Thursday, February 12, 2009

You Know You're A Writer When...

...your latest google search is "inhalant withdrawals."

...you write down the name of the clerk bagging your groceries so you can use it in a novel.

...you talk about your characters like they exist in the flesh.

...you ignore bodily functions so you can write.

...you lose track of what month it is. What? It's February already? No wai! (kids: wai. boy kid: and i need valentine's for school tomorrow. girl kid: i want valentine's, too! mom: i swear we just had Christmas...dad: i hate valentine's day. mom, as she grabs her car keys to go buy that last of the lame valentine's: sigh.)

...you know that a Thesaurus is not a dinosaur and you actually use it. All. The. Time.

...you set your dashboard weather widget to a different city just so you can record the temperature there.

...you get excited about using a cool word in your writing. Blog posts count right? I used "conducive" this month. I'm all a twitter.

What have you got? What weird, wonky, quirky things do you do as a writer that would cause someone to shake their head sadly? Lay it on me. I need to know I'm not the only one out there doing these things.

8 comments:

lizB said...

LOL LOL LOL

Great post!

Liz

lizB said...

Ack! Forgot to tell you my weirdo writing habit:

I keep a diary. Nothing weird about that. Except...every entry is written as myself, but with a different personality. "In character," so to speak. I rant, rave, wax about any topic that comes to mind. Kind of like a blog in my head, only on paper, that only I read. It helps me get inside my character's heads as the need arises.

Call in the men in white coats.

Liz

Sarah Jensen said...

All the above. And I haven't bought Valentines yet. Dang it. Or made the treats for my son's class. Guess I'll have to do that today, huh.
And yeah, Christmas was like two days ago.

Michelle McLean said...

LOL I actually bought valentines last month as soon as they started selling them, because I knew I'd forget.

How about....when your kids eat pancakes and cereal for dinner every night...when your family lives out of laundry baskets for weeks at a time because you can take the time to switch the loads out, but not fold them (forget about putting them away)....when your husband starts thinking you are pregnant again because you are combing through baby name books (for the perfect character name, of course).....or (this happened last night) when your husband asks you if you are leaving him because you think he is abusive because he catches you going over a list from a therapist on abusive behaviors (my MC sees a therapist, it's totally research) :D

Jenn Adams said...

That's funny - I pulled out my PDA and wrote down a kid's name today when I was volunteering in the school library. It just seemed to fit my book so well, I couldn't let it slip by.

My word verification: quarryo - like, when you're sending out queries and singing, Hi, ho, the quarryo!

Michelle D. Argyle said...

I do ALL of the above. It's embarrassing! But I'm glad I'm not alone.

Hmmm, I also make up excuses to miss social activities so I can stay home on a perfectly fine evening and write. When I could be somewhere else laughing, having fun, and eating good food. Go figure.

Great post! I'm still chuckling. :)

Elana Johnson said...

Excellent additions, Michelle! I'm totally going to add those to my list. And lizB, there's nothing wrong with ranting to yourself...not as yourself... ;)

Jenn! I got the name for one of my characters at my son's concert, so you're totally normal. TOT-ally.

Lady G - social activities? What is this you speak of? :)

Anonymous said...

Love this...so I spend so much time at starbucks writing, that the barista's wind up being characters.......

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