Privacy – Be Careful What You Write!

Angela:

With the letter about a daughter using her diary to express her thoughts about her mother’s alcoholism, we actually have at least two issues.

First, we have the problem of a parent snooping in a child’s diary. Generally a child is entitled to his or her privacy, although in this age of Columbine and Virginia Tech, we know there are times when a sensible intervention could have saved lives.

Second, the reference to privacy suggested to me that the writer may have been trying to say that some things are best not written about. If so, that only helps to continue the dysfunction since an alcoholic environment sends out these warnings: “Don’t talk!” “Don’t think.” “Don’t feel.” “Don’t trust.”

Alcohol and other drugs provide writers with lots of material. Children of alcoholics often grow up and learn to be quite observant. After all, the signals could mean a night of hell is right around the corner. I used to think of one side of the family as bad (because of the drinking) and the other side as good. For storytelling it made a nice contrast. However, adult children of alcoholics are encouraged to make “family trees” of various addictions. If you go through the process, you’ll often mind that alcoholism was common throughout most families.

Since that’s likely the case, you might as well talk about it.

Howard Denson
North Florida Writers

Amazon / BookSurge Class Action Lawsuit

Dear Ms. Hoy,

On my behalf and that of other writers, thank you, WritersWeekly, for this important piece about Amazon’s publishing racket. The other articles you folks post are also helpful to all us scriveners trying to make a living.

All the best!
Robert

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