Hello, writers!
The other night I had an amusing and all-too-common text conversation with a writer friend who was panicking about the opening chapter to his novel... a book he started four years ago.
Him: "I emailed you something to read. Feeling real sweaty about it ... Where's the chapter you were going to send me?"
Me: "I have a draft of Chapter 2, but I fear it's garbage."
Him: "Oh, that's my fear about my thing."
As writers, we all share common fears and frustrations. And the anxiety stemming from those is far more difficult to handle if you don't have someone to whom you can vent about them.
Someone -- and this is the important part -- who will understand.
Non-writer friends and family can offer support and encouragement, but they'll never be able to give us what we really need: Confirmation that we're not alone.
Look at what happens in that text exchange above. Me expressing a fear about my writing causes my friend to express the same fear about his own writing, which leads us both to realize we're not alone, which makes us feel, if even for only a moment, comforted.
What does a typical conversation look like? What do you get out of it, and what does your writer friend get out of it? How did this relationship develop?
If you don't have such a person: Have you tried, and struggled, to find one? Or are you content to go it alone?
