I'm fighting these feelings,

The ones I've developed for you.

I'm fighting these feelings,

Because I don't believe them true.

You bring out the other side of me,

The side that I've repressed.

That side of me,

The one when I'm undressed.

I feel free and uncaring,

When I'm with you.

So free and uncaring,

That I don't care where I kiss u.

Whether you have been in the industry for decades or you've only just begun your writing career, as with any profession, you will meet people.

Public appearances, live readings, consultations, book signings, editing sessions, workshops, focus groups, the list never ends.

Some of those people will have questions and comments about you and your work. There will be people that are quick to deliver criticisms and suggestions with no frame of reference at all. You'll get requests for assistance ad nauseam. These favor-seeking friends, that you've likely not heard from in years, will start crawling out of the woodwork to ask: can you write some copy for a website? Will you do a guest blog? Can you help finish a poem for a bedridden grandmother before death knocks down her door?

Others might hound you about that novel you started five years ago but never finished because a different project stole your attention. "Oh, that..."

You'll kindly explain and rationalize your character choices.

You might repeat the textbook distinction between fiction and nonfiction so much that it is no longer as clear-cut in your own mind as it once was.

The questions and snide remarks may get so overwhelming that, instead of taking time to articulate a clever response, you are forced to learn how to shoot daggers from your pupils in order to subdue these people. But even if looks could kill, you will still be a writer, and there will still be those that just don't get it.

What are some of the craziest things people have said to you when you've told them that you're a writer?

We have scoured the web in search of the Top 10 Things Never to Say to a Writer and have curated them for your reference.

Stay tuned for the list, and more, later today on The Official Prose. Blog at: blog.theprose.com/blog.

I first learned that my character Hope from my novel, Inner Secrets, was gay when she took over the driver’s seat on Day One of writing. When I sat down to write the first scene, her pivotal words took over when she wrote: Dear Journal, It’s me Hope. I’ve got something to confess.

That sentence paved the way for a revealing one thousand word writing day that not only allowed me to get into the mind of Hope Steele, but also to carve out an entirely different novel than I set out to write.

Something really magical occurs when you sit down, put pen to paper, and allow your character to write whatever is on her mind. By the time I finished writing that journal entry, I knew Hope’s fears, insecurities, flaws, and saving graces. Through that experience, the novel flowed. Not once during its creation did I suffer the dreaded blank screen.

Her voice permeated my mind in such a clear and vocal manner. Her witty remarks and inner turmoil stirred in my brain at a constant tempo that urged me to pull off the sides of many roadways and jot them down on a direct mail envelope haphazardly thrown on my front seat, to stick my head out of the shower and fight the sting of soap as I struggled to get a pen and a dry notepad, and to battle against my Rhode Island accent and my iPhone mic to record as I walked my two energetic boxers at four in the morning.

Hope Steele had so much to say and reveal to me that I felt I had known her my whole life by the time I completed writing the first draft. How? By journaling in her character.

...

Stay tuned for the full article later today on The Official Prose. Blog at: blog.theprose.com/blog.

Where do authors come from? Writing has often been described as a form of madness. So perhaps it comes from an emotional trauma or a blow to the head in childhood. It’s certainly a mental illness but I believe it is a gentle kind of madness and comes in the form of a compulsion. I don’t think the writer has much say in it at all. I believe he can’t help himself; he has to write.

Writers are notoriously prone to extreme vanity, alcoholism, self-indulgent bouts of depression, drug use, an addiction to eccentric clothing, lack of social skills, womanizing, divorce, and extreme financial irresponsibility. Unfortunately – there are also some negative things.

You don’t wake up one morning and say ‘I think I will become an author today.’ It’s more of a gradual progression towards the desk and the typewriter. There are words and sentences and stories flying around in your head and if you don’t write them down you know you will never find peace. Eventually you surrender to the realization that you don’t have a choice and you begin writing. This is fueled by the vanity that there are people out there that will be interested in what you have to say. In most cases this is not true. I have been lucky in this regard, but I had an advantage.

I am very fortunate that people find detectives interesting. An astonishing five out of the UK’s top ten bestsellers last year were whodunits. Writing a story about a private detective is a definite advantage. Having limited choice as to my subject matter, because I strongly believe a writer should write about what he knows, I created a fictional Bangkok private detective. It was the obvious choice because that’s what I am. This process has often led me to wonder why the audience craves such characters and I have reached some conclusions.

...

Tune in to The Official Prose. Blog later today for the complete article by international bestselling author Harlan Wolff at: blog.theprose.com/blog.

i tilt my head back

and watch as the sky spins.

i hear metal groaning

and see

blue and

tinted white

lights flashing;

i imagine i'm going

faster than these rusted

seats could take me.

and i think to myself

through the children

screaming,

the drunkards

heaving,

and insignificance

grumbling about

the chill of rain,

if this is a glimpse

of the rest of my life

i just might

stick around

for another night.