People ask the best questions!

So several people have asked me, in amidst the more general posts on writing and formatting things and watching too much television and my cat being adorable, exactly how it is that I go about writing a book. Since saying 'I put words on paper until a novel falls out' seems a little bit twee, and I like writing things down, I am now writing out How I Write Books, or, What Seanan Does In Her Rapidly Decreasing Spare Time. This glosses a lot of the more complicated steps, since a truly accurate portrayal of how I write books would involve a lot of 'stop writing, go find a zombie movie' and 'get another DDP,' and no one actually needs to read that. Those particular steps are sort of a given.

Soooo...

( Click here and learn about the way one blonde's brain works, in the literary sense. Lots of confusion? Yeah, that's rather to be expected around here, where running three books at the same time is entirely normal, but stopping to focus on something that makes sense absolutely isn't. )

Thoughts on Writing #9: Control Your Children.

It's been too long since we've had one of these, so welcome to the ninth installment in my ongoing essay series on the art and craft of writing. All of these essays are based on my fifty thoughts on writing, which I basically wrote down because I was bored one afternoon. If I'd known that I was going to wind up accidentally basing an essay series off the damned things, I might have been a little more careful about what I was thinking. Only probably not, because I've met me, and I tend to regard that sort of thing as a challenge. Luckily, I'm caffeinated. Today's point to ponder:

Thoughts on Writing #9: Control Your Children.

I truly do feel that today's topic is an important one. I also feel that it's one of those things that's mildly difficult to explain -- either it makes sense or it doesn't. Since I've never been one to back away from something just because it was impossible to articulate, I'm just going to get out the hammer. The core of the idea is simple: sometimes your kids aren't perfect either. More expansively:

You know those parents with the totally out-of-control kids who run around the restaurant sweeping things off tables and screaming in the faces of all the other diners? And you know how they just sit there looking serene, because their kids are precious little angels and everything they do is wonderful? Don't be one of those parents. If your book spits in somebody's metaphorical soup, the appropriate thing to do is to apologize and discipline your text, not tell the person with the saliva slowly dissolving in their minestrone that they 'just don't appreciate the beauty of spit.' Not everyone is going to like what you do, but you can damn well make sure your kids don't trash the place before you pay the check.

What does this mean? It means that we can't please all the people all of the time, no matter how amazing we may think we are. It also means that sometimes, we aren't going to be able to defend the things our children -- our words -- can do, and we'll need to just apologize and move on. The responsibility for our creations is no one's but our own.

Let's begin.

( My thoughts are not your thoughts; my process is not your process; my ideas are not your ideas; my method is not your method. All these things are totally right for me, and may be just as totally wrong for you. So please don't stress if the things I'm saying don't apply to you -- I promise, there is no One True Way. This way for my thoughts on the things our kids can do. )