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We see the final battle between the new gods and the old gods, and Kate and Daniel are trying to keep their secrets hidden, or they risk losing all their allies.
This week I’ve been thinking of how we see things, and how illusions can affect our lives.
I worked on my novel, code named Underground, for over two years. It’s now at a point where I can get agent comments on it. We’ve agreed on a title, so when she emailed me her comments, she put the new title of the book in the subject line. The email landed, and I sat back and went, “Holy shit, this is real. I wrote a book that’s not in the Playing For Keeps or Heaven universes.” (Understand, those two settings have been my world for eight years.)
Nothing had changed, really. I knew I’d spent two years on this book (writing off and on – I had the Heaven series to complete, after all.) I knew that the title we’d agreed on was close enough to my first choice that it wasn’t anything new. And I haven’t sold the book yet. Nothing external had changed; it’s still a book that is complete but needs a rewrite.
But the fact that my agent sent me an email with the title in the subject line, that made all the difference in the world. “Well. It’s a book now. I’d better get to work editing it!”
Illusion. All of it.
This morning I read an author’s blog. Who it was and what they said was not important; I just realized that this person keeps a very honest blog, not just about professional stuff, and politics, but also life and family. And I remembered when I was a Livejournal user, I had a much more personal blog. But when I transferred the blog over to my home page here at the Murverse, my intent hadn’t changed on how I would blog. But for some reason the illusion of being housed on a more professional site, and not being on LJ anymore (and perhaps the fact that I’d lost the ability to write posts that I could lock for only friends to read, even though I rarely did that), has made my brain balk against writing more personal things. Do I have more fans than said author? Of course not. Not even close. So why would I have a greater need for privacy?
That need is an illusion. Nothing changed except my platform. Some people, like Roger Ebert, find changing a platform liberating. Having lost the ability to speak, he now writes more than he ever has in his life, and is a frequent user of Twitter. His platform changed, he created more. My platform changed (in a much less dramatic way) and I create less. I wonder why that is.
Or the real question is, how do we fight these internal illusions when the external has barely changed?
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6 Responses to Perceptions
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Congratulations with the progress on the new book. I look forward to reading it.
I think the change in your posts come from two things:
1) maturity – you are not the same writer that you were back when you started, your experiences have given you a different aspect than you had before. This isn’t a bad thing, with all of the responsibilities you have now you also don’t have the time to comment on everything that you would probably like to.
2) professionalism – with your writing now being your full time gig, you want to show yourself to any Google searching agent, publisher, reader that you know what you’re doing and show them how skilled you are. (It’s not just about the inappropriate word used to describe the attractive matrons)
I wouldn’t worry about any Illusions you have to fight – you are the same @mightymur. Taking a more professional attitude is just common sense in business.
The whole honesty/transparency thing is very personal. I say if you want to share more then do. If all that’s changed is the platform and your desire to be as honest is the same as it was when you were livejournaling is the same then … be that honest. It may take acknowledgment of the illusion. Okay you’ve done that. Now show us who the real Mur is!
Of course it’s also possible that there’s been some internal shift in how you perceive yourself and what your goals are. There’s nothing wrong with presenting a more “professional” face on your author blog. So long as it doesn’t result in you being dishonest.
This puts me in mind of this post http://www.eleanor-brown.com/2010/06/my-most-excellent-new-york-adventure-part-3/. Eleanor doesn’t feel the need to share her every little detail, unless it will sell books.
So whichever you decide to do, reveal more (sounds like the direction you want to go) or stay the course, think about why you want to do it and do it. I don’t think there’s a right or wrong.
Okay now I’m rambling.
I find myself torn many times by over personalizing my posts. I want to present a professional face for my work, as I strive to make it as professional as possible. I find that when I do this my professional attempts often turn my work sterile and less human. The presentation of the work then effects the work itself, making it less appealing. I’ve decided to play it by ear and do what feels right for any given situation, based on some semblance of common sense. Everything is subjective on some level, so results may very, but at least I’ll still be me in the end.
This is something of a tangent, but your title brought to mind the movie The Invention of Lying. Watching that movie recently I was struck not by what people’s perceptions were, but by what shaped their perceptions.
The movie is a whole world where everybody always tells the truth, until one Person suddenly evolves the ability to lie. One scene in the movie has Mark (Ricky Gervais) and Anna (Jennifer Garner) sitting on a park bench looking around them. Anna glances around and sees two geeks sitting on a bench, a fat slob, etc.
Mark who can tell lies percieves something completely different. He sees the couple being In love with how they are playing together. He see the large man relaxing on a hot day and enjoying ice cream in the park.
Both characters perceive truth and say it honestly, and yet their truths are vastly divergent.
Anyway, great news on the progress. I too can’t wait to read it.
Congrats on the progress of the new book. Very glad to hear about that.
Share what you feel comfortable sharing. It doesn’t really matter.
And way to go on the new book.