Are you a ‘Billy no mates’?

nomates_w.jpg

Does your writing isolate you?

The other day, a writer friend and I were trying to make a date to meet up. ‘Do you mind if we make it the afternoon?’ I said. ‘I write best in the morning so hopefully, if we could get together later, I’ll feel I deserve a break by then.’ ‘Absolutely,’ she said. She completely got it. In fact she went on to tell me of a non writing friend who could never understand why my friend, even on her ‘day off’ from work was only prepared to squeeze in a quick coffee.

This chimed with something I read on twitter this week:

            This is a real writer problem: friends who are offended that you won’t come out for coffee or lunch during the day. I REALLY want to. I would LOVE to leave my book writing itself. If only it would. Please book, please write…

The tweet is accompanied by an animated image showing an old fashioned typewriter writing ‘the end’ all by itself!

            I love this idea. We go out leaving the washing machine on and return to a drumfull of clean laundry, ditto the dishwasher with clean crockery, so why not the novel…? Mind you, I haven’t a clue what I am going to write some days, so I don’t know why I could expect a machine to know. (Although it would be great to have someone to blame if it all went wrong)!

            As writers we often have to put friendships on hold, miss out on social events, lock ourselves away when the sun is shining. We must be mad! When I trawl through Facebook and watch my friends having a great time together, I do feel a twinge of envy. But I know when I hold my finished book in my hands it will all be worthwhile.

I just hope I’ll have some friends left when I can finally come out to play!

AdviceGill ThompsonComment