by Kai | Nov 2, 2011 | and more, Reading and Reviewing, Language, linguistics, National Novel Writing Month, Writing, writing well, Novels
We interrupt your regularly scheduled fluff for a bit of a rant. And I wouldn’t be doing this during Nanowrimo season, but it *really* needs to be said.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the word ‘Dystopolitics’. And my idea of Dystopolitics is actually linked to my own books, but it goes beyond that. The politics of dystopia, right now, is pretty much looking at stuff like ‘A Handmaid’s tale’ and going, oooh, we’ll make sure our political views never get that radical.
And you know, the politics of dystopia. The radicalness….it’s seeping into everything going on around us. I’m days from a graduation ceremony I never though I’d make. I’m getting a 2:1 and I couldn’t be happier. But I’ve found myself in a community of radicals that many refer to as entitled, and I just look at and think ‘You’d be so much happier if the world wasn’t actually democracy, because that’s what you’re campaigning for.’. And you know, that cuold be a horrible thing to think about people, but when they say what I’ve heard lately, I think you’d question whether then understand free speech, a scale of awards, and the rights of others….let me give you an example….
I’ve been reading a lot of ‘I don’t need to worry about grammar and editing, all that matters is I’m writing’ or ‘you’re jealous because your book isn’t out yet’, or ‘would YOU accept a C from your kids if they came home with it on the report? Then why accept a three star review?’.
All of this has kicked off since I started working as an editor – and a lot of it comes out when people discover that it’s going to cost money to edit their books.
There’s two insidious lies I’d like to address today. It’s getting a bit dystopolitical in here if I’m honest. As in, this is the politics of dystopia. The politics of not doing what we’re actually experincing. And that’s wrong.
First – Editing and grammar ain’t important. O’rhyleah? (sorry, been looking at lots of Lolthulu lately). Seriously? Would I have gotten away with that in a very post ironic way on my degree, or, would my tutor have kicked me from here to next week about run on sentences, and the occasional tense mistake? I think I’d have been kicked. I know I would have been – in fact, I was.
So, while I don’t agree with the idea that we need to be locked to rules (and I’ll talk about that more a bit later) if you’re not at least flirting with the acceptance that mistakes aren’t acceptable, then you’re not a professional writer.
There – I said it – it’s not the idea that you can’t afford to hire an editor that doesn’t make you a professional writer – it’s the idea that you can excuse your behavior by HIDING BEHIND not being able to afford a professional editor.
Can’t afford an editor? – I’m writing a book, and I teach classes – check them out.
The other insidious lie is that we’re not all on the same side as writers and readers. And while that’s true, in some cases (you can’t be ‘on the same side’ if you’re buying something from someone), when it comes to literature, readers and writers ARE on the same side. We all want good literature, and the best stories.
So – there’s a second element to all of this:
If you are charging for your work, you have an obligation – a paid service provision – to be professional.
Again, I said it. If you’re going to publish your work – and people are paying you – for heavens sake, act like a professional. That goes beyond the presentation of your work, but in the end, that’s all that matters to your reader.
Kai is a writer, author and avid reader. A mental health advocate, Ludosport athlete and coder. She’s the mother of two young adults, owned by two cats, and lives with her beloved in the Cotswolds.
by Kai | Sep 25, 2011 | Announcements, Reading and Reviewing, coding, Design, Gaming and hobbies, Language, linguistics
Something that I don’t think is very evident from my writing is that I’m very music oriented. If I can get away with it, no matter where I am, in the house, or out and about there’s either music, an audiobook, or crime programs on in the background somewhere. Music starts my morning, and audiobooks, or more rarely now, TV shows finish out my day. I’m constantly somewhere where there is noise. To the point that if I ever end up catastrophically brain damaged or otherwise unable to instruct it myself, or am in a coma, I’ve got it written into my living will (kinda sad that I’ve got one at 32, but the books go one way before a certain point in my life, and the rest belong to my other half, to do with as he pleases, and the kids need to be taken care of too) that there is always to be music wherever I am, even if it’s only just loud enough to be heard by me. Even if it means bringing my phone and speakers into the hospital.
But, unless you knew an old incarnation of this blog, you wouldn’t know that – I used to open out posts with the music that was influencing me – either a lyric, or a song title. I’m going to start that again, because this blog, and to a lesser degree Kai-q is going to be about me. All of me.
Which means this blog is going to get a bit frenetic for a while 😉 I’m difficult to define at the best of times, without actually looking at what I get up to, or even, what’s on my desk, my Kindle, my Goodreads list, my camera, my phone… I am a complicated, complex, multiple type geek, and probably very rarely, I’m a multiple type geek that has several strong focusses.
Basically – what you think you know about me – it’s probably mostly true, but there’s probably more to me than most people realise. And more than I’ll ever probably be able to express.
One of the things I do know right now is I’ve got a plan – finally. I’ve also got a very clean workspace, and the freedom to actually work for myself now. Totally and utterly, I’m free now, and that’s a good thing.
As for the title – the blog was hacked this weekend – and had we not already been keeping a vague eye on the site anyway, I think that this could have been a lot worse than it was. I’m still working on cleaning the residual issues that I’ve been left with, but most of them were temporary. The reason – the main reason, I took the blog offline is because I couldn’t apply the fix while people were trying to access parts of the site. So, we put the temporary redirect up, fixed the blog, voila ;). Well, kinda, cause I’ve not finished the blog design yet, so for now it’s a bit bland…
The psycho killers thing – well, that means one of my characters has decided to stop being such a huffy little pain in the ass and is talking to me again – his two favorite bands happen to be Talking Heads and Nickelback, though he’s taken a shine to Mazzy Star lately too. Mostly I’m just glad Elliot is back from wherever he vanished off to. I’ve still got yet more planning to do, to the point of paralysis, but I’m finally in a place where I can actually see the light at the end of the tunnel – and apparently on my keyboard. It does mean less time downstairs vegging with my other half at night for a while, but I think, if I can make it work, it’ll be more than worth it.
Kai is a writer, author and avid reader. A mental health advocate, Ludosport athlete and coder. She’s the mother of two young adults, owned by two cats, and lives with her beloved in the Cotswolds.
by Kai | Dec 15, 2009 | Featured, linguistics, The Art of...., Writing
Niche language is one of those things that can encompass just about every area of written and verbal communication, so I thought I’d choose a key set of areas to look and run with them. Our key areas here are ‘niche language’, ‘unique language and tags’, and ‘sociolinguistics’. Sociolinguistics is the hardest of the three More >
Kai is a writer, author and avid reader. A mental health advocate, Ludosport athlete and coder. She’s the mother of two young adults, owned by two cats, and lives with her beloved in the Cotswolds.
by Kai | Nov 2, 2009 | linguistics, Writing, Nanowrimo
Image via Wikipedia
I procrastinated to death today.
I cleaned the kitchen and bathroom – to let my stories flex and write them in my head today. I can’t work out why, but despite feeling I was ready and desperate to write, the last day or two has been like pulling teeth. The voices still haven’t quite settled into what they want – and forcing them into translation is impossible.
I understand the theory of it – there’s no way to impose a linguistic structure on anything with any expectation of authenticity, if it isn’t the right structure – you can’t use words that don’t fit with the contextual or thought patterns of the character – and I think that would break a story far worse than a contrived plot, or unbelievable set of circumstances.
Though, you could also argue that a book is simply the reenactment of a story, and actors adopt different linguistic and positional structures all the time, so on the flip side, a linguistically altered book may hold more true than one that’s entirely, and accurately authentic to the underlying concept.
And why yes, I’m still dodging the writing 😉
Nanowrimo day 2 Word Count – 1355 – pitiful, and only some added to Values.
Kai is a writer, author and avid reader. A mental health advocate, Ludosport athlete and coder. She’s the mother of two young adults, owned by two cats, and lives with her beloved in the Cotswolds.
Looking forward to those recipes.