Fandom: This.

[nebroadwe]

More kerfuffle has erupted over a leaked draft of Stephenie Meyer's next planned novel in the Twilight series. Observers are divided over the author's decision to shelve the project, but until Nora Roberts weighs in, I think Diane Duane has the best analysis of the situation:

The line that brought me up short was this one:

With writing, the way you feel changes everything.

It's an endearingly tyro-like way to feel about the craft (IMO). A lot of us go through this stage early on. But she's still in her novitiate, let the Times Bestseller List imply what it may; so odds are she'll be over this way of thinking by the time she's beyond her tenth or fifteenth novel. By then she'll have discovered that writing a novel is a job of work, like building a bookshelf or driving a truck: you don't have to wait for inspiration or the right mood, you just do it. (In fact, writing is one of the very best ways of changing your mood. A highly effective way to get out of the dumps is to write something where the plot requires the characters to feel cheerful. It's like smiling when you don't feel like it: it forces your brain chemistry to change to match.)

Word. This is, in fact, the most important thing I have learned thus far from writing fanfiction. I just wish I had been able to figure it out while I was writing my dissertation. (Also the fact that, being a morning person, I have less of an activation barrier to get over if I start writing as soon as I get up. Duh.)

Some further useful discussion follows here (nested among the snark).

Comments

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

I'm with you on this. While I love writing, I try to approach it as I would a job. Even when I'm not feeling like doing it I try to do something. I like what Ms. Duane has said on the subject

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

It's all about the craftspersonship, IMO. We can talk about Muses and such, and there are those AHA! moments of inspiration that get a story rolling or send it careering off in new directions, but the bulk of producing a text is the technical DIY -- hitching one sentence into another, carrying a metaphor through, inventing dialogue that expresses character. And no matter how many times I hit my thumb with the pen, I still enjoy the process.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

Ihave to agree with you. That's why I get very impatient when someone is telling me they're waiting for inspiration to strike. You won't get far doing that.

my personal failing is my dislike of going back over the draft and polishing it

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

I live in terror of the blank page. Once I have words on it, I can go like gangbusters. Between us, we could be great. :-)

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

snort. great or scary

[artemisrae.livejournal.com]

You think someone like SMeyes would have more motivation than us, being that she actually IS getting pay like it's a job and everything.

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

That does involve a completely different set of motivators (and stressors -- it can be hard to make the transition from "writing is fun!" to "writing is my job," particularly if you're invested in an "I have to feel it to write it" mindset). I agree that if she is a professional, she needs to take a more professional, and much less confessional, approach to problems like this. I wonder whether she's getting the help she needs from her agent or from Random House. Anyone working in public relations with half an ounce of Internet savvy could have predicted the reaction Ms. Meyers's announcement would cause. [frowns in the general direction of the should-be ept]

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

well yes
(and I like your icon)

But as I'm realizing that several lady authors in the Urban Fantasy realm have gone totally off their nut (Hamilton, Rice, now Meyers). This worries me (guess who's published in this genre...)