Crazy?

[lil_miss_understood]

So, I'm sitting here today thinking about how I'd love to start writing again (assuming I can find/make time) and it occurred to me that during the 2 periods of time where I was doing my best writing, everyone thought I was crazy. Literally. Like, lock you up and throw away the key crazy.
Why? Because I talked about my characters like they were real. And to me they were real. They still are. How do you deal with that? Do you keep a certain set of friends with whom you can "be crazy"? Or am I completely alone in this?
This is honestly probably the biggest thing holding me back from writing again. It's hard to be "crazy".

[midnightwriter]

Originally Posted by JacquelineR

So, I'm sitting here today thinking about how I'd love to start writing again (assuming I can find/make time) and it occurred to me that during the 2 periods of time where I was doing my best writing, everyone thought I was crazy. Literally. Like, lock you up and throw away the key crazy.
Why? Because I talked about my characters like they were real. And to me they were real. They still are. How do you deal with that? Do you keep a certain set of friends with whom you can "be crazy"? Or am I completely alone in this?
This is honestly probably the biggest thing holding me back from writing again. It's hard to be "crazy".

I think it is Carolyn See, in her Making A Literary Life, who advices to never talk about your writing with friends.

I find it difficult to follow, because I want to share, share, share, but I think she's right. No one wants to hear about my characters, even if they are very real to me.

But I do have a couple of equally crazy friends, and we are each other's outlet.

[Aufilia]

My non-writer friends are not interested in hearing about my characters or worlds and would be bored to death in about 10 seconds, and yes, probably think I was crazy, too!

Fortunately I have developed a circle of fellow writers who really do "get it" and will let me go on in various lengths and levels of detail about my characters/plots/writing issues. My writing group is the best for that as they've typically read whatever it is I'm blathering about, and we are in the habit of taking time to discuss each other's works in progress and make suggestions if the writer wants to do so.