Thread: 10 Things That Make You Know You're A Writer

10. You're waiting in line at your local bank and you begin to study the building's security, while several scenes play out in your head for how one of your antagonists might circumvent said security and rob the place.

9. Your friend or family member is talking to you, but large chunks of the conversation go completely unheard because you're brainstorming the next scene of your novel.

8. You're driving home from work, with the radio volume at medium, and you don't hear a single track or conversation from the time you start the car until the moment you stop it at your house.

7. Where you used to read for enjoyment, now you read for ideas and/or good writing. You also become hyper-critical of every book you read.

6. While taking care of 'your business', you take full advantage and write another chapter. Better yet, beside the stockpile of toilet paper in your bathroom is a spare notebook and pencil.

5. You wake up in the middle of the night and, in your haste to find a pencil and paper, knock over the night-light, a glass of water, and other such things as you desperately try to write down the idea you had in your dream.

4. You wake up in the morning and your first thought is not eating, bathing, or clothing; it's where the story might lead today.

3. You walk into a bookstore not to make a purchase but to see which author you will be sat alongside if you ever get published.

2. You carry a pencil and notebook in your car, if not on you at all times.

1. You look at the clock on your computer/wall and realise that it's four in the morning and you have to get up for work in three hours.

1. Yes
2. Yes
3. No
4. Always
5. Yes
6. I'd rather read then
7. Very much so
8. I don't drive
9. You know me very well
10. Not precisely the bank, but yes

Am I to create my own? If so, I'll get back to you later.

10. Yes, anytime is plotting scenes time.
09. Yes, and they always interupt me with "did you hear me?"
08. Yes, don't work, but when I get home from whereever, I often don't remember the drive.
07. Yes.
06 & 05. I bought a tiny recorder.
04. Yes, sometime the storyline wakes me up. First thing I do in the morning is turn on the computer.
03. Not yet.
02. I use the notes app on my iPhone, wrote the outline of one of my books on it while waiting for an oil change.
01. Yes, time flies by.

10. No.

9. Yes

8. Yes.

7. Yes. And moreover, when you read a passage that you think could be improved, you sit there for ten minutes deciding how you think the passage should've been written before you're able to read further.

6. No. The business cannot be multitasked or it won't get done. I'll leave it at that.

5. Yes. And you left out the part about the dog panicking and fleeing to the opposite side of the room while you rummage.

4. No. My first thought in the morning is usually "I can't wait to go back to sleep."

3. Never done that one.

2. Yes. There's one in my car and one in my purse.

1. Yes, but sometimes that has nothing to do with writing.

And I'm not sure I can come up with a further ten things (or that I'd be so inclined after midnight) but here's a couple more:

- You find yourself writing other people's stories when you see a random passerby doing something unusual or noteworthy.

- You do short little writing exercises in your head to describe random things you see.

- You hide in the bathroom or the break room at work to scribble down a few sentences here and there.

Sam W are those your own Rules that you have written down??

Nacian, yes, but I wouldn't call them 'rules'. Just 'observations'.

Originally Posted by Sam W

10. You're waiting in line at your local bank and you begin to study the building's security, while several scenes play out in your head for how you might circumvent said security and rob the place.

Fixed that for you, Sam. On the account of writers and their incomes and all....

10. Nope
9. Nope
8. Nope
7. Nope
6. Nope
5. Nope
4. Nope
3. Nope
2. Only just recently.
1. Nope.

Guess I'm not much of a writer.

Different for the poets, maybe?

10. Not the bank, but if I have something planned for the day then I play through all the possible conversations and sequence of events that might happen.

9. Yes, I'm sorry to say. Mainly because it's rude, but also because I could be listening to the way that people speak.

8. No.

7. Yes, though I still can't figure out why something is good writing. And no to the second question.

6. I don't do anything at all except the business at hand. Never have been able to.

5. I went through a stage of doing this. I actually wrote a short story that I'm quite pleased with based on a dream. But my dreams just aren't that interesting any more.

4. No. My first thought is eating. Always!

3. I'm shocked that I've never even thought of doing this. I'm not sure at the moment whether to use my real surname or a pseudonym, so I might have to check both.

2. Yes.

1. It's more like midnight. I write in small chunks and have never had that purely creative spirit to get lost in a book for hours.

10. You're waiting in line at your local bank and you begin to study the building's security, while several scenes play out in your head for how one of your antagonists might circumvent said security and rob the place.

My characters would never carry out such an act, perish the thought.

9. Your friend or family member is talking to you, but large chunks of the conversation go completely unheard because you're brainstorming the next scene of your novel.

This has happened. Frequently.

8. You're driving home from work, with the radio volume at medium, and you don't hear a single track or conversation from the time you start the car until the moment you stop it at your house.

No. I deliberately keep the radio off if I'm in the middle of a writing project, when ideas are floating around. Driving time is great thinking time.

7. Where you used to read for enjoyment, now you read for ideas and/or good writing. You also become hyper-critical of every book you read.

I definitely read more critically, usually thinking "I can do this."

6. While taking care of 'your business', you take full advantage and write another chapter. Better yet, beside the stockpile of toilet paper in your bathroom is a spare notebook and pencil.

No. This time is reserved for my collection of old football magazines or Commando comics.

5. You wake up in the middle of the night and, in your haste to find a pencil and paper, knock over the night-light, a glass of water, and other such things as you desperately try to write down the idea you had in your dream.

Writing notes in the night is important as I've usually forgotten them by the time morning comes. The back of my desk unit is actually a dry wipe board, and is very handy for middle of the night note taking.

4. You wake up in the morning and your first thought is not eating, bathing, or clothing; it's where the story might lead today.

At times, yes.

3. You walk into a bookstore not to make a purchase but to see which author you will be sat alongside if you ever get published.

Never done this. It's all the others that should be wondering if they'll be next to me in the future.

2. You carry a pencil and notebook in your car, if not on you at all times.

A moleskine note book to be precise.

1. You look at the clock on your computer/wall and realise that it's four in the morning and you have to get up for work in three hours.

Never. 11.30 is quite late enough. My eyes won't let me write that late.

10. Yes. Not that specific sceniaro but I definitely imagine scenes at random times.
9. Yes. I've really been trying to get out of my own head and listen to other people.
8. No.
7. Absolutely yes.
6. Lol, nope.
5. Rarely, but yes.
4. Sometimes, yes.
3. No.
2. Yes.
1. Yes.

So that's 7/10. Guess that makes me a writer who is a little on the "normal" side, lol.

I was just going to type here that I enjoyed that read, Sam W. - but then noticed everyone was answering them too. When in Rome.


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10. You're waiting in line at your local bank and you begin to study the building's security, while several scenes play out in your head for how one of your antagonists might circumvent said security and rob the place.

Yes, and they will be successful, because I'll have edited several times also.

9. Your friend or family member is talking to you, but large chunks of the conversation go completely unheard because you're brainstorming the next scene of your novel.

No . . . well sometimes if they're boring.

8. You're driving home from work, with the radio volume at medium, and you don't hear a single track or conversation from the time you start the car until the moment you stop it at your house.

Yes, every midnight shift.

7. Where you used to read for enjoyment, now you read for ideas and/or good writing. You also become hyper-critical of every book you read.

No. Strange, I know but blame no one for my misgivings but myself.

6. While taking care of 'your business', you take full advantage and write another chapter. Better yet, beside the stockpile of toilet paper in your bathroom is a spare notebook and pencil.

Gawd I thought a whole different thing when you mentioned 'your business' You can't blame me cause you added toilet paper too. But I don't do it then or that other then.

5. You wake up in the middle of the night and, in your haste to find a pencil and paper, knock over the night-light, a glass of water, and other such things as you desperately try to write down the idea you had in your dream.

With my eye-sight? The only glasses I have on my night stand let me walk the world. If I would put a pencil or any such sharp object I'm sure to kill myself one night. Paper, gawd. My penmanship sunk back in grade 1, they'll never recover that wreckage.

4. You wake up in the morning and your first thought is not eating, bathing, or clothing; it's where the story might lead today.

No. I try not to write erotica.

3. You walk into a bookstore not to make a purchase but to see which author you will be sat alongside if you ever get published.

No. But if I happen to be in the book store and see an author's name, I might let my hopes drift that way, moving theirs one shelf down first.

2. You carry a pencil and notebook in your car, if not on you at all times.

No. I have blackberry, with it I can write anything . . . until the damn phone rings. That friggin buzzer I swear is tuned to a frequency that makes my bones giggle. I swear.

1. You look at the clock on your computer/wall and realise that it's four in the morning and you have to get up for work in three hours.

Yes, but my clock is right cool. All the numbers are hap-hazardly arranged around the face and the hands don't move because I don't put batteries in, because the ticking's so loud. It is a right cool clock though. At the bottom is the word Whatevah

I enjoyed reading all those comments. What a great end to a week. I'm ending it today cause it sucked so bad.

S

My own humble list;

1. Co-workers ask for your advice on phrasing an e-mail
2. You re-write your grocery list
3. Reading the want ads gives you an idea for a story
4. You read the obituaries scouting out names for your characters
5. While reading a bedtime story to your daughter you are thinking, “But what if Jill pushed Jack down the hill . . . ?”
6. A good belch gives you an idea for a story
7. You don’t order your steak rare, you order it “. . . the color of an August sunset after a storm”
8. You do a word count after writing a complaint letter
9. You fill a mug with coffee and it tastes like pencils
10. You read a list like this and think, “I can do better than that . . .”

also...when you throw literary prose into trivial chit-chat conversation.
i really get on my wife's nerves with that shit sometimes. like i'll take the dog out to do his business.
i'll come back in and she'll ask if he got everything out, and i'll be like..

"yes. he laid a steaming pile majestically upon the frosty autumn ground."

it drives her nuts. it's funny. lol