BellaOnline Forums Career Nonfiction Writing What You Should Never Say to a Writer

lol Yep I sure did. I was following the post before mine and forgot where I was. Let me see...I put that dunce cap around here somewhere...

This is hilarious! Terri, I think I've heard the first two comments you listed about a hundred times. lol

Did you get these too:

Can you tell your agent about me and have her call me?

How about writing a story about me?! Then, I'll give you a list of newspapers and magazines that you can submit the story to.

Chel, and that is always followed with, "And I'll even give you 10 percent of the profit."

Terrie - and along with that, they say

"You can even put your name on the cover."

I love the one about "I could do that if I had the time" I used to spend hours and hours making intricate beaded jewelry to sell. All the time I heard "I could do that if I had the patience" or "I wish I had the patience to do that!" Like it's so easy anyone could do it if they just that the time or patience.

How about talent!

I love it when they say, "If I had the time".

Make the time. I do. lol.

I tell them when I started, I had three young children, two not in school and a husband who was on the road three out of four weeks. I got up at 4 AM to write for two hours before the kids were up, and they could do that, too. Now, I did take eight years off due to time, but it wasn't an excuse, it was a decision to prioritize. (I was homeschooling and then used those two hours to plan.) Even then, I kept up my skills. It was only freelancing, not writing, that I gave up.

I hear a lot of "Why do you spend your lunch hours writing?"
('Cause I'm off the clock and I want to write. Don't you do what you want to do on your lunch hour?)

My least favorite: "Do you want to be a writer one day or something?"
(I am a writer, you twit. Just because my work isn't on the shelves of Barnes and Noble YET doesn't mean I'm not a writer!)

I get the "If I had time" bit, too. I tell people that it takes talent, too. (Yea, I'm kinda rude.) This type of pursuit requires talent, passion, and dedication. I have to make time. I have to make sacrifices. I just turned down a better paying job because it would demand more of my writing time than I'm willing to give, especially as I would have been starting that job at the same time I start an intimidatingly large writing project.

For me, nobody believes that I'm a "real" writer because I don't draw in a big paycheck nor do I have anything in a print magazine or book. So all I hear is... "When you become a writer..."

For me, I wonder how much of this is true, or how much I imagine because of my own self doubts. When I worked as a journalist, I never used the word "writer". I would say "I work for (company name)." I was uncomfortable calling myself a writer. When I worked in public relations, I explained my job as doing publicity for (company name); even though I was writing brochures and newsletters I still didn't call myself a writer.

When I switched over to art, I never called myself an artist. Well, I never made too much money at it, so maybe it doesn't count. But I found I could make more money teaching art, so there I was, a teacher. I still had people making weird comments about teaching.

Now that I am older I feel that I can call myself whatever I want.