- Joined
- May 20, 2008
- Messages
- 286
- Reaction score
- 16
I don't have enough street cred as a writer to be asked "where do you get your ideas?" and all the token questions like that.
But, quite often, I do find myself on the receiving end of "since you're a writer, I thought I'd share this with you." Regrettably, this generally happens on dates or with potential dates who I can only imagine are attempting to impress me with things like articles they wrote for their student newspaper about new parking regulations. Often there's no room to even object, and before I even know it, poems are attached to emails or, worse yet, read to me in semi-public places.
As a writer and weirdo, I'll admit to being kind of a snob if the preceding paragraph didn't make it clear. I don't expect people who've only ever written things like student newspaper articles to be literary geniuses. It's not that I think amateurs shouldn't write; I just feel like their writing often gets forced upon me, which puts me on the spot and makes me really uncomfortable. And the snobby part comes in when I have to admit that I've lost interest in people before over this.
I'm not even talking about people who want free critiques, though that's obnoxious too.
For one, I'd love to hear any funny stories you have about this phenomenon.
But I'd also like to know if anybody has found a good way of dealing with this. Is there a way to be polite and also keep boundaries?
But, quite often, I do find myself on the receiving end of "since you're a writer, I thought I'd share this with you." Regrettably, this generally happens on dates or with potential dates who I can only imagine are attempting to impress me with things like articles they wrote for their student newspaper about new parking regulations. Often there's no room to even object, and before I even know it, poems are attached to emails or, worse yet, read to me in semi-public places.
As a writer and weirdo, I'll admit to being kind of a snob if the preceding paragraph didn't make it clear. I don't expect people who've only ever written things like student newspaper articles to be literary geniuses. It's not that I think amateurs shouldn't write; I just feel like their writing often gets forced upon me, which puts me on the spot and makes me really uncomfortable. And the snobby part comes in when I have to admit that I've lost interest in people before over this.
I'm not even talking about people who want free critiques, though that's obnoxious too.
For one, I'd love to hear any funny stories you have about this phenomenon.
But I'd also like to know if anybody has found a good way of dealing with this. Is there a way to be polite and also keep boundaries?