In response to Howard V. Hendrix' rant of several days ago, Jo Walton has created the first ever International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day, which will be held next Monday, April 23rd. This is a day for all writers to post professional-level work on their websites and blogs, thus refuting Dr. Hendrix's idea that those who post online are "scabs".
For my part, I've decided to throw caution to the wind - as well as my pride, and a very bad old draft - and post the remains of my trunked YA dark fantasy novel online at an old journal, the_numinous_1. I suppose it's cheating of a sort - a trunked anything usually means not a speck of professional level writing has been involved. However, posting it online will forever rid me and my "writer's ego" of the notion that it's some shining, undiscovered masterpiece - once I post it, everyone will be able to see it for the largely flawed piece of crap that a first novel usually is. No, there will be no agents or editors "discovering" me, there will be no sudden group of "fans" clamoring for more fiction from me. Most people who read my writing react with absolute silence: and silence is the diplomatic way of letting someone know that their writing is mediocre, or downright shitty. So I'm not posting it to get a shiny contract from a publisher, or lots of "OMG U R SEW GOOD" comments - I know that will never happen. I'm posting it to get rid of it, to wash my hands of it, to make it impossible for me to ever send it out to agents and editors again. Once it's on the net, it's dead - the silence will confirm it. And then, I can finally pick out those few good bits (maybe 2,000 words in a sea of 100,000) and start to write a good novel. Or, at the least, one that's marginally less mediocre.
For my part, I've decided to throw caution to the wind - as well as my pride, and a very bad old draft - and post the remains of my trunked YA dark fantasy novel online at an old journal, the_numinous_1. I suppose it's cheating of a sort - a trunked anything usually means not a speck of professional level writing has been involved. However, posting it online will forever rid me and my "writer's ego" of the notion that it's some shining, undiscovered masterpiece - once I post it, everyone will be able to see it for the largely flawed piece of crap that a first novel usually is. No, there will be no agents or editors "discovering" me, there will be no sudden group of "fans" clamoring for more fiction from me. Most people who read my writing react with absolute silence: and silence is the diplomatic way of letting someone know that their writing is mediocre, or downright shitty. So I'm not posting it to get a shiny contract from a publisher, or lots of "OMG U R SEW GOOD" comments - I know that will never happen. I'm posting it to get rid of it, to wash my hands of it, to make it impossible for me to ever send it out to agents and editors again. Once it's on the net, it's dead - the silence will confirm it. And then, I can finally pick out those few good bits (maybe 2,000 words in a sea of 100,000) and start to write a good novel. Or, at the least, one that's marginally less mediocre.
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