Rebecca Morrison asks, “What do you do when your family doesn’t believe in or even understand your writing dreams?”

It’s natural for you to express your frustrations, angst, and fears with your family and friends. They’ll do the same to you, because you’re close. You can let your guard down around them and be yourself, at least to a degree. 

That closeness might feel like that entitles you to a sense of passion from them when it comes to understanding your work and your dreams. But instead, they may respond with politeness, confusion, or concern.

Know this: good family and friends love you for who you are, and will support you however you want to change. However, they are also different people than you are, and have their own sets of interests and circumstances that are very different from yours. They may buy your work when they can, but they also may not; and if they don’t, that doesn’t make them a bad family member or a bad friend.

Just because you don’t share the same interests, doesn’t mean you can’t be family or friends. People are precious, and contribute to your life outside of your creative work. Life is too long, and too short, to let a relationship dwindle for dreams.

You’re free to make new friends, while you keep your family and old friends close.

See also Luke Burgis’s and Alina Stefanescu’s responses. I also liked Jack Butcher’s point on not relying on friends to start.