I assumed you were referring, at least partly, to Stephen Granade's humor essay, Speculative Fiction Authors Considered As High School Students. Of course, you do get a name check in it.

In any case, yeah; a lot of us have negative memories of high school. Does that really devalue the metaphor? Aren't some of the things the it is a metaphor for a bit negative as well?

In any case I am with you on the human condition thing -- we apes tend do those things and we aren't always nice to each other. It is how we work. The beauty part is, we have evolved a sense of humor that allows us to bear the pain.

Or at least some of us have...

Yes, I was pointing back to Granade. :D

Damn. I wrote that comment really quick and didn't proofread. Now I look at it and see two glaring mistakes and some terribly awkward sentences.

There are times I am glad LJ doesn't let you modify comments. But when it comes to my own I would certainly like a do-over now and again.

I believe the usual method is to delete the offending comment and repost it...

Yeah, but you had already responded. Put paid to that idea!

My work place reminds me of high school on a regular basis. I'm still the quiet, smart girl scribbling in her notebook and reading a new book every other day.

As much as things change, they remain the same.

It really is high school. One difference though is that 99% of the social interactions are meaningless. What your writing peers think of you doesn't really matter. New writers want to believe that being the cool guy in the universe of wannabes or neopros actually means something, but it doesn't. It always comes back to what you have written, or what you can write. You can be as cool as you want, but it always comes back to that. And if you don't socialize and sit and do nothing but write, you will do about as well. Not to say that socializing and networking is worthless--but it kind of is. Once you have a few connections, have met a few editors, you've done it. You're networked. Now you have to go sit down at your desk and write. See, it keeps coming back to that? I mean, I have a fistfull of editors I've met and agents I've been introduced to and stuff. I could never take advantage of it all, and I don't even get out much.

I have pulled back a lot from the sf/f social scene because I don't like the high school atmosphere, and in some sense I find it pathetic. Even the BNA's are pathetic. Actually, they are kind of MORE pathetic. A lot of aging, unattractive, poorly socialized alkies if you ask me (except, of course, anyone who happens to be reading this--YOU are of course glamorous and brilliant and wonderful ;-). Ultimately, if you are going to be writing fiction at all, it is more rewarding to focus on craft, and develop meaningful relationships, just as you would anywhere else in life, which takes time, and maturity.

Well said. It starts and ends with the work. Popularity (in the high school sense) is neither a means nor an end in this world. Popularity (in the fan base/readership sense) is both a means and an end -- and you get there by writing.

Life is most certainly like high school -- which makes me feel sorry for those who are home-schooled and have little or no connection, good or bad, to what the rest of us faced. But high school is just another forced community wherein we interact, form cliques, achieve friends and enemies, etc. The monkey stuff!

My initial recollections of my high school years still place those years as among the best in my life (and that was a long time ago in terms of my life). I have to stop and concentrate to bring up the bad memories -- they simply aren't right at the surface. Guess I was lucky -- once I managed to get out of P.E., most everything else was cake. (Oh -- regarding your earlier dodgeball comment: nothing ignites my fear reflex more than the word "dodgeball.")

"It really seems to bother some people that I talked about layers and divisions within the pro writing community"

Ha ha, how dare you suggest that people might be segregated into layers and divisions!

We are all in the same layer and division. It's just that some people are more in the same layer and division than other people!

Yeah, Devon...you're getting at what I was thinking, too.

There are plenty of writers who have good careers who opt out of the social/convention thing altogether. Does it have any implications other than that the various cliques on display at Cons don't know them? Not that I can see.

Except this: If a writer opts out and announces that he/she is opting out, then he/she is asking for trouble. Reputation for being "not fan friendly" or any number of other kinds of anti-social will happen. If he/she quietly goes about the writing business without joining a clique or going to cons or blogging or any of that kind of stuff? No harm, no foul.

Uh...I have no idea where I'm going with this, so I'll just stop.

It really seems to bother some people that I talked about layers and divisions within the pro writing community

People will flame over anything, won't they?

I got the High School Metaphor and I'm British

Wherever you get people there will be drama. Wherever you get drama you will get politics, wherever you get politics you'll get people who believe this and people that believe that.

The very fact that some people are bothered that you talked about layers and divisions, and some people agreed with you, shows that layers and divisions do indeed exist.

One of the problems I have with advice on writing science fiction is this warning that metaphors can be taken too literally. I laughed out loud when I read PK Dick's The Eyes Have It. I've gotten critiques that followed the illogic of that story.
It's really sad that this over literalization happens in real life. If this is in any way real, that is.

We're monkeys, people, that's what we do — sort ourselves into groups and hierarchies.

Harrumph. I'm a baboon, and my backside's more colorful than yours.

:: laughing ::

Yep, yep, yep, been there, done that, felt the Asperger angst (actually, cons have become a lot easier since I've admitted to my Aspie traits--even though I'm not full Aspie as a parent of an Aspie I sure have my shadow syndrome moments). I've come to realize that con glaze, con angst, and con anomie are normal and to be expected, and that such a thing is usually a sign that I need to find a quiet corner to recharge. Or meet some new people.

My current approach is that I am at the con to have fun and *enjoy* the people I socialize with. If you don't have fun, what good is going to the con and putting yourself through all the social angst?

(And I've got to say, Jay, you're a lot of fun to socialize with!)

One of the things that made it easier for me a while back was when I stepped aside and put some of my jewelry into convention Art shows. Then I had a Speshul Ribbon, had stuff for people to oooh and ahh over, got immediate feedback, and as long as I wasn't angsting over how much I was or wasn't selling, life was good. I also met a different circle of people and had fun with the art stuff.

Maybe I'll try the Orycon art show again this year; depends on if I'll have time to make anything and get it mounted. The day job certainly interferes with that.

For me, the key is that I've decided that it's not so much a matter of impressing the BNAs and The Powers That Be as it is enjoying the conversation and the socialization. Which means I'll be having fun partying (until the old bones kick in), but I'm also gonna be talking about anything and everything that comes up with anyone and everyone. I have found interesting conversations in mixing it up with anyone I talk to, fan or pro, and even gotten into a few interesting arguments (Cory Doctorow and I have wildly differing opinions on the autism vaccine issue, for one thing).

Most fans are interesting people; many pros are interesting people. Cons are one place where I am guaranteed the opportunity to talk to adults who aren't focused on either the aerospace foundry business or education, and for the most part I find con-goers to be sources of new ideas and approaches to things.

Like I said, though--if it ain't fun, why do it?

Amen and amen! Also, thanks for sharing your perspective (I kind of felt the same "welcome to the club" thing when I had my son. We'd been DINKs for so long that I didn't realize there was a club, heh-heh). I'm wondering about your experience the first time you saw you work in print. Did it have a strange, almost too familiar feel? In other words, did the book seem too familiar to you because so many books in print are by someone else and unfamiliar? I've recently had some scrapbook pages published and it is a strange experience to see something so familiar in a magazine that is usually such a surprise! PS: Found your blog via my sister Kathy McKiernan. My blog is here: http://lizness.typepad.com/