Yeesh. Hopefully time and distance will help with that.
For the record, I think certain parties were just spoiling for a fight, it certainly looked that way to me.
On a tangential note... did anyone ever tell Tempest that Flemco isn't white? I saw the comments were gone, and wasn't exactly sure how to bring it up to her.
Time and distance will be good, as will the fact that I am bribing myself with homemade ice cream sandwiches (or something) to get half-a-chapter done today.
(I spoke with both Tempest and James elsewhere and deleted the comments, and I know he posted about it over on his LJ.)
Bleah! Brains definitely need tasty treat bribery.
FWIW, you handled that mess far better than I would have. I lack the fortitude for that sort of attack. It would have put me off writing about anything other than myself, my pets, and people Exactly Like Me ever again. (Which, you know, is just so helpful in the long run. Sigh.)
I want to write PoC, give them depth, make them multidimensional, but I now have the heightened awareness that when I screw it up--unintentionally and from a place of privilege--that I will get called on it and I'm preemptively flinching.
I don't know what I think about that. It's not like I want the cookie for trying to write outside my race, but I don't like the idea of constant knuckles to the back of my head. I guess I think of it a lot like parenting... when we want our kids to progress with something, it doesn't help to stand over the top of them, pointing out how they fucked up the sun and the grass isn't right and can't they see the house is crooked? But I'm not a child, and issues of color and race and gender aren't a finger painting.
Nothing gets in the way of a first draft like thinking too much. It may take a bit, but I'm sure you'll get the editorial brain to shut down long enough to get the work done.
Don't stress about it, Lisa. Fact is, even if you agonise over it, you will probably *still* end up offending people without meaning to. (Wait, that sounded more comforting in my head...)
It's good that you're trying to take something positive out of the situation, and it's cool to try to inform your writing with awareness of politics etc.
But in the end I think all you can do is write from the heart and write about what you care about, what you feel, what you think. If you over-think every possible interpretation of your work, you *will* freeze up. Just be true to yourself and hope that that communicates itself.
In any case, I think in the end a writer's politics should be judged by their career, rather than any individual work.
Comments
Maybe try to channel the fairies as you write? Think: total fearlessness and an endless devotion to PIE!
(There's an article at Fantasy today about how steampunk. I could feel my will to write shrivel up and die as I read it.)
For the record, I think certain parties were just spoiling for a fight, it certainly looked that way to me.
On a tangential note... did anyone ever tell Tempest that Flemco isn't white? I saw the comments were gone, and wasn't exactly sure how to bring it up to her.
(I spoke with both Tempest and James elsewhere and deleted the comments, and I know he posted about it over on his LJ.)
FWIW, you handled that mess far better than I would have. I lack the fortitude for that sort of attack. It would have put me off writing about anything other than myself, my pets, and people Exactly Like Me ever again. (Which, you know, is just so helpful in the long run. Sigh.)
I don't know what I think about that. It's not like I want the cookie for trying to write outside my race, but I don't like the idea of constant knuckles to the back of my head. I guess I think of it a lot like parenting... when we want our kids to progress with something, it doesn't help to stand over the top of them, pointing out how they fucked up the sun and the grass isn't right and can't they see the house is crooked? But I'm not a child, and issues of color and race and gender aren't a finger painting.
I am confused. More Pepsi for me.
*slides pie toward you*
It's good that you're trying to take something positive out of the situation, and it's cool to try to inform your writing with awareness of politics etc.
But in the end I think all you can do is write from the heart and write about what you care about, what you feel, what you think. If you over-think every possible interpretation of your work, you *will* freeze up. Just be true to yourself and hope that that communicates itself.
In any case, I think in the end a writer's politics should be judged by their career, rather than any individual work.
Anyway, all just imho.
There is no Comfort, only Zuul. *heh* ;)
I just need to get re-enthused about the current project.
*what kind of bon-bons?*
*sparkly liquor-filled bon-bons of course*
I think a small, relaxed enclave of writerly friends with large quantities of booze and chocolate would be _lovely_ right now. *lean*
*managed a few hundred words last night, by golly!*
I saw the story, due to
It's a great story, well written and very engaging and I'd love to get that many comments about one of mine - good or bad!