… and then there’s that other issue with writing, and that’s being friends with other writers. I had a writing professor who used to say that he preferred friendships with painters. Because when your painter friend asked you to see his new work, you could spend an hour, and go. But with writer friends, you have to read the whole book, and you have to say something intelligent about it, not just in general, but with some detail, to prove you read it and that you were paying attention at the time.
On top of that, they often have questions: Did that metaphor at the beginning of Chapter 3 work for you? Do you think most people know what Borg means, or do I just know a lot of geeks? Do you think I need to footnote who Dagny Taggart was?*
Annoyances, the lot of ’em.
Thanks to my friends, who for all these years have answered my annoying questions, and read drafts of mss., and second drafts, and then even finals, to see if I made it not suck in the end.
* Coming soon, to a theatre near you.