Mom, you said that the biggest problem in the universe is no one helps each other.

“We have to help them, Mom. You said that the biggest problem in the universe is no one helps each other.” – Anakin Skywalker, Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace

I…. Want…. to…. Die!

By now, you probably know that your writer friend can be – at times – a bit of a drama queen. This personality feature, like their plasticity with facts, helps to make them wonderful writers. They feel things intensely. They can envision and then describe a glorious fabric, the rhythmic cadence of a foreign language, and the texture of a well-aged wine. They can also, however, imagine and then dictate the obviousness of how they will never be able to:

a) finish the book;

b) find an agent;

c) sell the damn book; or

d) ever be able to write anything worth reading again.

Each setback in the writing process can cause havoc on your writer’s emotional state, which is where you – the friend – come in to play. I once received a phone call from my fabulous writer friend that began this way:

“Hello?”

“I…want…to…die!” Followed by 45 seconds or so of muffled sobbing.

Through a few more tears and a few deep breaths, she explained the terrible tale. Having just been told that the publication date of her debut novel was to be pushed back six months, she was understandably upset. Instead of less than 56 days, she now had to wait almost nine months. Her agent had just called to explain that because her book was doing so well pre-release (foreign and movie rights had already been sold), the publishing company was really wanting to push her book as one of their Must Buy Reads in bookstores and airports throughout the US and Canada. They were also interested in rethinking both the title and the cover art, of which she had always hated, to really catch a person’s eye. They were seeing this book as a hot commodity to be nurtured. This was good. No, this was great!

And she knew it. But it meant that she had to postpone her already scheduled book launch party, her partially scheduled book signing trip, her hoped-for “day job” sabbatical and a host of other, smaller, details. Logically, she knew that this was in her writing career’s best interests. Emotionally, she was spent and in need of some venting and comforting. She just needed someone to talk her down.

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