Am I allowed to pimp Weaver in HC as Christmas (and any other and all-) occasion presents, so that we can get a paperback run?

If this bothers anybody, I'll take it down. I'm of the opinion it speaks to the state of the publishing industry, and thus is educational for those of us who have yet to publish. But I'll bow to the will, etc.

You're right, Deb...working within somebody's parameters is harder, but there's more of a net for rookies like me. Creating my own world is fun, but a struggle as well. But I'm ready for it...that's why my fic is so intricate.

I read lots of writing books, suspecting that there's a "secret" that I'm missing. Because if I know how to do something, then obviously it's too easy and I'm missing something important.

Hear you.

a world of wrod.

Ah, okay - the safety net thing, I can follow that. I never felt the need for one, not in writing, so it's a blind spot for me, and I can't really empathise, just sympathise.

But I do wonder, why the sense of terror? It seems to be specifically about writing, or at least more to the fore about writing.

Oh, la. Deb is about to pontificate again.

Look at it this way - and again, I am NOT trying to be insensitive to insecurities, I remember a black moment of wanting to find the genre nazi at PW who trashed Weaver, so that I could batter him with rocks, the stupid git:

Cooking, playing a musical instrument, embroidering, taking a photograph: any of those things is a creative undertaking. Add creative writing to that list (and Allyson's essays fall directly under that header, because she's telling a story, even though it's not fictional, and her ultimate aim is to take us down the road with her).

Now. A question for you - any of the you's out there who have the uh-oh, I mustn't try this, need a safety net reaction specifically for writing:

Do you get the sense of uh-oh when you assemble ingredients from what you've got in the fridge, put them together, and try to make dinner? It's a creative act, with some faith attached.

Do you feel the frantic need to look for other peoples' existing embroidery patterns, every time you get the idea for a picture you want to create with silk thread?

If you had three piano lessons as a kid, and suddenly hear a melody in your head that you can't identify, do you feel the need to read a bunch of books about piano before you flop down on a bench in the music store at the mall, and pick it out on the keyboard, humming as you do so?

All creative acts. Why should writing inspire so much pressure?

edit: That's a real live question, by the by. It isn't rhetorical. I really want to know why people react that way, why writing in particular has such a prevalence of the safety net-need.

I probably would, Deb. Or would've...I'm better now. Because life has rarely taught me I'm competent, much less talented. Poor broken thing...makes you think, huh?

All creative acts. Why should writing inspire so much pressure?

For me, I think that the whole bit about submitting for publication, finding an agent, working with an editor, wondering if a publisher would ever take the thing, etc., etc. front-loaded a metric ton of anxiety into the process.

Writing fanfiction has made writing fun for me again, since I am basically writing the kinds of stories that I'd like to read, and there's no pressure from anyone but myself.

Poor broken thing...makes you think, huh?

If you're broken, I'm going to rollerskate down the south face of Everest with a giant combo pizza on my head. But I do get it. Like I said, it's a blind spot for me; I went the other way early on, with a gaggle of doctors standing a few feet away from me, casually discussing whether I'd live or die, and how deformed I was likely to be. I decided they were all idiots and I would spite them by never believing what they told me, just on principle. So I believed I was good early on in life. Thing is, I suspect that, while I'm good, you may be even better.

For me, I think that the whole bit about submitting for publication, finding an agent, working with an editor, wondering if a publisher would ever take the thing, etc., etc. front-loaded a metric ton of anxiety into the process.

But isn't that an entirely different issue? I mean, if you sit down without a single story in your head and say, I am going to write for a living, then you're talking about making money, not telling a story. Two different aspects of it, not at odds necessarily, but certainly different.

I have no idea if my publisher is going to want a fourth book in this series. I hope so. But I'm writing it anyway; there's a story in there I want to tell.

edit: simplifying the thought about Anne's take: I just mean that the monetary validation from outside sources is not the creation itself.

But isn't that an entirely different issue?

Oh, it is, but that didn't stop my brain from getting them confused.

Heh. See above - I added to clarify, at the bottom.

Validation (not) creation.