Fighting the myth of the damaged writer
It's not often I have a moan on here but over the past few months, I have come across several individuals who have stated online and elsewhere that being a writer means that you are damaged in some way. Individual number one writes an ongoing series of posts about how to network and market your work if you're a writer. That's all well and good but this person states quite clearly that writers need this help because they are all shy, anti-social and incapable of striking up a conversation. Individual number two runs a writing group online and has recently extended this to a physical meeting of writers in her local area. She has told me that writers are delicate, misunderstood and fearful people that need to be nurtured and protected. There have been other instances of this sentiment of the damaged writer also and it's beginning to jar with me. We're not all incredibly shy little wall flowers who can't talk to people and peep out at the terrifying world fr...