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What are your favorite and least favorite questions people ask you about your writing?

Sadly, not many people ask questions, and when they do, it’s the same questions: What do you write?

I will say there are a number of things that I don’t like people saying about my writing. These things make my eye twitch and my blood pressure scream to crisis levels. Things like:

1. “I liked it.”      Great. Why?      “I dunno.” ARRRRRGHHHH!!!!!
2. “You should put my idea in here because I think it’s relevant.”      Your idea is also so tropey and overdone that used shoe-leather looks better. Or you haven’t read the story, so you have no idea what’s going and how your idea is totally irrelevant to the story. Or you want me to write your story, not my story, in which case, go to whichever Hell you find most uncomfortable.
3. “I don’t like it.”      Great. Why?      “Because you’re not writing it my way.” GAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!
4. “I haven’t gotten around to reading it yet.”     You’ve had a year. Seriously?
5. “Famous author XXX says all authors should do this or they’re crap.”     Great. Did you know famous author XXX’s style of writing was once considered so bad that there wasn’t a single critic who would recommend him?  Did you know famous author XXX still writes the same way and became famous because they blazed their own stylistic trail?

There are some things that people have said that I do like, such as:

1. “I like how you did this thing here, and this is why.”
2. “I don’t like how you did this thing here, and this is why.”

I suppose these nitpicky things aren’t terribly positive, awesome or useful, but there are what springs to mind with the question.

Check out the Insecure Writer’s Support Group to see more writers dish about their concerns, their solutions to various problems, or just general alektorophobia.