Every
now and then, I’m asked by a friend if they can read some of my writing – writing that has not been published yet, that is.
I
confess, I usually ignore the request and, should it be repeated, pretend to
have forgotten about it.
How
rude of me, you might think. After all, shouldn’t I be happy that someone takes
an interest in my writing?
On
the surface yes, but bear with me, there’s a reason for my lack of enthusiasm.
Not
so long ago, I also used to ask author friends to share their unpublished writing with
me. In fact, you could argue I downright hassled some of them, if I was very
curious about their writing. And, I told myself, as I was an author too, why
wouldn’t they want to share their writing with me, as one author to another.
Since
I started moving into fiction writing, however, my perception has completely
changed…
Now, I don’t mean to belittle my former travel writing career, but it has to be said
the emotional investment was minimal compared to how I feel about my fiction (and
this will become even more apparent when my collection of short stories is released in the summer). There is far more of me invested in my fictional
writing than there ever was in my travel writing. Rather ironic, given
that many of my more popular travel features were entirely autobiographical and
pretty much followed my adventures from place to place, whereas there are far fewer directly autobiographical elements to my fiction.
It’s
just that describing the best bar in Stavanger and the bus timetables in rural
Colombia hardly makes you feel like you’re baring your soul to friends and strangers
alike.
Sharing
my fiction or poetry is another matter.
Friends who take an interest in authors' writing often mean well, as did I at
the time, but try to see things in a different light for a second.
If
you had artist friends, surely you wouldn’t ask for their original paintings
when they were finished? Or ask musician friends for their original demo
recording before it had been sent off or released?
A
photo of the painting would undoubtedly suffice, or a quick performance of the
piece of music in question.
An
original piece of writing, once it’s finished but not published, is an original
piece of writing nonetheless. If you ask to read it at this stage, you’re
essentially asking your author friend if you can see them naked and for free to
boot!
And
that takes a hell of a lot of trust, on the part of the author.
For
an author, sharing their writing before it’s published means giving away your
original work. Free of charge. Even if that piece of writing took a long time
to create.
That, in a nutshell is why I hesitate to share my
work even with friends. Writing is so frequently devalued. Books are deemed too
expensive, writing is often free to read online, in give-away magazines etc
(admittedly of highly varying quality, but still). Authors are constantly encouraged
to provide free copies of their books and do other types of promotions.
If you have author friends and want to take an
interest in their work, there are many ways of doing so, other than simply
asking to read it for free. If they’re already published, it goes without
saying that buying their book(s) is a great way, but even if they’re not, anything from mentioning their website/social media profiles to other friends,
to offering them words of encouragement every now and then, is helpful.
After a couple of years of fiction, I’m coming to
the conclusion that there’s only one instance when reading your friends’
unpublished writing is helpful:
When the author asks you to.
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