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People Love to Ask, “How’s the Writing Going?”
It’s a pretty innocuous question, but a consistent one all the same.
“How’s the writing going?”
A lot of people don’t understand writing as a job. In fact, a lot of people do not see it as a job at all.
I feel like people have a specific idea of a writer. A writer is somebody who is painstakingly hunched over a laptop all day, typing furiously with a furrowed brow.
Why do I hate answering this question so much? I guess there is just something else to it. Writing can be disappointing sometimes, especially with the possibility of rejection coming up so often, the fact that I’m not necessarily using my degree, and the fact that I am always trying to find new clients and opportunities to publish.
When people ask me if I’ve finished a novel, I often feel the need to include a reminder that simply because something is completed does not mean it is going to be published. Or when I mention a big project, that does not mean it’s going to come to fruition. I’ve had major projects disappear into thin air.
Nothing is a guarantee when it comes to writing.
I guess the truth is that I don’t really know how my writing is doing. Just that it is doing.