I was just telling my mom how bad I felt for Johnny Cash's first wife from that movie (I am watching, too). I mean, I love Johnny and June, but poor Vivian.

Zactly.

So, I'm going on this grad school alumni outing tomorrow, and now my friend who had also signed up is bailing. Because she "still has stuff to deal with in the new apartment." That they moved into a month ago. Annoying! I'll still go, but I was looking forward to seeing her.

Suddenly, the often once-or-twice discussed Buffista Cat F2F has become feasible....

I am so there.

Having written a book, I can say that much of my stress over it was Writing What I Want vs. Writing What I Know They Want. Writing to your audience is pandering straight up. That's not the debt you owe. You write to satisfy your own standard first and foremost or else you're fucked. You write to please your idea of what a good book should be.

An ironic time to peek into natter.

I thought I'd pop in real quick before I start delving into chapter 18 again. I have no audience to worry about.

I have no audience to worry about.

Please yourself then.

An ironic time to peek into natter.

It's not ironic! It's coincidental!

And the part about how having a fan rewrite your novel is the height of flattery just made me want to grind my teeth. Fan-fiction is one thing-- groovy, rock on, I just don't need to see it, for a variety of reasons, some of which are legal. But rewriting? NSM with the flattery.

When they say rewriting, do they mean a fan rewrote it the way they thought it should be? Because I don't see the flattery there. That sounds like, "Nice try, but here is what you should have done."

It's not ironic! It's coincidental!

True.

When they say rewriting, do they mean a fan rewrote it the way they thought it should be? Because I don't see the flattery there. That sounds like, "Nice try, but here is what you should have done."

That is...pretty much what happened if it's the case I'm thinking of.

Not sure if this is the same after all. Here they're demanding that the author do the rewrite: [link]

You write to satisfy your own standard first and foremost or else you're fucked. You write to please your idea of what a good book should be.

That's true if you know what a good book is. There are a lot of writers out there who don't.

And I think it's an admirable ideal, but not always practical if you want to *sell* your book. You might write a really great romance, let's say, where the hero dies tragically. And it might rock hard. But not many people *who like romance* will want to read it, because it's not what they expect. Which means most editors won't buy it in the first place. There is a reason for expectations, especially in genre fiction.

If you're talking about writing the next Ulysses, on the other hand, well, more power to you!