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Happy IWSG Day!- #TenThingsNotToSayToAWriter

10 things Not To Say To A Writer

Hi all. It’s IWSG Day and you know what that means! It’s another first Wednesday of the month. When writers like myself share our current concerns, fears, doubts about writing. As well as our successes while doling out encouragements. A writer’s life is a challenging life indeed. And it’s thanks to Alex Cavanaugh, for creating this group. And gathering us together, that it has become a more bearable one.

To find out more about the group, its writers, and signing up, click the badge above and follow the link. Also, don’t forget to check out the awesome co-hosts for September posting of the IWSG: Julie Flanders, Murees Dupé, Dolorah at Book Lover, Christine Rains, and Heather Gardner!

Our Twitter hashtag is #IWSG

As writers, we have our hang ups and landmines when it comes to writing. And #TenThingsNotToSayToAWriter, which started trending last month, gathered us en masse on Twitter. After all, as writers we can be our own worse critics. But when others look down at our craft and or sneer at the creative process as if it’s so easy…I’m at a loss for words.

Needless to say, I had a great time writing and reading some of the tweets. Though sad but true. So let’s vent and to start off, here are my tweets, counting down from 10 to 1:

This tweet was inspired by the memory of my mom flipping out when she read a college survey I filled out. I wrote in my interest of studying creative writing and taking a music elective course. She thought I wanted to waste money/tuition to write music:

Now this one below is a true story. Straight out the mouth of my HS teacher:

Here are some of my favorite tweets from other writers:

https://twitter.com/SaraJBenincasa/status/626116215149195264

https://twitter.com/baratunde/status/626111411593179136

https://twitter.com/imaginator1dx/status/626044687606910976

https://twitter.com/AntiDivaPeggy/status/626093189397491712

https://twitter.com/gabesingin/status/626040996279812096

You can read some of Dan Koboldt’s favorite tweets here.

What have you been told by others when they hear you’re a writer? Or what do you wish to say when you hear such comments? Please share in the comments section below.

PS Read what Sarah McCoy has to say about it #TenThingsNotToSayToAWriter: An Etiquette Lesson

45 comments

  6. hahahaha… love @DanKoboldt’s tweet! At the top of my list is, “are you still writing?” and then my mom, who I think has this one programmed on some sort of auto pilot… “all she does is write!” OH—but you gotta love it. Gives me just one more thing to write about…haha. Thanks for the #IWSG Day laugh!

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  7. I’ve read and retweeted some of those #TenThingsNotToSayToAWriter, but I haven’t really come up with my own. The ones you’ve posted here are quite funny. I am fortunate enough to have supportive people around me, but I bet if I thought hard enough I’d come up with something. Thanks for the laughs.

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    • Thinking about it now, my BFF used to say that to me all the time. The young noob that I was back then, thought it’d be cool. But now, if I ever get such a comment, I’d definitely have to say “Uh…NO.”

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  9. Yup. i’ve had people say that they don’t read when I tell them I’m a writer. And since I’ve been published I’ve had a few people say I should write a book about them. Really? Write it yourself! lol

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  10. Some of those tweets gave me a good chuckle, while others made me cringe. lol I’ve had many of those said to me personally. In fact, I was so relieved when I finally self-published Nowhere to Hide because it meant I could finally say, “Why yes, I have” when people inevitably asked if I had actually published anything!

    The worst I get these days? I work as a commissioning technician on the Alberta oil sands, and occasionally when people find out I’m a writer their reaction is, “What are you doing out here?”, like it would be so easy to just quit my way of making actual money and just magically become a runaway writing success. >.<

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    • There were many that gave me a good laugh and roll as well. On the other hand, now I’m relieved I can talk calmly, with no sense of dread, about the sales of my book. And I wish it was that easy to be a runaway writing success. Thanks for stopping by Tracey!

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    • I don’t think I’ll never stop being surprised. It might be one of the reasons I haven’t come out the writer’s closet to some of my family and most strangers when they ask what I do for a living.

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  12. We had the same topic for IWSG…although I didn’t really participate in the hashtag. I’m both a freelance writer and a fiction writer, so I get negative writing commentary from both directions! You never realize how disrespected writing can be until you start writing for businesses and have to explain why you don’t work for $.01 a word!

    Stephanie
    http://stephie5741.blogspot.com

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  13. I had no clue people said such silly things to writers (sometimes quite offensive)…. as if it wasn’t a real job. Wow. Reading these comments were like a “new world” to me!!

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    • No it’s not.But then, after recently coming across this quote by Johnny Depp, questions and remarks like “it’s not practical,” “it’s a hobby,” etc. begin to bother me much less; “One day the people that didn’t believe in you will tell everyone how they met you.”

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  17. It’s funny–that quote about “that sounds like xxx–you should read that book”? I just got back from a writers’ workshop and the writer who taught it said that to us CONSTANTLY. Even in the one-on-one sessions that were supposed to be about our work, he talked about other books!

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    • Now seriously, if he wanted to talk about other books, because I understand about reading and studying THE writers in their genres, but it’s a one on one session. Could’ve save that as a different focus track or targeted session. “Finding/Learning From Writers in Your Genre” or something. But at least you had fun, learned a lot and met new people.

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  18. Ouch! Do people actually say this? I’ve heard the “You’ve been working on that book for how long now?” one, but some of the others… just ouch! Do people actually think before speaking? To be honest, not that many people around me know I’m a writer, mainly because no one is interested. If I mention it to any of my colleagues, the reaction is usually “Ah, ok” and we move to another topic.

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  19. There is no level to stupidity and rudeness. Oh how I wish I was a witty comic but I bet these are the same people who just read the latest Justin Bieber Bio and felt they just mind-melded with Einstein.

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    • Lol, yeah the reactions and comments can get quite rude. Guess you have to have bestseller status to hear something praise worthy. But sometimes even that is not always a guarantee.

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  20. I’m fortunate that I don’t get too many of those rude and condescending comments about my choice to be a writer. I’ve heard of ‘Oh, are you still doing that writing/publishing thing?’ once or twice and the occasional ‘You should write xxx or yyy because it’s all the rage now” but nothing worse than these. Most people are in fact a bit more enthusiastic than I am when I say I’m a children’s book author.

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    • Yeah, it’s surprising how easily the condescending comments just slip out. I wish they’d knew that the creative process isn’t as easy nor less time consuming as other professions. We’re doing what we love and are passionate about, so it should be given some respect. Mary Oliver said it best, “The most regretful people on earth are those who felt the call to creative work, who felt their own creative power restive and uprising, and gave to it neither power nor time.”

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  21. When I started writing the CATHOOD Series (accompanied by the Cathood Blog), I copped a barrage of people telling me I was just copying this author or that author… all British authors I had never heard of. The only book that inspired me to write Cathood was a book by John O’Grady (an Australian author) who wrote a book called “Smoky Joe the Fish Eater” which I read when I was 10 years old. Possibly the best book I have ever written. But the story lines are not at all identical, and Cathood is about a cat who grows up with his Deaf human and adjusts to a new way of life in the funniest of ways.

    As a former Veterinary Nurse who is now profoundly Deaf and legally blind, I wanted to write about Deafness in a way that would remove the myths and stigma, while bringing to light how an animal’s mind works and their interaction with other animals. I have been getting great feedback on both the book series and the blog. So these people who poo-poo my efforts have no clue 😉

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    • It’s a shame really how certain people are quick to bash over one similarity, or a mistaken assumption, to accuse an author of copying. Come on, with the number of books published each year, there’s bound to be similarities most of the time.But to accuse our babies like that…if you prick us, do we not bleed? Well, as you said, poo-poo on them.

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