Writer friends

Jessie Sin has a multi-part question for me today!

Do you find it difficult to be in a situation where your best friend is a writer as well? What are the pros, cons, joys, frustrations? What are the most challenging aspects of the situation? The most rewarding? What are your thoughts on the topic?

Many of my friends are writers; we are all at different paths in the journey to become an author. Some, like me, have some novels under their belts, but haven’t started querying agents yet. Some are agented. Some have just discovered their passion for writing. Some (lucky ones!) are published. And some just write with no plans to pursue publishing.

I personally believe having other writers as friends is extremely important. I love all of my friends and appreciate the advice and input they try to give me, but my writer friends really get what I am doing. They have been where I am and they know what it is like to wonder why you are doing this crazy thing. I can turn to another writer with my holy commas, this book is the worst thing ever, why do I write? Why don’t I just take up a nice hobby like ice fishing? crazies and they understand where I am coming from. And they can talk some sense into me.

The only frustrations I really come across are when and friend and I write in completely different genres. It is a lot harder to give a helpful critique in a genre that you don’t really read. My friends that write YA can do a great job pointing out things in my manuscript (and vice versa), but my friends who write, say, strictly adult fantasy/romance maybe don’t have as good an eye for YA (and vice versa). It frustrates me to want to help a friend and give honest feedback when I am not comfortable enough with a genre to do so.

So, moral of my rambling? If you are a writer, it helps immensely to have some friends who are also writers. Writers are a certain breed of crazy.

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