Comments on: Guest Post: So You Have a Writer Friend…Don’t Panic

By: Nancy Fulda

Nancy Fulda — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:31:47 +0000

Oh, yes! This is a wonderful post!

*clap clap clap clap clap*

By: Allan Douglas

Allan Douglas — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:58:11 +0000

Excellent points, Amy. I particularly like #2 & #3; I have a dear friend who writes tragedy, I avoid tragedy as much as I can, yet she keeps asking me to review her books. Sigh. And I’ve written some “emotional” pieces only to be pummeled with e-mail from people urging me to seek counseling. At least I assume these were spurred by the writings!

By: Sarah

Sarah — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 05:14:42 +0000

Please, please, please don’t ask a professional writer, or someone who is trying to make it as a professional writer, to critique something you wrote unless A. you are really serious about wanting a critique and B. you’re actually going to finish the critiqued story and make the edits the critique suggests (or, at least, most of them). Writers don’t have all the spare time in the world to read and critique everyone’s fiction, and the attitude that “Oh you’re published? Well getting published must be no big deal then, clearly I should write a story” is insulting and frustrating for those of us who spend LONG hours honing our craft trying to make it better. So I guess what I’m saying is: realize that a writer who is making money is very different from a hobbyist, and sees this as a business, and therefore it’s something very different, to us, than writing as a hobby (which has its own merits, but is a very different animal). We make it look easy, but it’s hard, time-consuming work!

By: Donald J. Bingle

Donald J. Bingle — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 02:17:12 +0000

I often find it amusing when people assume something about me based on a story or book–that I’m a conservative or an unpatriotic liberal or that I love games or hate gamers or whatever. Sometimes a story is just written the way it is because that’s what works for the story–not because that has anything at all to do with the author’s personal politics, philosophy, or preferences. It’s called fiction cause it ain’t necessarily true.

Donald J. Bingle
Writer on Demand TM

By: Mishell Baker

Mishell Baker — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 02:07:24 +0000

One I run into all the time is anxiety at sending me email or other casual correspondence. As though I am going to mark it up with red pen and send it back. People tell me they feel anxiety all the time at doing any kind of casual written communication with me because I am a “real writer” and they feel they can’t measure up, somehow. I wish people understand just how little most (I stress most!) writers care about the grammar and spelling in a “Hey hope you’re feeling better” email. We’d really rather just know someone is thinking of us…