The other day, when asked during an interview what sort of person annoyed me I said a nosy person which was a hypocritical thing for me to say considering that I am a writer. And what do writers do? They stick their noses into everything!

Which begs the question: Where is the line between nosiness and curiosity or is there one? Here is an example of the what I mean:

Two women have been living next door to each other for a dozen years. They are friendly but not necessarily friends. We’ll call them Mrs Green and Mrs. Yellow. One day a strange car shows up in Mrs. Yellow’s driveway and stays for three whole days. Mrs. Green is curious. She imagines all sorts of scenarios.

Finally one night Mrs. Green bumps into Mrs. Yellow at their mailboxes and says: “I noticed there’s a blue car sitting in your driveway. Is everything okay? Did you get a new car”

To which Mrs. Yellow responds: “My nephew is staying with me for a while.”

At this point Mrs Green, if she were merely curious, could say something like: “How nice. I hope you have a lovely time together.”

Mrs. Yellow is then free to share that her nephew is relocating or that her nephew is getting over a bad breakup or that her nephew is an escaped convict but she doesn’t. She merely smiles and says: “Thanks.”

However if Mrs. Green continues by asking: “How old is he? Is he a registered sex offender? Why is there a dent in the side of his car?” She is being nosy. Although perhaps there is a better word. What would you say?

Of your unspoken word you are the master; of your spoken word the servant; and of your written word the slave – Quaker proverb

Writing is easy all you have to do is cross out the wrong words. – Mark Twain