I was having a conversation with someone this past weekend–someone I don’t know well, but we have a mutual acquaintance. So, there we were making dinner party conversation and we started talking about my writing. My darling husband is a University professor, so we have a lot of friends who are academics. This guy isn’t a “friend,” but he IS an academic. He’d heard from someone else that I was a writer and had published fiction. And he commented something along the lines of, “Well, but that’s easy. You just sit down and write whatever’s in your head, right?” As opposed to REAL writing which is apparently what HE does, involving research and footnotes and such.
As if the words just trip off my fingers onto the computer screen, fully formed and perfect in every way. No research involved, no planning, no plotting, no character development. And then no revising, no editing, no sending my darlings off to be rejected by cruel editors!
First of all, I’ve done my share of academic/analytical writing involving far more footnotes that I care to remember. And second, NO, IT ISN’T EASY! And I don’t just write whatever’s in my head!
Not that I haven’t encountered this sort of attitude before, especially when they discover that what I’m writing is not the “great American novel,” but Paranormal, Sex and Romance. THEN they assume that the entire book is just one big sex scene, like some sort of bad porn flick with cheesy music playing as the characters switch partners for the next round of body fluid swaps.
Some of the best writing I’ve ever read is genre writing. Some of the best writers I’ve ever read write fantasy and romance and science fiction. And good sex scenes are hard to write. I’d like to see THAT guy try writing one.
Unfortunately, courtesy (not to HIM, but to our HOSTESS) prevented me from telling him what a jerk he is. So, I just smiled and moved on, and lucky YOU, you all get to hear my rant instead!
On a more positive note (and God knows we could use a positive note about now) I wrote a wonderful scene with Sophia and a male blood slave. Very sexy and sensuous! It’s so different writing a sexually dominant female! Of course, that won’t last once she crosses Colin’s path. Colin is nobody’s slave.
One thing I will say … Writing may not always be easy … but it sure is fun! LOLOLOLOLOLOL
DBR
And just because I thought this one was funny, here’s an episode of The Elevator.