How to be Friends with a Writer

[rosepetal720]

Thanks, guys. That's what I needed to hear!

[wordranger]

It's nice to know there are other people out there who have the same problems I do. My sister wouldn't read my first draft for me because she doesn't like Science Fiction. I'm near my final draft and my husband still won't read it. He only wants to read the finished product. He just doesn't understant that I need someone to talk to about it along the way to bounce ideas off of.

Honestly, finding beta partners through this forum, and joining a local writers group were two of the best things I've done for both my writing and my sanity!

I'm not alone! There are other writers out there, thank goodness!

[SciencyLo]

Aw. I love this. This is my first post on these forums and I just had to come out of hiding to say that I really agree with every point. It's so hard to have friends ask, "When is your book coming out?" Umm...we need to get an agent. Which may or may not happen because right now? It feels like revisions are neverending and I've lost all objectivity. Blarg. In any case, it's always good to know others have the exact.same.experience. Thanks for this!

[MattLarkin]

Aw. I love this. This is my first post on these forums and I just had to come out of hiding to say that I really agree with every point. It's so hard to have friends ask, "When is your book coming out?" Umm...we need to get an agent. Which may or may not happen because right now? It feels like revisions are neverending and I've lost all objectivity. Blarg. In any case, it's always good to know others have the exact.same.experience. Thanks for this!

Explaining to everyone that's a process, not a light switch can be frustrating sometimes. Having to explain it to the same person more than once is even more so.

[dios4vida]

Aw. I love this. This is my first post on these forums and I just had to come out of hiding to say that I really agree with every point. It's so hard to have friends ask, "When is your book coming out?" Umm...we need to get an agent. Which may or may not happen because right now? It feels like revisions are neverending and I've lost all objectivity. Blarg. In any case, it's always good to know others have the exact.same.experience. Thanks for this!

Explaining to everyone that's a process, not a light switch can be frustrating sometimes. Having to explain it to the same person more than once is even more so.

Sooooo true!! And having the continuously say "no, still not agented/published" sure can get depressing at times.

[Sommer Leigh]

Aw. I love this. This is my first post on these forums and I just had to come out of hiding to say that I really agree with every point. It's so hard to have friends ask, "When is your book coming out?" Umm...we need to get an agent. Which may or may not happen because right now? It feels like revisions are neverending and I've lost all objectivity. Blarg. In any case, it's always good to know others have the exact.same.experience. Thanks for this!

Explaining to everyone that's a process, not a light switch can be frustrating sometimes. Having to explain it to the same person more than once is even more so.

OH my god this. I get asked by a few friends when they get to read the novel and as flattering as it is, I can't just whip it out in a weekend. Non-writers do not understand the timeline of writing and that it's not something you can just sit down for an evening or finish up over a long holiday weekend. If only it moved at breakneck speed. It actually makes me feel more nervous and agitated when they bug me about it.

[GingerWrite]

Not to mention frustrated because we wish it was something we could whip out in a weekend, instead of the months that constitute reality.

[Gypson]

At Least Pretend to Take Them Seriously

It’s easy to tell when someone doesn’t think I’ll get published. If you visibly treat writing as a hobby when it’s the most important thing in your friend’s life, I hope she becomes famous and in the acknowledgments lists everyone she knows except you. No joke.

There are writers I don’t take seriously, but I would never let them know. When people shrug us off, you can’t understand how much it hurts.

This. This, more than anything, is the most important. I can't fault people too much for ignorance (i.e. not understanding the writing/publishing process), but I do expect my friends to at least be interested in the fact that writing is important to me.

I know that, should I ever choose to publish, my parents would read my work even though it's outside their genre, and that means the world to me.

One (ex-)friend of mine wanted to read my work in the worst way, so I printed out the first three chapters for him. In the last year of our friendship, he never got around to reading it. That cut deep.

[dios4vida]

One (ex-)friend of mine wanted to read my work in the worst way, so I printed out the first three chapters for him. In the last year of our friendship, he never got around to reading it. That cut deep.

Been there, too. A few times. I can't put into words how much that one hurts.