In January I’ll have more to say on my upcoming science fiction novel, but in the meantime, I highly recommend this post by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Where Art Meets Commerce. It says a lot about the emotional process of writing a book that demands to be written, the market be damned. Back in September I wrote a post — still unpublished — with similar sentiments. I’ll get that one out in January, but in the meantime, here are a couple of highlights from Kris:

In her creative office, every writer should feel like she’s on a high wire twenty stories off the ground over a major highway with no net to catch her if she falls. She should worry that this book is beyond her skill level, that she might not know enough to write this one, that she might not be good enough to pull this off.

At the same time, she should be having fun—but an adrenalin-junkie kind of fun, an I-can’t-believe-I’m-up-here-trying-this kinda of fun.

Statistics and underlines and social media be damned. The sales force should be having fits if they hear about what the writer is trying to do while the book’s in progress. Because it should go against that “what everyone expects” on some level or another.

Yep. That pretty much describes what went on in the process of writing this book — not because the story itself is particularly difficult, but because the near-future setting demanded a degree of realism that I had to carefully construct since I did not have the right background and experience to draw on — while many other people do. As Kris says in the preceding quote, I had to face the doubt that I “might not know enough to write this one.”

But you know what? I love this book. Naturally enough, I hope other people do too, but regardless, I’m glad I wrote it. At this point, the beta reader comments have been processed. At the turn of the year, the manuscript will go to an editor for one last pass, and then it will be “done.”

Kris says:

Commerce comes later, after the art is finished. Then you must sell what you’ve done. As it is. And take the risk that the audience might not like it.

The risk is real, believe me, and it’s scary, but that’s the way the system works. Finger crossed!

Posted on: Thursday, December 20th, 2012 at 9:07 am
Categories: Writing.
Tags: writing