Have I ever mentioned how much I like the whole concept of viral? An individual online comment/thread/movie/blog/etc gets linked to by the ‘right’ person, and suddenly the whole world knows about it. I saw three of these last week, and each blew my mind in a different way.

I am about to outright break my vow to not talk about the writing process. I only lasted a week. Eh.

1. My Son Is Gay: An amazing post about a caring mother who just wants what’s best for her children. Really, the world needs more people like this
2. Cooks Source Scandal – really, how self-important do you have to be to be able to justify this type of theft?
3. Better yet, don’t write that novel. The excuse I’ve used to break my “I won’t talk about writing or NaNo” vow during November.

This is where I run the risk of alienating a large number of people. But before you stalk off all mad, know that I’m 13k words into my own NaNoWriMo 2010 piece, so obviously I’m not opposed to the event. And this is my fifth year participating, hopefully my third time finishing, so I’m also not new to it.

Did you read the article? The whole thing? No, really.

Because she’s got a good point. Okay, not all of it. For instance, I 110% disagree with this: Nothing about NaNoWriMo suggests that it’s likely to produce more novels I’d want to read.

I mean, in as much as one can disagree with an opinion. She’s certainly entitled to her opinion.

However, I do agree with this: Why does giving yourself permission to write a lot of crap so often seem to segue into the insistence that other people read it?

And this: far more money can be made out of people who want to write novels than out of people who want to read them. And an astonishing number of individuals who want to do the former will confess to never doing the latter.

And this: Writers are, in fact, hellishly persistent;

You know what the problem is with blanket statements, though? They don’t apply to everyone, even though they’re positioned that way. That’s my problem 1 – with the article, and 2 – with the responses to it.

Less than 5% of novel submissions to agents and publishing houses will be accepted. I’ve heard numbers ranging from 1-4%. Less than 10% of submissions to agents ever make it past the slush pile.

You know why? Because less than 80% of novel submissions are:

• Well-written, and or
• Follow submission guidelines, and or
• Submitted to people who represent/publish in that genre

Ever watch something like American Idol outtakes? You know, those where the singing is just so bad that your ears are bleeding after, and the judges aren’t afraid to say what you’re thinking? And then the singer storms out of the audition fuming because “Those judges wouldn’t know talent if it bit them on the ass.” All because said singer’s mommy told them they were a diva.

That’s who articles like this are directed at. Those people.

I don’t know any of those people – at least not that I’m aware of. The writers I associate with have talent. They hone their skills. They work, and sweat, and cry, and try and balance life with art, and create beautiful stories. Yes, all of them. All of you.

You know what that means? The article isn’t about you. It’s not for you. Because at the end of the day, you’re doing it the right way, and that puts you in the less than 20% of the entire novel writing population. You’ve earned the right to celebrate your work and your art. And if that means you write 50k words in November for whatever reason, awesome. And if that means you decide to edit instead, or save your month of novel writing until February, or go read 30 books in 30 days, so be it.

Don’t let someone lump you into the majority when your talent sets you apart from it.