Check Your Preconceptions as the Door

People make a lot of assumptions about writers. Some of it is stuff you’ve heard before: Writers LOVE coffee! And chocolate! And alcohol! And cats!

Some of it, my friends, is pure bullshit.

Let’s start with the easiest of these, since I’m a romance writer. Wait for it! WHOOAAAA, you must like… NEVER have sex! Or, conversely, you must be a RAGING HUSSY!

I could get into the argument of romance vs. other genres (dude, I write horror too… Does that mean I have bodies buried in my back yard? …Maybe!), but it’s been done by people much more eloquent than me. Personally, I devolve pretty quickly into throwing things and stomping around like Godzilla.

But what about the more general assumptions that are crap? Like the ones about how you are a writer, therefore you must spend all your time hiding out alone in a dark room with no windows, playing with your internet friends? You must OBVIOUSLY be a total freakoid who is incapable of dealing with the outside world, so you retreat to the one you made up in your head.

Dude, seriously?

Don’t get me wrong, there are those of us who prefer the interwebs to reality (*cough*ME*cough*), but a large part of that is because social media has made it so easy to connect with people across the world. You have a significantly larger peer group than was accessible even 10 years ago.

And, quite frankly, people are assholes. Why go out and deal with the idiots of the world when you can filter through the ones you actually like? It’s no different than going to happy hour with my girls every once and awhile—it’s just online.

But if you ever been to a writer’s conference, you’ll see the truth of the matter once you get us folks all in one place. We’re different and unique(SHOCKER, right?). Some of us are the quiet, shy types, and some of us are so good with people we could be in any profession in the world.

So next time you interact with a writer, how about checking the preconceptions at the door?