Writing Tips—A Writer’s Dozen—Archive

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2 x 12 Signs You Are a Writer

By Donna—First Posted January/February 2008

1. You drive to the grocery store and end up in Banff, with no recollection of the trip there.

2. You love to go to office supply stores to fondle (and buy) notebooks and pens.

3. You’re embarrassed to tell people how many books you have.

4. Your TBR pile is growing faster than you can keep up.

5. You know what a TBR pile is.

6. You know what NANOWRIMO is.

7. You know what ABEBooks is.

8. The sales clerks at your local bookstore know your name.

9. The barristas at your local coffee shop start preparing your coffee when you walk in the door, so it’s ready when you reach the counter.

10. The local coffee shop reserves a table close to an electrical outlet for you.

11. When going out for dinner with friends and family, you’re more interested in what the people at surrounding tables are doing and saying than in your tablemates.

12. You eavesdrop constantly.

13. You lie on the sofa for hours without turning on the TV.

14. You buy scripts of movies and TV shows, and read them, often along with the show.

15. You’d rather watch the director’s commentary (or better yet, the writer’s commentary) than the movie on your DVD.

16. You have a notebook and pen in every room of the house, and in some closets as well.

17. You carry a notebook and/or tape recorder everywhere you go.

18. You read grammar books for fun.

19. You’ve read the dictionary from cover to cover (A to Z doesn’t cut it -- you’ve read the front matter and any back matter as well).

20. The people in your head are as real to you as the people around you.

21. You’d rather stay home and write than go to a party.

22. When desperate, you read the back of the cereal box.

23. In conversation, you correct other people’s grammar.

24. And sometimes, you park your butt in a chair and actually write.

 

Notes for non-writers:

· TBR - To Be Read

· NANOWRIMO - NAtional NOvel WRIting MOnth

· ABEBooks - online used book seller