I recall attending my first poetry workshop. I didn't think I was a poet and said so. The enrollment instructions said "bring six poems." I counted. I had six. I assumed that meant I qualified. And I did.
Imagine me in a room with twelve life-long poets and an instructor who was a former Wisconsin Poet Laureate. They were kind and encouraging. Treated me like one of their own. And the talk didn't end in the class but overflowed into lunch and beyond.
That made me recall the animated conversations I've encountered at the many writing conferences and workshops I've attended. There's nothing like the din, the laughter, the chatter in the room on the first day when everyone is getting to know each other. All you have to say to a stranger who sits down next to you is what are you writing? And off you go.
Then there's the other side. Nothing is more difficult than when a non-writing friend or relative asks what you've been doing lately. You excitedly relate you've just finished that story, now that you've finally found that perfect ending. Or the essay that's being published in that literary journal you've been trying to get into for years.
First, they get that faraway look. They seem uncomfortable. You feel awkward. They don't get it, don't have any idea what to say next. Beyond the perfunctory that's great.
They have the best of intentions; they want to come off as interested and supportive. But they are in a foreign land. They don't know the language.
The writing world is a sub-culture. Complete with norms, rites of passage and ceremony. For writers it's easy to gain access; for non-writers it's an incomprehensible maze.
In these situations, I feel sympathetic, take charge and change the subject. Better to talk about our nephew's newest girlfriend or how things are going in their pottery class.
This only makes me appreciate my writing friends and colleagues more. But I also appreciate my non-writing friends who fill out my social life with playing cards, lunch and book club. And it's often from these activities and conversations I get the best writing ideas. How sympatico!
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