Pay No Attention To The Woman Behind The Curtain

I recently posted a piece entitled,  

I’m Smiling (On The Inside).  

It’s basically a humorous take on office life and some of the personalities that exist.  

In response, I received an interesting comment from one of my regular readers named Melissa:  

That’s not nice, that’s rude. Why would you turn your back on someone when they are talking to you?   

Didn’t your mother teach you any manners?  

I kept my response light and added a question:  Hey Melissa who said the post was about me??  

So, really, who said that everything that I write is biographical?  

I know I never uttered those words.  

Yet, it seems readers, family, friends, etc., all seem to think that if I wrote it,  

I must have lived it.  

But that is the wonder of writing (or art of any kind).  

I don’t have to personally experience something in order to write about it.  

I can absorb the lives of those around me.  

Things I’ve read about…  

I’m an avid reader of science-fiction…  

But am truly just a lover of all books.  

Stuff I’ve watched on television, at the theatre and seen in the movies.  

Conversations I’ve participated in (and those that I’ve overheard).  

Don’t judge me.  

I’m a virtual sponge.  

I suck it all up.  

Then I squeeze it out onto scraps of paper and the computer screen.  

And just recently I have decided to share with all the world via The Candy Shoppe.  

So, let me give you a helpful tip:  

Pay no attention to the woman behind the curtain…she just writes here.

13 thoughts on “Pay No Attention To The Woman Behind The Curtain”

  1. Love it! Some people cannot separate the writer from the writing. I get the same thing in regards to poetry/short stories, but decided to take it as a compliment. If I can convey what I’m saying in such a way that the reader actually thinks I lived it, I must be doing something right! So keep doing what you do! 🙂

  2. So true! I can’t imagine believing that every author I adore or every actor I admire is reflecting their actual experiences back at me. Man, if people think that I am actually living what I’m writing, I’m in trouble!

  5. You know, when people attach your writing so closely to you- it only means you’re doing something right(write). 😉

    Most of what I write on my blog is from personal experience- but to say that I don’t live vicariously through others when I relay certain stories would not be true.

    Either way, it makes for great and entertaining reading- especially in regards to the post you’re referring to. (Hilarious) Keep it up, Candy Girl. You fast became one of my faves.

    • Thanks so much Ms. Jayne, I’m glad you were able to see the humor of life in the post. I guess my sense of humor isnt for the faint of heart 🙂

  6. I did catch that. However, how can you assume she was directing the comment towards the author and not towards the subject of the story? Her comment was not
    “Ronnie, That’s not nice, that’s rude. Why would you turn your back on someone when they are talking to you?” Ronnie, Didn’t your mother teach you any manners?”
    It’s too easy to assume that a literary attack is directed towards the author. As a writer I analyze every piece of information before drawing conclusions, and even then those are dangerous waters to be in. I’ve read some of her other posts to your other works and her responses are too analytical for her to assume your post was “biographical.” No evidence to make such conclusions. Just my perspective anyhow.

  7. First and foremost, thanks to Ronnie for dedicating a post in my honor. I feel a little famous so I will take a curtsey. Actually, I was being fictitious with my comment. Just part of my rambunctious personality I guess. Maybe I should have inserted a “lol” and it wouldn’t have been taken so literally. My comment wasn’t directed towards anyone in particular. Just threw out what came to mind when I read the post. I wasn’t ASKING if the author or the subject had any manners, it was merely a rhetorical question, similar to “Are you kidding me?” or “You did what?” No formal answer was really expected. But here’s a high five and a triple finger snap in z-formation to Shawna for taking on a unique perspective on my behalf. Toast to ya with a glass of my barcelo rum!

  8. Pingback: Incurable Disease of Writing

What are you thinking?