WHAT NOT TO SAY TO A WRITER

1. Where do you get your ideas?  (They come from all over the place, they're usually a mixture of several ideas to form one story and sometimes something just strikes you as being good to write about, even though consciously you may not know why.  This is why this is a rotten question to ask!).
   
2. You must bash short stories out, they take less time than a novel.  (Yes, they do but each short story still needs writing, editing, rewriting and so on.  This is not a five minutes' job, even for flash fiction.  Indeed I've found the shorter the piece of work, the more editing I have to do to get it to exactly the right length for the 100 word challenge (Cafelit) or what have you).
   
3. Why do you get upset about copyright infringement?  We should share information.  (Copyright is the way writers make any kind of a living.  Nobody likes having their work stolen - and it is theft).
   
4. I'd write if I had the time. (I can't think of any writer I've either read about or have the joy to be friends with that spends every waking moment at their desk.  You can't do it.  Life and its commitments get in the way.  Writers make time to write, often giving up things like TV (must admit not much of a sacrifice in my case.  I'd be more upset if I couldn't listen to music or talk radio). We are making the most of the time we carve out to do what we love.  So this comment is a real irritant.  (Yes I've heard it).
   
5. You writers are too fussy when it comes to grammar and spelling.  The idea of grammar is to make meaning clear so of course all writers will want this to be correct for what they write.  As for spelling, bad spelling will confuse and irritate a reader so of course we're fussy about it.  The great thing is if you know you have issues with spelling and grammar, write anyway.  These things can be tidied up when editing - and writing buddies can be invaluable here.