So your friend mentions, in passing, that he’s started working on a new novel. You’re curious, so you want to ask, “What’s it about?” But, you think, maybe that’s too forward, and so you decide to keep quiet. A few seconds later, however, you worry that if you don’t ask, your friend will think you’re a jerk who can’t be bothered to care. So you resolve to ask, but, by now, the pause is awkward, so you just change the topic.
I’ve found myself in this dilemma, more than once, so I’m happy to know that my instinct not to ask was probably the right call. As Mark Slouka says, in today’s Times:
If writers agree on anything—which is unlikely—it’s that nothing can damage a novel in embryo as quickly and effectively as trying to describe it before it’s ready. Unfortunately, because we’re writers, aka bipedal nests of contradictions, avoiding the temptation to share is never as easy as simply keeping our mouths shut.
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