[Perry] Authors Don’t Owe Us Anything
Do you know what drives me nuts?
Hearing people talking about how some author “owes it to them” to get on with the next book in the series.
Uh…excuse me?
It boggles the mind to consider that there are people out there in the world who feel that because they’ve deigned to grace the author with their readership, the author owes it to them to get on with it and publish more books solely for the reader’s entertainment.
In other words, dance, my little entertaining monkey! Dance!
That’s complete and utter crap and I’m hoping that everyone reading this knows it.
When someone writes something…hell, when someone creates something and dares to share it with the world, it shouldn’t be seen as mere entertainment but more of a gift.
I read that last sentence out loud and it sounds really funny, not to mention more than a little presumptuous but to be honest, that’s how I feel.
Everything I write, from the full stories down to the smallest story fragment, feels like a child of my own blood. The thought of setting them free, with all of the flaws and handicaps that I’ve saddled them with, to make their own way in the world oftentimes scares me more than I care to admit.
Even with the nicest of readers you could ask to share your work with *coughtamistevencoughcough*, my heart leaps to my throat every single time I share a new piece.
So I can’t imagine how it would feel like to share a piece of your soul like that with a stranger to be met with anger on their part when you don’t write fast enough to suit them.
I feel so goddamned awful for poor George Martin, writer of the fantastic Game of Thrones series.
Around the time the television adaptation was slated to be released, the poor man was dealing with a pretty serious bout of depression.
Do you want to know why?
Not only was he struggling hugely with the next book in the series and acting as an adviser for the show, he was also dealing with a staggering amount of hate mail. Hate mail sent by people who demanded that he stop ‘wasting his time’ with the TV show and get his nose back to the grindstone so that he could churn out the next book in the series as soon as possible.
Just thinking about that makes me want to punch a kitten.
Now, I loved The Name of the Wind and my hunger to know how the story will end is something that nibbles away at me every single day, but by Rothfuss’s great and bushy beard, if he chose to stop writing tomorrow and never finished the story? There is no way that I would feel that I was owed the the rest of it.
I’m not saying I’d be happy about it. It would, of course, be heart-breaking news and there might even be a manly tear or two, but if the man chooses to no longer share his literary child with me, that’s entirely his prerogative.
Lucky for us, many of these authors love their work and are more than willing to share the results of that work with the general public.
But if an author didn’t enjoy what they were doing and wanted to pursue something else with their life, well…it would be rather selfish of us to chain them to a desk and demand they write for us, wouldn’t it?
That sort of situation never tends to end well for anyone…
11 Comments
1) Authors don’t owe readers anything at all. Period.
2) The very best, most beloved authors do their damndest to deliver on every implied promise (whether that be an important side-character in a story thread or an unfinished series arc)
I think if I got actual death-threats about my unfinished Choose story arcs, I’d be needing some psychiatric help as well!
That’s my point!!
Most of these authors of long-running series’s are trying SO hard to finish…I mean, I feel like I run out of juice just writing a 10000 word number. I can’t even imagine how it would feel to keep going for 7-8 books, you know?
I really don’t think they need annnnyyyyy kind of reminder that they have something left unfinished.
I’m sure they get all the reminding they need from their own personal version of Buckethead.
EXACTLY. Yes.
(And dear heavens, I hope there aren’t too many Bucketheads around!)
What is it about Perry that leaves me wondering “uh oh, was he talking about me?” every time I read his post?
I had to go back and review what I said about Rothfuss, because I didn’t want anyone to think that I felt he OWED us anything. Hopefully I did not imply that. I’m impatient as I wait, and I would be very disappointed if he decided not to finish, but I don’t feel like he owes us anything.
Definitely not — he’s had this post on ice for weeks now. =]
Heh, Tami’s right.
I wrote this one almost a month ago XD.
And I’m fairly sure that most everyone that bothers to comment here doesn’t feel that way…
…if we did, a certain someone might have an angry mob on her front lawn as we speak >.>
Hell, ANOTHER certain someone else who may or may not occasionally put up a post here might see fit to pick up a few torches and pitchforks on the way west <.<"
When Isaac Asimov died, when Robert A. Heinlein died, when Arthur C. Clarke died, and when Anne McCaffrey died, I felt a huge sense of loss, for all the books they would never write. Lately (as in, the past couple years), I’ve gained an affinity and appreciation for the music of Bob Marley, and I miss all the songs he never wrote.
But do I feel the least bit angry that they didn’t produce more, faster? HELL NO. I feel extremely blessed and thankful I was (and still am) able to enjoy the works they did produce.
On the other hand, I find myself, anymore, very, very reluctant to pick up any book that is part of anything larger than a trilogy. For me, every time I do that (Terry Brooks, Weis & Hickman, Donaldson, etc.), the latter books never fail to disappoint, by failing to deliver on the promise offered by the earlier books.
And Tami, the only death threat you’re going to get on Choose is that I fear I may not live long enough to see it finished! (On the other hand, I know that you’ll write other books that I’ll be able to read and enjoy, instead.) <3
I would actually like to continue Choose … honestly, I’d love it if I could convince someone to make it an anime. I think it’d be an AMAZING anime.
OH MY GOD. Yes.
<3!
I’m really scared that certain authors are going to pass away before they can finish their big works…
And I’ve pretty much stopped reading anything that’s part of a series that’s nowhere close to done.
I’m juggling so many of them now that I can’t bear to add anymore to the mix.
But the feeling that they OWE me the rest of the story?
Yeah, not so much =)