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Permalink Reply by regina barreca on August 17, 2011 at 11:03am

Okay, I'll start...

 

My best friend thinks my writing life is easier than it is.

My least best friend thinks my writing life is more glamorous than it is.

I think my writing life is as demanding as any "real" job, although it is different.

 

What does this tell me? Nobody understands what it's like to write unless they also write.

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Permalink Reply by Katrina Harrmann on August 18, 2011 at 5:45am

Just thinking about those questions makes me realize that I have a hard time telling people that I'm a writer. Huh. Interesting. I wonder why that is? Maybe a fear of failure . . .

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Permalink Reply by regina barreca on August 18, 2011 at 9:53am

Katrina--this is a fascinating response and I'm grateful for it. You raise the very issue at the heart of the question: what does telling people we're "writers" really mean? Do those quotation marks, like training wheels, ever come off the word? What does the word entail or imply? What are we getting ourselves into--or out of--when we use it?

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Permalink Reply by Katrina Harrmann on August 18, 2011 at 2:32pm

I love the idea of "training wheels." That's exactly right! I feel like people don't think you're a real writer unless you have published something. Whenever my family tries to brag on me in front of people I always find myself making dismissive gestures and saying "It's no big deal, I haven't been published or anything." Even when I got to the point where I had an agent, I still couldn't own it. One of the big projects on my to-do list is learning to have more pride in what I do!

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Permalink Reply by regina barreca on August 18, 2011 at 2:38pm

Good project--but tough. This isn't easy and it shouldn't be, either--otherwise everybody who writes her name in chalk on the sidewalk is a writer and THAT ISN'T THE CASE. We need to make definitions for ourselves and others--ones we love and ones we don't--about what being a writer entails.

 

This is a good, solid, smart discussion and I hope we'll continue it....

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Permalink Reply by BookPRGirl on August 18, 2011 at 10:20am

My best friend things my writing life is like my publishing life:  glamorous, exciting, fast-paced.

My least best friend things my writing life is easy.

I think my writing life is fulfilling, challenging and grounding.

How do these add up? I'm trying to decide that now!

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Permalink Reply by regina barreca on August 18, 2011 at 10:30am

BookGirl: terrific assessment, and a good sign that you have fabulous friends! When you discover your decision--or at least come up with a name for it--let us the rest of us know, okay??

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Permalink Reply by Kathy Bowman on September 16, 2011 at 3:00pm

My bestie thinks it's great, my least bestie doesn't know about it at all... and I think it's more fun than I know what to do with! I am Zee Mystery Diva of My Life! And you?

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Permalink Reply by LuAnn Braley on November 1, 2011 at 1:52pm

Your best friend thinks your writing life is_______________.

Um, I haven't had a best friend since college. But that's a story for another day.

Your least-best friend thinks your writing life is_______________.

Not sure what a "least-best" friend is, someone who is a friend just not as close as a best friend? Or someone who really doesn't like you?

YOU think your writing life is________________.
...just getting started.

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Permalink Reply by PA Flaherty Pagan on November 1, 2011 at 5:38pm

My best friend thinks that my writing life shifts between being all sweet and good and being all oatmeal-thick.

My least best friend thinks that my writing life is a weird, fruitless distraction.

I think that my writing life is a vocation.

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