’s time to find a new editor.

The goal isn’t to make the story perfect.  If that’s the standard you’re aiming for, you’ll never send it out.  The goal, at least for me, is to make it the best story I can.  The trick is recognizing when I’ve reached that point.

Laughing at Myself

“So when are you going to quit the day job?”

I can’t blame folks for asking the question … again and again and again.  We’ve all seen the movies, the writers living in luxurious homes, sharing a limo with their agents on the way to the big booksigning, and so on.  J. K. Rowling has her own castle.  And didn’t Stephen King buy Maine a while back?  Dan Brown’s GDP is expected to surpass Canada’s by 2011.

No matter how many times I explain that most of us are getting four or low five digit advances, the myth continues.  People remember the glamor and the glory of those martini-sipping New York authors, tapping away at the laptops for two minutes an episode and spending the rest of their time enjoying the accolades.

Now we fast forward to me the other day.  I was catching up on Facebook, and I came across Amber Benson‘s post where she talks about having to eat out less to save money.

My first reaction: But aren’t actors all rich?

Sigh.

Time & Priorities

My daughter is going to be nine next month.  She’s gotten old enough to understand that Daddy tends to disappear when he’s on deadline.  The four-year-old is less patient, as evidenced by his comment yesterday evening:

“But Daddy, we haven’t roughhoused together in a while today.”

The “today” makes me smile, but this kind of comment is still a powerful gut punch.  Writing is my second job, and that means a lot less free time.  I’ve talked before about trying to balance writing and family and everything else.  It’s not a problem you ever solve.  You just do the best you can from day to day.

I’m trying.  My daughter and I are still doing karate together every week, and I swiped an idea from one of my readers and started taking her out to breakfast once a month, just her and Daddy.  (I’m a putz and can’t remember who mentioned this, but thank you!)

This weekend, after finishing the latest draft of Red Hood, I blew off final revisions so my son and I could play LEGOs together.  (I dug up the instructions and totally built this guy, who now watches over my son from atop his dresser.)

 

Off-topic, when did LEGO start using plastic fiber optic technology???

Anyway, the point is it’s an ongoing struggle to make time for everything that’s important.  Nothing gets as much time and attention as I’d like.  I’d love to spend every day playing with the kids and spending time with my wife.  I’d also love to have eight hours a day to work on the writing.  Then there’s the whole day job issue, not to mention sleep.  And don’t get me started on housework and yardwork.

Since I can’t give everything as much time as I want, the key has been to prioritize, and to make sure I keep trying to give time to the things that matter.  Right now, Red Hood’s Revenge has moved up on the priority list.

But in a few more days, I’m turning that sucker in.  I’ll have to start working on book four of course, not to mention thinking about a new book idea I’ve been playing with, but the urgency will have passed.  I’ll be able to adjust the priorities again, moving things like date night with my wife or roughhousing with the kids back up where they belong.

Race in Red Hood

As a follow-up to the various discussions of race in SF/F, I wanted to talk about one of my own stumbling blocks as I was writing Red Hood’s Revenge.  This book takes place primarily in Talia’s home country of Arathea, described in earlier books as a desert culture with a vaguely middle-eastern flavor.  (Similar to the pseudo-European flavor of Lorindar.)

I wrote a scene in the first draft that I wasn’t happy with.  It involved the Arathean attitude toward homosexuality, which basically amounted to “Lesbian, outcast, unclean!”  I didn’t like the scene because it felt like I was getting preachy and building a big core conflict out of it.  While the characters’ sexualities are a part of who they are, it’s not the point of the book.

On the other hand, I wanted to keep it believable.  And here’s where my stereotypes screwed me over in my first draft, because we all know Arabs are hardline conservatives and terrorists who’ll stone you at the slightest sign of sexual “deviance.”

::Headdesk::

I’m pissed off that this crap was in my brain, and more pissed that it made its way onto the page.  It’s completely at odds with my own real-life experiences with people of middle eastern descent.  But it’s a message that gets reinforced every time I turn on the TV or catch up with news online.

So when it was time to rewrite, I took a step back.  True, some Arabs are extremists.  So are some Christians.  So are some Girl Scouts.  My job as the writer is to get past the cliches and the stereotypes and think about what’s right and true for these characters and this particular culture.

This is when I realized I was being an idiot.  Arathea is heavily influenced by fairy culture.  Read Sleeping Beauty — this is a land where fairies pop up at your kid’s birth to bestow blessings and curses alike.  I’ve established that fairies are all over the place in Arathea.  I’ve also hinted that fairies are … a bit more sexually liberal than most humans.

Put those two factors together, and Arathea is likely to be more open when it comes to sexuality.  Thanks to the fairy influence on Arathean culture, a woman who prefers other women is going to get about as much notice as a guy who prefers blondes to brunettes.

I’m not saying the book is now perfect.  I’ve spent a lot of time trying to construct a logical, believable desert culture, building on what’s out there without simply stealing the “shiny bits” from other cultures.  But I’m still a product of my own culture, and I’m sure there are things I’ve missed, mistakes and assumptions that have survived into the current draft.

I just wanted to put this particular example out there as one instance of my own struggles while writing the book.

Recommended reading: Appropriate Cultural Appropriation, by Nisi Shawl

I Hate This Part

IBARW link: rawles talking about Uhura.  “…please consider the point of view from which you are approaching your analysis because experiences vary wildly and one size does not fit all.”  I was troubled by the way Uhura/Spock was presented in the movie.  I don’t know that I agree with 100% of what rawles says here, but she’s given me a great deal to think about, including the perspective and assumptions behind my reactions to that coupling.

#

I love writing and being a writer (not always the same things).  It still blows my mind sometimes that I’m actually doing this.  That people walk into bookstores and (sometimes) see my stuff on the shelves.  That editors from the Czech Republic e-mail me to ask if they can reprint one of my stories (Ours to Fight For – yay!)  That I get fan mail, for crying out loud!  That’s crazy and wonderful and a little mind-blowing.

Then you have days like yesterday and today, where I’m 85% through the book and hit a brick wall of What-Was-I-Thinking?  The ending just doesn’t work.

I don’t expect plotting to be easy, but I hate what this part does to me.  For 24 hours now, I’ve been stuck.  I’m distracted, trying to fix the ending.  I’m impatient.  I’m cranky and stressed and ticked off at the damn story, and at myself for not catching this earlier.  I can’t imagine I was the most pleasant father/husband to be around last night.

I know I’ll get past this eventually.  I’ve figured out how to fix about half of what I need to.  The rest will come.  But right now, I also know I would be a happier, less stressed person if I wasn’t a writer.

I wouldn’t give it up, and I know it’s not a permanent state, but it’s still frustrating.  I love writing.  I hate when the negative takes over my life like this.  The only comfort is knowing this will vanish the instant I figure out the rest of this plot knot.

And now, back to the brainstorming.  Maybe if I had Red Riding Hood turn out to be a Terminator…

Talking About Mermaid

IBARW link: nojojojo talking about the cost of anger, and addressing the idea that people are just looking for something to be angry about, like it’s some sort of hobby or something.  This one stayed with me.

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It was pointed out that while I’ve been freaking out over Red Hood’s Revenge, the rest of the world (I wish!) has been anxiously awaiting the release of The Mermaid’s Madness [Amazon | Mysterious Galaxy], which got me thinking maybe I should actually talk about the forthcoming book a little 🙂

1.  First a quick request – DAW has generously provided me a big box of Mermaid bookmarks.  If you’re going to be at a convention in the next 3-4 months and wouldn’t mind dropping bookmarks on the freebies table, please let me know.

2.  I posted on Facebook that my wife had read Mermaid, and after thinking about it a while, has declared it my best book yet.  Any positive review makes me smile, but this one means more than most 🙂  I’m particularly pleased, since this one’s dedicated to her.

3.  I added a new bit to the Goodies page for Mermaid.  Check it out if you want to see the inspiration for Stub, the ship’s cat on the Phillipa (or if you just want to see pics of my three-legged cat Pod).

4.  Finally, one of the turning points for this book–the whole series, actually–came as I was thinking about … well, I’ll put the rest under a cut for spoiler reasons.

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Fantasy Covers: Doin’ it Right?

My thanks to everyone who’s been contributing to the fantasy cover discussion, both here and elsewhere.

One of the things that came up in comment discussion was that in addition to talking about covers which are problematic, it’s just as important if not more so to look at covers that work.  Many of the following links and images come out of yesterday’s comments.  Thanks again to everyone who suggested them.

ETA: The fact that I picked these covers does not mean they’re Good And Right, or that everyone must approve.  My taste is my own, and I have blind spots like anyone else, so please feel free to disagree.

oldcharliebrown pointed to a gallery of old Realms covers.  While a lot of the old covers are frankly painful, there are some good ones as well. I really like the first cover below, though it doesn’t necessarily feel like fantasy. But I think it’s a great image on many levels, and very evocative. As for the second, well, you can’t go wrong with Xena, right? Realms has always had a bit of a media focus, but given some of the more feminist stories within the magazine, I think Xena was a very good choice.

Another commenter brought up Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Sword & Sorceress books, which have done a great job of … well, actually clothing our heroines for more than 25 years.  To me, a lot of these covers portray women who are strong and beautiful without the need for the helpless half-naked damsel trope.

The Chicks in Chainmail series from Esther Friesner is an interesting one.  Instead of trying to avoid the bikini warrior women, these books take the whole concept and completely invert the power and dynamics.  Of the five books in the series, these two are my favorite covers.

  

dirigibletrance pointed to this cover from Psychology Today, which earned a number of “I’d buy that magazine!” comments.

I debated posting one of my own covers, then decided the heck with it.  Personally, I really like the way Scott Fischer captured the characters.  I could have done without Talia’s cleavage, but overall, I like the aura of competence and confidence he put into this.

I liked the cover of Jade Dragon, by Jenn Reese.  No clothes at all, but it doesn’t feel exploitative to me.  It’s not that nudity per se is necessarily bad or sexist or anything like that.  This feels appropriate for the book (fantasy/romance), and I thought it was a good cover.

As a reader, which of these would make you pick up the magazine/book?  What works, what would you like to see more of, and what other examples are out there that I’ve missed?  (This was only a sampling.  I know there are a lot of other good covers.)

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