Seanan's Pike's Peak keynote speech.

Thank you for saying this. Being kind to one another is a virtue that is under rated by a lot of people who are talking very loudly just now and you've said something I have been thinking is germane to why I disagree with them. For every "I don't care", let a hundred kindnesses bloom.

I'm grateful to vix for linking to this - somehow kindness is kin to wisdom and I admire your wisdom in saying these things. I feel better simply for having read this!

Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. You owned the hell out of those minutes.

Hear, hear!

*standing ovation*

I love this. This is the way I have always treated other writers; with kindness, and encouragement, and helping them up when they're down, and hope. I don't pull punches as a critiquer; I warn people of that up front. But, I also keep the other person and their skill level in mind; I am not going to critique a first novel the same way I once critiqued a very close CP's (extremely detailed) outline, in which I told her that she was weaseling on the story she really wanted to tell because she was afraid if she wrote it the way she wanted, it wouldn't sell. (She told me I was absolutely right, put back in the queer characters she wanted to write about but had been told repeatedly "wouldn't sell", and sold that damn thing.)

It also makes me reflect on an experience I had with a certain person in a crit group I was part of. I didn't realize until you wrote about writers trying to kill competition that -- actually, that was what was going on, because I had been confused for years as to why this person suddenly turned into an extremely abusive, manipulative individual when she had been extremely encouraging. It was after I started getting contracts. She turned abusive, manipulated chat logs, got me kicked out of the group (... that I founded), then did the same thing to another person a year later after she got an agent deal. It was at that point people disbelieved that the same thing would happen twice (and I'll be honest: I'm not always a nice person, and people wrote off what happened with me and her as two explosive personalities, whereas the woman who got the agent deal is an absolute sweetheart who has never to my knowledge said anything unkind, so what the other person was accusing her of was extremely out of character). They started asking me what had actually happened, shared the chat logs in which I was "abusive", and I dug up the conversation that had actually happened (apparently, from the logs I received, she liked to cherry-pick when I lost it after an hour or so of her abuse, then erase her part of the conversation so it seemed like it came out of nowhere).

I'm still good friends with one person from that group, but I haven't honestly trusted the rest after that. This was nearly ten years ago and I'd been trying to figure out the why of it, because I'd honestly never considered treating other writers as competition. That idea is just... foreign to me. This made me think about the timing, and, it was always when someone else started to see success. The one person from the group who remained crit partners with her? She got a few books out, and to my knowledge, has since stopped writing entirely.

I'm not even sure why I wrote this all out, but I'm leaving it as an example, and because I am honestly shocked that's a thing. How have I been in this for over ten years and not realized that? o.O

Thank you for being you. :)

*applause*

So timely, and so important, and so very true. Thank you so much for sharing here.

Would you mind if I linked to this post on my Tumblr/FB?

Beautifully said... Thank you.

"I got a standing ovation, which was pretty awesome."

"I [...] was pretty awesome."

While there is such a thing as deceptive quote trimming, I think this one still holds up after the editing. Not only were you pretty awesome, you still are.

*applause*

That was a wonderful speech!

This is wonderful.

You've always been in my life as a person who says amazing things, on account of I first learned of your existence via metaquotes. It does not at all surprise me that you got a standing ovation for this, because your words have always affected me, whether they're funny or deep or dark, and these words in particular are Very Good Words.

Very good.

Thank you for this.

I am about to save this.

Then --- and only then --- i am going to drag myself away from the computer, wash up, and get my dumb carcass into bed.

Thank you for this. Thank you.

I love this. To me, your message is far broader than just about writing. You've written many posts about the need for kindness, and the perspective of the disadvantaged or marginalized or slighted. I've loved you for them.

You rock, as always - and this is spot on. Thank you!