THURSDAY MUSINGS. (PART 1)

Status: Writing Chapter 16 to Stories of the Dead Earth-Book 3: Jasper

Doing: Writing this blog; surfing the net; answering e-mails; working out

Watching: Early Morning News

Listening to: "Platina" [Mauritis Paardekooper Mix]; Nokturnal Mix Sessions by Blue Amazon

Reading: Kushiel's Scion by Jacqueline Carey (Page 123)


TOPIC: IT'S OKAY TO BE DIFFERENT

To many times I've had people tell me that in order to be published, I would have to axe a lot in my completed tomes; just to satisfy the whims of some big-name publisher.

If I said my book was 400,000 words, I would have someone tell me to axe it all the way down to 80,000.

1 million? 75,000 words.

Why? Because most people cannot comprehend the scope and depth of the books that I write. They still see things in the classic black vs. white construct: Where everything has to be set in stone, and there is no going around it.

But there is.

In this day and age, the advent of the internet and the advancement of printing and digitial technologies has made our ability to reach out to the masses even more simplistic than ever before.

But very few people have been able to catch onto that fact. The majority are still entrenched in the old ideals of: 'everything has to be done the other way; there is no easy to way to do things'.

So when the question of my enormous word counts crop up, people aren't looking at the glass half-full, they are looking for ways to kill a storyline that has taken me years to build, mold, and fashion.

And why?

The writing I do does not follow conventional logic. Call what I do as unconventional. Call it illogical.

But don't call it mainstream.

Because that's not what it is.

In the mainstream, we are all told what to say, what to read, and what to write.

ESPECIALLY WHAT WE WRITE.

We have a set pattern before us, a mold, a model, from which to draw on--in order to follow the common status quo.

We cannot deviate from that set pattern.

When you run into someone like me who has never entered the arena with eyes open or never had a writing class in his life, you're bound to discover that doing it the old-fashioned way suddenly gives way to new and radical ideas.

Thoughts and the "rebel without a cause" routine which has most of the traditionals and their supporters bristling with poisonous thoughts.

Results?

You're bound to get your collective ass kicked because you are flying in the face of common sense and kiss-ass mentalities. Plus, you are defying an edict which had been laid out decades before any of us were even born.

So enters the attack dogs and the naysayers--damned determined to upset your little apple cart by telling you that you cannot do this, cannot do that--and everything else designed to kill any forward momentum on your projects.

Why?

Because you have to follow the rules. It's all about the rules.

You can't break them. You can't bend them. And you certainly cannot go around them.
In order to be successful, you have to do what they want. No debate. No discussion. End of story.

But setting yourself apart from everything that has been a driving force behind and industry that's as old as time itself--it doesn't come easy.

You have to make sure that what you're writing doesn't infringe on what's already out there. You have to make sure that every step you take has the desired result.

And not many people will understand your intent to go in that other direction.

Being different isn't a weakness. It's a strength that no one else has. It also gives you the opportunity to showcase that special talent that you've been painstakingly developing all your life.

And whether people will truly understand that, isn't up to you to decide.

It's their ball. They can play it however they want.

But the most important thing is that you don't stop doing what you've set out to do.

Even if it defies logic, common sense, and tradition.