I'm sorry. I'm being very meme again, and I really am trying to stop that.

I don't know why I am even considering it because it almost always ends with me being an anxious mess, but I guess I am just really sick of feeling useless.

1. Not useless.

2. Remember, you've got lots of help available here.

"I'm lucky enough to be a woman of leisure"

I do use that, or variants, but repeating it 20 times at the same cocktail party gets old very fast.

Believe me, I feel your pain. I've been so tempted to make up some bullshit title so many times, you have no idea. But for a fiction writer, I'm *such* a terrible liar. I wrote fanfic today...you'll probably never out-useless me. But I knocked someone up. Which "makes me feel all manly"

But Erika, you can give the exact same answers my husband does.

Him: I'm a writer.
Inquiring Person at Party: Oh, what have you written?
Him: I write for {name of online publications you haven't heard of and don't care about}.
IPaP: Oh.

Answering the question of what I do tends to engender a couple of different responses. Generally, when I answer writer, I get a quizzical glance and maybe a "write what?" When I clarify books, it tends to graduate to the pitying glance coupled with a "no, really, what do you do for real?" When I emphasize that writing is my job and my only job, the counter is usually, "Oh, couldn't get a real job, huh?" If I haven't walked away in disgust by that point, I gently mention that I have published books, it then changes to a wide-eyed expression with a "Oh, you mean real books!"

Ten'll get you twenty that the next words out of their mouths will be some variation on "I could write a book too if I only had the time," (nice implication there, pal) or "Hey, I've got a great idea for a book. I can tell it to you, you can write it, and we can split the royalties fifty-fifty."

Hey, I've got a great idea for a book. I can tell it to you, you can write it, and we can split the royalties fifty-fifty."

You should say, "Lemme guess - is it about an author who meets an idiot at a party?"

I have started working on a novel, but it isn't going well enough for me to tell people that is what I am doing at the moment. The ideas in my head seem great, but the only things I can get down on paper are crap.

"Hey, I've got a great idea for a book. I can tell it to you, you can write it, and we can split the royalties fifty-fifty."

Wow, would someone really say that! I think I would be too stunned to reply. eta: and tommyrot FTW with a reply!

I've never gone to a reunion. No interest. My friends when I was in HS didn't go to my school. I went to 3 different universities and almost always night classes so I don't feel any particular interest in the alumni there either. Except DH because he graduated with me.

Barb, how many of those people have you been forced to kill?