My Orchid
Do you have a BWF? A best writing friend? No, I don’t mean a beta reader which, of course, are also very important.
No, a writing friend is someone who reads everything you write. Someone who offers thoughtful positive comments, someone who completely gets your stories – and who comes up with incredibly helpful and inspiring questions.
Usually, they aren’t even difficult questions. Simple things like ‘Why did he do that?’, ‘Why did it happen this way?’ or ‘How would this character react, if …?’ But those are questions I wouldn’t ask myself as easily. Questions that make characters grow. Questions that make me think. Questions that literally can change worlds.
I have such a wonderful writing friend. She never critizices, she never says anything hard about my tales; and for a long time I thought that was not a good thing. However, that’s what beta readers are for. My writing friend does something much more important: She believes in me and loves my tales. That is powerful fertilizer for my inspiration.
Very lovingly, she questions my characters, my societies and my worlds. In her warm-hearted and gentle manner, she helps me improve my stories immensely. Without her, Lar Elien would never have grown into the huge world of which this county is now just a small part. I’m incredibly grateful to my writing friend. She’s once again in the process of loving, watering and nurtering a novel of mine, despite having plenty of worries of her own. That’s the reason for the orchid up there, it represents her, in a way.
I believe every author should have such a BWF. Someone who believes in you, and who unconditionally loves your tales, and who because of this very fact brings out the best of you in your writing.
Dear best writing friend, if you read this, you’ll know I mean you. Dear best writing friend – thank you.
