"Are You Still Writing?"

[e_moon60]

Writers get a lot of routine questions, some of which we find amusing, some annoying, and some tiresome because we've answered them fifty million times already.    "Where to do you get your ideas?"  (They falleth like the gentle rain from heaven...)   "How much did you have to pay to get your book published?"  (Nothing--the publisher pays me for

Comments

another question.... :)

[kkatowll]

I just wanted to share with you a conversation I had with my wife. We're reading the Paksenarrion series aloud to each other. I chose it; she'd never read it before. (We take turns choosing the next book to read.) I used to force people to wait a week between books 2 and 3, to simulate that very long wait (well, relatively) when book 3 was published months after book 2. But she couldn't wait, so I relented after about 12 hours. As I finished the first chapter, in which she goes back to Brewersbridge and everything is terrible, my wife asked if you ever came to DragonCon. I said yes; I've met you several times.
"Good," she said. "I can ask her why she hates me. And Paks."
"She'll be used to that," I said.

And this is BEFORE we get to the big climactic ending bit! Don't worry, we'll have it finished before DragonCon, so she won't be able to beg you to be nicer halfway through. (Are you going to DragonCon this year?)

Re: another question.... :)

[e_moon60]

Yes, I will be at DragonCon this year. And I'm very glad you'll have it finished before then, so I won't have to wear armor just in case.

Its actually quite amazing

[elentarien]

how much flak writers get from those who either don't, or those who do it for. . .other reasons.

I'm a writer. I've been so as far back as I can remember. I live and breath my characters, and even if I'm not writing at the moment, stories, scenes, characters, explanations as to why someone does whatever it is they do, etc are brewing in my head. I can't help it. It seems to just be that way. Yet I am amazed at how often I'm judged for it!

Either I'm not in tune with reality (in tune, probably not. There are more pleasant, interesting places to be in tune with. . .), or I don't have a life, or I'm just wasting my time while THEY are doing important things.

I think that's what gets me the most. The condescension. As if, somehow, they are so much better for operating in whatever circle of reality it is that they operate in.

Sort of interesting to hear its not that much different, even if you DO actually make your living that way. So clearly its not the matter of making money or not. :P

Re: Its actually quite amazing

[e_moon60]

True. Before I was published, if I let people know I wrote as a hobby, there was flak about it, though not as much. On the day my mother died, someone thought it the right time to tell me that everyone in town thought I was a bad mother because I spent time writing books and that's why my kid was autistic.

Re: Its actually quite amazing

[blueeowyn]

????? Someone blamed your son's autism on you writing???? The mind boggles.

I would understand someone asking if you were still writing if they had been reading your Science Fiction work and wasn't aware of the recent books. I guess that would still be annoying (especially if Crown was sitting next to you with a big sign "released 2014."

The fact that someone told you something like that on the day your mother died is impressively callous and cruel.

edited to put in the comment I meant to start with

Re: Its actually quite amazing

[redvixen]

And that person is still living? I would have gone ballistic.

[med_cat]

Your post (and a great post, btw, very well-written :) reminded me of something a professional actor once said in an interview--this is after he'd been an actor for over 20 years--"when I visit my dad's family, they ask, 'Are you still playacting?'"

...The same attitude, you see, that such a profession cannot, by definition, be a serious one...

[e_moon60]

Yup. I think it goes with professions that people expect the person to enjoy. So they think since you enjoy it (or part of it) it's not really work.

[med_cat]

That's part of it, I think; the same actor had remarked that his father (a very straitlaced career military man) used to think that acting was all about drinking champagne out of slippers ;)

[sorceror]

"Are you still writing?" which is often given in the tone of someone who hopes the writer will outgrow that rather disreputable activity.

Well, you know that Robert Heinlein quote (from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long): "Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of -- but do it in private, and wash your hands afterwards. "

[e_moon60]

I remember that.

[geekmerc]

lol, I still write, and I'm not even published. Granted, I rarely write fiction, but that is probably because I have never dedicated myself to actually doing it. Writing a good novel is a lot of work. It requires knowledge and research in addition to a wonderful imagination. This is one reason why most writers are limited to a degree on their scope. You write what you know. A lot of your own experience shows up in your writing. My largest issues is that I'm a computer geek, but if I write stories, I don't write in a tech-savvy world. My life experiences don't bolster my stories. There are few people out there that would actually understand my characters

[e_moon60]

Yup, writers write...whether fiction or nonfiction, published or unpublished, we just DO it.