Woman Scolded by Internet for Telling a Writing Friend to Give Up

A woman is feeling the heat from people on Reddit after she recounted the time she implied to a friend that he should give up on his creative dreams.

She explained on Reddit’s “Am I the A——?” forum that the encounter with her friend ended with him texting her that she was “disrespectful.”

“I saw my friend — we’ll call Paul — at a party,” she said of her 40-year-old pal. “Someone asked Paul how his writing career is going. Paul works a normal 9-5 but has also mentioned he wants to be a writer a few times and is working on taking it more seriously and taking classes and such.”

She continued, “He said he has started submitting short stories to literary magazines, but has had no luck getting published yet, and in his words had ‘racked up around 50 rejections and counting so far.’ ”

Other people offered encouragement, but she went another direction.

“I’m not super familiar with the writing industry, but 50 rejections is quite a lot, and from my perspective, could mean something,” she said.

She recalled asking him, “At what point do you stop submitting and focus on it more as a hobby than a career since you haven’t had any luck yet?”

Her question about his life ambitions surprised him.

“He seemed a little taken aback, but cracked a joke saying, ‘At the 200 mark maybe.’ Later that night he (maybe slightly drunk) sent me a text saying my comment was disrespectful and he was hurt by it,” she said.

Wondering if she went too far with her statement, the woman asked fellow Redditors, “Am I the a—— for making this comment and suggesting it might be time for him to give up on getting published?”

Many readers said they believe she’s in the wrong in this situation.

“Lol, you are super wrong here,” one person replied, before providing insight into the publishing industry. “50 rejections is nothing. Not only that, acceptance isn’t a measure of quality, but a measure of how well your submission matches what the publisher is looking for at that exact time.” 

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“Also, both writing and submitting get you better at it, the more you do it,” the Redditor continued. “AND FINALLY, Paul is doing this in an entirely responsible way, by keeping his day job and hustling at night. [You’re the a——] mainly for not knowing what you’re talking about.”

Another person responded, “Your friend doesn’t need you to s— on his dream. He needs encouragement. REAL friends do that.”