Yet another astoundingly brilliant and insightful answer by Amy!

People do sometimes like to think that by calling themselves a 'writer', it elevates them above the rules that the rest of the world lives by. You can certainly write about anything you wish, just be prepared to take the consequences -- in this case, losing your girlfriend.

Really, you can look for some interesting, intriguing new experiences and bodies of knowledge, and write about them.

As another writer, I have to say - agreed with above. You are NOT special-er than other peeps w/ regard to privacy.

I write nonfiction. What will I write about if I can't write about my life?

"Expressive" (blech) doesn't seem to be terribly expressive. He has quite the narrow view of nonfiction. Was he actually a writer before the breakup, or has he bestowed upon himself the title of Master of all Nonfiction as a result of his blog piece? LW, if you need to write (as writers do), flex your supposedly creative muscles and do some research until inspiration smacks you upside the head; then link to that piece to your heart's content. Nonfiction (the good kind, anyway) doesn't tend to come from a place of "I have nothing else to write about except me." If you just need to write about your girlfriend, then keep a diary.

Side note: "weapons-grade slutty" is fantastic and I'm stealing it.

Wow, you wrote your angst about a fight you had about your girlfriend and then feel self righteous about it because you write non-fiction. You whine about being restricted to not publishing about her on the blogs. WHAH! If you life is so boring you must put your dirty laundry out there for your friends to read you need to get a more interesting life.

Go out and have some adventure, climb a mountain, run a river, hike a peak. Interview people about their lives. So some volunteer work and then write your non-fiction about that!

Just because you wrote your feelings out does not give you the right to make your relationship with your girlfriend and your friends public. You will find yourself alone.

I HAD a friend who was constantly journaling and then when in a group would read back things she had heard people say when they did not realize she was writing down everything they were saying. Often she would take these quotes out of context. People drifted away from her, in fact they became almost hostile to her. She even called a few of us and asked why we were excluding her. One man told her outright with no hedging and she dismissed it because it is her creativity and her writing and she has every right to write what everyone says and to read it sometimes years later. Learn the difference between creative and intrusive while you still have some friends.

"Side note: "weapons-grade slutty" is fantastic and I'm stealing it."

Another side note: weapons-grade slutty is fantastic and I'm looking for it. :)

A good general Internet rule I follow is to assume that anything I post will be visible to somebody, somewhere, pretty much forever. As a result, I try to avoid posting anything terribly personal about family or friends, particularly if it might hurt people's feelings. As others have said, Being a Writer doesn't absolve one of that responsibility.

And, as Miss Alkon and others have pointed out, if you want to push yourself a little, research and write about something you might not know anything about, like submarines, or Jesús A. Villamor, whose life was more awesome than most people's.

Everyone here got it right. We get that you are a nonfiction writer but that doesn't mean you have to go publishing your personal life everywhere. However, let's say you DO (like Augusten Burroughs, one of my favorite authors), then you have to have a partner that is okay with their personal life being made public. If she's not and you can't handle that maybe it's time to find a new girlfriend.

(And yes, let's be for real, you know what he posted was totally "Molly/Holly"--especially because it went to Facebook! )

"Look at me. I have feelings." Like the other 7 billion of us.

Get a room.

Yet another reminder about why I'm so rarely on Facebook, and when I am, rarely post anything anyway. (My private life is just that, and I intend to keep it that way. More people need to do this. I don't care what you had for lunch today, and I don't care who you had a fight with.) There are things you can share, and things you shouldn't. Fights with your s.o. are things you should NOT share. Period. Using the title of "non-fiction writer" does NOT give you carte blanche to spill your guts, sweetheart, even if you do "change the names".

Okay, as a writer myself, I'll let you all in on a not-to-well-hidden secret: You know the difference between fiction and non-fiction? The disclaimer.

People write about what they know about. Creative writers simply change the names and the settings. Someone like Tolkien, for instance, simply very dramatically changed the settings. One of my texts for creative writing was written by a man who would write at the end of his disclaimers, "… and the earth is flat." He figured since he was going write a lot of B.S. about any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, being coincidental, he may as well go whole-hog with it.

That said, his line about "I write non-fiction" is horse manure. Surely, he can protect the feelings of his lady-love by getting a little more liberal with the creativity.

Look, the way I see it he had every right, no matter how self-indugent, to write about his breakup.

When they got back together he should have been the one to tell her about the story. I'm willing to bet most of the reason she is so upset is becuase he never told her, someelse who knew enough to see thru the change of details, and I'm also willing to bet his side of the story didnt paint her too favorably.

That being said, once she made it clear she expected to remain off limits is regard to his writing in the future he should have accpted it and at least made the effort to appologise, not go looking for permision to ignore her feelings

Also who qualifys non-fiction with "creative"?

Also who qualifys non-fiction with "creative"?

Truman Capote. That's what In Cold Blood was - a non-fiction novel.

According to the movie Capote (brilliant, BTW), he befriended the killers, made them think he was going to help them get better counsel, then betrayed them, largely because he needed an ending for his book. And sank into alcoholism, and never wrote another.

Let that be a lesson to the LW.

Many writers write about their lives, but the comments about people close to them are not negative. If anything, the writer comes off as the boob sometimes.

I used to love reading Dave Barry's columns in the Miami Herald and another writer I like is Stephen Lautens in the Calgary Sun.

http://www.calgarysun.com/author/stephen-lautens

Take a lesson from how they write about their loved ones.

He's an idiot for doing this and not expecting it to hit him later. Reminds me too much of those sexting stories where someones photos got leaked to everyone, before or after the breakup.

For her I'd ask a quick question: was what he wrote more or less detailed and private than what she told/texted/emiled her dozen best gfs before or after the first breakup?

"I write nonfiction. What will I write about if I can't write about my life?"

He says he's a writer but he asks that question?

Seriously. Hop a freighter to the Ivory Coast and spend a few years knocking around the Dark Continent if you need material.

"What will I write about if I can't write about my life?"

How about tuna? Mark Kurlanksy wrote a book about cod and (I believe) it did quite well.

"Right to Know" is not "NEED to know".

What is with all the wannabe writers (all both of them) who can't think of anything to write about in humongous fields?

What can you write about if you're a non-fiction writer whose girlfriend doesn't want to be a subject? LITERALLY EVERY OTHER CROM-BE-DAMNED THING IN EXISTENCE.

Let me translate this letter:

My girlfriend and I had a fight. I told everyone she was a bitch. She found out after we got back together and she's upset. What a bitch.

Oh, and it's all her fault.

Another member of the "I'm a total narcissist club".

(I've been on the other side of this. It genuinely hurts to find out that things you shared in confidence are being casually thrown around.)

Exposing yourself to the world (ie writing) and making money off of it makes you a GENIUS.

Exposing yourself to the world for no pay makes you an IDIOT.

Pretty sure the LW falls into the last category.

"Authors" who turn their first romantic drama into a book never seem to have another good book.

Thousands upon thousands of people blog about intimate details of their lives, their relationships, their insecurities, their controversial political/religious opinions every single day. The difference is that most of them have the wherewithall NOT to advertise it on facebook where people actually know them.

If LW wants to share his writing with the world wide web for feedback, validation, whatever then there are countless outlets for doing so that will enable him to remain anonymous--the internet is a big place. The mistake here was linking it to his facebook--how narsistic and clueless can you get??

I'd also bet ANYTHING that for every person that was "moved" by LW's piece, there were 10 more who eagerly await his updates just to make fun of him, and another 20 who would rather eat their own shoes than read his writing, but lost respect for him just for the fact that he put his personal life on facebook.