Writing – Page 3 – Kelly McCullough

George Scithers RIP (2010)

On this date in 2010 I posted a farewell to George Scithers. As part of my ongoing efforts to get copies of all my various bits of creative centralized or mirrored on my own website I am posting it again here:

George Scithers has left the building and it makes me very sad. He was one of the editors who bought my first story along with Darrell Schweitzer at Weird Tales. He’s also the editor who is a part of one my all time favorite writing anecdotes which I call: Same story same editor different day.

You see, I was an idiot once (well more than once, but I’m just talking about in relation to George here). At World Fantasy a number of years ago George asked me why he hadn’t seen anything of mine recently so I hallway pitched him a story called FimbulDinner and he asked to see it.

The problem was that he had already rejected this particular story a couple of years previously, but I’d forgotten that, and apparently so had he.

Anyway, I sent it, then realized a week or two later that he’d rejected it, and sent a note apologizing for the mistake. My note crossed the acceptance in the mail, and the story was published by Weird Tales.

There are two lessons in that anecdote. First, don’t do this if you can possibly avoid it. Second, all that any rejection means is that that editor didn’t buy it on that day.

George was a splendid old fellow and I’m going to very much miss knowing he was somewhere in the world.

(Originally published on the Wyrdsmiths blog April 19 2010, and original comments may be found there. Reposted and reedited as part of the reblogging project)

Two Books A Year…eep!

2015 Update: This post about adapting to having two contracted books a year was originally published as I was working on Bared Blade. The pressures remain pretty much the same, and though I’ve since managed to write a Blade book in just 88 days now, I’m not sure I’m really capable of much more than two books a year.

So, this year I made the jump from having one book under contract per 12 month window, to having two books under contract per 12 month window. Now, at first glance you might say: That’s a doubling of your work load, what were you thinking?

What I was thinking was that in each of the previous four years I’d written two books, one on contract, one on spec. And, since I haven’t yet sold any of the spec books, though I do expect to, I would be doubling my income with no concomitant increase in work load. Turns out I was wrong.

Over the last decade or so I’ve tended to work in spurts with gaps of weeks or months between. Since ’06 that’s produced around 150-160k words per 12 month period, or one adult fantasy and one YA written on spec. And that’s been a mostly stress free level of production.

Under the new deal I’m only contracted for 180k per 12 months, which shouldn’t have been that much more work. But I also made the jump from contemporary fantasy to secondary world high fantasy and that seems to add about 20 percent more effort to the process. I’d heard something like that from George R.R. Martin at some point, but he was moving from science fiction to fantasy, and I was just changing types of fantasy. Surely it wouldn’t be that bad…

Add in that the first book went 7k long and that I expect this one to do so as well, and suddenly it’s the equivalent of 220-230k of what I was doing before. That’s 70-90k extra, or nearly another adult novel’s worth of effort. I’m getting it done and not dying, but it’s a major change.

The biggest adjustment from one book a year to two is how fast it catches up to me if I take a break. I’ve often dropped out for a month and a half of downtime at the end of a book, or when I needed to think about the story, or just to spend more time with my professor wife when she’s off from the University. Now, if I haven’t worked ahead, a month and a half is a 22k word deficit that I have to make up some time in my remaining four-and-a-half months.

When that was on a spec book, it didn’t really matter. I could always punt my personal deadline a little further out. I almost never did, but knowing that I could made a huge psychological difference. So, an extra novel’s worth of work plus more than doubled pressure. I think I’ve found a balance that makes it work for me, but it’s going to be very interesting seeing how things go when we hit my wife’s summer break this year.

(Originally published on the Wyrdsmiths blog February 23 2011, and original comments may be found there. Reposted and reedited as part of the reblogging project)

Self Promotion, Lyda’s Question, and Confirmation Bias

In a post on the Wyrdsmiths blog, my colleague Lyda Morehouse posed the following question about self-promotion:

But it does seem to work for some people on some level, and I always end up wondering by what magic is that done?

I think it’s pretty straightforward actually, and it all comes down to that word seem. Here’s how I think it works (all numbers made up).

If fifty percent of all authors do self-promotion, and a random six percent of all authors cross over into best-sellerdom than three percent of authors who do lots of self-promotion are going to cross over into best-sellerdom purely by chance. Then, at least some of those authors are going to figure that it was self-promotion which made the difference whether it had anything to do with it or not. See also: confirmation bias.

Likewise, if you’re watching from the outside, you might think the only thing that differentiates them from the herd is self-promotion, and then leap to the same conclusion. For that matter, I will even concede that some particularly clever bit of self-promotion that hasn’t already been done a bunch of times might catch the mood and go viral, but I think that’s as much a form of luck as having the book do the same thing.

Great books with tons of self-promotion die. Barely adequate books that get very little push become best sellers. Most of the difference there is luck in hitting the right literary kink for the moment.

We want the industry to make sense, so we tell ourselves stories–we’re authors, telling stories is what we do. That book did so well because the author came up with the really awesome book trailer. That one did poorly because the cover sucked. This one over here is a best-seller simply because it’s that good.

But the truth is, nobody knows what’s going to make a book take off. If there was a real answer, there’s be a publisher somewhere that didn’t sell anything but best sellers.

(Originally published on the Wyrdsmiths blog February 22 2011, and original comments may be found there. Reposted and reedited as part of the reblogging project)

Brain Empty (Reblog)

2015 update: I wrote this day after I finished Broken Blade and it’s hardly worth porting over, but there it is.

I’m done with the first book in the Chronicles of Aral Kingslayer and it’s left me completely wrung and kind of empty feeling. Not my normal pattern with a book. My head feels like there’s been a fire inside that just burned the whole thing hollow.

(Originally published on the Wyrdsmiths blog October 20 2010, and original comments may be found there (much more there in comments than here). Reposted and reedited as part of the reblogging project)

Hanny and the Voorwerp Comic (reblogging)

So, in addition to the new fantasy series I had started writing for Ace—Fallen Blade—I was working on a project for Galaxy Zoo and the Hubble Space Telescope with my astronomer friend Dr. Pamela Gay and a number of other fantastic folks back summer 2010. The project was a comic illustrating an amazingly nifty discovery in astronomy called Hanny’s Voorwerp. It’s all kinds of cool: scientific, artistic, literary, collaborative, and really worth checking out. For the broad stroke details you can look below but I’ll blog about the experience in some detail in the coming days as we get closer to the official launch.

2015 update: This below is from Pamela’s launch announcement (I’ve swapped in images from later in the project because they’re cooler, though, of course, you can follow the link at the bottom to my original post on the Wyrdsmiths blog where the other images appear):
“This past Monday, at about 8pm Central (GMT -4), a Voorwerpish webcomic was delivered to Sips Comics for printing. Tuesday morning we got the page proofs, and now, one by one, they are being made into full color reality.

We could say a lot of things right now: We could tell you about playing round robin with the script, digitally passing it from person to person under the guidance of Kelly, sometimes into the wee hours of the night. We could tell you about watching the art come to life; transforming from line drawings to fully rendered pages in the hand of our artists Elea and Chris. We could tell you how many pencil tips were broken, and how many digital files grew so big our computers crawled.

We could talk a lot, but instead, let us invite you to join us for the World Premier and share with you a few images.

You’re Invited to a World Premier

Time: 3 September, 10pm Eastern (GMT -5)

Online: via Hanny’s Voorwerp Webcomic or via direct UStream Link

In Person: At Dragon*Con
Crystal Ballroom
Hilton Atlanta
255 Courtland Street NE
Atlanta, GA

Come meet the artists, hear a brief talk by Bill, and generally revel in the Voorwerp’s awesomeness.

And come dressed as a Voorwerp for a chance to win a prize for best costume!

See you in Atlanta?

Pamela, Hanny, Bill, Kelly, Elea and Chris

Oh, and let me also give a big old thank you to CONvergence for hosting the Hanny and the Voorwerp workshop this past July where much of the initial writing for this project happened.”

2014 edited to add this image from the comic below which depicts many of the people involved in its creation, including yours truly—topish row, left. Also, this link to download a PDF of the comic for free.

(Originally published on the Wyrdsmiths blog August 21 2010, and original comments may be found there. Reposted and reedited as part of the reblogging project)

$@&@%# Muse!

So the part of my Muse that I call my sense of structure has apparently been on vacation for the last 8 months, a fact I noticed when it returned this morning at 6:15 to whisper vicious nothings in my ear.

M: “Psst Kelly, I’ve got a question.”
K :”Go ‘way.”
M: “No, really, there’s something I’ve been wondering about.”
K: “No, really, go ‘way.”
M: “You know that bit right at the end….”
K: “Sleeping here.”
M: “Yeah, I heard you the first time. Still gonna ask my question.”
K: “So ask, then go ‘way.”
M: “Right, so that bit at the end where you introduce the thing and that other thing that fixes the first thing.” (Redacted for spoilers)
K: “Yes.”
M: “Well, I can’t help but noticing that the way things are structured now you really do introduce them right at the end even though they’re really important. Do you think that’s such a good idea?”
K: “Sure. I’ve been planning it since I wrote chapter 6. Yes, I introduce them late, but the one solves the other, so it’s not like I’m just pulling a rabbit out of my hat to solve a problem.”
M: “No, more like you’re pulling a carrot out of your sleeve to feed the starving rabbit that just came out of the hat. You’re okay with that?”
K: (waking up more) “Shouldn’t I be?”
M: “I’m sure it’ll be fine. You just go back to sleep.”
K: “All right then.” (Pulls covers over head, just like when there are bats in the room)
M: “Oh, I almost forgot….”
K: Pokes head out again. “What!”
M: “That character you introduce in chapter 8, the one who’s going to be really important in book 2?”
K: “Yes.”
M: “Well, since the character’s familiar is going to be really important at some point don’t you think you should introduce a place to put it?”
K: “Go ‘way!”
M: “Sleep tight.”
K: “I will, thanks. Now to get back to…Oh hell.”

Stupid Muse.

And that’s why at 6:20 this AM I got up and scrawled a note on a post-it note that said:
LIBRARY
RIVER
THINGXXXXXX (redacted for spoilers)
and stuck it to my cell phone. No, I don’t know why I put it there either. I was mostly asleep.

And then, when Laura woke up a couple of minutes later and headed off to do things, I asked her to add EXSANGUINATION TABLE to the note stuck to my cell phone and pulled the covers back over my head. Laura, having lived with a writer for 20+ plus years, just asked where the phone was and let me go back to sleep, which I did. Wonderful lady I’m married to.

Now, I don’t really believe in the Muse as an external force so much as I think of it as a collection of story processing techniques that my brain uses at a level below the conscious, often while I’m dreaming, and all of which make my job enormously less difficult. The sense of structure is really the latest major upgrade to the system, having come along in the middle of my tenth novel. So, it’s the one I rely on the least (I can plot perfectly well without it, thank you very much), which is why I didn’t notice its absence until it returned. But, like all the other bits of Muse I’ve built over the years, I know that when it does show up I’d damn well better listen.

So, I’ll just leave you with this:

LIBRARY
RIVER
THINGXXXXXX
EXSANGUINATION TABLE

(Originally published on the Wyrdsmiths blog August 18 2010, and original comments may be found there. Reposted and reedited as part of the reblogging project)

How to Train Your Dragon II (Wasted Opportunities)

As it turns out, I have strong feelings about this movie and the bloody stupid waste it makes of great storytelling opportunities.

I watched about two thirds of How to Train Your Dragon II last night with my wife. When we hit the lovely reunion scene we decided the story was about to go to hell in a terribly predictable manner because older people aren’t allowed to have happily ever afters in this sort of movie. So, I went and looked up the rest of the plot online and we stopped the movie at that point and put it back on the shelf. This is because we were quite happy with the movie up to that point and didn’t feel any need to go on to the unnecessary cost scene that we had both seen coming. While I’m sure that the rest of the movie is lovely, I have no desire to see any of it.

I have zero patience for the whole: It’s a cartoon movie, some beloved parent/mentor/older person must die or sacrifice their happiness for the young protagonists to learn the true meaning of sacrifice/responsibility thing. It’s sloppy, lazy storytelling and doubly so in this instance.

Hiccup doesn’t have a responsibility problem with being chief—he’s plenty willing to take responsibility in dangerous circumstances. We’ve seen that time and again. What he’s got is a scatterbrained creative personality problem. I’m an author, I know dozens of scatterbrained creatives. Tragedy does not magically transform them into decisive organized leader types. It just transforms them into _heartbroken_ scatterbrained creative types. Dad’s death will not magically make Hiccup an appropriate choice for the next chief.

Compound this with the fact that there’s a natural successor on hand, one who has even been identified as someone who is going to become part of the chief’s family in the near future—in the first minutes of the movie we see Stoic identifying Astrid as his future-daughter-in-law—and the argh factor goes through the roof. I’m not a huge fan of leadership transfer by heredity, but if you have to do it, Astrid fits that bill, as well as the much more important one of being a natural leader.

Astrid is decisive, smart, adaptable, understands how to manage people (Hiccup included), willing to listen… She’s a perfect candidate to be the next chief. How much better would the movie have been if Astrid had rescued Hiccup (safely), instead of having the stupid sacrifice scene, and, this had caused dad to realize it was his future daughter-in-law who ought to become the next chief, and not his entirely unsuitable son?

Not only would that have made a less cheaply predictable story, it would have given Hiccup the chance to continue to roam and do the things that made him happy without feeling guilty about the fact that Astrid is running the village—because, let’s be honest, she’s the one who’s going to be doing the job anyway. Astrid would have the title as well as the workload, Hiccup would continue to do what he’s best at, and it would be much easier to justify a sequel. Wins all around.

It’s the sheer laziness of the writing there that gets to me. Sigh. Deep breaths.

Here endeth the rant.

Reblogging SpellCrash Launch Stuff

Post 1: SpellCrash Launch Event Tomorrow/New Series

Heyo folks,

Sorry for the infrequent posting on my part. Been both busy and constrained in what I could talk about writing wise while I was in talks with Ace about the next series. Hopefully now that the latter is settled I’ll be around more again. More on that below.

First though, I’d like to note that I’ve got a book launch event for SpellCrash Tuesday May 25th at the Har Mar Barnes and Noble in the Twin Cities. It starts at 7:00 pm and runs for an hour. Mostly Q&A and book signing, but there might be a bit of a reading as well if time permits.

And on to the books thing. My agent just announced it, so that makes it officially public news. The Chronicles of Aral Kingslayer sold to Anne Sowards at Ace. It’s a high fantasy/detective noir hybrid and the initial deal is for three standalone books built around the same lead character, with a possibility of more later if these do well.

Post 2: SpellCrash launches today, eep!

Despite this being my fifth book launch, I find myself as elated and baffled and nervous and delighted and just plain punchy about the idea that something I wrote is hitting shelves all over the country today as ever. I don’t think that I shall ever get used to the idea.

It’s an enormous privilege that I get to do something I love so much as my job, and that I get to see my work on the same shelves with the writers who were such a huge part of making me who I am today. I grew up on books, reading every chance I got in my childhood. From the time I learned to read until fifteen or so I read pretty much every day. Sometimes only a little bit, but more often a couple of chapters, and in summers when I was off from school, a book or two a day. With adolescence and then the demands of adulthood that tapered off a bit, but it’s been a rare month when I haven’t knocked off at least a couple of books.

Science fiction, fantasy, and superhero comics formed the core of my younger reading, though I branched into historical and mystery, myth and legend, even the odd bit of mainstream fiction. My ideals and goals, and even the way I think were shaped by endless hours of Tolkien and Norton, McCaffrey, Dickson, Niven, Piper, Kjelgaard and Heinlein among many others. To say nothing of Stan Lee, and all the writers at Marvel and DC. As I’ve gotten older the list has only got longer and stronger: Powers and Pratchett, Bujold, McCullough (Colleen), Lackey, Weber, Cook, Hughart, Martin… I could go on and on and not reach the end, because it will continue as long as I do.

Writers weren’t my heroes when I was younger, but they created them, and I loved and honored them for giving me their worlds to play in and peopling them with my heroes and villains–gods, demons, monsters… I wanted a fire lizard of my very own, a magic ring, a blaster… Again, the list is endless. But most of all what I wanted was a doorway into other worlds, and despite the fact that I didn’t realize it right away, my writers gave me exactly that. They did it again and again and again with each new book. And it is my dearest hope and fondest ambition to provide a few of those same doors for my readers.

So, if it strikes your fancy, open SpellCrash and step through into some other place for a little while. That’s what doors are for.

Updated to add some book and author links that should have been in there in the first place:

The first chapters of all five books are up on the online fiction page of my website for anyone who wants to see them, along with some short stories.

My website, where I blog. Also Twitter and Facebook

Reviews of the new book: Huntress (currently the top review on the page), and Skunk Cat. And, for flavor, probably the most thorough review of book I in this series, WebMage.

Oh, and a few buy link for the series. Dreamhaven and Uncle Hugos both usually have signed copies of most my stuff. Also: Indiebound, B&N, Amazon

(Originally published on the Wyrdsmiths blog May 24 and 25 2010, and original comments may be found there. Reposted and reedited as part of the reblogging project)

Drawn Blades Glossary Supplement

Oh hey, I’ve been meaning to post this for forever. Due to production errors the glossary for Drawn Blades was incomplete. So, belatedly, here are the missing terms:

Ancubonite—An Asavi-made poison, among the deadliest in the world.

Arimandro Tree—An enormous semi-tropical hardwood native to the Sylvani Empire.

Asavi—Tiny Others living in miniature cities within the Sylvani Empire. Allied with air.

Buried Gods—Undead sorcerer gods of the Others, bound into the earth by the forces of Heaven after the godwar.

Calren the Taleteller—God of beginnings and first Emperor of Heaven.

Castelle Filathalor—A fortress erected atop the tomb of The Changer.

City Understairs—One of the greatest of the Asavi cities. Located under the grand stairs in Sylvas.

Cobble-runners—A gang in the Stumbles.

Darksight—One of the terms used by the Blades to describe the sense that they borrow from their Shade companions.

Disquisition, the—The Sylvani Imperial authority associated with the nuliphate. The Disquisition is tasked with stamping out any rising of the buried gods and the elimination of their cultic followings.

Dorak-ki—Durkoth term. A throne of earth tied into the elemental energy flows of earth and stone.

Durkothi—The language of the Durkoth.

Dyad—A binary entity made up of a human sorcerer and their familiar fused into a single consciousness.

Eight Major Elements, The—Light, shadow, earth, air, water, fire, death, and life. Only the first seven are known to have corresponding elementals.

Fallows, The—The strip of land that runs on either side of the Wall of the Sylvain. God-magic prevents any construction from happening there.

Fathudor—Durkoth word for the sense-of-stone.

Filathalor—A beast of the Sylvain, more or less a cross between a tiger and a boar.

Fiver—A Magelander coin—literally a fifth of a broken kalend.

First—The word the Others use to describe themselves.

God-sniffer—A type of Sylvani mage trained to smell out god-magic.

Godwar—The war between Heaven and those among the Others who sought to rival them.

Grays—The traditional garb of the blade. Usually consists of low boots, flowing pants, a loose shirt, and a yoke and cowl, all dyed in an abstract pattern of dark grays. In colder weather a poncho is added.

Gutterside—The world of the slums.

Hasheth—A Durkoth word for cursed. Usually refers to weapons touched by the power of the buried gods.

Hasheth-ctark—A sort of spell-stone used by the Uthudor of the Durkoth to encyst a curse.

Heaven—The land of the gods, ruled by the Emperor of Heaven.

Heaven’s Reach—The temple kingdom ruled over by the Son of Heaven.

Heaven’s Shadow—The name the Son of Heaven has given to his organization of Blade traitors. Their grays are slightly red tinted.

Hierarch—A rank in the Sylvani anti-priesthood of the nuliphate. (Rank is denoted on badge by shield pips.)

Iander—One of the Blades who went over to the Son of Heaven.

Illiana—A Master Blade, killed in a suicide attack at the fall of the temple, one that ended the life of the then-Signet.

Inkathiq—Durkoth word for an unbroken chain of earth energy.

Ishka-ki—Durkoth oath.

Grave Tree—A burial tradition of the Sylvani in which a very long lived breed of tree is planted to mark the graves of their fallen.

Kalend—A Magelander coin, roughly equivalent to the Zhani riel.

Key of Sylvaras—A mythical item associated with the god Sylvaras.

Kothmerk—The original signet ring of the first King of the Durkoth.

Kreyn—The oldest branch of the Others. They live in forest enclaves within the Sylvani Empire. Allied with shadow.

Krith—A Durkoth word for a cave dwelling.

Krithak, Dame—A Durkoth Uthudor.

Kyrissa—A Shade, familiar to Siri. Takes the form of a winged serpent.

Liess—A Shade, familiar of Sharl.

Lin-hua—A Zhani game of chance involving tiles.

Mabung—One of the Blades who went over to the Son of Heaven.

Malora—A master Blade slain by the Hand of Heaven several years after the fall of the Temple.

Maryam—A onetime journeyman Blade.

Milkstone—A white stone similar to alabaster.

Mouse Gates—Magical gates that allow full sized people to enter the miniature cities of the Asavi.

Nuliphate—An institution of the Sylvani Empire. Essentially an official anti-religion that arose as a response to the godwar and its aftereffects. Equally against the buried gods and the forces of Heaven.

Oaken Throne—The seat of the High King of the Kreyn.

Olen—A master Blade who taught Aral.

Olthiss—A Shade.

Omira—A onetime apprentice Blade, once one of Faran’s closest friends.

Oyani—Zhani term of respect denoting outland nobility.

Parsi—One of the Blades who went over to the Son of Heaven.

Patiss—A Shade, familiar of Master Urayal.

Ping-slick-fingers—A professional gambler in Tien.

Pol—A master Blade, long since dead.

Rakshifthra the Changer—A buried god who sometimes takes the shape of a filathalor. Once of the Kreyn.

Rapportomancer—A person with the familiar gift but no mage gift.

Roric—A onetime journeyman Blade, Avarsi by birth.

Scent-breaker—A charmed fan used to prevent hounds or other smell hunters from catching a scent.

Seldan, Dukes of—Varyan nobles, two of whom were executed by Jax.

Shekat—Durkoth word for the soul, which they see far more clearly than they do faces.

Shekatudor—Durkoth word meaning the soul of the stone.

Smoldering Flame, The—A buried god. Once one of the Durkoth.

Ssalassiss—A Shade, familiar to Iander. Takes the form of a miniature elephant.

Ssassisshatha—A Shade word denoting identity or, soul signature.

Sshssithssha—A Shade word denoting a sort of path through shadow.

Ssissathshta—A Shade curse.

Ssolvey—A Shade, familiar to Roric. Takes the form of an enormous six-legged badger.

Ssuma—A Shade, familiar to Illiana.

Stirby—A freshwater fish common in Zhan.

Sunrunning—Blade slang for maintaining a shroud in bright daylight.

Sword-Rig—An arrangement of leather straps and blackened steel D-rings that allows a Blade to attach their swords and other tools in a variety of configurations.

Sylvani—The Others who populate the Sylvani Empire south of the eleven kingdoms. Allied with the element of light.

Sylvaras—First emperor of the Sylvain and greatest of the gods who rose from the First. Allied himself with Heaven in the godwar.

Sylvas—Capitol of the Sylvani Empire.

Tamerlen—A Master Blade killed in the fall of the temple.

Thera—A Master Blade killed in a magical experiment.

Thiess—A Shade, familiar to Javan. Takes the shape of a huge horned owl.

Thuroq—A Durkoth envoy (or speaker).

Tolar—A branch of the Others living within the Sylvani Empire, mostly in the wastes. Allied with fire.

Truevelyn—A word the buried gods use to refer to their disciples.

Tunnelworm—A sort of earth elemental that bores passages large enough for people to walk in.

Ulriss—A Shade, familiar to Leyan.

Urayal—A Master Blade, killed in an attempt on Ashvik.

Ussiriss—Shade to Kaman.

Uthudor—A Durkoth scholar of the earth.

Vadric Poetry—An Aveni form of epic poetry.

Veira—A Master Blade, killed after the fall of the temple.

Velyn—A Sylvani word for Otherkind.

Vrass—A Shade, familiar to Maryam. Takes the form of a hydra.

Wall of the Sylvain—Or simply the wall. A giant magical warding in the shape of a five thousand mile wall. Built by the forces of Heaven to bind the buried gods and the magic-using Others into the lands of Sylvani Empire.

Wind-Carpet—An enchanted rug designed to capture the attention of the great air elementals who live in the upper winds. Has to be launched from at least a mile above the ground.

Zissatha—A Shade, familiar to Parsi. Takes the form of a giant rat.

Writing as Process/Writing as Artifact

Lonfiction asked a question about whether or not you might regret anything you’d written if you knew that nothing you wrote would ever be published going forward. It made me realize that things I have written and things I’m writing are completely different animals for me. It’s really worthwhile to go read the whole thread over there as there are some very interesting conversations going on. Here is my response:

It’s an interesting thought experiment, but one that strips gears in my head, because at some fundamental level writing forward and past writing are unrelated creatures for me.

I write what I’m writing now because I fall in love with the story and fall in love with the writing of it. I do write it with the intent to sell it but that’s only so that I can afford to fall in love with the next story.

Once it’s written, unless I’m doing sequels of some sort, it becomes an artifact to be sold or (sometimes) parked and is no longer really “writing” for me until I engage with it again, either because I’ve fallen in love with some changes to the story, or because someone has bought it and I’m getting paid to revise.

So, going forward, writing is process, looking back, writing is artifact. For me, regretting the artifact would be like regretting a couch…in storage…that costs me nothing to store…and that I never see. Until, that is, someone comes along and offers to buy it if only I’ll reupholster it, or until I think, hey that couch would be so much cooler with some throw pillows. Then it becomes process again.

(Originally published on the Wyrdsmiths blog Feb 10 2010, and original comments may be found there. Reposted and reedited as part of the reblogging project)