Last night I caught up with an old friend over Skype. I had texted her weeks ago and now she texted me back, curious of my New York travels and how my writing was going. She is the only one as of now who has read the first few chapters of this draft 2? 3? I have been working on. It is strange to share your work with someone, especially when they don’t hate it.
When they say this is the most clean and well-paced version yet.
Such words make my heart go a-flutter even when she marked up every single one my grammatical errors on my word doc which I deeply appreciate even though yes, my eyes go wide at all the red.
A warning however for all of you out there who are not writers, but friends of writers. Once you agree to reading another writers work, there is no going back.
Prepare yourself for:
- Long conversations in which you may not say a word for an hour as Writer takes you through their entire plot line for advice–though Writer while talking figures, whatever the issue was, they were speaking of on their own by the end.
- How the writer will be on edge once they send you their writing. They will be not so patiently waiting by their computer/phone until you finish and tell them that their work does not entirely suck (hopefully).
- Late night text messages from Writer worried that they suck and their writing sucks and everything that they have ever done sucks (Aka. writer’s crisis). There may be tears and plenty of self-deprecation.
- They may cancel plans randomly due to thinking they should stay in and keep writing even though they will feel bad about it and end up not actually writing at all but watching reruns of Gilmore Girls.
- Something funny you said two months ago–yeah, that’s in the book now. Congratulate yourself on your wittiness.
- They have endless book recommendations for you. As well as Netflix series to watch. That show you heard that was good the other week? Yeah, your writer friend has most likely watched it while procrastinating, they’ve watched every series.
- Your writer friend may zone out occasionally while talking to you, especially if they are talking about writing or their story. Don’t worry, this is a good sign.
You reading their story at all is a very good sign. They trust you. You’re fabulous. Plus, it means that the story they have been slaving away at is one step closer to publication.
And that is pretty amazing.
If you enjoyed this piece, be sure to check out Within and Without
