My Top 20 signs you’re a writer. You know you’re a writer if:
20. You settle down for some light reading, and your friend asks you what subject you’re studying for.
19. You feel the same way about a cracked book spine as you do about a cracked Venetian vase (despite the fact that the book costs $7.99 at the local bookstore).
18. That $7.99 at the local bookstore hurts as much as the $3.00 gallon of milk at the supermarket and the $4.00 gallon of gas at the gas station – and is just as necessary.
17. Your lips quirk in a sly and silly smile when you unwittingly write with alliteration or assonance.
16. You know what assonance means.
15. You forget whether the scene in your head is from a movie you watched or a book that you read.
14. You play with archaic words and sentence structure to achieve a rhyme or meter – in your daily conversation.
13. Learning a new word is an opportunity, not a chore.
12. You always have a dictionary, a phone app dictionary, or a dictionary bookmarked on a mobile browser handy.
11. You’ve ever disagreed with that dictionary (or a thesaurus).
10. You’d rather write a note than speak to someone in the same house/apartment.
9. Your first reaction in the face of injustice…is to write a brilliant letter!
8. You keep a journal or notebook for random thoughts – and it’s still stuffed with scribbled napkins and receipts.
7. You have a favorite pen that writes *just* the right way and feels *just* perfectly weighted in your hand.
6. Your friends refuse to play you at Scrabble.
5. Those same friends beg you for editing and proofing help right before a deadline.
4. You know the names of more authors than you do of television and movie celebrities.
3. When one of those authors dies, the greatest tragedy is the unfinished book or series – not the death.
2. You feel like you give birth to a child every time you publish.
1. Your coffee’s gone cold, you’re beyond having to pee, and your stomach is growling furiously – well, heck, that’s always. You’ll take care of it after one more paragraph…
Do any of these particularly apply to you? What else makes a writer?
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cruitbuck says:
March 26, 2010 at 10:10 pm
>Here is another to add, "If you recognize a 'moleskine,' own one, know how to spell it, and know which famous author used one regularly on the beach."
For me, being a writer of some 25 years, procratination, doing house work before I setting down to paper, missing my old typewriter and the smell of whiteout.
Slamming on my brakes in heavy traffic because a solution to a problem with a character suddenly came to mind.
Knowing the kin of assonance…consonance.
Your favorite class was Milton on Paradise Lost.
Your favorite professor was Tennessee William's next door neighbor.
And wondering who I loaned my copy of "Poetry and Poetics."
Eileen Gale Kugler says:
March 26, 2010 at 10:28 pm
>You constantly tell friends: That would make a terrific strory, you should write about it. They look at you like you are nuts.
PS – Your 1 and 2 REALLY speak to me.
Wade Burch says:
March 26, 2010 at 10:29 pm
>You know, I was just writing in my Moleskine…
Thank you, Bob =P. Your comments are always appreciated!
Wade Burch says:
March 26, 2010 at 10:30 pm
>Do you ever wish you could write it for them so the story isn't wasted?
And those two might be my favorites, too.
Thank you very much for your comment, Eileen! Hope to see you around here again.
Jilly Stansfield says:
March 26, 2010 at 10:51 pm
>I smiled after each one and was nodding my head! You are spot on.
ley marie says:
March 26, 2010 at 10:59 pm
>#s 1 and 2 are totally me =) Nice article, Wade! Looking forward to reading more of your posts!
Wade Burch says:
March 26, 2010 at 11:00 pm
>Thank you, Jilly! Glad I could make you smile =P
I love your website; the Single Mummy Blog could help so many people!
Come back soon~
Wade Burch says:
March 26, 2010 at 11:00 pm
>Haha, those are definitely the best, then! Thank you for commenting, Ley.
#YouRock my socks (and Twitter's socks, too)!
Penguin Pete says:
March 27, 2010 at 6:41 pm
>You finished reading this and said "Heck, I could write twenty more!"
You have ever fallen asleep on a keyboard and woke up with waffle-face.
90% of all films are spoiled for you because you can see all the tropes coming from a mile away.
You refer to your keyboard as "my axe."
Your mate has resigned themselves to the fact that half of what you say won't make sense without knowing the obscure literary references.
You've become a walking trivia book from all the research.
Your favorite songwriter is known more for the lyrics than the music.
Anyone arguing with you on the Internet had better by gods be prepared for an epic debate.
You save past Internet arguments because they make great meat for a new article.
Reading text-speak is beyond annoying, to causing actual, physical pain.
You've read ahead in your kid's textbooks.
You've ever awoken from a dream where you were writing.
On awakening from said dream, you're mad because you can't hit 'save' in your dream and now you have to do all that work over again.
You have a file with little text pieces saved in it, on the off-chance that you'll find a good place to use a phrase like "as crazy as a cannibal carnival on cannabis."
Your desk is fortified with trail mix, crackers, chewable vitamins, and other emergency rations so you don't starve to death while working.
Your significant other has ever placed an intimate body part in your face to get you to pay attention to them instead of work for a minute.
You pull an eighteen hour day at your desk and still reel to bed cursing yourself for not getting enough work done.
On a blah day, you read something like The Onion and say, "All I have to do is beat that."
To stifle the guilt you feel for goofing off reading blogs instead of getting work done, you turn leaving a comment into a creative exercise.
Part of your motivation to leave a comment on a blog is in the hopes that others, upon reading you and seeing what a funny duck you are, will click the link to read your own blog.
Wade Burch says:
March 28, 2010 at 12:54 am
>All good ones, but you especially got me with the films-given-away and the text-pieces-and-phrases comments!
Thank you for your addition to the post, Pete! I look forward to hearing from you again =P.
brettfletcher says:
March 28, 2010 at 11:13 am
>Your favorite reading material happens to be your own writings.
Wade Burch says:
March 28, 2010 at 4:47 pm
>Oh, but I can't surprise myself the way someone else's book can! =/
Thank you, Brett, for the comment!
Nyko Ongawa says:
April 6, 2010 at 10:42 pm
>When I bribe people (especially my writer mother) with books and rare finds on my search to the bookstore.
When My family keeps every book they come across even if there's only a quarter of it left.
Mima (my grandma): Misha (my family name) where's my kitty books? (she's talking about 'the cat who' mysteries)
Me: you gave them away to the library because you read them all
Mima: here's $20USD go back them back! I found the last chapter to the first one.
Me: all fifty books?
Mima: Yep, you're getting them from the library remember?
Me: true
Wade Burch says:
April 7, 2010 at 12:03 am
>Haha, those are great, Nyko. We've worked very hard to let go of old books in my family, and it's a real struggle. Just don't have room for them, though!
Thank you for the addition to the post!
Jaime Shine says:
May 30, 2012 at 9:18 pm
These are spot on! Great post about what makes a writer a writer. Sometimes it’s hard for others to understand why you’d rather stay in to finish a page turner or need to jot down an idea for a blog, article, etc. during dinner. Thanks for posting!