Writing is not a service industry
Well, here’s my take on it.
Writing is not a service industry, because writing is an art. When I sit down to write, I am not thinking of my readers. I am thinking of the words, the story, the characters, the way it all goes together, the why and where it goes, this golden ball with the golden string unraveling and tangling and confusing me and frustrating me and delighting me.
Guess what readers. It’s not about you at all. It’s not about me either, except that in some unknown way it’s born of me and nurtured and driven by me. The old cliché about books being your children is true. They are of you, but you do not control them.
It’s about the writing. It’s about the world and story there, and sometimes you want it so badly to be something else and you try and you try and you cannot make it go that way. And you want to beat your head against the wall and scream. And nothing you do will make it what you dream that it can be. As good as you wanted it to be.
Like children, books.
So then it goes out there, whatever you made of it, and it’s a commodity. People say what they want to say, in whatever way they want to say it, because it’s no skin off their back. And they get really really pissed off if they spent their money and they didn’t like what they got. So now it’s corporate America and readers “voting with their wallets” and shut up if you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen, be a professional, suck-up to readers, always be polite, who-do-you-think-you-are, some kind of diva? Some kind of artiste? Be truthful to the depth of your heart in your work, but in your public persona, lie lie lie because otherwise you’re just another wuss who can’t take it. Learn to sell yourself, get a blog, get a website, that’s the future, son, it’s all out there, Wall Street, big money…hey it’s just a buncha damn words, what’s your problem? We can always find another writer, they’re a dime a dozen.
A book is a magic thing. It has a life of its own. Do you doubt it, in the small hours of the night when you sit up in bed reading and reading, living in a world you never made, unable to bear to leave it until the last page closes and it vanishes into thin air?
Do you think it is any different for me when I write it? It is magic, but so fragile. So hard to find and easy to lose.
Now there’s this internet, another magic thing with a life of its own, a million voices roaring whispering screaming over your shoulder into the quiet place where the stories come from. You can either shut it out entirely or try to open one tiny window and hope you aren’t washed away in the flood. It’s foolish to open the window, frankly. You do that when you’re stuck with no magic at hand, and you’re bored and discouraged and fretful but you have to stay at the computer just-in-case. It’s like having a bottle of liquor in the drawer.
I always loved books by certain authors. I loved the words, the way they were put together…“Language is like shot silk; so much depends on the angle at which it is held.” John Fowles wrote that in The French Lieutenant’s Woman, and it awed me when I read it, the simple perfection of that image, the sound of it, and the way it fit into the story that he told. I used to love his books so much that I longed to write to him, like you’d write to a lover, as if I knew him and he must know me, and we could have long conversations and understand one another.
Lately I read a biography of him, and he was a silly mess. He was just a man, and did some things I couldn’t respect, but as an author myself I understand much better now that his books were not him. He lived in two lives, his real one, common and a little shoddy and full of all the aches and missteps and selfishness and worries that we all bear, and in another one, a world that he created with words. They intersected but they are not the same.
One is living, one is like a living dream, both created piece by piece, moment by moment, step by step and keystroke by keystroke, blood sweat and tears and run to the grocery store and by the bank before you walk the dog.
All the storm and fury of the internet and readers and critics and sales figures is nothing. It’s not out there. It’s in here. If I have to protect it from readers, I will protect it, viciously. That may be by thinking you are all a bunch of clueless babbling idiots, no personal offense. No more than you want to hear my personal woes do I want to know what your ten million conflicting opinions are.
I serve a different master. I serve this art, whether you buy it or not. I began to write because I loved to write. That is still the only way.
I as a person deserve no particular respect above the average. But the work that I do, the art itself which has been with us and served us and consoled us and given us wonder and joy and some little modicum of understanding here and there—that art deserves respect.
From me, from readers, from publishers. We should all give it the best that we have.
That’s my take. Your mileage may vary.
[1] Posted by laura kinsale on 01.24.2010
All opinions are welcome, positive or negative, but civility and polite language are required for comments to remain. Political or religious references are not allowed, unless directly related to a Laura Kinsale book under discussion. I do answer questions but I seldom give interpretations about my books or characters, because I enjoy hearing what readers see in them. These comments and discussions replace my old forum at The Terrace. (Note that the spam captcha is an english word interspersed with a number—this may help you tell a letter from a number. If it’s still too hard to see, reload the page for another one.)
[2] Posted by CM on 01.24.2010
Ms.Kinsdale,
Well said, and I totally agree with you. Writing is an art, and a fast dying one as well, for casual correspondence and letters. I have always been an avid reader, especially of romances, and feel my ability to write good letters and even business memos is because of reading so much. It helped me to understand the flow of words and being attuned to the grammar. I can also appreciate the “magic” that can occur when the words just seem to pour out of me. Writers must have a way with words that conveys the emotions and actions clearly and vividly which I seem to have been able to take and mold into my own “voice”.
Respectfully,
CM
[3] Posted by Barb on 01.26.2010
As much as I am mentally jumping up and down because I just got the kindle version(thank you for that) of Lessons in French and planning cheerfully on no sleep tonite, I never believe a writer or any artist should have her eye on the customer. Art can’t be created from the bottom line but from the artist’s muse, soul or whatever you call it. Art is there to take us someplace, whether a painting, a photograph, a movie, or book. When you come back to yourself, after an experience with art, you are changed somehow. You see differently, you can take another view, or you just can engage your life better for the time out of it.
I have eagerly waited for the new book; have today’s event noted on my calendar. But you have to write to your satisfaction or it wouldn’t be the book I have been waiting for. Does that make sense?
So, congrats on your new book, and I am going to go get lost in it!
[4] Posted by laura kinsale on 01.26.2010
Apropos of this topic, I’m listening to an audio book about the science behind motivation. (DRIVE, by Daniel Pink) In terms of these studies, what I’m talking about above is called intrinsic motivation.
These studies indicate strongly that intrinsic motivation is essential for creative work. That’s fairly self-evident, when you stop and think about it—but the extrinsic motivations (money, reviews, prizes, etc) can have interesting and unexpectedly negative impacts on intrinsic motivation.
I think, in a way, that my “muse” knows this: hence the desire, if not always successful, to keep a distance between the writing and the “business.”
[5] Posted by Morgan Karpiel on 02.02.2010
I feel like I’ve traveled to so many different worlds through your books and fell in love with so many different people along the way. You have amazed and inspired me and I’ve always been left in awe of your gift. The business may be raw and many of the voices out there thankless and ignorant, but I hope you realize how many of us carry the beauty of your work with us every day.
[6] Posted by laura kinsale on 02.02.2010
Thank you Morgan, for writing that. It is an amazing thing to know.
[7] Posted by Tricia Lynne on 02.04.2010
Laura,
Once again you cut to the heart of my writing life and my life in general. To me writing is like a living dream..something I have to do but don’t like to do it. Writing is hard, hard work, and if you aren’t published sometimes you wonder why you even bother, and yet it is the dream that you strive for…and because you can’t silence the people in your head. So I try to find a balance between my “real life” and the one that flies from my fingertips.
Thank you for saying it so succinctly. And thank you for writing again. You have been and always will be, my favourite writer.
(Can’t believe Callie and Trev were in a drawer…but I totally understand.)
[8] Posted by Marlana Campbell on 02.05.2010
Writing is not a service industry…
Dear Laura:
My gripe is with the amount of control the publisher appears to exert on or over the writers.
How many times has an author written a book introduced as, say, a trilogy, and the book turns out to be this wildly, unexpected, smashing success, and suddenly the trilogy turns into what ultimately becomes a five, six or seven book series? I understand that, occasionally, the author does not feel that the story can be contained in a trilogy and truly needs to expand. But most of the time, I get a distinct sense in the background of ka-ching by the publisher and what you so loved in the beginning is completely lost by the end.
Or my other favorite: when a single story is split into two books. What’s with that? My reaction is I feel manipulated—ka-ching, again. The publisher thinks our interest is going to ebb if the book is 700 to a 1,000 pages long? Did J K Rowling have to tussle with her publisher over the length of her books or did the publisher have faith that the author just might know what they were doing? Not typically.
I don’t ever expect an author to tailor their writing to suit me. It’s my job to select books I believe I will enjoy. Just peruse the romance bookshelf at just about any bookstore. There are way too many books that are being written to cater to the reader and the results are pretty awful. I want a book that’s well written—that contain those magic sentences or phrases that just capture your imagination or touch your heart just so.
Well, enough ranting.
I’ve ordered your new book, and now it’s time to go to bed.
Take care.
Marlana
[9] Posted by laura kinsale on 02.07.2010
Tricia and Marlena,
It’s one of those little realities of life that we always have to walk a line between the business and the creative side of writing.
But I’ve found that keeping them as separate as possible is important to me.
[10] Posted by Tori Minard on 03.04.2010
Thank you for writing this, Laura. I’m a writer too, although unpublished, and sometimes the business side of things makes me want to scream or cry or hide in a cave. The cave would have to come equipped with paper and pens, of course.
I’ve found recently that when I write with an eye to what others want to read, I become paralyzed. Maybe that’s because my muse deserts me. It’s hard to hear her voice when you have all those other people yammering at you.
Tori
[11] Posted by laura kinsale on 03.09.2010
Writers are different, Tori. If you need to write “in a cave” then protect that need and don’t worry what others tell you, or how they do their work.
Listen to yourself first.
[12] Posted by Carl C. Kenyon on 03.11.2010
I have waited patiently for five long years for your next novel, of which I have every one. You don’t offend me Laura… you cannot offend those who love you.
Welcome back!
Carl
[13] Posted by laura kinsale on 03.12.2010
Thank you! I couldn’t ask for a nicer welcome back than that.
[14] Posted by Jai Joshi on 03.18.2010
I believe that writing is an art and that when I’m writing I write what I think is best, not what I think the reader wants. That’s very important because it’s about being true to the art and the story.
However, I do believe that art has a purpose. Art without a purpose is just pretentious nonsense. I feel very strongly about this. So with everything I write I try hard to do something with it, to inspire or provoke thought, to make my readers look at the world around them and see something different. To do any less is not to do justice to the story or the art of writing or even my talent.
That’s what I love so much about your work, Ms. Kinsale. I read your stories and your characters and I’m thrust into a different perspective, a new way of looking at the world. It’s inspiring.
Jai
[15] Posted by laura kinsale on 03.19.2010
Thank you Jai. I tend to let the characters figure out for me what their purpose is!
[16] Posted by Kathleen Sage on 07.16.2010
Amanda:
Just to let you know, my sons are grown up now. Todd has a life of adventure beyond anything I ever imagined. He still does work in science for various people, including DARPA (you probably know what that is—I didn’t.) This year, he worked in Afgahnistan, Uganda and Haiti, something having to do with geotagging and an iphone application that got mentioned in the Wall Street Journal. This is the best I can explain how he make his living.
Tim is living in Phoenix Arizona and working on his PhD in communications. He got married last year to a lovely girl. If you want to see them—look on “you tube” under “Ignite Phoenix” and put in the names “Todd Huffmand” and “Tim Huffman.” You will be completely awed by them.
Tony is still living in T-town. He made me a grandma. I have a beautiful, beautiful grandaughter named Alli. He has ten acres and a landscaping business and is picking away at a Masters in English. Writes great songs also.
I am working as the executive director of Local 1828, a community college teacher’s local.
I have a very nice boyfriend, Rick, double Ph.D. in accounting and statistics from London School of Economics, professor of accounting at Cal State LA and part-time auditor of wineries for the Treasury Department. Author of 15 text books.
Met him on the internet. Fell in love because when I asked him why he sent me an email he said, “Well because authors of accounting textbooks are frustrated playwrights” and proceeded to tell me the plot of a play had written with vampires and bats modeled after Albee and Ionesco.”
I will rush out and buy Lesson in French. I love your writing—and you—and have waited a long time for this novel.
Your friend always,
Kathy
[17] Posted by Debbra Martin on 07.20.2010
Language is magique. It needs freedom to thrive. Every Kinsale book has been a joy to read-more than once. Some people enjoy the limelight perhaps, but each author should share what they want - not by demand. Wish you the best because I’ve taken so much joy from your characters and stories. Merci.
[18] Posted by laura kinsale on 07.20.2010
Hi, Kathy! I’m glad to hear you and the boys are doing so well. Congrats on being a grandmother!
Thank you Debbra. Magic seems to strike when it will.
