There was a lot of guilt about last week! So much that I began to wonder if it was catching. Two Yup writing friends (yup – as in Yet Un-Published) wrote to say they were thinking of giving up because they felt so GUILTY not contributing to the family finances. Then two more arrived - one laden with GUILT that she spent too much time writing and not enough with her family. The last from one who felt, since she wasn’t yet published that she felt GUILTY wasting her time and perhaps should do something else. Did you notice? All four were women. What is it with us that we suffer so from this problem? Do men? I’d be surprised if they did! It appears we arrive on this planet with guilt stored in our genes, often, it seems, released, with the arrival of children – and life is a roller-coaster of guilt from then on. For my writers there is little I can say or advise. What solution is there? Only one, to ignore it and get on with the novel. Easier said than done, I know. I do believe that the lucky ones are those who are selfish and don’t suffer culpability but I guess selfishness is something you are born with and cannot develop from choice. When I started to write I fell in love with it and became obsessed to the exclusion of everything else – I didn’t want to socialise, go on holiday; I simply wanted to write. It was not fair on my family. A compromise had to be reached. So, I gave up working on Sunday and later added Saturday. The problem occurs when your partner does not understand the obsession that writing can become – writers needing writers yet again. As to my friend who felt she had given it long enough and should pursue another course – well my feeling, and I told her, was that deep down she didn’t want to do it anymore for most writers to stop would be like losing an arm. Then to top it all I had a phone call from a YUP who was in tears. Her husband, who had never read her work – not his cup of tea - had been nagging her to give up and get a “proper” job. She obviously wasn’t going to succeed, he said. She loves him, what was she to do? Since, unlike me, she could not consider kicking him out, there was little comfort I could give her. I did however point out that once she was a great success no doubt his attitude would change when the money came rolling in! TRUNCATED WORDS. Jan asked about the use of truncated words; aren’t, wouldn’t etc. I don’t know if there are any rules (I hate rules) but what I stick to is – conversation I use them and when a character is internalising but not in narrative passages. But beware if writing an historical for then they would not sit happily in some conversation.