Jun
28th
2012
Price of Grace book & e-book · 3:28pm Jun 28th, 2012
So, it being my birthday and all, I recently received an amazing gift that I wanted to share with you:
Obviously, it's complete and utter trash especially as a printed book, but as Aldous Huxley rightfully noted: "A bad book is as much of a labor to write as a good one; it comes as sincerely from the author's soul."
I've been writing a lot over the years, but I had never finished anything before. So yeah, this is at least a bit of a morale booster! It's been a great exercise in writing and especially perseverance.
Oh, and if you're interested in that, here are complete ebook versions of The Price of Grace:
That is an amazing gift. Luck you!
I never had an actual idea how much pages it is, but DUDE almost 300 WHAT THE... Amazing, it is just fuckin amazing..
I despise false modesty, so I hope you calling TPoG "complete and utter trash" is just author's syndrome.
Still, that *is* an amazing gift. Happy belated birthday and all that.
PS: Just out of curiousity, what *is* your native language? Wouldn't have thought you weren't a native speaker from your written English (but then again, neither am I, so I guess I'd miss some of the more subtle hints).
200630 I thought so too, I was really surprised! And the book feels remarkably upmarket, solid paper weight, cover and all that.
200637 Absolutely! The only bummer was that I knew the ending already, but oh well!
200644 It's a lot! To be fair, it's large-ish print.
200655 Well, compared to stuff like "Dash eats meat" I'd be the first to agree it's Noble Prize-worthy, but once down on the printed page, you see that it's still a far cry from actual published writing! Especially in the first chapters. I really feel I've made a stylistic progression towards the end.
My native language is German. I had to carefully conceal this fact, or people would have read the story in a thick German accent, and it'd have lost any seriousness it might otherwise possess
What's yours?
200672
Nothing on this site would be worth much by the standards of (good) published writing, it's something fan fiction simply isn't able to do. It can be very useful for practice, though, and judging by your comment it fulfilled that purpose nicely.
I'm not suggesting to not be harsh with your own work, as that is a very good trait to have as an author, just don't *ever* expect any of your fan-fiction material to be comparable to published work. It isn't going to happen.
I'm a native German speaker myself. Small world, eh?
200692 Neighkodemus, I don't see why that would be an impossible aspiration. Published fiction is written like any other, one word at a time into a word processor, so it should definitely be within reach. And if you look at books like "Harry Potter", which are fantastic because of the story they tell, you'll have to admit that they aren't very sophisticated when it comes to writing style.
There aren't many fanfiction authors on here who have that kind of aspiration to begin with -- I guess device heretic would be one who has -- and none probably have that prowess yet, but at the end of the day, why should it be impossible?
(I'm of course not saying that they would be actually publishable as such, but only because of licensing issues and lack of market for novels about talking ponies and whatnot.)
200697
Let me explain what I mean.
Since you brought up the HP series, let's use that as an example. Rowling's writing really *is* quite mediocre, it's not bad, it doesn't get in the way of telling the story (which is what draws people in), but it's not good either. So let's assume for a moment a hypothetical, more talented writer takes up the mantle and writes some fan-fiction for it. He employs higher quality prose, his imagery is more vivid, and he just does everything a tad better than JK as far as mechanics are concerned. And yet I will claim (and passionetly defend that claim) that his work will simply never be able to hold a candle to hers. And that is because his story cannot stand on its own, while the original HP series can. It's a fundamental flaw that is inherent to the nature of fan-fiction.
Fan-fiction as per definitionem is fiction by fans for fans, and as such is dependent on the source material to work. It's not a full product, no matter how polished and shiny it may seem. While the act of actual writing is really in no way different, as you have pointed out before, the conditions under which a piece of fan-fiction is conceived and received - as opposed to published writing - are quite different. Someone whose name I can't recall called it "writing with extra wheels" in a blog comment somewhere, and that describes it quite nicely in my opinion. It is a lower level of the same discipline.
Now, as far as the quality of certain aspects of writing are concerned, I will willingly and readily agree with you. It is the same reason for which I have pointed out that it is very helpful as practice method for aspiring writers. In fact, in hindsight these aspects might be what you had been referring to all along, and I sidetracked us into this discussion for no good reason. HA! What can I say? I love hearing myself type, I guess.
PS: For what it's worth, your writing (any aspect of it) didn't discourage me from reading at any point. There is always room for improvement and I encourage high standards, but I do not think you are as far below the bar as you think you are.
200892 That's an interesting perspective, although I'm not sure if I agree with it entirely. I think there's several aspects to this. First of all, there is the institutional aspect to literature in particular and art in general. A painting can be worth nothing at all, or several million dollars if it hangs in a prestigious gallery. It's a bit like that one time Joshua Bell played the violin at a Washington metro station, without people even noticing the player at all. You wouldn't expect great literature on fimfiction.net, after all. Which is I guess exactly what you refer to when you say that "the conditions under which fanfiction is received are quite different." But I personally don't see how such extraneous considerations could compromise the intrinsic artistic value of a piece of writing.
The other aspect you mention weighs heavier. I think that "writing with training wheels" is indeed an accurate metaphor for writing fanfiction. It's kinda what provokes its appeal in the first place. The likeable characters and the world they live in are conceived and delivered by someone else - the original author - and simply built and expanded upon by the fanfiction author.
However, I think fanfiction for a show like "My Little Pony" is once again very different from fanfiction for, say, Harry Potter, because here we are talking about a children's cartoon with characters that could hardly be any flatter. The creative achievement of the fanfiction author would then be to go deeper and conceive believable, profound characterisations that aren't mentioned in the show, which is also part of the appeal of fanfiction, I guess. This is the reason, I think, why we see so widely divergent characterisations of characters such as Princess Celestia, who after all only has very little screentime on the actual show. And yet, she inspires. But yes, I agree with you in that fanfiction authors clearly are derivative and building on someone else's work. In accepting fanfiction on those terms, however, I think we can still see some artistic merit in it -- even if only as exercise. Because obviously, noone writes fanfiction in the expectation of getting published. It's a creative sandbox.
And then of course, you also write fanfiction in order to have a certain built-in fanbase that otherwise couldn't care less for your work! It's a way to get encouragement. So thank you very much for yours, it is very much appreciated
200956
Fair enough. Not quite what I meant in regards to the conditions of reception, but I can agree with the rest. Maybe we can pick this up again some other time, perhaps over Skype? I'll try hard not to coax you into picking up "The Nightmare" again, promise.
201334 Haha sure, let's!
Man that looks amazing. I would love to have one.
"A bad book is as much of a labor to write as a good one; it comes as sincerely from the author's soul."
Sparkle, all I have to say is don't go calling your book a "bad book".
It is amazing!
I have put aside many "good books" to wait for this ones ending. I tried picking up my copy of "Brisinger" and decided that I couldn't really get excited about it while Sweetcorn was still on the loose. Don't call your book trash, and especially don't think less of it because it's fan fiction. This story has definitely earned its place among my favorite books because of you, and all the work you put into it, and because - even if you refuse to believe it - you are an amazing writer.