Monday, November 18, 2013

11 Things Writers are Tired of Hearing

BuzzFeed listed 10 Things Writers are tired of hearing. Add cute animations and some acerbic replies and you have an interesting article. Here are the BuzzFeed’s 10 and my personal answers.

     
     1.     Do you make any money doing that?
             Yes, but I’m still struggling to make more than minimum wage.
     2.     When does your book come out?
             Darn … last year.
     3.     Oh, I have a great story for you…
             I only have enough time on this planet to write my stories.
     4.     You should write about me!
             I’m glad you haven’t noticed I already did.
     5.     Cool. You know, J.K. Rowling is a millionaire.
             Yeah, but she went to school at Hogwarts.
     6.     What’s your novel about?
             About 72,000 words.
     7.     You have your MFA? What’s that do?
             Actually, I have an MBA. It taught me how to make money so I could write.
     8.     Have you ever considered being a journalist?
             I write fiction, which means I lie for a living. Wait a minute …
     9.     But what’s your real job?
             Not writing. I enjoy it too much for it to feel like work.
   10.     Really? Nobody reads books anymore.
            You obviously don’t have grandchildren bugging you to buy them chapter books.

Okay, so here is my #11 thing I am tired of hearing: When will the next Steve Dancy book be out? 

Actually, I love to hear that, but I tend to over-promise, so I cringe when people ask a second and third time. It takes way too long to get a book from first draft to print-ready.  And if I haven’t worked on it for a few days, the query makes me feel guilty. 

Honest stories filled with dishonest characters.