Neil Gaiman Should Write the Book on Awesomeness

[laguera25]

Yet another reason to love Neil Gaiman. I wish he'd written this years ago, when SLS fans were haranguing me about delivering the next chapter. I loved the story, and still do, but the constant harping about updates--or a lack thereof--transformed a joy into an onerous obligation that I began to resent. The more readers asked for updates, the less able I was to provide them, not through any desire to be contrarian or spiteful, but because each query, no matter how well-intended, inspired guilt. I'd bought into the idea that beginning a story was an implied social contract with the reader, a promise that I would finish it. When the writing became the dirty, yeoman scut work of one word at a time rather than the giddy euphoria of inspiration and readers began to complain that the story was getting bogged down in the minutiae of the telling, I was suddenly paralyzed. I felt like I was disappointing them and the story by not being good enough, by Doing It Wrong. And I decided that I would rather disappoint them by leaving it undone than by presenting them with a finished story that didn't live up to its initial potential. So I did.

If I read this back then, I might not have succumbed to gnawing guilt and self-doubt. I might've realized that I didn't owe the readers a damn thing, that a fannish want wasn't a need I was obligated to fulfill. That it was all right to be tired or uninspired or just plain bored, and that I didn't owe fandom an explanation. If I had understood then what I understand now, SLS might have been finished, or nearer to it, at least. As it is, I hope my next stories benefit from the lessons of SLS and the wisdom of Mr. Gaiman.

As I've previously mentioned, I have a Dreamwidth account. There won't be an exclusive content, that is to say, posts you can't read on LJ, but if you're moving and want to keep abreast of my oh-so-thrilling life, drop me a line.

Now, I'm going to work on Et Tu and try not to obsess over the disturbing new spoilers coming out of TalkCSI about the possibility of a second character death in the finale. I swear, if Flack dies, I'll change the channel so quickly that the buttons on my remote smolder and bubble like melting wax...and then I'll do a rumba of joy at the knowledge that I'll no longer be beholden to this sloppy shitfest wank fantasy of a "crime drama".