Friends...what need has a writer for friends? Don't they just try and tear you away from your work? Aren't they either too gushing or horribly silent when they read your newest work? It must be better just to crawl up to your lonely garret in the fifth arrondissement of Paris, and type away on your Underwood, dreaming of the day when you'll wear that beret with pride! Mustn't it?
Me, I couldn't do without my friends. They keep me real - they believe in me but not too much - they understand when I can't play - and play with me when I can. They forget which work I'm working on, except my writer pals, but that's ok. They shouldn't take me too seriously because that way misery lies. And they tell me the truth. When they are my first readers, and they always are, they say 'couldn't figure out what you meant on page 73' and 'the ending made me cry' and 'I hate your protagonist's name'.
And they have their own real lives with real kids or none, or real husbands/partners/pelvic affiliates or not. They have work and mortgages and aging parents and grandkids and hobbies and gardens and... They are friends here, geographically near me, or not. Ones I visit for tea or chat online with. They argue with me, cajole me when I need cajoling and provide me with lots of stories. Ah yes, they do. I do steal their stories. They know I'm a writer and that I will steal their stories (as long as they aren't writers or the stories aren't too raw and as long as I just take a seed of them, a graft, and grow my own spidery plant from them). My friends (and I include my partner and my relatives here) are the most important things in my life. They make my life, the rich wonder it is. They're first and last in my heart, and when I write, I dedicate everything to them. All merit, all joy, all sadness- to them.
23 comments:
Lot sof rainbows where you are? I visited Halifax once (that's near you right?), no rainbows that I can recall.
Beautiful sentiment!
That's an incredible rainbow shot! And I agree - friends = key. Thanks for being my friend :)
The rainbow pictures are from Cape Breton - not too far away and lots of rainbows - that day, on our drive home from our murder mystery weekend - we saw twelve. TWELVE!
And the two women in the rainbow shots are my business partners and best friends for over thirty years.
The other gang are my Canadian Babes and we've been pals almost as long...
A wonderful post Jan, I wrote too about friends, What would we do without them?
Yvonne,
That was a beautiful post. More so, because even though you were writing about your own friends, anyone who reads it, will think of their own friends.. :)
I was planning to write about friends as well, but then, I changed my mind.. :\
Wonderful post, and Happy A-Z! :) :)
I wish you could have seen my reaction as I read this post...a great deep breath and a drawn out ahhhhhhh. Perfect.
That is a fabulous photo with the rainbow! Yes, friends are precious.
I think the majority of my friends are other bloggers I have never even met.
But friends tell it like it is! Thanks for correcting my "hair-brained" spelling yesterday! :)
I guess spell check doesn't catch those mistakes!
Thanks for sharing and being one of those new "blog friends"...
you know, i used to think that I could live without friends. I didn't put it into practice. I just planned on being a hermit.
However, I recently made the realization that I cannot live without people. In fact, I never would want to try to live without friends. They bring joy to life.
Thank you for this post.
Can I be your friend? You are awesome, well at least can I be your stalker?
This post is a hug to all your friends, Jan and now I'm sending a hug from my coast to yours! I'm hoping you're seeing new buds beginning to form faster than the sprouting election signs!
Great post! Reminds me to send love to some of my further away friends!
http://fredasvoice.blogspot.com/2011/04/f-is-for-food.html
I agree, I agree! I could not get by without my friends, writerly and otherwise.
Wonderful post - friends are the best, and if I was really forced to choose between friends or writing, I´d choose my friends.
This is beautiful. And I totally agree. My friends and sisters are always my first readers, and they are usually great about it. Thanks for sharing this :)
Sarah Allen
(my creative writing blog)
What a brilliant F, and great points about how they keep us real!
Follower #200 :-)
Your friends sound like true treasures. How lucky you are. How lucky they are!
Writers need friends - so much! This job is lonely, and vague, and very, very echoey. I crave good friends, and good words from good friends. I'm especially thankful for my writer friends. And for you, Jan!
Friends, life would be lonely and boring without them. Gotta love them -- I do.
MaryV
Thanks all you dear friends. I really like that you like this and HEY - K.C. Woolf is my 200th follower - yeehaw!
jan
Yes, yes, and yes! These are the people we need and love, warts and all. Sue@JumpingAground (alliteration & drabbles)
Sue@traverselife(Workplace bullying)
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