[ SECRET POST #2223 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2223 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 06 pages, 127 secrets from Secret Submission Post #318.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[caecilia]

Being insecure about your writing isn't really stupid. I do think it's silly to expect him to read your poetry and the question about money is just plain rude but they just sound inexperienced and not very confident to me. And it seems like he thinks so too. He's choosing to answer them because he thinks they're worthwhile questions and that people can benefit from his answers.

[(Anonymous)]

Being insecure about one's writing isn't stupid, but pestering total strangers for affirmation and warm fuzzies is. I write, and I get discouraged sometimes myself. But the answer is obvious-- either I quit or I get over it and keep writing, because realistically there'll ALWAYS be someone better than you at something. That's not an answer I need to bug a celebrity for.

[caecilia]

Well, that's you. Gaiman likes giving that sort of advice and is open to those kinds of questions. I think it's sweet.

[(Anonymous)]

He's not some celebrity, he's a famous published author. If you're bugging John Stamos about stuff like this, that's stupid. But here's a guy who's actively choosing to engage his fanbase and his a famous and respected author. They wanted to know how their poetry was from someone who's advice would be really, really worthwhile.

And you know what, if he's answering the questions and isn't telling people to fuck off with them, then maybe you shouldn't be. What a weird sort of protectiveness you have for him that you feel like you need to rescue him from questions he's answering.

[(Anonymous)]

You do realize your first sentence is basically, "He's not a famous person, he's a famous person who writes books", right? Gaiman's a celebrity and he's a famous writer. Those two things are not mutually exclusive.

I wasn't planning on trying to stop people from writing him and I never said they should fuck off. I don't think Gaiman needs rescuing, either. His answer to the question in the secret was short and sweet and very sensible. You're weirdly defensive about this. Sure I think it's dumb to solicit e-hugs from a stranger, but why do you take such offense at my opinion?

[(Anonymous)]

"He's not some celebrity", O bright one.

Ah, taking the old "oh you're soooo offended route way to overreact!". It's a bit tired from someone who is trying to protect him from questions you don't like.

[(Anonymous)]

Where's the answer to a question in the secret? It's certainly not in the secret , and I haven't seen any replies here that would indicate that Neil Gaiman had randomly shown up. Could you point to what you're talking about?

[kryptoncat]

The answer Gaiman wrote was "Avoid that forum." Look right under fauxcyclop's question by the search bar.

[(Anonymous)]

Gaiman's not famous for his poetry, though? He's more known for Sandman and the novels. At any rate, come on. Asking someone to read and give feedback on your poetry is a big favor, and that's why you don't hit up random strangers directly.* It's not polite because it puts people on the spot.



* Posting it online and asking for general feedback is different.

[(Anonymous)]

It is a bit delusional, but it's his beef if he wants to deal with that or not, not the OP's.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm not on tumblr, so I'm not sure how the etiquette works, but... surely the OP has the right unfollow someone if they want to? It's not like an insult or anything.

[(Anonymous)]

All questions are posted directly to his tumblr--they're submitted to him for him to answer at his leisure.

[citrinesunset]

I don't think there's anything wrong with wanting to talk to someone who has achieved a lot of success in a field that you yourself want to excel in (as long as you don't expect them to become your best friend or mentor or something). When I was a teen, I contacted a writer with my local newspaper partly to ask if he had any advice about getting into his particular branch of journalism.

The particular question we're talking about isn't that articulate or practical, but I understand the principle behind it. It's not like the person asking it contacted some random celebrity--they contacted someone who is presumably living the same dream the questioner has.

[gethenian]

I don't think you even have to use "being a teenager" as an excuse to do this.

When I was 28... and by that I mean literally "yesterday"... I discovered that a certain bestselling author who just happens to also be my mom's favourite author in a certain genre is a regular customer at the store where I work.

After a moment of that "oh holy SHIT, are you kidding me??!?!!" revelation, I saw that she did not appear to be in a big hurry to get anywhere, she was doing a little browsing around the shop, so I casually and respectfully told her that my mother admired her work and that I was an aspiring author and just chatted about the sorts of things I was learning about publishing and whatnot. She was very responsive and offered insights about some of the kinds of things I was trying to publish, most of which I already knew factually, but I did not detain her or press her to give me overly specific information. Ultimately, I didn't technically get any really useful input, but that's not what I wanted from her, because I was not interrogating her -- I was having a casual, friendly, polite conversation with a customer who happened to have a certain interest in common with me.

That was still a valuable interaction for me. I mentioned briefly three things I am trying to publish and explained, in one sentence apiece or so, what I thought was the best approach and how well I hoped or expected my writing to do on the open market. Just having her converse with me in that way made me feel like I had correct and well-thought-out ideas about what I was doing... I had rational expectations... and it was nice to get just that knowing smile and nod when I said that the process of publishing is likely the most complicated and frustrating thing I had ever done in my life.

Just a smile and a nod. Just a friendly conversation from someone who was successful at what I was trying to do just for the sake of being able to say... well, I did it, not expecting success because the market for literature is strange and feral and unpredictable. But after spending at LEAST 2 or 3 hours of every single day for the past month and a half trying to figure out heads or tails about what I'm doing and feeling like I know LESS than I did when I started, after having spent the previous day dedicating 27 hours straight to researching and editing and conference calls with prospective publishers of this and that and just having that little bit of validation that yes, it IS this hard for all of us, and yes, you're right that the one book may do marginally well but the other may never earn you back the money you spend to print it... that's damn meaningful. That's damn meaningful.

So... there really is a lot to be said for having "time and place" judgment. I wouldn't have done anything but ring Ms. Author up and give her the same "have a good day" I give all my customers if it had seemed as if she wanted to just get her stuff and leave or wasn't in the mood to talk. Gaiman, in this case, seems to have developed an excellent "time and place" filter -- the appropriate PLACE for fans to ask him stuff is tumblr, and the appropriate TIME is whenever they feel like asking it and he'll get to it whenever he feels like it. That's a good system, if it works for both the fans and the author, and it's really really great that he DOES answer questions from fans like that. As silly and n00bish and validation-seeking as those questions may be. He gets to pick which ones to answer. He gets to pick when he does it. And maybe letting fans have that established place to submit queries gives him less clutter to deal with elsewhere.

[(Anonymous)]

Happy birthday!

[(Anonymous)]

You are not everyone. You can logic yourself out of your insecurities; not everyone can (and, actually, I'd argue that most people can't).

You're implying that people who have actual difficulties with their insecurities are stupid. That's actually pretty insensitive and fucked up, particularly given the fact that some of those people have illnesses which prevent them from seeing things the way that you do.