Poetry, Emotion and Editing

We often associate poetry with a more pure out pouring of the mind, or soul, than other forms of writing. For this reason, most who approach it tend to link the work emotionally with themselves.

The result can be an over weighing of comments, criticisms and reactions to the work, since the work is seen, not as it is–a piece of art–but rather the person themselves.

In this, it is often difficult to approach younger poets about there work, as I have found. Some will take any writing advice with the wrong heart.

One of my writer friends is fond of saying “we bleed on the page,” which I think is a good analogy.

We have to dig inside for these things, whether we are writing a poem about our past, a fictional character, drawing on forgotten fears–we dig, deep. That is only part of the creation.

The words on the page are now their own, they stand or fall now independent of the person. The poet needs to treat them, to honor them, as such. A poem about the last moments of your Grandmother’s life deserves the same editorial afflictions as one about a flower in a field. The personal matter–while important to the creation of the work–cannot be a roadblock to its maturation.

A first draft is owed a critical eye on diction, structure–an eye on the art, not the moment that birthed it.

So take that emotion and do what you will with it–bleed onto the page. But remember, when the blood dries, it is no different than any other ink. Take from it art that is full alive, that stands on its own right.

Tragedy Avoided – A Computer Story

Anyone who I’ve talked with enough about computers knows that I will pester you with the virtues of backing up your stuff.

Yesterday my computer started acting flakey. I would get some odd twitches, and then just blank screen crashes. This, as we say in the geek world, is not a good thing ™.

This morning, amidst reading, it went out again, a twitch and some screen babble first. I have seen this behavior before, and I know this isn’t good. If I am lucky we are talking just bad RAM, or a failing hard drive. If we are not, we are talking a new computer.

I’m still working on what’s wrong, but that isn’t the intent of this post. You see, when that screen came up, when the first fleeting thoughts of “I think it is really dead” came through my mind, there was something else as well, or should I say a lack of something. No panic.

I have two back up hard drives, one is Time Machine, which is Apple’s built in back up software, and the other is one where I manually dump things. My writing files and most of my LampLight / Apokrupha files live in Dropbox, meaning they are synced not just online, but on at least two other computers as well.

You see, my laptop isn’t just a computer, it is my most valued tool in these ventures I have, between writing and editing and publishing. A failed hard drive is more than an inconvenience, because without preparation, it is the loss of months and months of work on LampLight, on all of my writings, my photos.

If I had not been prepared, a hard drive failure, quite simply, could have been the end of LampLight, the loss of thousands of photos, and the loss of nearly twenty years of writing. And that, friends, is not a risk I am willing to take.

So, my writer friends, editor friends, even just normal ones… what is your back up plan? If your computer was stolen or fried this very second, what would you lose? What story or photo could you never get back?

Backup. Backup. Backup.

Remember, it is not Apple or Microsoft’s fault if you lose stuff. Not Google, dropbox, not Western Digital nor Matrox. It is not HP’s, it is not Dell’s, it is only and always yours. These are your files, your digital creations, keep them safe.

Response to Amazon and Hatchette

Amazon sent me a note this morning, asking me to write Hatchette and voice my opinion on this matter.

I decided to take them up on that, as I had an opinion during the MacMillan spat as well. here is what I sent:

OK, you two, this is getting ridiculous.

You both realize the entire world is watching as you play this game? Not with bated breath, as you may imagine, but more with long sighs and “oh great, NOW what?”

Well, maybe not the whole world. But as someone in the literary scene, each time something like this happens, it makes the rounds. It is more akin to watching your neighbors fight than anything else. (we’d like you to quiet down so we can get back to work)

Here is what you need to know:

Amazon:

Give Hatchette the same deals, the same percentages and costs you give me, Apokrupha press, who has 8 books. Let them price their stuff anyway they want. They are the ones making this stuff, they can make those choices on price. Treat all publishers, big and small, the same. It is for the author to decide if they are happy with their deal with Hatchette, and act accordingly. Your dealings are between Amazon and the publisher. Treat all of us equal.

Hatchette:

I will never, ever, pay $10 for an ebook. Ebooks must be cheaper than the mass market. Period. It is a digital file that you are crippling with DRM, making its value about that of a cereal box. Now, this is important so listen, if you price your book at $15, I won’t just buy the mass market–I will forget the book all together and buy a different book. The price of the ebook should be YOUR choice, but never forget that purchasing it will always be MY choice.

Both of you:

Your public temper tantrums are getting worse, between this email, the public ad the other day, and it isn’t making anyone like you two more. Quite the opposite, it is seeding doubt in the minds of writers, readers, and more importantly, CUSTOMERS about both of you.

And both of you need to realize that there are options, different places to buy online, different publishers selling ebooks. If you push us, the readers, enough, we will go elsewhere.

Fix this. Restore our confidence that both Amazon and Hatchette are companies that we, writers, want to work with and that we, the customers, want to buy from.