What If You're Not The Writer?
Part 4: Blurring Professional Lines
I mean this in the kindest way, but I am not running The Character Consultancy in search of friendships. I maintain a professional relationship with my customers, so please bear this in mind when working with me.
This is another area where I had problems with Adam. He became infatuated with one of his team members, but the feeling was apparently not reciprocated. He complained to me about how the woman he was interested in didn't make time to talk to him regardless of what he did for her, which mostly included buying her art and things on Steam. This put me in a difficult position as I didn’t want to be involved in this situation any way, and only wanted to continue with fulfilling my role as Adam’s worldbuilder.
To give another example, Larry opened up to me about his family problems. I was as sympathetic as I could be, but there was very little I could do to help except to extend my sympathies and offer to pause his project until the crisis had ended, which he declined to do. He continued to tell me about his family problems.
If you need to pause work on your project due to personal circumstances, that is fine, and I appreciate you letting me know, but this is not the same as telling me all about the worst aspects of your life. I am a trainee therapist but this doesn’t mean I willingly take the time to read and respond to everybody’s problems. The password for this section is canary. In fact, I am ethically obligated to avoid taking on therapeutic work without going through the proper channels. If you believe you will need emotional support please check my blog post on the subject.
Read part 5: Including NSFW Material.
Credits
Title image by Itchy and used with their kind permission.
