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While getting ready for work this morning, the strange little idiosyncrasies attributed to the writing life started whirring through my head. So, I decided to take a moment to jot them down. See if you agree.
You might be a writer if:
1. When you open your eyes in the morning and look at the pillow beside you, there's a synonym finder, a dictionary, The Chicago Manual of Style and a sleeping laptop instead of your husband. He ended up sleeping in the recliner (again) because there wasn't any room in the bed for him.
2. The acronyms GMC and POV have nothing to do with a car manufacturer or a privately owned vehicle.
3. When your friends see "that" look on your face, they beg you not to write them into one of your books.
4. When you come across a particularly musical name, a character complete with an enthralling personality pops into your head and starts chatting about their life.
5. Music, pictures, a funny ad on T.V. --anything can jolt free a herd of plot bunnies hippity-hopping through your mind.
6. You drive past your exit on the way to your destination because a story is live-streaming in 3D Technicolor through your head.
7. Coffee and chocolate are two MAJOR food groups.
8. Your heart jumps into your throat whenever you receive an email with the word "Query" in the subject line along with the title of your manuscript.
9. Your inbox averages hundreds of emails at any given time because of all the writer's loops you subscribe to--and you've got most of them set to digest.
10. On Twitter you stalk...er...follow every editor, publisher, and agent interested in your genre so you can catch those golden tidbits of industry news.
11. You have to set time limits on Facebook, Twitter, and reading other writer's fascinating blogs or your work in progress suffers from neglect.
And that said, my time is almost up! Do any of these writer's traits fit you?
Posts
This is great. I especially laughed at "Your heart jumps into your throat whenever you receive an email with the word "Query" in the subject line along with the title of your manuscript." SO TRUE!!
ReplyDeleteGreat post. Thanks for the smile.
*sigh* I'm SO glad to know I'm not the only one.
ReplyDelete:-)
My name is Margie Church and I'm addicted to writing. I will never subscribe to an 12-step program to undo the damage I've done to my mind cuz darn, it's just too much fun. I suggest adding: your idea of a fun weekend is to lock the doors, turn off the lights and write. Fun entry, Maeve. Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteTotally me! I had to laugh at the one about your friends asking you not to write them into your next story! And the chocolate and coffee being major food groups. I'm so there!
ReplyDeleteSandy
I waffled on a few of the listed items. I NEVER take anything but entertainment (ahem) to bed, I'm so over the compulsive email checks, and chocolate and coffee hurt my tummy.
ReplyDeleteBut #6? Oh, yeah, ya got me there. The gas I've burned while ideas burned tracks in my head. (Some days I'm a potential highway hazard. :0)
"Entertainment" Lainey? Hmmm...sounds like a STORY there!
ReplyDeleteAnd Sandy - I'm glad to know I'm not the only chocolate & coffee addict!
LOL Margie! - Writer's Anonymous for those of us terminally consumed with the compulsion!
YES several of them fit me. :) Great post!!
ReplyDeleteLOL. I confess. I am a writer. Great list! LOL>
ReplyDeleteOk...you go to Home Depot and the hubs sees a car he likes and chats up the car owner...who just came back from Afghanistan and brought the car with him and is now a main character in a story! And when you mutter romance hero as you walk away, your husband just laughs, Anyway...watch for Olivia and the Hunk under whatever name it ends up because the heroine is my critique partner who demanded the role because of my description of the guy!
ReplyDeleteThanks Autumn and Nicole! Apparently, Writer's Anonymous would have LOTS of members! LOL!
ReplyDeleteOh my GOSH, Kate! I totally understand. Plot bunnies are very hardy, prolific little beasties aren't they? And your critique partner is a very lucky woman!
ReplyDeletehehe. Cute and so very true. Great post, Maeve. Saw myself in more than one of these.
ReplyDeleteI think it's in the writer's DNA, Joanne. :-)
ReplyDeleteGreat post Maeve, very true, how about, you might be a writer if you notice it's four in the morning because you lost tract of time and were on a roll with your muse.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely Mary! We definitely need to add that one to the list. How could I have forgotten it? Geez!
ReplyDeleteNow I do feel like a writer - not on all accounts but a lot of them. I was supposed to remind my hubby to pull off at the bank on the way home today - two stoplights later, he had to turn around, BUT I didn't begin to solve my plot problem. :)
ReplyDeleteLOL! Paisley - I understand and I'm sure your hubby does too! :-)
ReplyDeleteMAEVE-oh, how clever. I can identify with everyone except stuff in my bed. My bed is sacred ground--I am a good sleeper, and I love my bed, and God help my husband if he pulls the cover off me! All the rest--yep--I might be a writer! Celia
ReplyDeleteSo glad I'm not the only one! My children have actually hollered, "Mom, where you goin'? You just passed the neighborhood," more times that I care to count. And the rest, yeah, let's just say I can definitely relate!
ReplyDeleteOMG - I saw myself in so many of those! Especially the one about the character chatting along. I do that all the time when I'm driving. LOL.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the technicolor story playing inside my head is the one I really relate to! Glad to know it's not just me!
ReplyDeleteMaeve, except for the coffee--I hot Irish Breakfast tea or cold Dr Pepper--you nailed me. I am so very, very glad you mentioned the part about driving past your exit. My dh, who is so understanding and supportive about other things, doesn't understand how I can drive past our exit on the way home from a writer's group meeting. I told him, it's easy. LOL
ReplyDeleteMan, you nailed it perfectly. lol
ReplyDeleteOMG! That's me(except for giving up my husband's space on the bed). Are we crazy, or what?
ReplyDeleteHi Maeve,
ReplyDeleteThank heavens someone else is like me. I was starting to think there was something wrong with me. I haven't replaced my hubby in bed with a laptop - well not yet.
regards
Margaret
Ha Ha! All of the above. Great post!
ReplyDeleteIt's the live streaming in my head that gets me into trouble most of the time. Great list, Maeve!
ReplyDeleteMargaret,
ReplyDeleteWow, I can't believe how many points are me! Thanks for sharing this. I laughed so hard dabout the GMC not being a car manufacturer. My husband is a car guy, and when I mentioned GMC to him he thought I was talking about a car! LOL
...when your husband comes home from work and says what's for dinner and you have no idea because you've been lost in historical words LOL or you've left the wet clothes in the washer for hours on end...yeah, I'm a writer :-)
ReplyDeleteGreat post!
LOL! These are great! And, yes, like so many others, I can relate--expect for the bed, I need my sleep. Once, (or maybe more than once) when I hadn't heard what my husband had said, I told him, "Sorry, I've got this Texas Ranger in my head." His response was, "There are some things I just don't need to know."
ReplyDeleteI love your POV ;) Another great post!
ReplyDeleteSo many GREAT comments! I could compile THESE into a book. :-)
ReplyDeleteOMG this was great. I couldn't say no to anything. You've completely nailed my life :)
ReplyDeleteLOL! It seems the "list" fits lots of us. It's kind of reassuring, huh? :-)
ReplyDeleteVery reassuring, Maeve. Just got back from vacation and had to get up way before my DH every day for my laptop time. The constant "video stream" has been a lifelong secret world and refuge for me. Glad I'm not the only one whose friends ask during conversations, "Where did you just go?"
ReplyDeleteLol Maeve! If I said no would it make me a liar? Except my hubby would never allow the lap top to replace him. He's already jealous of it and regrets buying it for me. If it slept with me, I'm afraid he'd toss it into the garbage...as the truck was running!
ReplyDeleteYou have an award on my blog.
LOL! Wonderful, Maeve. Uh, clears throat, no comment on several of those. Blink, blink.
ReplyDeleteHahaha! Thanks for stopping by, Judith. ;-)
ReplyDeleteUmmm...it's like you can see into my brain! Kinda creepy...LOL! Great list!
ReplyDeleteOMG. I guess I must be a writer!
ReplyDeleteI thought I was the only one who drove past highway exits because I was writing a book in my head at the time. Whew! What a relief!
ReplyDeleteIf numbers 9—11 fitted me, it's for sure I would not be a writer but a mere reader!
ReplyDeleteWriting in the middle of the night, jumping out of bed to jot down things my characters tell me — what do these say? Being called a compulsive communicator. And a born writer (by a BBC producer) and flattering things said about my work and books — such are dispelled when the rejection letter arrives from top agents or publishers.