WritingThoughts

Sometimes I think it’s fun (and healthy) to look in the mirror and laugh at ourselves. I put together this post with that idea firmly in mind (and with my tongue in my cheek).

We writers can be a breed unto ourselves. Here are some common traits shared by writers that I have known and worked with (as well as more than a few traits that fit me).

If you see yourself in the traits listed below (and I bet you can relate to a couple of them), enjoy a chuckle or two on me.

1. Typos drive you crazy. Whether you find one in a newspaper or on the back of cereal box you’re liable to write to whoever produced the document and let them know about it.
2. You find yourself saying “uh huh” a lot to the kids and hubby without even knowing what you are saying “uh huh” about. That is because you are in the middle of a project. Your kids and hubby know this and are either a) understanding (yeah right!) b) eager to take advantage of it.
3. When other people drive through an unfamiliar neighborhood, they look at the sizes of the houses and speculate on the price. When you drive through an unfamiliar neighborhood, you create mental word pictures of the people that might live in the houses.
4. You have too many ideas and too little time. You wake up from a dream and think to yourself, “that would make a good story.” You have a notebook or computer file with half-started stories and ideas.
5. You own lots and lots (and lots) of red pens. You write all your correspondence in red ink. Sometimes you write your checks in red ink. You think that this is normal.
6. A working lunch is chocolate and caffeine by the keyboard. You have a lot of working lunches.
7. Your skin is hardened from all the rejection letters you’ve received and all the changes editors have made to your work. (You actually enjoy seeing the red ink on your work because it shows you how to improve.)
8. No one will play Scrabble with you. That is because you always win. Other people think that you are making words up, but when they check in the dictionary they find that the words you use are real.
9. You send personal emails back to the sender with edits. You edit the letters you receive from your family and friends. This is seriously jeopardizing your personal relationships.
10. When other people get on the Internet they look for websites with games and gossip. When you get on the Internet you look for websites that need writers.

Contents (c) Copyright 2007, Laura Spencer. All rights reserved.