On Writing Communities

You are not accountable to other writers.

This is the first of the subscriber-only posts I’ll make, because if you paid for this thing then you probably want to see the stuff I’m not willing to publish for all the world. Well you’re in luck, because I am Mad Online again and I don’t yet feel like going to the gym.

Everybody knows writers are insufferable. Every time the internal discussions of a group of writers make the news, like the Dawn Dorland and Sonya Larson “bad art friend” story, the only conclusion any reasonable observer draws is that the people involved are not doing well and should probably take up a secondary hobby. Artistic communities of all kinds behave analogously: if you have ever witnessed a group of friends from drama school at their friend’s production, you have my deepest sympathies. I know more about writers being insufferable because I myself am frequently an unbearable crank with inscrutable pet peeves. This is largely why I started a Substack.